Sage Brush Tom
About Sage Brush Tom
Tom sees an actress’s postcard at a kiosk and decides he is in love. His friends laugh. He writes her. She reads the letter in the East and brings her movie company to his Arizona ranch. He is too shy to speak, then fights the leading man and breaks his jaw. The director puts Tom in the part. The leading man tells him a real actor can wrestle a bull. Tom learns the stunt so he can play opposite her. The leading man then says a telegram from her husband has called her home: their youngest is sick. Tom sits down and throws the photograph away.
Cast & crew
More about Sage Brush Tom
Tom Mix directed, wrote the story, and plays Tom. William N. Selig produced. Goldie Colwell, Mix’s Selig leading lady in this period, is the actress. Ed Brady is billed. A listed running time is 12 minutes. A Commons copy is filed under the 1915 title.
Themes
Making
Mix writes himself into a moving-picture company that shows up at his own ranch. The last joke is that the woman on the postcard already has a husband.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print of about 12 minutes survives.
Notes
- The company comes west because of his letter, not because the ranch was already a location.
- The bull is a dare from the man whose jaw Tom broke.
- She leaves for a husband and a sick child. The reel ends on the discarded postcard.
- Colwell was born in Tecumseh, Kansas, in 1889 and left acting around 1919.
Scenes
- He writes the actress after one look at a kiosk card.
- Her company arrives at the ranch.
- He knocks out the leading man and is hired to replace him.
- The bull dare ends when her husband’s telegram sends her home.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Sage Brush Tom (1915).webm)
