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Happy Trails: A Pictorial Celebration of the Life and Times of

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On July 12, 1943, Roy Rogers and his trusty palomino, Trigger, appeared on the cover of Life magazine. The overwhelming success of Roy’s movies had made him the biggest box-office draw in the country.

On average, Roy made eight pictures a year, and in between productions he traveled around the country promoting his work. He sometimes made six appearance a day at various theatres where his movies were playing. Audiences would fill the seats of the movie houses, Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers would sing a few songs, and then his film would run.

Trigger accompanied Roy on all his promotional trips. Roy had acquired Trigger in 1938 when the horse was a yearling and, with the aid of a professional trainer, he brought the animal into prominence.

Along with information about his home life, the origin of the singing cowboy’s name was revealed in the Life article. Studio executives had given Leonard Slye, also known as Dick Weston (a name Leonard picked himself and used as his professional name for a short time), the handle of Rogers in 1937, after the famous humorist Will Rogers, and Roy, which means “king.” The two stage names fit together perfectly.

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A Biography of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and

Happy Trails: A Pictorial Celebration of the Life and Times of

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

There’s almost nothing more important to a cowboy than his horse. He depends on his reliable steed to help him with his job and to be his friend and all-around partner through thick and thin. Throughout the 1930s, 40s’, and 50s, Roy Rogers was the quintessential cowboy, but a big part of this heroic appeal was his palomino, Trigger. Billed as “the smartest horse in movies,” Trigger was Roy’s riding partner in eighty films and one hundred television shows.

Roy purchased Trigger in 1938 from Hudkins Stables in Los Angeles for $2,500. He knew Trigger was a special horse the moment he saw him trotting through a field. With the help of expert horse trainer Glenn Randall, Roy worked with Trigger to teach him a myriad of tricks, including counting, writing, and bowing to an audience.

Trigger’s fame grew with every new Roy Rogers movies. The horse was a star with four stand-ins. He made $750 a week and received 200 fan letters a month. In 1940 Roy insured the valuable animal for $100,000.

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A Biography of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and

Happy Trails: A Pictorial Celebration of the Life and Times of

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Roy Rogers was born Leonard Franklin Slye on November 5, 1911, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents owned a farm near the small town of Duck Run, and it was there that he developed his love fore music. By the age of ten he was playing the guitar and calling square dances.

In 1929 Leonard left the Midwest and headed for Hollywood. In between occasional singing engagements with the various bands, he helped form (including the Sons of the Pioneers), he worked as a truck driver and a fruit picker.

His big break came in 1937, when he snuck onto the lot of Republic Pictures and landed a contract paying seventy-five-dollars a week. Republic Studios’ president Herbert Yates was looking for a musical actor to go boot-to-boot with singing-cowboy sensation Gene Autry. Renamed Roy Rogers, Leonard had the integrity, the talent, and the look the studio was hoping to find.

Three short years after singing with Republic, Roy Rogers would be the number-one-box-office draw in the country and be crowned the King of the Cowboys.

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1883-Newt Boyce got out of jail and went right back to drinking and making threats on Brown and Wheeler.  When confronted by Brown, Newt went for a gun and Brown had to drill him with a round from his Winchester.  Boyce lingered a few hours before he died.

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Dale Evans described her upbringing in Uvalde, Texas as “idyllic.” As the only daughter of Walter and Betty Sue Smith, she was showered with attention and her musical talents were encouraged with piano and dance lessons.

While still in high school, she married Thomas Fox and had a son, Thomas Jr. The marriage, however, was short-lived. After securing a divorce, she attended a business school in Memphis and worked as a secretary before making her singing debut at a local radio station. In 1931 she changed her name to Dale Evans.

By the mid 1930s, Dale was a highly sought-after big-band singer performing with orchestras throughout the Midwest. Her stage persona and singing voice earned her a screen test for the 1942 movie Holiday Inn. She didn’t get the part, but she ended up singing with the nationally broadcast radio program the Chase and Sanborn Hour and soon after signed a contract with Republic Studios. She hoped her work in motion pictures would lead to a run on Broadway doing musicals.

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…that in 1936, Leonard Slye (Roy Rogers) had an unaccredited role as a Sons of the Pioneers guitar player in the Gene Autry’s 1936 film, The Big Show?

…that Roy Rogers hit #7 on the U.S. Country chart in 1946 with “A Little White Cross on the Hill”?

…that actress and singer Dale Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith on October 31, 1912, in Uvalde, Texas.

…that after being discovered by a talent scout, Evans did a screen test for Paramount Pictures, which was considering casting her in Holiday Inn (1942) with Bing Crosby. She didn’t get that part, but she soon landed a one-year contract with 20th Century Fox.

…that Evans appeared in the 1942 comedy Girl Trouble with Don Ameche and Billie Burke. She had parts in such musicals as Swing Your Partner (1943) and Hoosier Holiday (1943). Changing studios, Evans moved to Republic and appeared in her first western film, In Old Oklahoma (1943) (the film was later retitled The War of the Wildcats), opposite John Wayne.

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Happy Trails: A Pictorial Celebration of the Life and Times of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

“I’m an introvert at heart…And show business – even though I’ve loved it so much – has always been hard for me.” – Roy Rogers

“Cowgirl is an attitude, really; a pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head on, lives by her own lights and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands. They speak up. They defend the things they hold dear. A cowgirl might be a rancher, or a barrel racer, or a bull rider, or an actress. But she’s just as likely to be a checker at the local Winn Dixie, a full-time mother, a banker, an attorney, or an astronaut.” – Dale Evans

“Until we meet again, may the good Lord take a liking to you.” – Roy Rogers

“I have studied many religions, many different persuasions of thought in Christian belief, and I have come, in this experience to this: the most important question in anyone’s life is the question asked by poor Pilate in Matthew 27:22: ‘What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?’ No Other question in the whole sweep of human experience is as important as this. It is the choice between life and death, between meaningless existence and life abundant. What will you do with Christ? Accept Him and life, or reject Him and die? What else is there?” – Dale Evans

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Elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers and elected again in 1988 as Roy Rogers.

Roy got his horse Trigger in 1938 and rode him in every one of his films and TV shows after that. He had appeared in one earlier movie, ridden by Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Trigger died in 1965 at age 33.

Roy’s theme song, “Happy Trails”, was written by Dale Evans.

Inducted (as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers) into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1995.

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