Book excerpt: The Amazing Tom Mix The Most Famous Cowboy of the Movies Tom Mix was a town marshal and cowboy in the Oklahoma Territory, a rodeo champion and a wild west show performer. With his devil-may-care attitude, quick wit and penchant for doing breath-taking stunts on his wonder horse, Tony, Tom Mix went on to become the #1 movie cowboy of silent films, earning millions of dollars at a time when movie tickets cost pennies. While he basked in this incredible acclaim, Tom Mix lived in fear that his deep, dark secrets would be discovered and his career and his cherished heroic image would be destroyed. Celebrated author Richard D. Jensen has spent more than 30 years researching the life of Tom Mix, the man hailed as "the idol of every American boy." With incredible detail, much of it gained from hundreds of original letters, records, documents and eyewitness accounts, The Amazing Tom Mix cuts through 100 years of public relations mythology, tall tales and outright lies to bring the true and inspiring story of a man whose Saturday matinee cowboy image would become the standard for all of the movie cowboys who rode the silver screen after him. "Here is Tom Mix as he really was...a captivating biography ... brilliant ... delightful ... It is a splendid book." -Richard S. Wheeler, five-time Spur Award winning author of Trouble In Tombstone. "... the most complete biography of Mix's life of trials, tribulations and victories." -John Duncklee, author of Bull By The Tale.