Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

[Music] this is Leonard slide everyone knows him as Cowboys star Roy Rogers Leonard Franklin sly was born November the 5th 1911 in Cincinnati Ohio the tenant apartment that Leonard was born in was torn down in the 1960s in order to build the Riverfront baseball stadium Roy said that when people asked him where he was born he would say oh I think somewhere around second base Lin so I had three sisters two older and one younger Mary Elizabeth was born in 1906 and Cleo Mae was born in 1910 his younger sister Kathleen Loretta was born four years after Leonard in 1915 his parents were Andrew and Maddie slab in July 1912 when Leonard Arlen as he was called was a year old the family left Cincinnati Andy and his brother will set out to work off building a house boat out of Salvage material now the sly family actually floated a 12 by 50-foot houseboat that they had built on the Ohio River down towards Portsmouth the next year in 1913 the river flooded and left their houseboat up on high dry ground they continued living there until 1919 when Andy bought farmland in the community of duck run near the small town of Louisville some 12 miles north of Portsmouth he then went to work building this six room house for his family and he soon learned that a farm couldn't support his family so he got a job in Portsmouth at a shoe factory he had stay in Portsmouth during the week and go home on the weekends always bringing presents to the family and one of the presents was a horse for Leonard and that's when Leonard slab first learned to love horses didn't take care of them now this is Leonard at the age of 15 with his sister's the sloth family loved music and Andrew and Maddy would often hold dances at their home Leonard learned to play the guitar the mandolin and he learned also to call dances he went to a one-room Grammar School in duck run and he attended Dermott high school now this in Leonard in the high school band in 1927 when he was 17 after finishing two years of high school he quit school to go to work with his dead who had moved the family back to Cincinnati to go to work in another shoe factory now years later when Roy Rogers would go back to duck run to visit old friends he referred to himself as Leonard sly and still Roy Rogers in 1929 Leonard's older sister Mary had married and was living in London Dale California with her husband both Leonard and Andrew actually hated their jobs at the shoe factory and Andrew suggested that they quit two shoe factory and moved to California where Mary was now this is Roy his mother and Ed on their way to California to see if things would be better there they stayed for months with Mary to see if they liked California after four months the family went back to Ohio to tie up loose ends and soon returned to the West in their 1923 Dodge pickup written a small place close to Mary Lynn and his dad went to work for a construction company driving a truck now this was the beginning of the Great Depression and the construction company soon went broke Roy said later that he went to work picking fruit as a migrant farm worker said he lived in a workers camp and said he was just like the movie Grapes of Wrath now land sister Mary suggested that he auditioned for a program on K MCS in England would wear in a shirt that may he had made for him he played guitar sang in yodel and a few days later he was asked to join a singing group called the Rocky Mountain ears but soon the Rocky Mountain ears failed and after that then tried several groups until he met a Canadian named Bob Nolan who answered a newspaper ad in early 1933 Leonard slap Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer formed the Pioneer trio with sly on guitar Nolan on string bass and Spencer as a lead vocalist Spencer had Nolan begin writing songs for the trio they later hired a fiddle player by the name of Hugh far to round out the group during this period Leonard had met an admirer by the name of Lucille Escalade see own 8 2 May 1933 the couple made by Justice of Peace in Los Angeles the marriage was in trouble to begin with because Leonard was constantly on the road with his singing groups three months after marrying Lucille while the group is on the road they were playing at a local radio station in Roswell New Mexico barely making enough money to eat on a young girl by the name of Arlene Wilkins and her mother called the radio station and promised to cook the boys a pie if they had sang her favorite song they did and she did Roy said that they'd had done anything for a pie he said they stayed hungry most of the time on the road Arlene and Leonard as he was still going by his real name stayed in touch through the mail for the next three years by 1934 the Pioneers had changed their names to the sons of the pioneer because somebody told him that they were too young to be pioneers Leonard was now calling himself dick Wilson he thought it sounded better than Leonard slab but he eventually went back to Lynn slab the sons of the pioneers was gaining popularity from the songs row bye Bob Nolan's such as Tomalin tumbleweed released in 1934 in 1935 the sons of the pioneers appeared in their first movie the old homestead Roy appeared as Leonard slammer of the pioneers now the next year Bob Nolan wrote cool water it'll become a Western standard after three years of marriage Glen and Lucille had drifted apart and divorced on the 8th of June 1936 in 1958 Lucille made Glen Allen then more after 61 years of marriage Lucille will pass away at the age of 86 and is buried at the women turn cemetery in Wilmington California now three days after Leonard's divorce from Lucille Hill mayor grace Allen Wilkins in Roswell New Mexico on the levels of June 1936 that year the sons of the pioneers will appear in their second movie song of the saddle next it'll be rhythm on the range with Bing Crosby and Martha Raye after that the Pioneers will appear in a Gene Autry movie the old Corral in 1938 Leonard heard that Republic Pictures was looking for another singing star because their star Gene Autry was in a contract dispute with the studio although he had appeared in minor parts with the pioneers the studio security had no idea who he was so they proceeded to escort him off the lot now that might have been the end of Roy Rogers except a studio executive saw him and recognized him as Lee enslaved with the sons of the pioneers Leonard sly auditioned and became Roy Rogers king of the Cowboys Roy received a contract with Republic that lasted for 13 years and 37 pictures his first starring role as Roy Rogers was under western stars with Carol Hughes and smile Burnett now the studio brought over five studio horses for Roy to pick from he said the third horse he got on was a golden Palomino by the name of golden cloud now golden cloud already appeared in the movies he was in The Adventures of Robin Hood as a horse written by Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian with Errol Flynn as Robin Hood now Roy said the golden cloud could turn on a dime and give you change smiley Burnette who was Roy's sidekick in his first two films was watching Roy put golden cloud through his paces when he said boy that horse is quick on the trigger Roy named him trigger he said that through the 80 films and 101 episodes of his TV show trigger never failed him once he bought trigger for twenty five hundred dollars and he furnished him with a five thousand dollar gold and silver saddle he said that trigger was so smart he learned so many tricks that they run out of ways to cue him he learned how to bow to the crowd but he got hurt when he heard the crowd applaud he would start bowing even if he was in the middle of another trick Roy said watch trigger had almost scared him to death he had learned to play dead for the movies Roy would pull him in a trailer to his personal appearances someone pulled out in front of him causing him to run off the road and he turned triggers trailer over but he ran back to the back to see if trigger was okay he was laying there not moving Roy thought he had killed his horse he didn't know that trigger wasn't hurt he was just playing dead Roy's next movie was Billy the Kid returns again with smiley Burnette the next year Roy was star in the days of Jesse James with George Gabby Hayes there will be nine more movies in 1939 in 1940 Roy will again have Gabby Hayes as his sidekick in the Carson City kid he'll star in seven more movies that year there'll be eight movies in 1941 in cluding Red River Valley again with Gabby Hayes and Sally pain by this time Roy and Arlene was making enough money to buy this ranch house at for 704 white oak Encino California now this is Roy standing on the porch waving also by 1941 Roy now Arlene had decided that they were unable to have children doctors had told Arlene that she was infertile so they adopted their first child Cheryl darling now this is Roy bar lien and Cheryl at home in Encino the next year in 1942 Roy was star as Roy Rogers again with Gabby Hayes and the sons of the pioneers in a movie with the same name sons of the pioneers Roy will appear in seven other movies that year in 1943 Rowena Arlene will have the child that they thought they could never have Linda Lou was born April 19 1943 also that year Roy Rogers will be in six movies one of which was hands across the border with Ruth Terry and sons of the pioneers he'll be in eight movies the next year and Roy for the first time we'll meet co-star and actors Dale Evans in the movie cowboy and the senorita they also did the Yellow Rose of Texas and the studio recognized on-screen chemistry between Roy and Dale and decided to pair the two in more movies now this is a picture taken the next year in 1945 with Arlene Rogers Dale Evans Cheryl and Linda Lou and Roy and a Hollywood rodeo according to Dale there was no off-screen romance and her statement was backed up by cast members Roy loved Arlene she said this is Roy and director Frank MacDonald discussing a scene in along the Navajo trail filmed in 1945 with Dale and Gabby Hayes and July 1946 my pal trigger was released with Dale and Gabby four months after the release of my pal trigger happiness will turn to tragedy Arlene and Roy was expecting another child on October the 28th 1946 Roy was on his way home from a performance in Chicago when he learned that Arlene had given birth to a son Roy Rogers jr. they'll nickname dusty only six days later on November the 3rd Arlene will pass away due to a blood clot reaching the brain from complications of birth she was 31 years old grace arlene wilkins rogers was laid to rest at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale California Dale said that Roy took Arlene's death very hard he seemed lost and while trying to fulfill his movie contract and struggling to raise three kids on his own brought him closer to Dale Cheryl Roy's daughter said that Dale was a kind woman that loved kids not like some of the other leading ladies that her dad had she said even before her mother died she could remember Dale letting her play with her makeup on a set now the next year in 1947 one year after Arlene's death Roy will be in the old Spanish Trail with Jane freeze as Roy's leading lady after that go again we'll be paired with Dale Evans in the bells of San Angelo this time along with sidekick Andy Devine in October of 1947 Roy Dale and the Pioneers appeared in a rodeo at the Chicago Stadium said known trigger Roy Estelle what she was doing for New Year's and would she like to get married he then rode into the arena and greeted the waiting crowd without waiting for her answer the answer was yes and here they are on their wedding day December the 31st 1947 they were married at what is now the Healy brothers flying l ranch just south of Davis Oklahoma they'd made a movie at the Rach a few months earlier called home and Oklahoma now Adele Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith at her grandparents home in Uvalde Texas on the 31st of October 1912 Dale's parents Walter and Betty Sue Hillman Smith lived in Italy Texas where Walter was a farmer and owned a hardware store Dale's mother was a homemaker Dale had one younger brother named Hillman Smith when Dale was 7 the family moved to Osceola Arkansas Walter's brother had told him that the cotton was really good up in that part of the country now Dale had an uncle dr. LD Massey that lived in Osceola and she spent a lot of her growing up to him at her uncle's house Dale had been taught to read write and do math at home by her mother at 7 she began school in Osceola she soon began skipping grades and starting high school at the age of eleven she was a quick study at the piano also at the age of fourteen Dale and her 16 year old boyfriend eloped and was married in Blytheville Arkansas by a local minister they moved to Memphis and within a year she was pregnant with a son Thomas Foxx jr. within the first six months her husband had left her twice and returned each time until 1929 when he left the third time and didn't come back she divorced Fox that year and moved in with her parents who had moved to Memphis they offered to adopt the baby if she would return back to high school she said no and instead took business courses and began working as a secretary and stenographer for an insurance company Dale begins singing and playing piano on a local program on radio stay WMC and wrec that the insurance company she worked for actually was sputtering they'll used the name Frances Fox by the end of 1929 Dale had made her second husband Austin Wayne Jones it seems although they didn't divorce until 1935 they only live together a short time to further her career Dale moved to Chicago Louisville and Dallas in Louisville Dale used the name Marion Leigh and it's believed that the station manager there is the one who suggested the name Dale Evans while in Kentucky she dated a pianist and a bandleader by the name of Robert Dale butts she may have got her first name from him buds will follow Evans to Dallas and in Dallas she found a singing job at Station WFA early bird program her parents and left Memphis and moved back to Texas where they would be closer to their daughter in 1937 she married for a third time Robert Dale butts and Dale Evans headed for Chicago where she worked on local CBS station WB BS Hollywood agent Joel Rifkin heard Dale on the radio and encouraged her to go to Hollywood and screen tests for a movie Holiday Inn although she doesn't get to part she was offered a year contract with 20th Century Fox after her contract with Fox expired she went to Republic Pictures there she appeared in several movies however it wasn't until she starred in her first Western in old Oklahoma opposite John Wayne that her career began to take shape Republic had ass and their Western star Roy Rogers - a movie named the cowboy and the seniorita they intended to give the female lead a much larger role than usual the Elevens was chosen for the part bringing Roy Rogers and Dale Evans together for the first time although they appeared together in four more movies in 1944 they will also here with others the movie studio had publicized ale as a single woman taking care of her younger brother that was actually her son in 1945 Dale publicly acknowledged that tom was her son and not her brother in 1946 Dale and Robert Butz divorced on December the 31st 1947 Dale Evans married Cowboy star Roy Rogers Roy brought his three kids Cheryl Linda and dusty and Dale brought her 19 year old son Thomas and to the mage in 1948 after Roy and Dale Evans made Roy was star in Ives over Texas with Lee Ann Roberts as his leading lady and Andy Devine as his sidekick there will be five other movies in 1948 on April 21st 1949 Roy and trigger will put their prints in concrete in a ceremony in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre also in 1949 there will be four movies including the golden stallion with his wife Dale Evans and next year on the 26th of August 1950 Roy and Dale will have the joy of their life a daughter Robin Elizabeth Rogers little Robin was born with Down syndrome and a heart defect Dale refused to place Robin in the institution as doctors had advised she insisted on keeping robbing at home the same year that Robin was born Roy will appear with peeny edwards in north of the Great Divide along with five other movies that year now this is Roy's family clida is seated on the sulphur Weddell Roy and Roy's mother Roy's dead and his two other sisters Kathleen and Mary are standing the next year in 1951 Roy and Dale made their final movie together south of Killeen T Roy realized that television was the future he began the Roy Rogers show in December 31st 1952 on NBC that will run for six years until June the 9th 1957 with over a hundred episodes in 1952 Roy will make a cameo appearance in the sauna paleface with Bob Hope and Jane Russell on the 24th of August 1952 Roy and dales daughter no Robin Elizabeth will pass away from complications of mumps only two days short of her second birthday Dale will write a book dedicated to her love for Robin called angel unaware shortly after Robin's death Roy in Dell trying to fill the void left by Robin found five year old John David they call Sandy at a crippled children's school near Covington Kentucky sandy had been extremely abused as a youngster he was being treated for a broken back smashed nose leaks to the head that caused his thinking to slow after being told that children with disabilities brings with it special problems they'll said most people looking for kids to adopt want perfect children but we take the ones that need us the most and do what we can although dusty and sandy was close to the same age sandy was much smaller he was unable to perform certain tasks such as climbing ladders or riding bicycles Roy let the boys go to Northridge military school because sandy loved being a cadet soon after Sandy's adoption going Dale adopted Mary little doe they called her Dodie now Dodie was only 7 months old when the rogers picked her up in texas now this is a picture of Dale and Roy returning home with Dale Hollen Dodie and Roy holding sandy Dodie was from Choctaw Indian heritage and so was Roy and he felt a connection to Dodie during this time Roy and Dale was working the Roy Rogers Show in 1954 Roy Dale was prepared to take a trip to Europe with the Wild West Show when she received her new passport in the name of Lucille wood Smith instead of Frances Octavius met her mother declared that it was a mistake and never really explained the mixer on their trip to the United Kingdom they visited the done fourth children's home in Edinburgh Scotland when Roy and Dale heard 13 year old Marion Fleming saying won't you buy my pretty flowers their hearts were captured and within two weeks she was packing for America Marion arm Amy as she was called had two sisters and one brother at the same orphanage they had no mother she had left them at an early age and they had been shifted from one place to another Scottish law was prevented a full adoption but Rowan they all accepted her as their ward and considered her their daughter they also encouraged each of the kids to write and keep in touch with her siblings the next year after being joined the family in 1955 Roy and Dale bought a hundred and sixty-eight acre ranch near Chatsworth California now this is Roy waving to the camera dusty said that Roy wanted his kids to grow up on a ranch with horses and chickens where they could be close to nature and have as normal a life as possible Roy began femen the Roy Rogers show at the ranch at Chatsworth they had trigger and Dale's horse buttermilk along with roars German Shepherd bullet at the range Roy purchased more acreage for the Double R Bar race to 300 acres the same year that Rogers both the Chadsworth Range Dale wrote her second song the Bible tells me so her first hit was happy trails to you that she wrote for Roy when she's seen that he was signing his autographs and tacking on happy trails it became their theme song for the Roy Rogers TV show the next year Roy and Dale will adopt their final child Louie Lee an American Korean girl that they called Debbie now this is Debbie arriving from Korea on June 2 12 1956 at the age of four after Debbie the Roy Rogers family will be complete here they all are except Dale's son Thomas Fox Jr who was grown and in his twenties and little Robin Elizabeth you'd live less than two years sitting on the fence rail at the Roy Rogers Chatsworth ranch is Cheryl darling Linda Lou Marin or me me Roy Rogers jr. called dusty John David called sandy Mary little doe they called Dodie and Debbie the Roger's family consisted of man children in total the next year on June of 1957 the Roy Rogers TV show will end after six years that same year Roy's German Shepherd bullet will die Roy will have bullet mounted to keep in his future museum bullet had been one of the favorites of the Rogers children on the Chatsworth branch Roy had a place to shoot guns that he talked gun safety to the boys and Roy himself was an excellent skeet shooter and dusty tells hell his dad got his favorite model 12 shotgun from actor Clark Gable he said Roy and gable had a shooting range when Clark kept missing the clay pigeons that he was shooting it Clark said this damn gun I bought is no good would anybody give me $600 for it Roy quickly took up the offer and turned and hit 50 clay targets straight with it when Roy I turned to Gable he said are you sure it's the gun dusty said Roy took the gun with him everywhere he went the next year on the third of November 1958 Roy's mother Maddy woman's life will pass away at the age of 76 matt is a beard at the Oakwood immoral park and Chatsworth the next year after his mother's death Roy will have a cameo appearance in his last movie entitled alias Jesse James with Bob Hope and run to Fleming now this time Roy had retired trigger the old man that was what Roy 11 Lee called trigger he had put in his time chasing crooks running after runaway wagons Roy I seen that trigger was well taken care of at his Double R Bar ranch although Roy had others to take triggers place such as trigger jr. he would often come to the ranch and ask how's the old man and 1961 going they all had 13 episodes on ABC's as a one-hour variety show called the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans show a period Murrow in Dale was the sons of the pioneers and Pat Brady on August the 17th 1964 Roy and Dale's 12 year old Korean born daughter Debbie along with seven others was killed while riding in a church bus with 68 mostly children when the front tire of the bus blew out they had been on a monthly charity trip to take food and clothing to the La Esperanza a Tijuana orphanage the bus crossed the medium and crashed into seven other vehicles on highway 101 about six miles south of San Clemente 42 mostly children were injured six kill was in one vehicle and one friend on the bus with Debbie Joan Russell the daughter of mr. and mrs. Robert Russell of Granada Hills Debbie is at the far salon Park in Glendale next to Robyn not long after Davis death row and Dale bought this house at 198 3-8 tomahawk Road Apple Valley they couldn't stay at the ranch and Chadsworth any longer for fond memories of Debbie also in 1964 John David sandy joined the army at the age of 17 here he is with his mother Dale he was sent to Germany the military said that he was unqualified for Vietnam in October 31 1965 Roy and Dale received a message from Sandy's commanding officer informing them that PFC John David Rogers had passed away on October the 30th 1965 sandy had been promoted to PFC and his buddies took him out for dinner and drinks to celebrate his promotion sandy was not used to drinking but was encouraged by others he passed away in his bunk from asphyxiation due to vomiting also in 1965 on July the 3rd Roy's horse trigger dives at the ripe old age of 33 Roy couldn't bear to see trigger go he had him mounted and eventually placed in the Roy Rogers museum seven years later in 1972 Dale's horse buttermilk will also be mounted in place in the museum a little while after moving to Apple Valley Roy will buy a 67 acre range at 144 33 or agrandi California a few miles north of their home in Napa Valley they never lived at the oil grandi branch but Roy raised horses and trained horses there Roy was sailed the Chatsworth ranch to industrialist Eugene Kilmer the dead of actor Val Kilmer in 1972 Roy's dead Andrews life passed away on a third of August and ALPA Valley at the age of 88 he was buried next to his wife at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth in 1975 Roy Rogers was starring his last movie McIntosh and TJ Roy for the first time will not play as Roy Rogers he will play as a ranch hand Andrew that finds a young kid and teaches him how to grow up to be a man it was filmed on the famous four sixes range in Texas in 1976 Roy Rogers and Dale Evans was inducted into the Hall of Great Western performers at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in 1980 Roy will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame along with the sons of the pioneers and again as a soloist in 1988 in 1992 Dale Evans suffered a heart attack that required a pacemaker and four years later in 1996 Dale's suffered a stroke that weakened her left arm and leg soon requiring a wheelchair and walker Roy Rogers again inducted into the Hall of great western performance at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma along with the sons of the pioneers in 1995 Roy had three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame one for motion picture one for TV and one for radio Dale Evans has two on the Walk of Fame one for radio and one for TV on July the 6th 1998 while at his home in Napa Valley and around his wife and family the king of the Cowboys Roy Rogers Leonard Franklin slam passed away at the age of 86 from congestive heart failure less than three years after oice death the queen of the West Dale Evans Frances Octavio Smith passed away at her home in Napa Valley around her family at the age of 88 from the same disease as her husband congestive heart failure Roy and Dale is buried at the Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley California to the king of the Cowboys and the queen of the Happy Trails Roy and Dale [Music]

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 337,582

Rating: 4.8617039 out of 5

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Id: rp78F6jHS6A

Length: 36min 32sec (2192 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 05 2020