Roy Rogers, “King of the Cowboys,” was born 103 years ago today. Born Leonard Franklin Slye, Rogers was a singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain. He and his wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino, Trigger, and his German Shepherd dog, Bullet, were featured in more than 100 movies and The Roy Rogers Show. The show ran on radio for nine years before moving to television from 1951 through 1957. His productions usually featured a sidekick, often either Pat Brady (who drove a Jeep called Nellybelle), Andy Devine or the crotchety George Gabby Hayes. His wife, Dale Evanss nickname was Queen of the West. Slye was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his family lived in a tenement building on 2nd Street. During the Great Depression, the family found itself out of work. The Slye moved west as economic refugees traveling from job to job picking fruit and living in worker campsites. Leonard, having seen the joy that his guitar and singing had brought to the destitute around the campfires, hesitantly told his father that he was going to pursue a living in music. With his fathers blessing, he and cousin Stanley Slye went to Los Angeles and sought musical engagements as The Slye Brothers. In 1932, Leonard, now known as Len, met Lucille Ascolese while on tour. That same year, a palomino colt was foaled in Santa Cietro, CA, named Golden Cloud,” and later renamed Trigger in 1938 after he was acquired by Roy. In May 1933, Len, 21, proposed to Lucille, 19, via a radio broadcast. Len then went on tour with the O-Bar-O Cowboys and in June 1933 met Grace Arline Wilkins at a Roswell, New Mexico radio station. She traded Len a lemon pie for his singing Swiss Yodel over the air. By August 1934, Len and Lucille had separated as she was reportedly jealous and tired of being a musicians wife. Len and Lucilles divorce was granted on May 28, 1935, and became final on June 8, 1936. Having corresponded since their first meeting, Len and Grace Arline Wilkins were married in Roswell, New Mexico, on June 11, 1936. In 1941, the couple adopted a girl, Cheryl Darlene. Two years later, Arline bore a daughter, Linda Lou. Rogers and Arline had a son, Roy Jr. (Dusty) in 1946, but Arline died of complications from the birth a few days afterward on November 3. Rogers had met Dale Evans in 1944 when she was cast in a movie with Rogers. Following Arlines death, Rogers and Evans soon fell in love, and Rogers proposed to her during a rodeo at Chicago Stadium. They married on New Years Eve in 1947 at the Flying L Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma, where a few months earlier they had filmed Home in Oklahoma. Rogers and Evans remained married until Rogerss death in 1998. After four years of little success, Slye formed the Sons of the Pioneers with Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer, a Western cowboy music group, in 1934. The group hit it big with songs like Cool Water and Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” From his first film appearance in 1935, he worked steadily in western films, including a large supporting role as a singing cowboy while still billed as Leonard Slye in a Gene Autry movie. In 1938, when Autry temporarily walked out on his movie contract, Slye was immediately rechristened Roy Rogers.” Slyes stage name was suggested by Republic Pictures staff after Will Rogers and the shortening of Leroy and assigned the lead in Under Western Stars. Rogers became a matinee idol and American legend. A competitor for Gene Autry as the nations favorite singing cowboy was suddenly born. In addition to his own movies, Rogers played a supporting role in the John Wayne classic Dark Command (1940). Rogers became a major box office attraction. Rogers died of congestive heart failure on July 6, 1998. His wife, Dale Evans, died three years later. Here Rogers and Sons of the Pioneers perform “Dust” from the film Under Western Stars in 1938.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 11:40:40 +0000