Icelandic titles of Tom Tyler films

From Visir, Reykjavik, June 5, 1932

As with other European nations, Iceland was included  on the list inventoried by FBO to show Tom Tyler films in the mid- to late 1920's. Iceland proved to be very receptive to the established star of westerns produced by FBO, then later on, a handful of Monogram films, and of course “Stagecoach” (1939). In one cinema listing in the newspaper Alþýðublaðið (May 25, 1928), Tom is described as “one of the most famous and handsome cowboy actors”. In some cases, some of Tom's silent films were released under their own American title without translation: “The Sonora Kid”, and  “The Cowboy Musketeer”. The Iceland newspapers in which Tom Tyler’s cinema listings appeared in are: Alþýðublaðið,  Norðlingur, Morgunblaðið, Vísir, Neisti, and Lögberg. With thanks to Tímarit.is, here is a small list of Tom Tyler movies shown in Iceland between 1926 and 1941:

From Einherji, October 8, 1936

Silent films:

Æringinn – Born to Battle 1926

Hefndar riddarinn – Cyclone of the Range 1927

Án dóms og laga – When the Law Rides 1928

Riddarinn fífldjarfi – Gun Law 1929

Í ræningjaklóm - Idaho Red 1929

Í vargaklóm – The Pride of Pawnee 1929




Talkies:

Maðurinn frá Dauðadalnum - The Man from Death Valley 1931

Í dal dauðans – Galloping Thru 1931

Póstvagninn – Stagecoach 1939

Captain Marvel – Adventures of Captain Marvel 1941

From FBO to RKO: Transitioning company ownership

In "Powdersmoke Range", Tom's first movie for RKO

By the time Tom Tyler made his twenty-fourth silent film for FBO - “The Avenging Rider” (1928), released on October 7, 1928, his studio contract would be near its end, primarily due to company ownership change, and its final transition to talkies. The advent of sound pictures for Hollywood film studios meant several things: one, the commercialization of synchronized sound, which now became affordable for studios which made a tidy profit on making and releasing silent films; two, the ability for the cinema patrons to appreciate the voices of their favorite actors as they were in real life; and three, the marriage of moving images and sound the way Thomas Edison, the inventor of each, the way he originally intended. Most importantly, the careers of silent film stars faced a major challenge, and those who were able to transition to sound pictures were the lucky ones, especially those who made films of the western genre during the silent film period. Tom Tyler was one of those actors, along with Bob Steele, Tim McCoy, Harry Carey Sr, and Hoot Gibson.

A poster for "The Texas Tornado" in Swedish

Tom made five more silent films that were released between October 23, 1928, and June 9, 1929, “The Pride of Pawnee” being his last for FBO. With the studio undergoing ownership changes, it was decided that Tom’s contract run out and not be renewed by RKO Productions, possibly due to the fact Tom was not really ready yet for talkie pictures; he was one of the very last leading men of the silent film era to make silent films during the year 1930.

The year before Tom first started making silent films for FBO, the company was primarily engaged in the distribution of silent films. As the years went on though, in the mid- to late 1920’s, Joseph Kennedy Sr. discovered that by having several subsidiaries, the silent films produced by his studio could gain worldwide popularity – and they did. In Tom Tyler’s case, many of his westerns filmed at FBO wound up being distributed across Europe, as many European newspaper cinema show listings can attest; even more beneficially, a number of these silent film copies wound up being saved, eventually finding their way into film archives such as EYE in Amsterdam and Filmoteka in Brussels, Belgium.

From Motion Picture News, February 2, 1929

In 1927 Joseph Kennedy was approached by David Sarnoff, the then general manager of RCA who wanted to use Photophone in the affordably run FBO studio. Harvard Business Reports 1930 states that RKO was a subsidiary of Radio Corporation of America, created to take over FBO and its subsidiaries. RCA also took interest in Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO), which owned a circuit of theatres, the latter desiring to transition to the film business. The company merger between FBO and KAO proved to be successful, and by 1929, William Le Baron was vice-president of RKO Productions in charge of production, sound-proofing all stages formerly under the FBO name. For FBO, it was a final goodbye to the silent film era, and ushered in the sound era, and for RKO, the landmark sound release was “Syncopation” in 1929, starring Barbara Bennett and Ian Hunter, and for a produced movie, “Street Girl” that same year.

With Harry Carey Sr in "The Last Outlaw" 1936

So even though RKO decided against keeping Tom Tyler on and renewing his contract in hopes of prepping him for upcoming sound pictures, that did not mean a permanent goodbye to the newly named company by any means. Tom continued to appear in RKO films such as “Powdersmoke Range” in 1935, “The Last Outlaw” in 1936, “Valley of the Sun” in 1942, “The Princess and the Pirate” in 1944, “Return of the Badmen” and “Blood on the Moon” in 1948.

“'Neath Western Skies” 1929 Tom Tyler silent film at Flickr

It appears that yet again another lost Tom Tyler film – at least a segment of one – has popped up, this time, at the Library of Congress.

Fourteen frames of “'Neath Western Skies” (1929) have initially been posted at Nitrate Film Interest Group as an unidentified film snippet on December 12, 1018. These frames came from a digitized file, made from a 35mm nitrate print at the Library of Congress. This film print snippet lasts just under two minutes. That this film print was digitized is amazing, and tinted at that, in a rich brown color, perfectly suitable for a late 1920's western. Of the 14 frames at Flickr, Tom appears in only two of them, but they are well worth viewing:

www.flickr.com/photos/nfig/46287697481/ 

'Neath Western Skies 1929

'Neath Western Skies 1929

Climbing through windows

One of Tom Tyler’s more entertaining yet common athletic stunts in his starring roles involves climbing through windows. Most of the time it is to escape a band of crooks – or to avoid someone wanting to acquire information Tom has but is not ready to give out. Sometimes however, Tom climbs through a window to enter a house, not because the front door is locked, but in order to meet with someone in confidence, such as a girlfriend. In the latter case, Tom snuck into a house more than once just to do that, as he did in “Cheyenne Rides Again”, “The Laramie Kid”, and “Deadwood Pass”. When it came to escaping those who he knew were after him in a closed room, however, Tom took the easy route – climbing over the window sill when the window is open, most of the times by himself, sometimes with another person, as when he left the courtroom in “Fighting Hero” with Conchita in order to protect her from a frame-up job.

"Cheyenne Rides Again"

Most fascinating, however, are Tom’s projectile jumps through closed windows. This is evident in movies like “Single Handed Saunders”, “Phantom of the Range” (1936), and “Cheyenne Rides Again”, and for the viewer who has seen “Adventures of Captain Marvel”, will find that Tom Tyler did in fact have lots of practice performing such stunts, even though Republic Pictures stuntman David Sharpe executed all of the tumbling stunts in this famous film serial. In some cases, Tom performs a simple jump through a closed window, as in “Two Fisted Justice”.

While climbing or projectile jumping through windows sounds easy, Tom Tyler certainly makes these stunts look effortless enough to amuse the viewer and never getting hurt in the process. Still, as they say, “Don’t try this at home” - leave it to professionals like Tom Tyler.

"Two Fisted Justice"

Happy Holidays from Aventuras de Tom Tyler!

First of all – thank you to everyone who has visited both this blog and aventurasdetomtyler.com since its inception in January 2015. As well, thank you to everyone who has emailed me about this site, the accolades are very much appreciated, and it’s been a long time in coming for Tom Tyler to have a dedicated website. When I first built this site, I had no idea it would become this huge. The amount of digital material accumulated was lightning fast – with thanks to Lantern Media History, Newspapers.com, international publication databases, and many other sites, including film archives here in the states plus around the world.

It could be that much of Tom Tyler’s silent film career during the mid- to late 1920’s lay “dormant” and inaccessible to the general public until very recently, which, thanks to the above named websites and databases – which have become alive with their cast members, plots, and production notes on Aventuras de Tom Tyler, along with available images of each silent film Tom made for FBO. Best of all, more of Tom’s lost films continue to be rediscovered, perhaps the biggest rediscovery to date being “Jungle Mystery” which was restored by Universal in 2016 and showcased at Cinecon 52. As to whether Universal will release this famous film serial on DVD remains to be seen although there is a better chance of another home distributor licensing “Jungle Mystery” from Universal – it’s been done before and it can be done again.

Of course, any other news about Tom Tyler’s movie career will be mentioned on Aventuras de Tom Tyler will be mentioned, too. In the meantime – Happy Holidays 2018 and Happy New Year 2019!

Collectibles: Tom Tyler on Biblioteca Films card

Biblioteca Films, the popular Spanish-language film booklet series published by in Barcelona, Spain, also manufactured a set of collector cards bearing many Hollywood stars as well as European stars. It is unknown if these cards were distributed along with a film booklet, as in the way the British Boy’s Cinema cards were done so, or if these were made available separately for collectors of film memorabilia.

Each Biblioteca Films card is 3 3/4” x 5 3/4” in size, about the size of a postcard, but of paper-thin quality. Some of the cards in the series had an ornate border surrounding the star’s face, while others, like the Tom Tyler card, had plain, straight-edged borders. The backs were blank. Each card was monochrome in color; however, there were at least four different colors issued, with only one star per color. For example, the Tom Tyler card is antique brown in color, while the card for Aileen Pringle is red. The other two colors were black/white, and sienna. There were at least 600 cards in the series, distributed over the 1920’s and 1930’s, into the 1940’s. Each card bore the number at the upper right corner and the star’s name below the image. The number on the Tom Tyler card is 166.

Other stars who appeared on the Biblioteca Films cards are: Virginia Valli, Al Jolson, Katherine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, Constance Talmadge, and Roy D'Arcy.

“Stagecoach” 1939 part of TCM’s National Film Registry showtimes

This December 2018, Turner Classic Movies will be showing “Stagecoach” (1939) as part of its National Film Registry selections. While Tom Tyler was not the star of the movie – that title was reserved for John Wayne – Tom turned in the most compelling performance which has been critically acclaimed over the years since its release in 1939.

TCM host Alicia Malone will introduce the five National Film Registry selections starting the night of Tuesday, December 11, with the special showings continuing on Wednesday, December 12. Even for those of you who have seen “Stagecoach” multiple times or even know the movie by heart, there is something special about seeing the movie on TCM as part of an important showing – it is considered to be the greatest western of its time.

Finally, on December 12, host Leonard Maltin and Dr. Carla Hayden of the Library of Congress will reveal the list of films added to the National Film Registry for 2018.

Please check your television listings for the actual time of “Stagecoach” - enjoy the show!