The Roy Rogers Show

We are pleased to be adding to RUSC The Roy Rogers Show, which started its life as a thirty-minute western music and variety show in 1944. Roy Rogers was born Leonard Slye in Cincinnati, Ohio on the 5th November 1911 and began his career as a singing cowboy and spent much of the 1930's in the musical groups The Hollywood Hillbillies, Rocky Mountaineers, Texas Outlaws, and his own group, the International Cowboys. In 1934 along with Bob Nolan he formed a group called The Sons of the Pioneers and soon after they were appearing in movies.

His career on radio span eleven years from November 1944 until 1955, first with Mutual (until 1951) and then with NBC. It was very family orientated with music by Perry Botkin, vocalist Pat Friday, The Sons of The Pioneers and of course Roy Rogers himself. Special guest stars would add a little variety to the show or half way in to the episode a dramatic story would be heard with his real life wife Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes as his sidekick, both of whom were co-stars in his films. Eventually these stories became longer so that the show became more of a western adventure program.

Here are a few interesting bits of trivia about Roy Rogers:

When Leonard Slye needed a stage name, he chose to use the name of his childhood dentist from his Ohio hometown. The Dentist Roy Rogers had a son grandson, and great grandson who also share his name.
Arlene Wilkins, his second wife, died a few days after giving birth to their son Roy Rogers Jr. (Dusty). They also had 2 daughters.
He and his (third) wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino, Trigger and his german shepherd, Bullet, were featured in more than one hundred movies and The Roy Rogers Show.The Roy Rogers Show ran on TV from 1951 through 1957.
The Sons of the Pioneers hit it big with their songs Cool Water and Tumbling Tumbleweeds.
Roy and Dale's famous theme song, which Dale wrote and they sang as a duet to sign off their television show, wasHappy Trails.
Roy and Dale have their own museum
Roy Rogers was nicknamed King of the Cowboys and Dale Evans Queen of the West.

Rogers died of heart failure on 6th July 1998 aged 86. He was buried along with his wife, Dale Evans, at Sunset Hills cemetery in Apple Valley, California.

Happy listening my friends,

Ned Norris Memorial Day