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Health & Fitness

Mixville Shopping Center's "Old Blue"

Seminal white hat cowboy Tom Mix’s Tony the Wonder Horse - an early animal movie star -- is buried somewhere at the Mix Ranch in what is now called Universal City. The grave has been lost. A different horse, however, starred in Mix’s first silent films. Mix’s original movie star horse was Old Blue. Old Blue supported Mix in 87 films between 1911 and 1917, among them “The Scapegoat” (1912), “The Law and the Outlaw” (1913), “When the West Was Young (1914), mostly produced at Mixville, Mix’s first movie ranch, where Old Blue had a spacious stable to himself. The site of this movie ranch is today the strip mall built in 1966 on Glendale Boulevard that is occupied by a liquor store, CVS, Ralph’s, Starbucks, and other businesses. On January 19, 1919, Old Blue broke a leg and had to be shot. Mix buried him under a large wooden monument near his stable, and Mix placed horseshoe wreaths on his grave for many years. Old Blue is either buried beneath the Ralph’s or in the parking lot in front of 2496 Glendale Boulevard. Whole Foods will occupy the Ralph’s building. There are no historic markers and no wooden monuments marking the grave of one of the film industry’s early hard working film animals.

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