Tom Tyler’s silent films made for FBO certainly made an impression upon fans around the world early on. Spain dedicated many forms of kiosk literature in the form of pulp fiction and film booklets on these silent films. Tom, along with Frankie Darro, their horses, and dog named Napoleon, were heavily marketed around the world along with many other silent films produced by FBO. In the United Kingdom, Tom Tyler had plenty of fans of that side of the Atlantic, enough to inspire at least one of them by the name of Hugh Loudon to include his silent films in the book “My Hollywood”. Written and published in 1991 by The Self Publishing Association Ltd. in Upton-upon-Servern in Worcestershire, Hugh cites Tom Tyler’s silent films as being an early influence upon his interest in American films.
One of Hugh's favorite cinemas where he attended the matinee was the Cecil located in Treforest, a village in Pontypridd, southern Wales. According to his memoir, one thing that genuinely fascinated him about Tom Tyler was the way the star mounted his horse, often while the horse started galloping. This is commonly known as the “flying mount”, which requires the rider to have a firm grasp on the horn of the saddle while aiming to land in the saddle without falling off onto the other side. Hugh continues to describe watching Tom’s silent films in the first chapter of his memoir, which took place between 1929 and 1931, a year or two after the film’s initial release in the United States, which was not unusual in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world at the time. The fact that Hugh was able to fondly remember Tom Tyler’s silent films in 1991 is impressive, a precious memory now faded with a generation no longer with us on earth.
Finally, Hugh devotes chapter eight of his memoir to westerns, where he mentions Tom again in the critically acclaimed “Stagecoach” from 1939. The words which describe Tom as one of the Plummer Boys aching to take on the Ringo Kid, played by John Wayne, are written with relish. Hugh even concludes the scene with how Tom walks into the saloon, his long, drawn-out walk, before collapsing dead beside the bar.
Engagingly written, it is easy to see how "My Hollywood" was written by a teacher who eventually went on to become the Director of Education in the historically rich county of Gwent in southeast Wales. Now out of print, the book can be read through Internet Archive.
