Ruth Mix

Mix was born in Dewey, Oklahoma,{{Citation needed |date=August 2021}} to Tom and Olive Stokes Mix. She had a half-sister, Thomasina Mix.{{cite news |title=Tom Mix's Daughter to Wed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/02/21/archives/tom-mixs-daughter-to-wed.html |access-date=August 21, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=February 21, 1940 |page=22}}{{cite book |last1=Tuska |first1=Jon |title=The Vanishing Legion: A History of Mascot Pictures, 1927-1935 |date=1 October 1999 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-0749-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVtAfjvRl74C&q=%22Ruth+Mix%22&pg=PA178 |access-date=August 22, 2021 |language=en}}

After they divorced, when Mix was 15, her mother asked a Los Angeles court to order that the girl's allowance be increased from $50 per month to $1,500 per month. The judge denied the request until someone was appointed guardian of her estate and said she would have to become a "boarding pupil" rather than a "day school pupil".{{cite news |title=Denies Ruth Mix's plea |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/02/03/archives/denies-ruth-mixs-plea-los-angeles-judge-demands-guardian-before.html |access-date=August 21, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=February 3, 1928 |page=10}} By January 1929, her monthly allowance had been increased to $225, but her spending led a judge to chastise her when a debt-collection agency attached an allowance check after she ran up a $1,000 hotel bill in New York. The judge admonished her to "try to be more modest about her ways of living." The monthly allocation ended via another court ruling in 1930 after she married.{{cite news |title=Mix wins allowance suit |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/07/05/archives/mix-wins-allowance-suit-court-rules-actor-does-not-have-to-pay.html |access-date=August 21, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=July 5, 1930 |page=24}}

Mix started her acting career following in her father's footsteps. In the mid-1920s she starred in several silent films. She made a total of twelve westerns, particularly The Tonto Kid, Fighting Pioneers, Saddle Aces and Gunfire, all made in 1935. In 1936 she starred in three cliffhanger serials, The Black Coin, The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand, and Custer's Last Stand. She played the female lead in a few B-westerns, starring alongside Wally Walls and Hoot Gibson.

Mix retired from acting, becoming a roping artist and trick rider for her father's circus and wild west show. In 1929, she performed in vaudeville, performing "in a novelty offering including singing and dancing"{{cite news |title=Sharp Stock Offers Play Never Seen Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83899129/the-pittsburgh-press/ |access-date=August 22, 2021 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |date=May 12, 1929 |page=84|via = Newspapers.com}} and heading a Rodeo Revue show.{{cite news |title=Vaudeville |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/06/30/archives/vaudeville.html |access-date=August 21, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=June 30, 1929 |page=X 1}} The Rodeo Revue had a cast of 35, featuring comedian Jed Dooley and including Toby Tobias and his orchestra and an eight-woman ballet group in addition to Mix and her horse, Lindy.{{cite news |title=Ruth Mix and Horse 'Lindy' Star in Revue |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83900423/ruth-mix/ |access-date=August 22, 2021 |work=The Minneapolis Star |date=October 19, 1929 |page=34|via = Newspapers.com}}

Her father's show went bankrupt by the end of the 1930s, during the Great Depression.{{Citation needed |date=August 2021}} In 1939, she was part of the Wild West Show at the New York World's Fair,{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Stephen |title=Fats Waller on the Air: The Radio Broadcasts and Discography |date=2006 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-5656-1 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3LJvYjBXak4C&q=%22Ruth+Mix%22&pg=PA83 |access-date=August 22, 2021 |language=en}} and in 1941 she, along with Howard Cragg and B. H. Jones, headed a rodeo show that appeared at fairs.{{cite news |title=Fair Program |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83898661/valley-morning-star/ |access-date=August 22, 2021 |work=Valley Morning Star |date=November 26, 1941 |location=Texas, Harlingen |page=1|via = Newspapers.com}}

On June 9, 1930, Mix married actor Douglas Gilmore in Yuma, Arizona. They separated in July 1931, with Mix planning to go to court to seek an annulment.{{cite news |title=Confirms Gilmore rift |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/99215124 |access-date=August 21, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=July 10, 1931 |page=4|id={{ProQuest|99215124}} }} The annulment was granted in July 1932, to become effective automatically 90 days later. Mix and Harry Knight, a "champion Canadian bronco buster" eloped to Reno, Nevada, and were married on June 5, 1935.{{cite news |title=Tom Mix's Daughter Elopes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/06/06/archives/tom-mixs-daughter-elopes.html |access-date=August 21, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=June 6, 1935 |page=2}}

On September 21, 1977, Mix died in Corpus Christi, Texas, aged 65. Her name then was Ruth Hill, and she had lived in Corpus Christi since 1954.{{cite news |title=Daughter of Tom Mix Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/23/archives/daughter-of-tom-mix-dies.html |access-date=August 21, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |page=28}}

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{{commons category|Ruth Mix}}

• {{IMDb name|0594290}}
• [http://www.b-westerns.com/ladies31.htm B-Western Ladies, Ruth Mix]

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Category:People from Dewey, Oklahoma

Category:Actresses from Oklahoma

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:American film actresses

Category:1912 births

Category:1977 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:Cherokee Nation actresses