Buck Jones

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For the American football player, see Buck Jones (American football). For the ice hockey player, see Buck Jones (ice hockey).
Buck Jones

Jones in 1926
Born Charles Frederick Gebhart
(1891-12-12)December 12, 1891
Vincennes, Indiana
Died November 30, 1942(1942-11-30) (aged 50)
Boston, Massachusetts
Years active 1913-1942

Buck Jones (December 12, 1891[1] – November 30, 1942) was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, known for his work starring in many popular western movies. In his early film appearances, he was billed as Charles Jones.

Early life, military service

Charles Frederick Gebhart was born on the outskirts of Vincennes, Indiana on December 12, 1891. (Some sources erroneously indicate December 4, 1889, but Jones's marriage license and his military records confirm the 1891 date.)[2] In 1907, Jones joined the US Army a month after his sixteenth birthday: his mother had signed a consent form that gave his age as eighteen. He was assigned to Troop G, 6th Cavalry Regiment, and was deployed to the Philippine islands in October, 1907, where he served in combat and was wounded during the Moro Rebellion. Upon his return to the U.S. in December, 1909, he was honorably discharged at Fort McDowell, California.

Jones had an affection for racecars and the racing industry, and became close friends with early racecar driver Harry Stillman. Through his association with Stillman, he began working extensively as a test driver for the Marmon Motor Car Company. Yet by October 1910, he had re-enlisted in the US Army. Because he wanted to learn to fly, he requested a transfer to the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps in 1913, without knowing that only an officer could become a pilot. He received his second honorable discharge from the Army in October 1913.

Cowboy, stuntman, beginning of film career

Jones on the poster for the western Arizona Bound (1941).

Following his military service, he began working as a cowboy on the 101 Ranch near Bliss, Oklahoma. While attending equestrian shows he met Odille "Dell" Osborne, who rode horses professionally. The two became involved, and married in 1915. Both had very little money, so the producers of a Wild West Show they were working on at the time offered to allow them to marry in an actual show performance, in public, which they accepted.

While in Los Angeles, and with his wife pregnant, Jones decided to leave the cowboy life behind and get a job in the film industry. He was hired by Universal Pictures for $5 per day as a bit player and stuntman. He later worked for Canyon Pictures, then Fox Film Corporation, eventually earning $40 per week as a stuntman. With Fox his salary increased to $150 per week, and company executive William Fox decided to use him as a backup to Tom Mix. This led to his first starring role, The Last Straw, released in 1920.

Stardom

In 1925 Jones made three films with the then very young Carole Lombard. Jones had more than 160 film credits to his name, and by the 1920s, Jones joined Hoot Gibson, Tom Mix, and Ken Maynard as the top cowboy actors of the day. By 1928 he started his own company, but his independently produced film The Big Hop (a non-Western) failed. He then organized a touring Wild West show, with himself as a featured attraction, but this expensive venture also failed due to the faltering economy of late 1929.

With the new talking pictures replacing silent films as a national pastime, outdoor Westerns fell out of favor briefly. The major studios weren't interested in hiring Buck Jones. He signed with the then-humble Columbia Pictures, starring in Westerns for $300 a week, a fraction of his top salary in the silent-film days. His voice, a rugged baritone, recorded well and the films were very successful, re-establishing him as a major movie name. During the 1930s he starred in Western features and serials for Columbia and Universal Pictures.

His star waned in the late 1930s when singing cowboys became the rage and Jones, then in his late forties, was uncomfortably cast in conventional leading-man roles. He rejoined Columbia in the fall of 1940, starring in the serial White Eagle (an expansion of his 1932 feature of the same name). The new serial was a hit, and Jones was again re-established. His final series of Western features, co-produced by Jones and his friend Scott R. Dunlap of Monogram Pictures, featured The Rough Riders trio: Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton.

In 1997, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[3][4]

Merchandising

Buck Jones lent his name and likeness to various product endorsements, including Post Grape-Nuts Flakes (his radio sponsor), and Daisy Outdoor Products.

Buck Jones licensing also extended to the Big Little Book series, for example:[5]

• Buck Jones and The Two Gun Kid (1937) - Big Little Book #1404. Author: Gaylord Du Bois.

• Buck Jones and The Night Riders (1937) - Big Big Book #4069. Author: Gaylord Du Bois. Artist: Hal Arbo.

• Buck Jones and The Rock Creek Cattle War (1938) - Big Little Book #1461. Author: Gaylord Du Bois.

• Buck Jones and The Killers of Crooked Butte (1940) - Better Little Book #1451. Author: Gaylord Du Bois

Jones was also a consultant for Daisy, which issued a Daisy "Buck Jones" model pump action air rifle. Incorporating a compass and a "sundial" into the stock, it was one of Daisy's top-end air rifles, and sold well for several years.

This led to some confusion decades later with the release of the well-known holiday film A Christmas Story, based on author Jean Shepherd's erroneous recollection that the Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun had a compass and sundial in the stock. The latter gun never did at any time during its production, save the two specially made examples for the film.

Death

Buck Jones was one of the 492 victims of the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, Massachusetts. He died two days after the November 28 blaze. For years, legend held that Jones's fatal injuries were the result of his going back into the burning building to save victims, but it is now known that he was trapped in the fire.[6]

Family

Buck Jones's daughter, Maxine Jones (born 1918) was married to Noah Beery, Jr. from 1940 to 1966.

References in popular media

On his album When I Was a Kid, Bill Cosby has a routine called "Buck Jones," in which he talks about seeing Buck Jones movies as a kid. He says that Buck Jones had a horse named Silver, like the Lone Ranger, and that he would chew gum to signal that he was getting angry. Cosby mentions a specific movie in which a saloon tough picks a fight by pouring "redeye" liquor over Jones.

Partial filmography

  • The California Trail (1933)
  • Empty Saddles (1936)
  • California Frontier (1938)
  • Unmarried (1939)

Notes

  1. ↑ Allen Co., Ohio marriage license application dated August 9, 1915, reproduced at http://www.b-westerns.com/buck1.htm
  2. ↑ Buck Jones at www.b-westerns.com
  3. ↑ Palm Springs Walk of Stars by date dedicated
  4. ↑ Frenzel, Gerhard G. (1999). Portrait of the Stars. Palm Springs, CA: Palm Springs Walk of Stars. p. 143. ASIN B0006FBSG4. LCCN 98093956. 
  5. ↑ http://www.biglittlebooks.com/
  6. ↑ Article on Jones, and the fire

External links

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