Tom Tyler accidentally shot while filming western

The title of this article sounds like that is how the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News released this rather shocking news item on August 3, 1931, only days before Tom Tyler’s 28th birthday. This notice was actually a second paragraph in a rather brief release about a man from Glendale, California, getting injured during a polo game at the Hollywood Polo Club in North Hollywood. Considering the date range of his filming schedule, it appears that Tom Tyler’s unfortunate shooting accident took place while filming “The Man from Death Valley”, a lost Monogram film. Luckily for Tom, the shooting was not from a disgruntled actor, cameraman nor director, but from Tom’s own hand.

It seems that while Tom was on horseback in high-speed pursuit he reached for his gun to shoot at someone but instead accidentally discharged the gun, resulting in the gun’s blank going into his thigh. The painful incident placed a temporary hold on filming and a trip to the hospital where Tom received prompt medical treatment for the injury. By the time Tom was back on his feet, he was able to complete filming this action-packed western.

                                            Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, Aug. 3, 1931

The day Victory Pictures movie studio burned down

Warning: The following article contains a graphic description and photo of a production company fire which involves Tom Tyler, the rest of the cast and film crew for “Mystery Range”, a 1937 Victory Pictures B-western.

Filming B-westerns in the 1930’s may have seemed like a lot of hard work yet fun for Tom Tyler, the final result offering his viewing audience plenty of excitement and thrills. In June of 1937, however, Tom had a very close call with death – along with other members of the cast and film crew – during the making of one film which almost ended his career.

After the troupe returned from filming on location in Chatsworth, California, the final wrap up for “Mystery Range” needed to be done at the production company, Victory Pictures. Tom, his leading lady Jerry Bergh, director Bob Hill, plus twenty-two other actors and film technicians, were trapped inside the production company building when a fire broke out in the property room.  The fire quickly spread throughout the rest of the wood building, located at 9077 Venice Boulevard in Culver City, California. Additionally, the scene dock and generator rooms were also destroyed from the fire, which quickly spread around the perimeter of the building, blocking all exits inside. 

According to The San Francisco Examiner dated June 7, 1937, a “sudden shift of wind” allowed one viable exit for everyone to safely escape. Luckily no one was hurt, and the movie cameras and office equipment rescued from certain loss from the stucco office building – equipment of high value to the film makers and actors, so that their work was saved. Firefighters from Culver City, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica were called to arrive as quickly as possible to put out the massive fire. The firefighters also had to search the burned-out remains for any possible victims but the good news was, there were none. 

The entire film studio sustained damages to the tune of $50,000.00 (the original estimate was $25,000.00) – or $904,125.00 in the year 2020 – close to a million dollar loss. As for Victory Pictures producer Sam Katzman, he could not resume making films due to the loss of his movie studio. All final work on Tom’s successive films made for Victory Pictures in 1937 – “Orphan of the Pecos”, “Brothers of the West”, and “Lost Ranch” – were successfully completed and released in movie houses across the nation.

Victory Pictures studio was located in the old Foy Studios building. Bryan Foy purchased what was the Sunset Studios building in Culver City back in 1931. Famously known as being one of the seven Foy siblings, Bryan was a successful movie producer and director whose career dates back to the silent film era.

At some point between the fire of June 1937 and December of that year, the former Victory Pictures building was in the process of being rebuilt as a dramatic school. Unfortunately, the building was to experience another, and far more devastating fire in January 1938. According to The Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1938, the fire was caused by “spontaneous combustion”. It is probable that 35mm nitrate was stored at Victory Pictures under a circumstance that would in fact cause spontaneous combustion. To make matters worse, power lines fell, altogether, a total of four explosions was heard by everyone in the surrounding area. Unlike the fire that took place in June 1937, no one was in the old building during the second fire, which caused a total of $100,000.00 (in 2020 dollars, $1,846,723.40) in damage. At the present, a Chase Bank is located near where the Victory Pictures production formerly stood. 

Click here to see an image of the June 1937 fire.

Tom Tyler and his sisters

A little bit about Tom's relationships with his sisters is worth writing about, if only for the close and highly supportive relationship he had with them. Both Maliane (Molly) and Katherine played a significant role in Tom's life, being the most supportive of their brother wanting to become a Hollywood actor, and playing the role of caregiver at the end of his life when he was in the advanced stages of scleroderma. Molly was born around 1906, three years younger than Tom, and Katherine was born around 1916, thirteen years younger than Tom. Having two younger sisters must have been a delight for Tom, and it was even possible that Tom helped look after and care for Katherine as a baby, helping to feed her and even change her diapers. Such a loving, caring relationship between the two of them would prove beneficial to Tom when he was diagnosed terminally ill in the mid-1940's and in need of care by 1952 when his resources were running dry.

As the story goes, Molly believed in Tom's potential as an actor and helped him achieve his dream by allotting Tom her hard earned fifty dollars so he could travel to Hollywood in 1923. Fifty dollars sounds like a lot of money and was back then, as it could go a long way for a young man starting out on his journey to the west coast, picking up the odd job in between to help pay his way.

It was Katherine who noticed how handsome Tom was becoming, when the young siblings would be walking around Hamtramck. Even in his teens Tom was turning heads, just like a movie star. Like Molly, she also encouraged him to become an actor. Having such supportive sisters must have been a tremendous boost for young Tom, a shy, unassuming boy on the brink of adulthood, ready to hold the world in his hands.

By the time Tom returned home to Michigan at Katherine's home in 1953, he was clearly in need of personal care due to his illness, which his sister lovingly administered to him. After all, they were closest to each other, trusting each other to a degree where no concern of harm would ever arise. That is what makes for a special family relationship.

                                    From left to right: Molly, Tom, Katherine, and brother Frank