 (Courtesy of Fred D. Pfening, Jr.) |  | By the late 1920s, silent screen cowboy Buck Jones found himself in a situation shared by Tom Mix, Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson as well as minor league sagebrush heroes such as Bob Custer, Buffalo Bill Jr. (Jay Wilsey), and more --- the silent era was ending and 'talkies' were arriving. Buck had become a popular silver screen cowboy in Fox silents. Film companies didn't know what or how to incorporate sound into the programmer western, and in particular, how to handle the bulky gear during exterior location shoots. The contracts of Buck Jones and Tom Mix weren't renewed by Fox (some sources mention that Jones decided to leave Fox because of a disagreement; Dave Smith, in his narrative, notes that Buck left to form his own film production company). Whatever the cause of the separation with Fox, Buck Jones was near forty years of age (assuming 1889 was his correct birth year). Jones personally financed THE BIG HOP (1928), and that flopped. He also put together his 'Buck Jones Wild West Show and Roundup Days', but after a couple months, the show went bust. Some reports note that 1. dishonest management caused the death of the show, and 2. Jones lost about a quarter million dollars on the venture. Buck then went to work as the main attraction with the Robbins Brothers Circus and was with them for part, or all, of the 1929 season. Circus historian Fred D. Pfening, Jr. notes that after the Jones show closed, the cars, wagons, et al were taken to the William P. Hall farm in Lancaster, Missouri, and the photos below were taken there. |
 (Courtesy of Fred D. Pfening, Jr.)  (Courtesy of Fred D. Pfening, Jr.)  (Courtesy of Fred D. Pfening, Jr.)  (Courtesy of Fred D. Pfening, Jr.) |