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MORE ABOUT DELL JONES AND DAUGHTER MAXINE ... AND BUCK'S TRUSTY HORSES



(Courtesy of Ed Phillips)

Above is a great 1930s shot of Buck and his family ... and his several horses. From L-to-R are "Silver", Dell Jones, "Sandy", daughter Maxine Evelyn Jones, "Eagle" and Buck.

Another white horse was introduced in Jones' LEFT-HANDED LAW (Universal, 1937). That was "Silver, Jr." and it was white or grey with lots of mottling.

Maxine was born February 9, 1918. She married Noah Beery, Jr. in 1940 and they divorced in 1965. In 1969, Maxine married comic book and western magazine illustrator and portrait painter Nicholas Samuel FirFires (1917-1990). Maxine Jones FirFires passed away on August 22, 1990 in California and there's a newspaper death notice for her at the bottom of this webpage. Distraught over the death of his wife, Nicholas FirFires committed suicide on September 22, 1990.

Below is a blowup from the above image with a closer look at "Silver", Dell, "Sandy", and Maxine.



(Courtesy of Ed Phillips)



BUCK'S RANGE UNIFORM

Some writers have noted that Jones' costume was workmanlike, not gaudy, and certainly not as flamboyant or showy as Mix or Maynard.  I disagree. Buck often wore THAT shirt, either in a light or dark color, with the drawstring neck and little horseshoes on the collar (shown below).  And he wore THAT gunbelt for years. He also used various hat styles in several colors.

At Monogram in the Rough Riders, Jones settled on a more workmanlike shirt and blue jeans ... but he still wore THAT durn gunbelt (shown on the left).


(From Old Corral collection)

Above - Peggy Campbell restrains Buck in a scene from WHEN A MAN SEES RED (Universal, 1934).
 

(From Old Corral collection)

Above - Buck Jones and Silver watchin' the trail.



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from L-to-R are Sarah Padden, Bud Osborne, Buck Jones and Christine McIntyre in the Rough Riders' RIDERS OF THE WEST (Monogram, 1942).  Jones' range wear now consisted of blue jeans, jean jacket, and a different hat style. Christine McIntyre was the resident leading lady in the Columbia Pictures short subjects unit, and today is best remembered for her work in about three dozen two-reelers starring the Three Stooges.



ENDORSEMENTS, BUCK JONES RANGERS CLUB, BUCK JONES CLUB

Jones' status and name recognition brought him many endorsement deals including Royal Crown Cola, Daisy B-B guns, Post Grape Nuts Flakes, Indian motorcycles, Schwinn bicycles, more.

His 1937 "Hoofbeats" syndicated radio program was sponsored by Grape Nuts Flakes cereal.

A boxtop from Grape Nuts would get you a Buck Jones Club pin. And three boxtops would get you a ring.



From the pressbook for BELOW THE BORDER.
 
From the pressbook for BELOW THE BORDER.




Buck's tie-in with Daisy air rifles began in 1934 when he began his series at Universal.
Above is a crop from a 1934 full page ad peddling Buck's Daisy B-B gun ... for $2.95.


To foster theater ticket sales, the Buck Jones Rangers Club was launched during Buck's time at Columbia Pictures and an announcement was on the front page of the October 1, 1931 issue of Film Daily:

"As a business-builder for exhibitors, Columbia has launched a national Buck Jones Rangers Club with membership open to boys and girls. Jones will be head of the club, which in addition to aiming at more kid patronage will try to foster good will among parents and teacher associations."



A MYSTERY PHOTO




Back in 2001, Bob Whelan sent me this photo. Front and center is Buck Jones surrounded by a zillion people at some unknown event.




Above is a crop and close-up of Jones, displaying a medal and being congratulated.  Jones' face certainly looks young ... this photo has to be 1920s silent days or perhaps early 1930s at the latest. Bob Whelan examined the photo under a magnifying glass, and it appears that the guy to the left of Jones' (over Jones' right shoulder) is wearing a cap with 'wild bill' on it ... the word 'bill' is clear but the 'wild' is not clear and may be wrong.



BUCK'S SALARY/EARNINGS


The figures below are from various film reference books and newspaper articles. We'll correct or add if new or adjusted salary information becomes available.

$2500.00 per WEEK at the tail end of his Fox contract circa 1927. (At that time, Tom Mix's salary at Fox was reported to be $17,500.00 per WEEK.)

$300.00 per WEEK for his eight film series for producer Sol Lesser circa 1930.

$500.00 per WEEK when Columbia assumed control of the Sol Lesser westerns.

$1,000.00 per WEEK for Buck's initial contract with Universal in the mid 1930s (as the replacement for Ken Maynard). Additional dollars were paid to Jones for authoring the stories used in his films. Buck had his own production unit at Universal.

Universal boosted Buck's salary to $25,000.00 per FILM plus a percentage of the profits.

$16,000.00 per FILM for the Coronet six-film series released in 1937-1938.



COMICS, BIG LITTLE BOOKS, ETC.

There were a bunch of comics and 'books' related to Jones and his screen adventures. More info and details will follow.


(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

(Courtesy of Bill McCann)


(Courtesy of Bill McCann)



Want a lot more details and nitty-gritty on Buck Jones?  Western film expert Buck Rainey authored a couple books: one detailing the Jones silents and the second covering the Jones talkies. The publisher was Ron and Linda Downey's World of Yesterday, which sadly, is no longer publishing due to the passing of Ron Downey. You may be able to locate used copies of these out-of-print books. On the Old Corral homepage, click on the menu item Books-Print Media-Newsletters-Photos, and then run searches on the various used book websites.



Links

Make sure to read the 'Cocoanut Grove Fire Controversy' article by Boyd Magers.  You can find it on the Old Corral homepage. The Old Corral also has biographies / profiles on the Rough Riders and Tim McCoy, and under 'Saddle Pals & Sidekicks', there's a bit more on Raymond Hatton.

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Buck Jones: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0427659/

UCLA has the Los Angeles Times Photograph Collection and there's a 1940 photo of Buck Jones and wife Dell at Santa Anita Racetrack: https://dl.library.ucla.edu/islandora/object/edu.ucla.library.specialCollections.latimes:4435

For years, Dominick Marafioti ran the "National Buck Jones Rangers of America" and also coordinated an annual Buck Jones Festival in New York. Dom passed away in 2004. The Buck Jones Rangers of America and Festival website was at: http://www.buckjones.org, but is no longer working.

YouTube has the Buck Jones Rangers tune sung by tenor Frank Luther: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ_P1ZdQcys

The Internet Archive has three episodes of Buck's "Hoofbeats" syndicated radio show: https://archive.org/details/AllStarWesternTheaterOfBWesternCowboyStars-AudioMp3

J. David Goldin's RadioGoldIndex website lists about ten surviving episodes of Buck's "Hoofbeats" syndicated radio show: https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=Buck%20Jones%20In%20%22Hoofbeats%22&type=Programs&count=10

The Circus Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin has one of the original wagons from the Buck Jones Circus: https://www.circusworldbaraboo.org

Daniel Neyer's "The Files of Jerry Blake" website has a webpage on Buck Jones doing serials: https://filesofjerryblake.com/serial-heroes/buck-jones/

Dave Smith had a website on 'Hoosiers' (Buck Jones and other actors and actresses born in Indiana), but the site was not working as of June, 2021: http://www.whenmoviesweremovies.com/
The Internet Archive "Wayback Machine" has saved versions of this website: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.whenmoviesweremovies.com

The Chamber of Commerce for Knox County, Indiana, is located in Buck's hometown of Vincennes, and their website is at: http://www.knoxcountychamber.com/

The Vincennes/Knox County, Indiana Visitor and Tourism Bureau website is at: https://visitvincennes.org/

Maxine Jones married Nickolas S. Firfires on August 11, 1969 in Santa Barbara, California. There are several spelling variations of his first name - Nickolas, Nikolas, Nicholas, Nicolas. Both were 51 years old: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V6XV-TJL

Maxine Jones Firfires passed away August 22, 1990 and the August 24, 1990 Los Angeles Times has a death notice: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-death-notice-for-m/145081643/

More info about Nicholas FirFires can be found at:
https://www.askart.com/artist/artist/2562/artist.aspx
http://www.artnet.com/artists/nicholas-firfires/

The Autry National Center museum has some six-guns, photos and other Buck Jones memorabilia: http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=keyword;keyword=%22buck%20jones%22

Buck Jones has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: https://walkoffame.com/buck-jones/

In 1973, Buck Jones was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/info/awards-hof/Western-Performers.aspx

Buck Jones was an early recipient of a Golden Boot award, and he received that recognition at the 1984 award ceremony. If you want more info, go to the Golden Boot Awards page on the Old Corral.



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