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| Affiliation | Republican |
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| Name | Rex Bell |
| Address |
Searchlight, Nevada , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
October 16, 1903
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| Died | July 04, 1962
(58 years)
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| Contributor | User 13 |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Aug 22, 2007 01:26am |
| Tags |
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| Info | George Beldam was born October 16, 1903 in the Windy City of Chicago, and the family migrated west, purportedly living for a time in Iowa before settling in scenic California. Bell graduated from Hollywood High in 1923. Some biographies report his birth year as 1904 or 1905, but I've used the year shown on his grave marker.
Some biographies also note that Bell was a star football player at Iowa or Iowa State. Twenty years ago, I did a Bell article for Norm Keitzer's Favorite Westerns magazine. In preparing that story, I sent letters to the Athletic/Sports Departments at the University of Iowa (Iowa City, Iowa) and Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa) asking about Rex Bell, George Beldam, and name variations such as Beldon, Beldan, etc. Received "didn't play football for us" replies from both universities. If someone has some nitty-gritty details on Bell's college days, please shoot the Old Corral webmaster an e-mail.
There are also a variety of stories about how Rex Bell became associated with Tinseltown and the movie business. Supposedly he was good with horses, and hired on with the William Fox studios and worked on either/both of the production units associated with Fox's Tom Mix and Buck Jones westerns. Another mentions that he got spotted while building sets and/or delivering construction material at the Fox studios with his dad's construction company. Whatever the case, he must have impressed someone at Fox for he was put under contract. And it was at this time that he adopted the name of Rex Bell, a moniker that is fondly remembered by horse opera fans.
As mentioned above, Fox had a couple of western film 'big guns' in the silent era --- Buck Jones and Tom Mix. Jones had left in 1928 and Mix would be cut loose (and head over to FBO for a handful). During these final days of silent films, Bell became a member (albeit brief) of Fox's stable of cowboy heroes --- he starred in WILD WEST ROMANCE, THE COWBOY KID, THE GIRL-SHY COWBOY and TAKING A CHANCE, all released in 1928.
Despite a lack of formal training in the art of visual dramatics, Rex's warm personality, good looks, and wavy hair caused female hearts to flutter and landed him in 'glamour boy' and romantic supporting and bit parts in films like SALUTE (Fox, 1929), the George O'Brien football yarn which also included screen newcomers Marion Morrison (John Wayne) and Ward Bond. For the next year or two, Bell made enough to survive, but Depression times were tough. Fox used him in other films, and even loaned him out to Warners and Paramount. Bell was doing TRUE TO THE NAVY (Paramount, 1930), when he met the"It" Girl, Clara Bow.
Bow and Bell became an "item", and in 1931, the pair eloped, married in Las Vegas, and settled down on a large ranch in Searchlight, Nevada. Over the next couple years, Clara starred in some talkies but by the mid 1930s, she opted to retire from the screen leaving hubby Rex to travel between the California studios and their Nevada home.
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