Roy Rogers

[mrsl]

Over on TCM a couple of threads are discussing Roy's day. I am one of the ones who got a botched up version of The Cowboy and the Seniorita, most of the movie had no sound, just a faint whistling sound, and you couldn't make out what the people were saying. The problem finally was corrected for the final half hour. Luckily I saw that movie a few weeks ago on The Western Channel, so I wasn't too upset.

Also a lot of people complained about the less than satisfactory restoration job done on many of the films. One person stated they would rather get a bad copy of Roy Rogers movies, than no Rogers movies at all. And that is how I feel about them.

Did anyone watch any of Roys' movies the other day? I know a lot of you are not western fans, but did anyone watch out of curiosity?

Of course, I enjoyed them immensely, and wonder if anyone else did?

Anne

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Dear Mrsl,
I surely did catch as much as I could. But I have been very busy.
I haven't seen my favorite Roy/Dale Movie (Sunset in El Dorado) in absolute decades (2). I was a big fan of Saturday mornings with Roy and Dale and Pat and Gabby.

I caught most of the movie on Roy's day in which Gabby pretended to be dead, and a little of some of the others. He was so entertaining.

For Christmas when I was 3, I found a Roy Rogers "Conestoga" wagon
under the tree. I've always been fascinated by a wagon train since then.

Several summers ago I visited part of the Oregon Trail near Fort Laramie and saw where travelers from the wagon trains headed west carved their names at one of the turns in the old trail.

This summer I visited my goddaughter and her family who live in a subdivisioin that was part of the Rogers' ranch in Victorville, California. All the streets had names like Nellybelle, Trigger Way, etc.

I used to go horseback riding until the mid-80's.

So there are probably few Roy films I've missed if they've been shown on television. Happy Trails, Mrsl!

[mrsl]

Miss Goddess:

I can always count on a reply from you. I love almost all of the old Roy and Gene movies. A lot of them are hokey, but they're such fun anyway. the white hats, and how they nearly always stay on their heads during a fight, the bad guys with the black hats, the bad guys who wear a suit and tie all the time. And I don't know which I like better, Trigger or Champion, although Trigger is prettier! Gabby Hayes, Pat Buttram, Smiley Burnett - all great and funny sidekicks, not afraid to get dirty, or look silly. The really fun films are during the changing times from strictly horseback to auto, and airplane.

I'd love to see a re-run of SKYYYY KIIIINGGG, and his little niece. I barely remember the series, but I do recall the announcers voice stretching out the words.

Anne

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I love Sky King, too, and I have a few episodes on DVD.

[jdb1]

I'd take Roy over Gene any day. Autry always seemed a little flabby and wussy to me, and I really dislike the sound of his singing voice. Maybe that's due to "Rudolph" overload, but I think I may have described, at The Other Place, the reason for my lifelong animosity toward Gene Autry.

For me, the real treat in watching Roy's films during SUTS was seeing Dale Evans. My primary memories of Dale are from their 1950's TV show, and from her various TV apperances, which were generally little more than musical evangelical interludes. I believe several Rogers family tragedies may have contributed to Dale's to morph from sassy to pious,. Not that there was anything wrong with her public persona later in life, it's just that I'd forgotten what a little hottie she started out as (she was a band singer). She really was very good. Her presence in Roy's films added some spice and interest to what might otherwise have been by-the-book B westerns. There's no question there was plenty of screen chemistry between them.

Only trouble with Roy's SUTS day -- not enough yodelling!

[moira finnie]

I enjoyed reading your appreciations of Roy Rogers (and that fetching, spunky gal, Dale Evans as well). I have one vivid memory of seeing a Roy Rogers' film in which he and Trigger jumped over a ravine from one cliff to another in very dramatic fashion. I've no idea if it is a fuzzy childhood memory from a rerun of his tv show or from a movie. Does anyone else remember a sequence such as this? It seemed like an astounding stunt to me at the time.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[jdb1]

I enjoyed reading your appreciations of Roy Rogers (and that fetching, spunky gal, Dale Evans as well). I have one vivid memory of seeing a Roy Rogers' film in which he and Trigger jumped over a ravine from one cliff to another in very dramatic fashion. I've no idea if it is a fuzzy childhood memory from a rerun of his tv show or from a movie. Does anyone else remember a sequence such as this? It seemed like an astounding stunt to me at the time. Thanks in advance for your help.

Now that you mention it, I can see Trigger doing the jump, too. Maybe it was in one of the films, and the scene was used again on the TV show.

My most prevalent memory of the show is Bullet running at full speed, and Pat Brady bouncing along in the Jeep, NellieBelle. I think those scenes were in the beginning of each show.

Since Roy and Dale's day, Dale's song "Let the Sun Shine In" (written with Mitch Miller, and not to be confused with the song from "Hair") has been rolling around in my head - remember that one, a bit hit in the 1950s? "Mommy told me something a little girl should know . . . . "

[moira finnie]

For some reason, I can't say that I do remember that Mitch Miller song at all, Judith. As far as I know it was always Happy Trails to You and Don't Fence Me In that I associated with Roy and Dale.

I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who remembered Trigger and Roy hurtling across a seemingly impossible jump!

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Trigger was an absolutely amazing animal. He could do so many tricks, and he was beautiful, to boot!

No one can debate the Roy/Dale chemistry. I saw them at the Houston Livestock and Rodeo in the late 50's/early 60's. They were so loving and sweet together.

Happy Trails to all!

[jdb1]

For some reason, I can't say that I do remember that Mitch Miller song at all, Judith. As far as I know it was always Happy Trails to You and Don't Fence Me In that I associated with Roy and Dale.

I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who remembered Trigger and Roy hurtling across a seemingly impossible jump!

Search back into your auditory memory - you probably have heard many of Dale's songs; she was quite prolific, but most of her songs didn't make general radio play, at least not in NYC. But I definitely remember "Sunshine" (Let the sun shine in, face it with a grin. Smilers never frown, and frowners never win [or words to that effect]). It was sung by what sounded like kids, but I don't know if they really were young people, or just studio singers pretending to be youngsters.

She also wrote one called "The Bible Tells Me So," which I still hear performed on the Country/Western Channel: "Have faith, hope and charity - that's the way to live successfully. How do I know? The Bible tells me so." A very catchy, upbeat semi-gospel number, that one. I think Tennessee Ernie Ford, among others, recorded it in the 50s.

I was reading about Roy and Dale last week as we were discussing them, and they had some very sad events in their lives, including the loss of three children (three! can you imagine?). You have to give them credit for maintaining their good and charitable spirits through all that.

[pktrekgirl]

Well, given our recent discussion about the board, I thought I'd come in and inject a little controversy here.

I didn't watch much on Roy Rogers day...but yesterday I had TCM on as I was doing other things, and at one point, a Roy Rogers film came on - I think it was AT HOME IN OKLAHOMA.

Now granted, I'm not the biggest westerns fan in the world, unless it a) has Gary Cooper in it ; or b) is a REALLY good and utterly engrossing western, such as STAGECOACH.

But I have to say that the acting in AT HOME IN OKLAHOMA was some of the worst I have seen in classic film. I mean, he was clearly saying his lines to the camera - not to the characters he was supposedly talking to. And they sounded very pre-packaged - almost read from a queue card, as opposed to feeling spontaneous like a real conversation.

Maybe I just caught him in a bad few moments or something...but wow, it was terrible.

He has a nice voice - I'll give him that. And maybe I'm missing the point of these whole 'singing cowboy' flicks, and they are not supposed to seem spontaneous or something.

But to me, it just felt plastic.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something here?

Thanks for any comments.

[mrsl]

No, you haven't missed a thing. Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were both horrible 'actors'. Neither one could act their way out of a paper bag. I have no idea what their attraction was, unless it was simply a matter of hero worship from little boys on men who had well-trained horses, and wore spangley outfits and boots. Roy was a much better singer, and later on his TV show with Dale, their musical numbers were often close to spectacular events.

All those horrible B and C cowboy movies were nothing but training grounds for newcomers like John Wayne who was learning his ropes, and paying his dues. My favorites of the Dukes are the Three Mesketeers, the sets are sooo cheap, and the horses would be dead if they were really ridden as much as those guys supposedly ride them. I've seen scenes where they cross the prairie, come into town, turn around, and go BACK across the prairie again immediately to follow the bad guys. These are the ones where the Duke, Gene, and Roy all jump on the horse like in leap frog from behind the horse, or hang on the left side of the horse for a few feet before hoisting themselves up into the saddle. They are funny though.

As for the popularity of Gene and Roy however, maybe some of the guys on this board will come on over and let us in on the obviously male secrets involved in these silver screen heroes.

Anne

[Erebus]

I always assumed Roy Rogers and some of the others were making movies for children. Kinda like Lassie, complete with feel-good hokeyness and cardboard villains. From age eight to eleven (1963-66) I was in France with my air force family, with basically no TV at all, and almost every Saturday morning we would trek to one of the base theaters to watch stuff like Roy Rogers. It could be that I see them as kids' movies because I was introduced to them as a child, but it does seem to me that their production standards are consistent with much of what is targeted at children even today. I did watch some of the recent TCM offerings, mostly on background while goofing around on the net, and the charm came via nostalgic reconnection with material I hadn't seen in over forty years, with the bonus of discovering just how fetching Dale Evans was. In short, I don't think these films were ever intended to be taken seriously by adults.

[klondike]

Yup, much as I loved ol' Roy, I gotta concede it - he was no Olivier.
Heck, go it further, he was no Regis Toomey, for that matter!
Undeniably stagey & wooden, given to stilted replies and cardboard characters, he was no kind of a polished Thespian, especially when portraying himself in the lead role as protagonist -
Unlike Clayton Moore (as the Lone Ranger), or Duncan Rinaldo (as the Cisco Kid), or Richard Simmons (as Sgt. Preston), or George Reeves (as Superman), or Hugh Reilly (from "Lassie), or Gene Evans (from "My Friend Flicka") . .
Wait a minute . . they were all pretty 2-dimensional, too . .
So why do so many of us recall their daring exploits & cheery courage with such monumental fondness and deep affection . . . ?

Hmmmmmmm