Journal Notes

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Happy Trails: 

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

Just in time for Christmas!

Dale Evans and Roy Rogers are such icons of the American West – quintessential cowgirl and cowboy – that sometimes it is difficult to remember that their personas were media creations and not the real thing. Neither of them grew up riding the range. Dale Evans, born Frances Smith, was married as a young teen-ager, and then left to struggle as a single mother. Roy Rogers, originally Leonard Slye, grew up on a hard-scrabble farm.

Talent and the Hollywood machine transformed them into stars. They married after Rogers was left a widower with small children. Tragedy – and the triumph over it – didn’t stop there. Both adoptive and natural parents, they endured the sad loss of three of their children over the years.

Rogers and Evans managed to project an image of wholesomeness decade after decade over changing times.

Statistics of an American Icon

According to the Roy Rogers Corporation, the total revenue from the sale of Roy Rogers merchandise for 2015 was $14.4 million dollars.

In 2020 the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans official website had more than 912,000 visitors a month.

Ebay Auctions lists the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans memorabilia page as one of their most popular sites. More than 12,000 items are bought and sold a month.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans made eighty-one westerns for Republic Studios.

The Roy Rogers Show was among the top NBC television programs from 1951 to 1957.

In 1947 alone Roy Rogers received more than 900,000 fan letters.

In 1953 alone 408,000 pairs of Roy Rogers slippers, 900,000 lunch kits, and 1,203,000 jeans and jackets were sold.

Visit www.chrisenss.com to enter to win a copy of Happy Trails.

Although she racked up thousands of hours of radio time, made scores of movies, and appeared for many years on television, Dale fell somehow short of traffic-stopping celebrity status.  Dale Evans comic never sold quite as well as the Roy Rogers series.  The Dale Evans watch never buckled around as many little wrists as the Roy model did.  Trigger, Roy’s four-legged friend, rated co-star billing as “The Smartest Horse in the Movies,” Dale’s amazing mounts, Pal and later Buttermilk, sometimes didn’t get recognized until a film’s final credits rolled.  Still, for a generation of Americans, those boys and girls who spent the Saturday mornings of their childhoods in the popcorn scented darkness of the local picture show, Dale Evans – fearless, loyal, outspoken, hard-working, pretty – remains cowgirl incarnate.  When we think cowgirl, we conjure images of the Queen of the West.

Read all about the life and times of Dale Evans in Happy Trails:  A Pictorial Celebration of the Life and Times of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  Visit www.chrisenss.com to enter to win a copy for Christmas!

“The teamwork of Enss and Kazanjian bringing us the rich history of the old west and the old western movies is unparalleled.  There is no one else I would turn to learn about our western heritage.  Chris and Howard have given us wonderful insights into Roy and Dale with their acclaimed, The Cowboy and the Senorita.  This addition brings even more powerful emotion to a look back at the wonderful universe surrounding one of the greatest Hollywood partnerships of all time, both on and off screen.  I can’t wait to share it with my friends and family.”   Award Winning Country Music Artist, Clint Black

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“This gorgeous book shows why Roy Rogers and Dale Evans had an impossible-to-exaggerate influence on American culture in their prime. As revealed in these impressive photographs and informative texts, Roy and Dale’s behind-the-scenes story is as powerful and often heartbreaking as any story in their films.”

David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood

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Sandra Dallas’s Review of The Lady and the Mountain Man for the Denver Post.

“Isabella Bird is one of Colorado’s favorite historical figures. The fearless Englishwoman rode all over Colorado’s mountains in 1873, in bad weather and by herself. “The Lady and the Mountain Man” is a definitive treatment of Bird’s life.

Bird was an invalid, and doctors recommended sea voyages to improve her health. She was intrigued with the American West, and once healed, she came here by herself to explore the mountains. She settled in Estes Park where she met infamous mountain man Jim Nugent. Mauled by a grizzly, Mountain Jim was scarred and missing an eye, but Bird found him handsome. He had a reputation for violence, particularly when he was drunk, and Bird was warned against him.

The two fell in love, but a future together was not to be.

In this detailed account of the star-crossed lovers, the author — who is known for her books on Western women — plumbs both Colorado and British resources. In Enss’ hands, Bird is not a female oddity, but a woman of strength, courage and loyalty.”

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Happy Trails: 

A Pictorial Celebration of the Life and Times of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

Dale Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith on October 31, 1912, in Uvalde, Texas. In her words, her upbringing was “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 signing with the nationally broadcast 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.

To learn more about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans read

Happy Trails

Enter now to win a copy of

Happy Trails: 

A Pictorial Celebration of the Life and Times of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

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 appearances 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.

To learn more about Roy Rogers, Trigger, and Dale Evans read Happy Trails

Writers are not always the most social beings. We spend so much time alone working on our craft we tend to forget what it’s like to be out in public. I go for weeks without seeing anyone besides the guy in my house I married three decades ago who eats all my Rocky Road ice cream and spends an unsettling amount of time watching professional wrestling. When I finally do get a chance to be out among the crowd, I’m like a German shepherd whose hasn’t seen people in a long while. That’s why I’m a big believer in writing conferences. Being around other writers can improve your mental and emotional health.

A major activity in the life of a writer (or at least this writer for the twenty-five plus years I’ve been writing) is attending conferences or conventions. Surveys distributed at various writing conference around the country and reviewed by the Association of Writers and Writing programs indicate that among the many benefits of attending conferences are learning innovative writing techniques, improving writing skills, finding fresh ideas, and gaining new contacts. I had to sift through several writing conferences before I found the few that were of any real benefit.

I’ve taken part in my fair share of screenwriting conferences. They were more pitch sessions than anything else. Usually held in hotel ballrooms in lovely downtown Burbank, California, hopeful script writers had the opportunity to sign up to pitch their screenplays to people who said they were assistant development heads for various studios when in truth they were really pages for a late-night television show trying to break into the business just like me. I had just won the Nicholl Fellowship Award and was feeling invincible when I attended my first pitch session. The first so-called industry go-getter I met invited me to tell him about my work as he fed berries to the cockatoo on his shoulder.  When the bird began squawking, I found it difficult to focus. The session took an immediate nosedive when I suggested the man’s bird might prefer to be in its cage ringing its little bell and staring at its reflection in a mirror.

Then there was the Actor’s Conference, a symposium designed for aspiring actors to connect with professional actors. Before things went south between myself and the owner of the cockatoo, he suggested that attending the Actor’s Conference would help me be a better writer. The idea was that I could learn how to act like the characters I was creating, and that would translate to the page.

The first panel I took part in was an acting exercise with four other pretend thespians. We were to take our place around a poker table and imagine ourselves as dogs playing poker in a velvet painting. I tried, but I couldn’t get into it. First of all, dogs cannot play poker because they don’t have thumbs, and you need thumbs to shuffle and deal a deck of cards properly.  And there’s nothing remotely cute about animals with gambling problems. It’s incredibly sad. As a matter of fact, not one of those dogs is smiling in those pictures, because if you look closely at those paintings, you can tell that most of them are playing with money they can’t afford to lose. And sadder still, remember it takes seven of their dollars to make one of ours.

It’s going to be a long winter between writing conferences. In the meantime, I’ll sharpen my people skills at the grocery store where I plan to buy my weight in Rocky Road ice cream.

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

Dale Evans was one of Republic Pictures most popular western stars.  The unlikely celluloid cowgirl, western star starred in tandem with singing cowboy Roy Rogers in most of her thirty-eight films and two television series.  The undisputed Queen of the West was born Frances Octavia Smith on October 31, 1912, Uvalde, Texas.  In her words, her upbringing was “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 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.

In August 1943, two weeks after signing a one-year contract with Republic Studios, Dale began rehearsals for the film Swing Your Partner.  Although her role in the picture was small, studio executives considered it a promising start.  Over the next year Dale filmed nine other movies for Republic, and in between she continued to record music.

When she wasn’t working, Dale spent time with her son, Tom, and her second husband, orchestra director Robert Butts.  Her marriage was struggling under the weight of their demanding work schedules, but neither spouse was willing to compromise.

“I was torn between my desire to be a good housekeeper, wife, and mother and my consuming ambition as an entertainer,” Dale told the Los Angeles Daily News in 1970.  “It was like trying to ride two horses at once, and I couldn’t seem to control either one of them.”

Dale’s marriage might have been suffering, but her career was taking off.  Republic Studio’s president Herbert Yates summoned Dale to a meeting to discuss the next musical the studio would be doing.  She took this as a hopeful sign.  It was common knowledge around the studio lot that Yates had recently seen a New York stage production of the music Oklahoma and had fallen in love with the story.  Dale imagined that the studio president wanted to talk with her about starring in a film version of the play.  It was the opportunity she had always envisioned for herself.  For a brief moment she was one step closer to Broadway.

Dale Evans dreamed of starring as the lead in the film version of Oklahoma, but Republic president Herbert Yates had other plans for the actress.  He wanted her to play opposite the studio’s star cowboy in the movie The Cowboy and the Senorita.

Dale’s only experience in westerns had been a small role as a saloon singer in a John Wayne picture, and she was not a skilled rider.  She committed herself to doing her very best, however, in the role of the “Senorita,” Ysobel Martinez.

The picture was released in 1944 and was a huge success.  Theatre managers and audiences alike encouraged studio executives at Republic to quickly re-team Dale and Roy in another western.

In between her film jobs, Dale toured military bases in the United States with the USO.  She sang to troops on bivouac, from Louisiana to Texas.  She was proud to think she was bringing a little sunshine into the hearts of the soldiers.

Dale also brought sunshine into the hearts of moviegoers, and ticket sales were evidence of that.  Republic had happened onto the perfect western team.  Dale was a sassy, sophisticated leading lady and the perfect foil for Roy, the patient, singing cowboy.

The Cowboy and the Senorita was a big hit for Republic.  The April 1944 edition of Movie Line Magazine heaped praise on the film and its’ stars.  “Intrigue and song fill the Old West when America’s favorite singing cowboy rides to the rescue of two unfortunate ladies about to be swindled out of their inheritance,” the magazine article read.

“In Republic Pictures’ latest film The Cowboy and the Senorita, Roy Rogers and his sidekick Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, amble into a busy frontier berg looking for work and are mistakenly identified as felons.  Roy and Williams’ character “Teddy Bear” are accused of kidnapping 17-year-old Chip Martinez, played by Republic Pictures singing sensation, Mary Lee.  In truth, Chip has run away from home and her cousin, Ysobel, played by talented newcomer Dale Evans, to hunt for a buried treasure.

“Roy convinces Ysobel that he had nothing to do with her cousin’s disappearance and offers to help find the teenager.  Rearing on his famous palomino Trigger, Roy and Teddy Bear comb the countryside until they find Chip.  The pair is then hired on to work on the Martinez ranch and to watch over the impetuous Chip.  Desperate to get away again, Chip tells the boys she wants to find the treasure buried in a supposedly worthless gold mine she inherited from her father.  They agree to lend the young girl a hand in spite of her cousin’s objections.

“Meanwhile, Ysobel has promised to sell the mine to her boyfriend Craig Allen, played by John Hubbard.  Allen is a charming gambler and town boss who has convinced the unsuspecting Ysobel the mine has no value.  Allen of course knows differently.

“Using a clue left by Chips father, Roy investigates the mine and discovers a hidden shaft that contains the gold.  The boys must outride Allen’s men who are determined to stop Rogers and his sidekick at any cost.  Our heroes are in a race against time and a posse.  They must get ore samples back to town before the ownership of the mine is transferred.

“The action in The Cowboy and the Senorita is heightened with several song and dance numbers performed by Roy Rogers, the Sons of the Pioneers, and Dale Evans.  Songs include the title tune, Round Her Neck She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Bunk House Bugle Boy, and Enchilada Man.  The chemistry between Roy Rogers and Dale Evans is enchanting and “Big Boy” Williams adds great comic relief as Roy’s riding partner.

“The King of the Cowboys and Trigger will ride the range again this fall in their next picture The Yellow Rose of Texas.  Roy will be paired with Dale Evans for a second time in this feature.  He’ll be playing an insurance investigator working undercover on Dale’s showboat.  No doubt Rogers’ 900,000 fans will flock to the theatre to watch him ride to the rescue.”

Herbert Yates was quick to capitalize on the success of The Cowboy and the Senorita and the chemistry between Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  The motion picture executive decided to stay the pair in three more westerns, Yellow Rose of Texas, Lights of Old Santa Fe, and San Fernando Valley.

Audiences flocked to theatres to see Dale Evans opposite Roy and his horse Trigger.  She received sacks of mail from fans of all ages complimenting her on her acting and singing and expressing their desire to see her continue starring with Roy in more westerns.

With the exception of the motions picture The Big Show Off, Dale’s admirers would get their wish.

Republic Pictures The Big Show Off was released in January 1945 and in addition to Dale Evans it starred Arthur Lake and Lionel Stander.  Dale portrayed a night club singer being romantically pursued by the piano player at the club.  In order to get Dale’s attention, the musician disguises himself as a professional wrestler.  He is aware of Dale’s character’s fascination with professional wrestling and he hopes if he manages to make a name for himself in the ring, she will fall in love with him.

Movie critics and fans alike appreciated Dale’s work.  The actress had “many sides to her talent,” the February 15, 1945 edition of the Hollywood Reporter noted.  “Not only can she dance and sing as well as act, but she also writes her own songs.  There’s Only One You which she sings in The Big Show Off is one of her own compositions.”

Dale’s departure from westerns was short lived.  Utah, Bells of Rosarita, Man from Oklahoma, Along the Navajo Trail, Sunset in El Dorado, and Don’t Fence Me In were all released in 1945.  Each starred Roy and Dale along with Trigger and there were many more films to come.

Throughout the 1940s the careers of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans rode the crest of an incredible wave.  Their popularity spanned across the ocean into Europe, and fans who wanted their heroes with them at all times could purchase toothbrushes, hats, dishes, and bed sheets with the pair’s names and likenesses on every item.  By the late 1940s Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were second only to Walt Disney in commercial endorsements.  They played to record-breaking crowds at rodeos and state fairs.

Roy and Dale were together most of their waking hours.  They were good friends who confided in each other and discussed the difficulties of being single parents.  Roy’s wife had died after giving birth to their son and Dale had divorced her third husband.  They depended on one another and respected each other’s talents.  Roy was impressed with Dale’s on-screen take-charge personality.  Dale had a quick, smart-aleck delivery, and she wasn’t afraid to get into a fight or two.

In the fall of 1947 Roy proposed to Dale as he sat on Trigger.  The pair was performing at a rodeo in Chicago, and moments before their big entrance Roy suggested they get married.  The date set for the wedding was New Year’s Eve.  Gossip columnist predicted that Trigger would be the best man and that Dale would wear a red-sequined, cowgirl gown.  The predictions proved to be false.

Roy and Dale’s wedding was a simple affair held at a ranch in Oklahoma, which happened to be the location for the filming of their seventeenth movie, Home in Oklahoma.

Roy Rogers continued to reign as King of the Cowboys after he and Dale married, but his wife was temporarily dethroned from her honorary role as the Queen of the West.  Republic Studios believed the public would not be interested in seeing a married couple teamed together, and a series of new leading ladies took Dale’s place on screen.  Ticket buyers did not respond well to the new women.  It wasn’t long before Republic executives decided to reinstate Dale and begin production on another film that would re-team the popular pair.

In between filming their westerns, Roy and Dale kept busy recording some of Dale’s compositions for RCA Victor records.  Their song Aha, San Antone sold more than 200,000 copies.  Roy and Dale were also doing a radio show, performing at rodeos, and keeping up with personal-appearance tours that took them all over the United States.

When Roy Rogers parted company with Republic Pictures in 1951, Dale went with him.  The cowboy duo decided they would try their hand at television.  Both Roy and Dale were among the top-ten money-making western stars in the industry.  Network executives at the National Broadcasting Corporation believed their audience would follow them to the new medium.  The Roy Rogers Show ran from 1951 to 1957.  The song Dale Evans wrote for the T. V. show entitled Happy Trails, has endured through the decades.

Dale Evans died from congestive heart failure on February 7, 2001.  The movies she made with Republic Pictures continue to air on various western channels today and prove she still reigns as Queen of the Cowgirls.

To read more about Dale Evans and her life with Roy Rogers read Happy Trails