Joseph Franklin De Yong was a western movie extra, a cowboy artist and protégé of western artist Charles Russell, for whom he worked from 1916 to 1926. Following Russell’s death in 1926, De Yong became Russell's "artistic heir and guardian of his creative legacy" according to western art historians. DeYong as a boy saw Charles Russell's paintings at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and became fascinated with the Western landscape and peoples. By the time he was seventeen, he was Hollywood cowboy Tom Mix’s wrangler for his cattle and horses as well as an actor in some of Mix's productions. He would for many years serve as a historical consultant on western films. Although de Yong created the molds for these figures in 1922, they were poured at the foundry (D.F., "date of foundry") in 1972.