Save yer pennies, kids.

By Thomas M. Kelly

The Fabulous Tom Mix: Thomas Edwin Mix(born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features. He was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is noted as having helped define the genre for all cowboy actors who followed. Tom Mix was "the King of Cowboys" when the influence of his screen persona was seen in his approach to portraying cowboys. He created the first “Mixville”. Are our old cowboy heroes really dead? Not according to Jubal "Tom Mix" McCabe.

"Save yer pennies, kids. Yer in fer another adventure."

This is a play about Jubal "Tom Mix" McCabe. Jubal is a happy-go-lucky, wanna-be cowboy movie star. As a youngster he was a "little Tom Mix", cleaning out a nest of imaginary outlaws in the family backyard in typical Tom Mix fashion. Those were the days of the popular dream: to grow up to be like Tom Mix. His every word intonation and body movements are out of the old western movies of the early 20th century. Jubal speaks in the dialect and jargon as seen in the onscreen ‘intertitles’ of the ‘silents’ and heard by characters in the ‘talkies’. He has been building his own “Mixville” in his backyard in the southern California town of Victorville.
Aiyanna Eskaminzim, a return visitor to Mixville is a Native American. Her Jicarilla [hēkəˈrēə] Apache name, ‘Aiyanna’, means ‘eternal blossom’. Eskaminzim means “big mouth”. She has the patience of a saint and the psyche of a poet with a “big mouth”. She has come back to rebuild Jubal's "Injun village". We'll see 'bout that!
The time: 1957

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas M. Kelly
• Release date: Aug 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452471129

Thomas M. Kelly

Résumé: Thomas M. Kelly EDUCATION: Mr. Kelly was born and raised in Muscatine, Iowa. He is a graduate of Hayes Catholic High School, a graduate of Orange County Community College, Middletown, NY. and went on to attend two years at the University of California, Davis and is a graduate of Lincoln Law School, Sacramento, California. "Once a Marine, always a Marine" ('57 - '60). PUBLISHED: A monologue, “Sara”, from his play “...smile, and smile, and be a villain.”, is included in Young Women's Monologs From Contemporary Plays: Professional Auditions For Aspiring Actresses, edited byGerald Lee Ratliff, State University New York, Potsdam and published in 2004 by Meriwether Publishing, Ltd. A monologue, “Zhev”, from his play “Fana!” will be published by Smith & Kraus Inc. in an anthology: 221 One-Minute Monologues From Literature. JAC Publishing, Burlington, MA, has published interJACtions: Monologues at the Heart of Human Nature contains three of Mr. Kelly's monologues. HONORS: “The Butterfly Within” is included in the Eileen Heckart's Senior Drama Archives in the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University. LOCAL THEATRE AWARDS: Several Elly Nominations and Elly Awards including Best Overall Production, for “A Shayna Madel” by Barbara Lebow, and Best Set, for “Nighthawks and Night Café” by Edward Evan Blake, based on the painting “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper. “Wake up, Jay! It’s Christmas!”, winner of four Elly Awards for Young Peoples Theatre, including Best Overall Production. OTHER WORKS: "Mixville" (Jubal 'Tom Mix' McCabe is a happy-go-lucky, wanna-be cowboy movie star. As a youngster he was a "little Tom Mix", cleaning out a nest of imaginary outlaws in the family backyard in typical Tom Mix fashion. Those were the days of the popular dream: to grow up to be like Tom Mix.), “Extreme Unction”; “The Timekeeper”; “Zen and the Art of Making Par”; “The Butterfly Within” (A heartwarming story of culture clash as an old Jewish gentleman and a young Korean girl discover the meaning of the rest of their lives atop a Lower East Side tenement); “Fana!”, (The ordeal of three trapped survivors of suicide bomb blasts spend their last hours justifying their lives and religions: two very honestly, the third very deceitfully. In a mental duel the three argue the rationale of murder/suicide bombings using the Qur’an, Hindu philosophy and the Torah as authority.); and “smile, and smile, and be a villain.”; (A frightening glimpse at the life of a victim of Borderline Personality Disorder); “Ba-Bang!” (An analytic political cartoon caricature of “Dubya”); "The (Mis)Adventures of Charlie & Jay": a montage of four short children's plays, including "Stop Snoring, Jay! I’m Dreaming of Christmas!"; "Wake Up, Jay! It’s Christmas!"; "This is Not our Backyard, Charlie!"; and "You’re in Trouble Now, Charlie!". “Ba-Bang!, The Musical”; “Waiting for Mahmoud”; “How To Improve Your Life in Four Easy Moves”; "Yuyustu" (part of the 'Mixville' series); "It's'a comin' inta' bein' ", co-authored with Paul Hauck; and “Pádraig’s Aibhistear”. “Ole’ Gimlet Eye” is a biographical play about Major Smedley Darlington Butler, U.S.M.C. General Butler was a man who defied the powers that were, to wage a war against war in the days before World War II: “War is a racket! I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”; “Frankie and Johnny Were Schweethawts”; "Liza!"; "Pawns are but Poor Men"; "Save yer pennies, kids." (part of the 'Mixville' series); "Sacred Ground" (part of the 'Mixville' series); "Hey Mom, tell Rod..."; and "On the Line", are more recent full-length plays, with more in premature flight. He has written and produced many children’s plays. They feature Charlie, a French Briard puppy, and Jay, a Persian Red Point feline. In 1994 Mr. Kelly founded the award winning Thistle Dew Theatre in Sacramento and is founder of the highly successful Thistle Dew Playwright’s Workshop in 2005. In 2012 Mr. Kelly founded the Super Political Action Comedy (Super PAC) Theatre and it's blog: http://superpoliticalactioncomedy.blogspot.com/ , and other blogs; http:/thistledewtheatre.blogspot.com/ ; http://thistledewcenterforliteraryart.blogspot.com/ ; http://wordstreetsmarts.blogspot.com/ ; & http://californiaplaywrightstheirplays.blogspot.com/ .

Book preview