For the regular visitors to the website, chances are you’ve already noticed the homepage is updated. I also plan on translating more Spanish film booklets to English like the recent “Red Hot Hoofs” (1926) as time permits.
I do want to thank everyone for their support, including all Tom Tyler fans on social media, regular blog readers and site visitors. Let’s make the year 2021 the best one for Tom Tyler yet!
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| The Moving Picture Weekly, March 9, 1918 |
Nicknames aside, what exactly constituted a Cheyenne cowboy on the silver screen when it came to Tom and Harry? Being fully human, virile, honest, genuine, someone who audiences can relate to, and fully appreciate their onscreen hero. In other words, being the consummate cowboy. Not only did Harry Carey embody all these qualities, but so did Tom Tyler, making him one of the most popular western stars of the 1930’s.
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.
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.
One of the few tobacco cards bearing an image of Tom Tyler in addition to the Mercedes A. Batschari card is Manoli Gold Filmserie. Also manufactured in Germany, the Manoli Gold card is identical in appearance as the Mercedes one, with Tom standing up against a tall wood fence with a dog at his left, and sepia in color. Curiously enough, this card also bears the same number in the set as the Mercedes one, number 89. What does differ is the size of the card: 2” x 3 1/16” in size, slightly longer than the Mercedes tobacco card.
The Manoli A.G. tobacco company of Berlin, Germany issued at least five different sets of film star tobacco cards, each set containing 168 cards. Each set of cards were of a slightly different size than the previous. Famous Hollywood and European stars appeared on these collectible movie cards. The year of issue for the set the Tom Tyler card appears in was probably 1930. As with all the Manoli Gold tobacco movie cards, albums were also issued to collectors to place their cards in, each card having its own designated spot.
I am very pleased to say that the translation project of “Red Hot Hoofs” from the Biblioteca Films film booklet “Por la fuerza de los puños” is now completed and available for reading.
I encourage everyone to read the Introduction to my translation and Terms of Use before reading the actual story.
Most importantly, enjoy my translation, hopefully this will be an incentive to rediscover the actual silent film. I am hoping to add more of these film booklet translations as time permits in the near future to Aventuras de Tom Tyler.
Click here to read my translation!
One of the lesser-known arcade card manufacturers was United Postal Card Supply Company (UPCSC). United Postal Card Supply Company was a competitor of the Chicago Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) but managed to differentiate their arcade cards in a few ways. One, while their cards were in monochrome, many of the famous figures who appeared on these cards – from famous western actors like Tom Mix, Fred Thomson, Rex Bell, Ken Maynard, Buzzy Barton to baseball players – were often portrayed as cutouts from their original background, usually a still or movie poster. There are at least two arcade cards Tom Tyler appears on: one is from “The Cowboy Musketeer” (1926), the other one, from “Idaho Red” (1929). Each card measures 3 3/8 x 5 3/8" in size (slightly larger than the ESCO arcade cards), has a seafoam green background, with the darker blue reserved for the card image.
Unfortunately, not much is known about United Postal Card Supply Company nor when it was in operation. The arcade cards this company manufactured remain very rare.
"The Cowboy Musketeer" UPCSC arcade card
There is a special project in the works for one of Tom Tyler’s lost silent films, “Red Hot Hoofs”, from 1926 and produced by FBO. Those who are familiar with “Rip Roarin' Buckaroo (1936)” will recognize the boxing theme in “Red Hot Hoofs”; a number of movie posters and stills have survived. Some interesting trivia about “Red Hot Hoofs”: real-life champion boxer Al Kaufman appears as Battling Jack Riley, but this silent film also marks Kaufman’s last film ever made.
The best part about this project – well, that will come when it’s ready, and it will be posted here on the Aventuras de Tom Tyler Blog plus social media pages.
