Victor Adamson
| Victor Adamson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Albert Victor Adamson January 4, 1890 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | November 9, 1972 (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Denver Dixon, A. V. Anderson, Robert Charles, Al James, Van Johnson, Art Mix |
| Occupation | Screenwriter, film director, film producer, actor |
| Years active | 1910–1970 |
| Spouse(s) | Dolores Booth (m. 19??-1959) |
| Children | 3 |
Victor Adamson (born Albert Victor Adamson; January 4, 1890 – November 9, 1972) was an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor most famous for directing and starring in B and Z grade westerns in the early days of motion pictures. Adamson often used pseudonyms to credit himself, most often using the name Denver Dixon. His son, Al Adamson, would later follow his father in producing B movies during the 1960s and 1970s.
Adamson was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His family moved early in his life to Auckland, New Zealand, where he spent most of his youth. In the late 1910s, he returned to the United States with a home-produced movie and managed to find a distributor. He decided to continue making his own movies despite a lack of early success with his films.
Adamson began producing films around 1920. He called his production company Art Mix Productions and named himself the star. Adamson, however, found himself increasingly drawn to work behind the camera. He hired actor George Kesterson to act in his films using the Art Mix moniker, a name that Kesterson used for the rest of his career.
With the advent of talking pictures, Adamson produced a series of Z-grade westerns featuring actors from the silent age in the decline of their careers, including Buffalo Bill, Jr., Wally Wales and Buddy Roosevelt. Many of these films were released by a small independent distributor called Superior Talking Pictures. Adamson's productions were of such low quality that the opening credits were often not proofread, leading to typographical errors such as in the case of the Buffalo Bill, Jr. film Lightning Bill, which was spelled Lighting Bill on the title card.
In 1936 Adamson attempted to turn a young stuntman, Wally West, into a star using the name Tom Wynn. Adamson himself co-starred in the resulting film, Desert Mesa, using the pseudonym Art James. He was not able to find many companies willing to buy the film due to its poor quality. Adamson would star in one additional film after Desert Mesa, 1938's Mormon Conquest.
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