Tom Mix was a real cowboy with a background of ranching, rodeo riding, and stunt work. In 1914, his wife, Olive, saw a colt being pulled behind a wagon on what is now Glendale Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, and telephoned horse trainer-actor Pat Chrisman, according to Robert S. Birchard in his book King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies (1993). Chrisman, a regular in Tom Mix movies, paid $14 for the colt. Three years later, Chrisman sold the trained horse, named Tony, to Tom Mix for $600. By 1922, “Tony, the Wonder Horse” was almost as popular as Mix himself.
       According to the 7 Oct 1922 Exhibitors Herald, Just Tony went into general release 9 Sep 1922, but it had opened a month earlier at the Strand Theatre on Broadway in New York City, the 7 Aug 1922 FD noted. Reviews were good, and the 20 Aug 1922 FD heaped praise on the nominal star: “Tony has long been a familiar and important figure in the Tom Mix features, but this time he goes it alone, acquitting himself capable at all times.” The Oct 1922 issue of Photodramatist referred to Tony as “a noble animal, with more essential drama in his flanks than Betty Blythe [a current screen siren] ever possessed.” And the 11 Aug 1922 Var raved, “How they ever kept a camera near the rough and tumble is hard to figure out.”
       The 14 Oct 1922 Exhibitors Herald announced that Tony, who “performed with almost human intelligence” in the Fox production, Just Tony, has been insured for $500,000. However, a full-page profile on Tony in the Mar 1923 Motion Picture Magazine put the number much lower, at $20,000. The article stated that Tony had already received hundreds of letters from fans, along with blankets and boxes of sugar cubes. He also had his own transportation, a specially made Packard truck.