November 5, 2011. Copyright 2011, Graphic News. All rights reserved

America's much-loved singing cowboy, Roy Rogers, born 100 years ago
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, November 5, Graphic News:  Only five entertainers in the history of Hollywood have four or more stars on the Walk of Fame, the legendary pavement which runs for 15 blocks through the heart of Los Angeles. Roy Rogers is one of them. Born in 1911, his career spanned radio in the 1930s, the silver screen through the 40s and the rise of television in the 50s. With his trusty palomino, Trigger, he appeared in more than 80 films, riding the plains with a song on his lips, the epitome of decency in his white stetson. By the time he died, on July 6, 1998, he and his third wife and co-star, Dale Evans -- she was "Queen of the West" to his "King of the Cowboys" -- numbered their fans across three generations. When the contents of their museum, started in 1965 and filled with personal memorabilia -- including the wonder dog, Bullet, stuffed and mounted -- were finally sent to auction at Christie's last year, they raised $2.9 million. A single pair of Western boots belonging to Rogers sold for over $21,000, while a plastic red and white parade saddle Evans used when riding her horse, Buttermilk, fetched more than $100,000.

It could hardly have been further from the tough days of the Great Depression when, in 1930, in a scene right out of John Steinbeck's classic novel, Grapes of Wrath, the Slye family from Cincinnati, Ohio, set out in their heavily-laden Dodge to look for work in the peach orchards of California. Rogers -- born Leonard Franklin Slye -- even stayed at the workers' camp on the Del Monte estate which Steinbeck had visited and would later draw on for his book. Singing and playing his guitar round the camp fire at night, Rogers found a talent for entertaining. Encouraged by his sister, Mary, he entered a radio contest and was offered the chance to join a band, The Rocky Mountaineers. A hard couple of years on the road with various line-ups followed, including a lean tour of the southwestern United States in 1933. "We starved to death on that trip," Rogers later recalled. "We ate jack rabbits. We ate anything we could get to eat." Finally, his career took off with the trio he formed, The Sons of the Pioneers, featuring Rogers' distinctive yodel.
 
The band was soon being heard on radio stations across the country and began appearing in Warner Bros. films, supporting the hugely popular Gene Autry, the original singing cowboy. Len Slye's big chance came when Autry, in dispute with the studio, failed to show up for a recording and the hastily-renamed Roy Rogers was offered the lead instead. The movie, Under Western Stars (1938), was an immediate hit and launched Rogers' screen career, which included a role in the John Wayne film, Dark Command (1940). The Roy Rogers Show ran for nine years on the radio before transferring to television in 1951, where it became a fixture of family viewing. Rogers endorsed products from breakfast cereals to toys, further raising his popular profile. He and Evans were forever associated with their signature tune, Happy Trails, and with a clean-living, upright image -- the "real deal", as fans have put it. Rogers is reported to have tried to reply personally to every piece of fan mail he received. His wholesome image also helped him start a catering franchise in the late 60s, Roy Rogers Family Restaurants, which, thanks to a deal with the Marriott group, saw hundreds of outlets still going strong 20 years later.
/ENDS