(Courtesy of Ed Phillips) Above is a blowup of Rex from the silent THE DEVIL HORSE (Hal Roach/Pathe, 1926) which starred Yakima Canutt. Below is the full still. A lengthy scene in THE DEVIL HORSE became stock library footage which was used in many later westerns and serials - recall the brutal and lengthy horse fight between a black stallion and a paint (see image and text further down this webpage). (Courtesy of Ed Phillips)

There's one horse that I fondly remember --- the black Rex who was billed as "King of the Wild Horses" and "The Wonder Horse".

Rex made his screen debut in 1924's silent THE KING OF THE WILD HORSES, and he worked in silents with Yakima Canutt, Jack Perrin, and others. In the Jack Perrin silents at Universal beginning around 1927, Perrin was the hero and Rex was often the "hoss star".

When talkies arrived, Rex entertained us in serials THE VANISHING LEGION (Mascot, 1931), LAW OF THE WILD (Mascot, 1934), and THE ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY (Mascot, 1935), as well as the features KING OF THE WILD HORSES (Columbia, 1933), STORMY (Universal, 1935) and KING OF THE SIERRAS (Grand National, 1938).

Rex was also unique in that his name was often in the opening or closing film credits as well as the posters, pressbooks, et al. For example, in KING OF THE SIERRAS (Grand National, 1938), Rex was billed last in the film title credits, portraying a wild hoss named "El Diablo".

There's a couple of serials in which Rex is sometimes credited, but he didn't work in those films:

• Rex was slated to appear in a fourth serial for Mascot, THE DEVIL HORSE (1932), but Mascot owner Nat Levine needed to do some budget pruning, so a black horse named "Apache" from horseman/trainer Tracy Layne was substituted. (Some of you may remember a classic horse/stunt scene in which Yakima Canutt hangs under a black horse's neck and the animal tries to buck him off. That scene was filmed for the chapterplay THE DEVIL HORSE (Mascot, 1932), with "Apache" and Canutt doubling star Harry Carey, Sr.)
• In the cliffhanger, ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND (Republic, 1936), there was a horse named Rex - but it wasn't Rex. Tracy Layne was also involved in this serial. Republic expert Jack Mathis writes about this on page 30 in his Valley of the Cliffhangers (Jack Mathis Advertising, 1975): "Rex, touted in publicity as "King of the Wild Horses", was played by Zane plus a double horse and, for a $35 daily package, owner Tracy Layne contracted for their services as well as his own in the bit part of Larkin, a Black Chamber decoder. Aside from the 11 days work guaranteed his animals ..."

We do know that Jack "Swede" Lindell was Rex's trainer and he's occasionally listed in pressbooks and film credits. His full name was Jacob Wolfred Lindell (1898-1959).

But there's confusion about who discovered and who owned Rex. Some references/biographies mention silent screen stuntman, hoss trainer and western movie hero Charles "Chick" Morrison (1878-1924) as the one who discovered Rex ("Chick" was the lesser-known brother of cowboy star Pete Morrison). Others credit Jack Lindell (and that info is in the pressbook clipping below). Stable owner and Hollywood horse provider Clarence Y. Jones, whose nickname was "Fat", owned the Fat Jones stable and supplied horses, wagons, etc. to the movie industry. Jones may have owned Rex during his prime movie-making days. Lee Doyle owned Rex at the end of his career and life and the horse was retired on Doyle's ranch which was located in or near Flagstaff, Arizona.

The following link will take you to an Adobe Acrobat pdf file which contains an article by Susan Graf about several movie horses including Rex: http://www.2wfmorganclub.com/pdf_files/morgansinmovies.pdf

I've excerpted the first couple of sentences below:

"In Classic Morgan Admirers, Issue #18, editor Laura Algranti published a story about Rex written by Anthony Amaral. The article tells the story of Rex, the first horse to star in motion pictures whose career extended into the 1930s in over nineteen films and serials. Rex's real name was CASEY JONES, and Laura identified him as #6255 by Headlight Morgan and out of Nannie L by The Admiral, 2nd dam-Peggy A by Major Gordon, 3rd dam-Brown Gordon by Major Gordon. The article states that Rex was born in Texas in 1915 ...... "

Go to the link above to read the entire piece on Rex.

Lee Doyle was 79 years of age when he passed away in 1960 at a Flagstaff hospital. The Flagstaff, Arizona Public Library Oral History Project includes interviews with various citizens circa 1976, and there's some brief comments about Lee Doyle, Rex, and Doyle's relationship with author Zane Grey. When you get to any of these webpages, use your web browser search function to locate the comments on Doyle and Rex:
          http://www.nau.edu/library/speccoll/images/text/txt/38232.htm#a29
          http://library.nau.edu/speccoll/images/text/txt/38216.htm
          http://www.nau.edu/library/speccoll/images/text/txt/38228.htm

There was a horse named Rex that was owned by Jack Case. However, this was not the movie Rex. Jack Case's Rex had a white face blaze, and apparently, they did shows and performances. You can read more about them at: http://jackcase.com/jack-case/
There's an ad from a Hastings, Minnesota movie theater for a Saturday-Sunday, July 30-31 performance by "Jack Case and his Bar 20 Ranch Cowboys and Cowgirls". That webpage also has a photo of Jack Case's Rex. An internet calendar check indicates that Saturday-Sunday, July 30-31 occurred in 1938. Go to: http://jackcase.com/jack-case/rex-flyer/

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Rex and Jack Lindell:
          Rex: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm1211065/
          Jack Lindell: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0511521/

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Left is a biography on Rex from the pressbook for KING OF THE SIERRAS (Grand National, 1938). There's mention of horse trainer Jack Lindell as the person who discovered Rex ... and Rex's early years at the Colorado State Boys Reformatory ... and Rex being the "World's Most Vicious Equine", an "equine outlaw" and "savage animal" and having killed two people. Am unsure how much of this is true vs. plain ol' hype/publicity. (Courtesy of Les Adams)

Image on the right is from the pressbook for KING OF THE SIERRAS (Grand National, 1938). Salome Milstead e-mailed me with a tidbit regarding this pressbook photo of Rex - which may not be Rex: "... I think it was probably Missed-A-Shot, Fat's (Fat Jones) famous rearing horse. I could definitely be mistaken, but Misty was known for pinning his ears flat back with every rear, and had doubled for Rex for a time." Salome was working on a video/film about her famous grandfather, horse trainer and stable owner Clarence "Fat" Jones. Am unsure of the current status of that project.

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

(From Old Corral image collection) Above - a lobby card from KING OF THE WILD HORSES (Columbia, 1933) showing Rex leading a band of wild mustangs. About ten years earlier, Rex made his screen debut in the similarly titled THE KING OF THE WILD HORSES (Hal Roach, 1924). Above - the fight between Rex and the paint hoss which was originally filmed for the silent THE DEVIL HORSE (Pathe, 1926). Do you have the serial THE PAINTED STALLION (Republic, 1937) - take a look at Chapter 12 for the complete battle. Other films that include this equine brawl are the Kermit Maynard starrer WILD HORSE ROUND-UP (Ambassador, 1936), Gene Autry's COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (Republic, 1936), and the twelve chapter serials THE DEVIL HORSE (Mascot, 1932) and THE LAW OF THE WILD (Mascot, 1934). (Courtesy of Ed Phillips) Above are Jack Perrin with Starlight, and on the far right is Rex, "King of the Wild Horses", in a scene from GUARDIANS OF THE WILD (1928), one of the Perrin and Rex Universal silents.