LAUREL CANYON\u2014Whaddya think about when someone mentions Laurel Canyon?\u00a0Is it the legend that a famous horse was buried under the bowling alley in the basement of 2401 Laurel Canyon?\u00a0Or that one of the early owners of the property was a pall bearer for Wyatt Earp?\u00a0Somewhere in the back of your mind you admit that there is almost nothing that is too weird for Laurel Canyon.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve written about the famous Upper Tree House, which is all that remains of the Laurel Tavern originally built in 1915 on the northeast corner of Laurel Canyon and Lookout Mountain.\u00a0 The Tavern was part of the earliest development in Laurel Canyon, known as Bungalow-Land.\u00a0 The building served as a way station for the Trackless Trolley that brought visitors up to Lookout Mountain.<\/p>\n
One of the early owners of 2401 Laurel Canyon was Tom Mix.\u00a0Who\u2019s that you ask? We know the name, but how much do we remember about the man? Typical of local residents he was a colorful character.<\/p>\n
Tom Mix was born in Mix Run, Pa.\u00a0 Tom Mix from Mix Run \u201d\u201c that surely must have been the middle of nowhere in 1880 when Tom was born.\u00a0 He grew up working on a local farm and taught himself to ride horses. He became an impressive rodeo competitor, and perfected daredevil acrobatics on horseback. He\u2019d always dreamed of being in the circus, the wild west shows that were so popular at the time. As a kid, in 1890 he saw Buffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West Show.\u00a0 He met Will Rogers\u2014a rodeo clown at the time \u2014at the 1904 St. Louis World\u2019s \u00a0Fair. He moved to Dewey,Okla. where he was a bartender and the town marshal.\u00a0 Mix at the ripe old age of 19 landed a job at the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, and worked for the Miller Brothers Wild West Show.\u00a0 Things were only going to get better for this cowboy.\u00a0 The 101 Ranch regularly supplied cowboy extras to the movie industry.\u00a0 William Selig\u2019s Polyscope Company [which had just moved to California] began filming “Ranch Life in the Great Southwest” [1910] in Oklahoma. Mix signed on to \u201chandle the horses\u201d\u009d but wound up on film.\u00a0 Mix and others, where filmed bronco busting, bull-riding, steer tying and branding. He was a hit.<\/p>\n
So where does the most famous silent film cowboy who earned over $6 million dollars during his career choose to live?\u00a0Yup, Laurel Canyon.<\/p>\n
Mix was known as a wildly entertaining cowboy.\u00a0 He\u2019d\u00a0adopted a dapper dandy-ish style which contrasted with his exciting cowboy showmanship. He made over 250 movies.\u00a0And it as rumored that his sidekick, \u201cTony The Wonder Horse\u201d who was as famous as Mix himself was buried under the bowling alley of his Laurel Canyon home.\u00a0Truth or fiction? Tony the Wonder Horse was named as a survivor in Tom Mix\u2019s obituary, and was also the beneficiary of Tom Mix\u2019s will.\u00a0Tony was retired to the Tom Mix Ranch in Arleta.\u00a0 He outlived the cowboy for two years. Could it be that Tony The Wonder Horse\u2019s final resting place is actually under the house? Was it all secretly arranged by Tom Mix\u2019s faithful lawyer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAUREL CANYON\u2014Whaddya think about when someone mentions Laurel Canyon?\u00a0Is it the legend that a famous horse was buried under the bowling alley in the basement of 2401 Laurel Canyon?\u00a0Or that one of the early owners of the property was a pall bearer for Wyatt Earp?\u00a0Somewhere in the back of your mind you admit that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[3155,3156],"class_list":["post-22142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-point-of-view","tag-tony","tag-wonder-horse"],"yoast_head":"\n