Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures
> BUCK JONES
Buck Jones Club Membership Badge
Post Grape-Nuts Flakes Cereal Premium


Click image to enlarge

What kid wouldn't want to be a member of the Buck Jones Club? Galloping across the silver screen in places like Placerita Canyon and Vasquez Rocks, Jones was one of the bigger movie stars of the 1920s and '30s — and he was really good at monetizing his fame through various product endorsements.

This red, black and gold, 1¼x1½-inch die-cut pinback in the shape of a horseshoe dates from about 1937, when Post Grape-Nuts Flakes cereal sponsored a syndicated 15-minute radio program starring Jones, called "Hoofbeats."

Among the various club premiums, the membership badge was the lure; it took just one box-top to become an official member and receive the badge — along with a catalog and instructions for ordering more fabulous prizes.

For another box-top, members would receive a photo of their cowboy hero; for 3 box-tops they got their choice of a membership ring or a Junior Sheriff badge. True devotees could send away for a lariat (18 box-tops), a cowboy hat (72) or chaps (103). Postage stamps and money orders were also accepted as partial payment.

By the late 1930s, the Buck Jones Club sported some 5 million members.


The Life and Untimely Death of Buck Jones.

Buck Jones was an A-lister among the "B" Western actors of the 1920s-30s-40s. A popular hero of dime novels and comic books, promoter of Grape-Nuts cereal and Daisy air rifles, Jones frequently starred in films shot at Placerita Canyon and Vasquez Rocks, and he came out of retirement during the war, when younger stars were off serving, to co-star in eight "Rough Riders" buddy pictures for Scott R. Dunlap at Monogram (after Dunlap had made a mid-career move in the 1930s to serve as Jones' business manager).

The end of Jones' career didn't come by choice. He died as a result of traumatic burn injuries sustained in the famous Cocoanut Grove fire of Nov. 28, 1942, the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. Flames started downstairs and quickly spread through the Boston nightclub; a single revolving door was the only way out. Jones was counted among the 492 casualties when he died at a hospital two days later.

Jones was at the Grove because Dunlap was throwing a party in his honor. Dunlap was seriously injured but survived. Monogram exec Trem Carr was credited (or blamed) for spreading the rumor that Jones sustained his fatal injuries when he rushed back into the burning building to rescue victims, but in fact Jones was trapped behind a wrought-iron railing that incapacitated him in his seat directly across from the bandstand.

Born Charles Frederick Gebhart on Dec. 12, 1891, in Vincennes, Ind. — some sources erroneously say Dec. 4, 1889 — he joined the U.S. Army in 1907 at age 16 and earned the Purple Heart during a rebellion in the Philippines. Discharged in 1909, he pursued and interest in auto racing and went to work for Marmon Motor Car Co. He reenlisted in the Army in 1910 and served until 1913, after which he busted broncs on the Miller Bros. 101 Ranch in Oklahoma where he met his bride, Odille "Dell" Osborne.

The outbreak of World War I saw him training horses for the allies. Later, a Wild West Show took him to Los Angeles where he got work at Universal as a $5-a-day stuntman and actor. He went to Canyon Pictures and then to Fox Film Corp., earning $40 a week for stunt work. Fox eventually used him as a backup to Tom Mix, raised his salary to $150 a week, and gave him his first starring role in 1920's "The Last Straw."

By the mid-1920s he was at least as big a star as Mix, Hoot Gibson or Ken Maynard. In 1928 he formed his own production company, but it was ill-timed. The silent period was closing and Westerns fell into a brief decline; and when the stock market crashed the following year he lost his shirt. He then tried to form his own Wild West show but it, too, failed, and after a year away from the screen, Jones landed at the Poverty Row studio Columbia Pictures at $300 a week, a fraction of his top silent-era salary. (Columbia hadn't yet broken out with 1934's "It Happened One Night.")

Westerns roared back in the 1930s and Jones did, too. His masculine voice caught on with audiences as he starred in pictures for Columbia and Universal which were often shot in the Santa Clarita Valley. At one point he received more fan mail than any other actor. The early 1940s saw him co-produce a string of movies with his friend Dunlap, who teamed him up with Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton to form the Rough Riders.

Further reading: Buck Jones, Bona Fide Hero by Joseph G. Rosa, 1966.


LW2812: 19200 dpi jpeg from original pinback purchased 2015 by Leon Worden.
BUCK JONES

thumbnail

Bio/Story 1966

thumbnail

Tobacco Card 1920s

thumbnail

Tobacco Card, Portugese Colonies, 1928

thumbnail

The Avenger 1931

thumbnail

One Man Law 1932

thumbnail

FULL MOVIE

thumbnail

Outlawed Guns 1935

thumbnail

FULL MOVIE+

thumbnail

Stone of Silver Creek 1935 (Mult.)

thumbnail

"Black Aces" 1937
Walker Cabin

thumbnail

Boss of Lonely Valley 1937

thumbnail

Buck Jones Club Badge 1937

thumbnail

Forbidden Trail 1941

thumbnail

FULL MOVIE

thumbnail

Rough Riders 1942

thumbnail

Rough Riders 1942

thumbnail

Down Texas Way 1942

thumbnail

Ghost Town Law 1942 (mult.)

thumbnail

West of the Law 1942

thumbnail

Last Photo 11/28/1942

thumbnail

Dies in Cocoanut Grove Fire

RETURN TO TOP ]   RETURN TO MAIN INDEX ]   PHOTO CREDITS ]   BIBLIOGRAPHY ]   BOOKS FOR SALE ]
SCVHistory.com is another service of SCVTV, a 501c3 Nonprofit • Site contents ©SCVTV
The site owner makes no assertions as to ownership of any original copyrights to digitized images. However, these images are intended for Personal or Research use only. Any other kind of use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication in any medium or format, public exhibition, or use online or in a web site, may be subject to additional restrictions including but not limited to the copyrights held by parties other than the site owner. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for determining the existence of such rights and for obtaining any permissions and/or paying associated fees necessary for the proposed use.