Roy Rogers | |
|---|---|
 Roy Rogers in 1942 | |
| Born | Leonard Franklin Slye (1911-11-05)November 5, 1911 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | July 6, 1998(1998-07-06) (aged 86) Apple Valley, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Apple Valley 34°33′25″N117°08′35″W / 34.5569916°N 117.1429367°W /34.5569916; -117.1429367 |
| Other names | Len Slye |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active |
|
| Style | Western |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 8 |
Roy Rogers (bornLeonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamedthe King of the Cowboys,[1] was an American singer, actor, television host, androdeo performer.
Following early work under his given name, first as a co-founder of theSons of the Pioneers and then as an actor, the rebranded Rogers then became one of the most famous and popular Western stars of his era.
He appeared in almost 90 motion pictures, as well as numerous episodes of his self-titled radio program that lasted for nine years. Between 1951 and 1957, he hostedThe Roy Rogers Show television series. In many of them, he appeared with his wife,Dale Evans; his Golden Palomino,Trigger; and hisGerman Shepherd, Bullet. Rogers is also best remembered for his signature song "Happy Trails".
His early roles were uncredited parts in films by fellow singing cowboyGene Autry. His productions usually featured asidekick, often eitherPat Brady,Andy Devine,George "Gabby" Hayes, orSmiley Burnette.[2]
Rogers was the only country singer to be inducted twice into theCountry Music Hall of Fame. AlongsideBob Hope,Mickey Rooney, andTony Martin, he is the recipient of four stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame; the last of which was honored with the band mentioned above.
In his later years, he lent his name to the franchise chain ofRoy Rogers Restaurants.
Rogers was born Leonard Franklin Slye, the son of Mattie (née Womack) and Andrew "Andy" Slye inCincinnati, Ohio.[3] The family lived in a tenement on 2nd Street, whereRiverfront Stadium was later constructed. (Rogers later joked that he was born at second base.)[3] Len had three sisters: Kathleen, Mary, and Cleda. Dissatisfied with his job and city life, Andy and his brother Will built a 12-by-50-foot (3.7 m × 15.2 m) houseboat from salvage lumber, and in July 1912 the Slye family traveled up theOhio River towardsPortsmouth.[3] Desiring a more stable existence in Portsmouth, they purchased land on which they planned to build a house, but instead theGreat Flood of 1913 enabled them to move the houseboat onto their property and continue living in it on dry land.[3]
In 1919, the Slye family purchased a farm in Duck Run, nearLucasville, Ohio, about 12 miles (19 km) north of Portsmouth, and built a six-room house.[3] Andy soon realized that the farm alone would not provide sufficient income for his family, so he took a job at a Portsmouth shoe factory, living in Portsmouth during the week and returning home on weekends, bearing gifts following paydays. A notable gift was a horse on which young Len learned the basics of horsemanship.[3] Living on the farm with no radio, the family made their own entertainment. On Saturday nights, they often invited neighbors over for square dances, during which Len would sing, play mandolin, and call the square dances.[3] He also learned toyodel during this time, and with his mother they would use different yodels to communicate with each other across distances on the farm.[3]
Len attended high school inMcDermott, Ohio,[3] but after he completed his second year there, his family returned to Cincinnati, where his father worked at another shoe factory.[3] Realizing that his family needed his financial help, Len quit school and joined his father at the factory.[3] He tried to attend night school, but after being ridiculed for falling asleep in class, he quit school and never returned.
By 1929, after his older sister Mary and her husband had moved toLawndale, California, Len and his father quit their factory jobs, packed up their 1923 Dodge, and drove the family to California to visit Mary. They stayed for four months before returning to Ohio.[3] Soon after returning, Len had the opportunity to travel again to California with Mary's father-in-law, and the rest of the family followed in the spring of 1930. The Slye family rented a small house near Mary, and Len and his father found employment driving gravel trucks for a highway construction project.[3]
In spring 1931, after the construction company went bankrupt, Len traveled toTulare, California, where he found work picking peaches forDel Monte.[3] During this time, he lived in a labor camp similar to those depicted in John Steinbeck's novelThe Grapes of Wrath.[3] The economic hardship of theGreat Depression was just as severe in California as it was in Ohio.
After 19-year-old Len's return to Lawndale, his sister Mary suggested that he audition for theMidnight Frolic radio program, which was broadcast overKMCS inInglewood. A few nights later, wearing a Western shirt that Mary had made for him, he overcame his shyness and appeared on the program playing guitar, singing, and yodeling.[3] A few days later, he was asked to join a local country music group, the Rocky Mountaineers.[3] He accepted the group's offer and became a member in August 1931.[3][4]
By September 1931, Len hired the Canadian-bornBob Nolan, who answered the group's classified ad in theLos Angeles Herald-Examiner that read, "Yodeler for old-time act, to travel. Tenor preferred." Nolan stayed with the group only a short time, but Len and he stayed in touch. Nolan was replaced byTim Spencer.[5]
In the spring of 1932, Len, Spencer, and another singer, Slumber Nichols, left the Rocky Mountaineers to form a trio, which soon failed. Throughout that year, Len and Spencer moved through a series of short-lived groups, including the International Cowboys and the O-Bar-O Cowboys. When Spencer left the O-Bar-O Cowboys to take a break from music, Len joined Jack LeFevre and His Texas Outlaws, who were a popular act on a localLos Angeles radio station.[6]
In early 1933, Len, Nolan, and Spencer formed the Pioneers Trio, with Slye on guitar, Nolan on string bass, and Spencer as lead vocalist. They rehearsed for weeks refining their vocal harmonies. During this time, Len continued to work with his radio singing group, while Spencer and Nolan began writing songs for the trio.[5] In early 1934, the fiddle player Hugh Farr joined the group, adding a bass voice to their vocal arrangements. Later that year, the Pioneers Trio became theSons of the Pioneers when a radio station announcer changed their name because he felt they were too young to be pioneers. The name was received well and fit the group, which was no longer a trio.[5]
By summer 1934, the popularity and fame of the Sons of the Pioneers extended beyond the Los Angeles area and quickly spread across the country through short syndicated radio segments that were later rebroadcast across the United States. The Sons of the Pioneers signed a recording contract with the newly foundedDecca label and made their first commercial recording on August 8, 1934.[5] One of the first songs recorded during that first session was "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", written by Bob Nolan. Over the next two years, the Sons of the Pioneers recorded 32 songs for Decca, including the classic "Cool Water".[7]
From his first film appearance in 1935, Len worked steadily inWestern films, including a large supporting role as a singing cowboy while still billed as Leonard Slye in a Gene Autry movie. In 1938, Autry demanded more money for his work, so there was a competition for a new singing cowboy (whom they could pay less). Many singers sought the job, includingWillie Phelps of the Phelps brothers, who appeared in early Western movies. Len ended up winning the contest and was given the stage name Roy Rogers byRepublic Pictures, suggesting the western-sounding name Roy and combining it with the surname of the popular western comic entertainerWill Rogers.
He was assigned the leading role inUnder Western Stars. He became a matinee idol, a competitor with Autry as the nation's favoritesinging cowboy. In addition to his own movies, he played a supporting role in theJohn Wayne classicDark Command (1940), which also featured one of his future sidekicks, George "Gabby" Hayes. He became a major box-office attraction. Unlike other stars, the vast majority of his leading roles allowed him to play a character with his own name, in the manner of Autry.[8]
In theMotion Picture HeraldTop Ten Money-Making Western Stars poll, Rogers was listed for 16 consecutive years, from 1939 to 1954, holding first place from 1943 to 1954 until the poll ceased.[9] He appeared in the similarBoxOffice poll from 1938 to 1955, holding first place from 1943 to 1952. In the final three years of that poll, he was second only toRandolph Scott.[10] These two polls are only an indication of the popularity of series stars, but Rogers also appeared in theTop Ten Money Making Stars Poll of all films in 1945 and 1946.[11]
Rogers was an idol for many children through his films and television shows. Most of his postwar films were inTrucolor during an era when almost all otherB westerns were black and white. Some of his movies would segue into animal adventures, in which his horse, Trigger, would go off on his own for a while with the camera following him.
With money from Rogers's films and from his public appearances going toRepublic Pictures, he brought a clause into his 1940 contract with the studio where he would have the right to his likeness, voice, and name for merchandising.[12] There were Roy Rogersaction figures, cowboy adventure novels, andplaysets, as well as a comic strip, a long-livedDell Comics comic book series (Roy Rogers Comics) written byGaylord Du Bois, and a variety of marketing successes.[13] Rogers was second only toWalt Disney in the number of items featuring his name.[14]
The Sons of the Pioneers continued their popularity and have not stopped performing from the time Rogers started the group, replacing members as they retired or died (all original members are dead). Although he was no longer an active member, they often appeared as his backup group in films, radio, and television, and he would occasionally appear with them in performances up until his death.
He met Dale Evans in 1944 when they were cast in a film together. They were well known as advocates foradoption and as founders and operators of children's charities. They adopted several children. Both were outspoken Christians throughout their marriage.[15] Beginning in 1949, they were part of the Hollywood Christian Group, founded by their friend, Louis Evans Jr., the organizing pastor ofBel Air Church.[16] The group met in Henrietta Mears's home and later in the home of Evans andColleen Townsend, after their marriage.Billy Graham andJane Russell were also part of this group. In 1956, the Hollywood Christian Group became Bel Air Church.
InApple Valley, California, where they later made their home, streets, highways, and civic buildings have been named after them in recognition of their efforts on behalf of homeless and handicapped children. Rogers was also an activeFreemason and aShriner and was noted for his support of their charities.
Rogers and Evans' famous theme song, "Happy Trails", was written by Evans; they sang it as a duet to sign off their television show. In fall 1962, they cohosted a comedy-Western-variety program,The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show, aired onABC. It was cancelled after three months, losing in the ratings toThe Jackie Gleason Show onCBS. Rogers also made numerouscameo appearances on other popular television shows, starring as himself or other cowboy-type characters, such as in an episode ofWonder Woman called "The Bushwackers".[17]
Rogers owned a Hollywood production company, which produced his own series. It also filmed other undertakings, including the 1955–1956 CBS Western seriesBrave Eagle, starringKeith Larsen as a young, peacefulCheyenne chief,Kim Winona as Morning Star, his romantic interest, and theHopi Indian Anthony Numkena as Keena, Brave Eagle's foster son.
In 1968, Rogers licensed his name to theMarriott Corporation, which converted its Hot Shoppes restaurants into Roy Rogers Restaurants, with which he otherwise had no involvement.
Rogers returned to Lubbock in 1970 to headline theTexas Tech University Intercollegiate Rodeo with Evans. In 1975, his last motion picture,Macintosh and T.J. was filmed at the 6666 Ranch inKing County, 90 miles east of Lubbock and near the O-Bar-O Ranch inKent County.[18]
In 1932, a palomino colt foaled in California was named "Golden Cloud"; when Rogers acquired him, he renamed him Trigger. Rogers also owned athoroughbredracehorse named Triggairo, that won 13 career races, including the 1975El Encino Stakes atSanta Anita Park.[19]
Rogers had been on tour with the O-Bar-O Cowboys in June 1933, and while they were performing inRoswell, New Mexico, a caller to a radio station, Grace Arline Wilkins, promised Rogers that she would bake him a pie if he sang "The Swiss Yodel". They were married in Roswell on June 11, 1936, having corresponded since their first meeting.[20] In 1941, the couple adopted a daughter, Cheryl Darlene. Two years later, Grace gave birth to daughter Linda Lou. A son, Roy Jr. ("Dusty"), was born in 1946; Grace died of complications from the birth a few days later, on November 3.[21]
Rogers met Dale Evans in 1944, when they were cast in a film together. They fell in love soon after Grace's death, and Rogers proposed to her during a rodeo atChicago Stadium. They married on New Year's Eve in 1947 at the Flying L Ranch inDavis, Oklahoma, where they had filmedHome in Oklahoma a few months earlier. Together they had a child and adopted four more: Robin Elizabeth, who hadDown syndrome and died of complications ofmumps shortly before her second birthday; three adopted daughters, Mimi, Dodie, and Debbie; and one adopted son, Sandy.[citation needed] Evans wrote about the loss of their daughter Robin in her bookAngel Unaware. Rogers and Evans remained married until his death.[20]
In 1955, Rogers and Evans purchased a 168-acre (68 ha) ranch nearChatsworth, California, complete with a hilltop ranch house,[22] expanding it to 300 acres (121 ha).[23][24]
After their daughter Debbie was killed in a church bus accident in 1964, they moved to the 67-acre (27 ha) Double R Bar Ranch in Apple Valley, California.[25][26]
Rogers was aFreemason and a member of Hollywood (California) Lodge No. 355, the Scottish Rite Valley of Los Angeles, andAl Malaikah Shrine Temple.[27] He was awarded the honorary 33rd degree of theScottish Rite in 1975.
He was also a pilot and the owner of aCessna Bobcat.[28]
Rogers supportedBarry Goldwater in the1964 United States presidential election.[29]
Rogers died ofcongestive heart failure on July 6, 1998, aged 86, in Apple Valley, California. He was buried at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley, as was his wife Dale Evans three years later.[30][31][32]
On February 8, 1960, Rogers was honored with three stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame: for Motion Pictures at 1752 Vine Street, for Television at 1620 Vine Street, and for Radio at 1733 Vine Street.[33] In 1983 he was awarded theGolden Boot Award,[34]and in 1996 he received the Golden Boot Founder's Award.[34]
In 1967, Rogers, with Choctaw blood on his mother's side, was namedoutstanding Indian citizen of the year by a group of Western tribes.[32]
In 1976, Rogers and Evans were inducted into theWestern Performers Hall of Fame at theNational Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum inOklahoma City, Oklahoma, and in 1995 he was inducted again as a founding member of the Sons of the Pioneers.[35]
Rogers received recognition from the State of Arkansas, appointed by the governor of that state with anArkansas Traveler certificate.[36]
Rogers was also twice elected to theCountry Music Hall of Fame, first as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers in 1980, and again as a soloist in 1988. In 2018, he was inducted to theNational Multicultural Western Heritage Museum.[37] As of August 2022, he was the only person elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame twice.[38] In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on thePalm Springs, California,Walk of Stars was dedicated to him and Dale Evans.[39]
Rogers's cultural influence is reflected in numerous songs, including "If I Had a Boat" byLyle Lovett, "Roy Rogers" byElton John on his 1973 albumGoodbye Yellow Brick Road, and "Should've Been a Cowboy" by Toby Keith. Rogers himself makes an appearance in the music video for the song "Heroes and Friends" byRandy Travis. Rogers is referenced in numerous films, includingDie Hard (1988) in which theBruce Willis characterJohn McClane used the pseudonym "Roy" and remarks, "I was always kinda partial to Roy Rogers actually." In the television seriesAmerican Dad!, the character Roger uses "Roy Rogers" as a pseudonym in the episode "Roy Rogers McFreely". In the movieCity Slickers, theJack Palance character Curly sings the song "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" while theBilly Crystal character Mitch is playing the harmonica.
For a number of years exhibitors voted Rogers among the most popular stars in the country:
| Year | Title | Chart peak | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | |||
| 1970 | The Country Side of Roy Rogers | 40 | — | Capitol |
| 1971 | A Man from Duck Run | 34 | — | |
| 1975 | Happy Trails to You | 35 | — | 20th Century |
| 1991 | Tribute | 17 | 113 | RCA |
| Year | Title | Chart peak | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | CAN Country | |||
| 1946 | "A Little White Cross on the Hill" | 7 | — | Singles only |
| 1947 | "My Chickashay Gal" | 4 | — | |
| 1948 | "Blue Shadows on the Trail" (Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers) | 6 | — | |
| "(There'll Never Be Another) Pecos Bill" (Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers) | 13 | — | ||
| 1950 | "Stampede" | 8 | — | |
| 1970 | "Money Can't Buy Love" | 35 | — | The Country Side of Roy Rogers |
| 1971 | "Lovenworth" | 12 | 33 | A Man from Duck Run |
| "Happy Anniversary" | 47 | — | ||
| 1972 | "These Are the Good Old Days" | 73 | — | Single only |
| 1974 | "Hoppy, Gene and Me"A | 15 | 12 | Happy Trails to You |
| 1980 | "Ride Concrete Cowboy, Ride" (Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers) | 80 | — | Smokey & the Bandit II(soundtrack) |
| 1991 | "Hold on Partner"(w/Clint Black) | 42 | 48 | Tribute |
| Year | Title | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | "Hold on Partner" (with Clint Black) | Jack Cole |
Notes
Bibliography
