After they divorced, when Mix was 15, her mother asked a Los Angeles court to order that the girl's allowance be increased from $50 per month to $1,500 per month. The judge denied the request until someone was appointed guardian of her estate and said she would have to become a "boarding pupil" rather than a "day school pupil".[6] By January 1929, her monthly allowance had been increased to $225, but her spending led a judge to chastise her when a debt-collection agency attached an allowance check after she ran up a $1,000 hotel bill in New York. The judge admonished her to "try to be more modest about her ways of living."[5] The monthly allocation ended via another court ruling in 1930 after she married.[9]
Mix retired from acting, becoming a roping artist and trick rider for her father's circus and wild west show.[10] In 1929, she performed in vaudeville, performing "in a novelty offering including singing and dancing"[11] and heading a Rodeo Revue show.[12] The Rodeo Revue had a cast of 35, featuring comedian Jed Dooley and including Toby Tobias and his orchestra and an eight-woman ballet group in addition to Mix and her horse, Lindy.[13]
Her father's show went bankrupt by the end of the 1930s, during the Great Depression.[citation needed] In 1939, she was part of the Wild West Show at the New York World's Fair,[14] and in 1941 she, along with Howard Cragg and B. H. Jones, headed a rodeo show that appeared at fairs.[15]
Personal life
On June 9, 1930, Mix married actor Douglas Gilmore in Yuma, Arizona. They separated in July 1931, with Mix planning to go to court to seek an annulment.[16] The annulment was granted in July 1932, to become effective automatically 90 days later.[4] Mix and Harry Knight, a "champion Canadian bronco buster" eloped to Reno, Nevada, and were married on June 5, 1935.[17]
Death
On September 21, 1977, Mix died in Corpus Christi, Texas, aged 65. Her name then was Ruth Hill, and she had lived in Corpus Christi since 1954.[10]
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