Roy Rogers Biography

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Roy Rogers
Country Music | 3 CD Set
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When Leonard Franklin Slye moved to the West Coast in 1930 it was to pick peaches, but this son of migrant farm workers turned to signing, as Roy Rogers became one of America's most recognizable cowboys and perpetrators of Western music. Not country, but Western, as this vocal genre of the '20s and '30s was known before it became country-western. Although fellow cowpoke Gene Autry was a star first, it was Autry and Rogers who made this kind of music nationally popular. Rogers, born in 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio, connected with several western bands once in California, eventually putting together one of the biggest bands of the era, the Sons of the Pioneers. Slye became Dick Weston and then Roy Rogers and when the band was put in a 1935 Autry movie, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," Roy decided to become a cowboy star. By 1938, he was starring in "Under Western Skies," while Autry and his studio were in negotiations. Later, in "Dark Command," he and John Wayne jumped off a cliff on horses in the era before animal cruelty became an active issue. It is said that this movie helped create interest in the formation of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. By 1942, World War II had put Autry in uniform and Rogers into the hearts of Western movie and music fans nationwide. Along the way, Rogers married and had a son, Roy Jr., but his wife died shortly after the son was born. Nearly two years later, Roy married Frances Smith, a pop/Western singer who became Dale Evans and who appeared in many of his movies. Rogers starred with mainstream movie stars in the '40s and '50s and at one point he was given the Cole Porter song "Don't Fence Me In." It has been said that Porter wrote it as a joke but Rogers took it to stardom and eventually a movie by the same name came out. His horse Trigger had originally been ridden by Olivia DeHavilland in "The Adventures of Robin Hood," but Roy bought the animal for $2500 and Trigger became part of the Roy Rogers persona until its death in 1965 and then was stuffed by Rogers and put in his museum in California. Over the years, Rogers and Evans had television shows, were in many movies and later they became involved in several business deals, including a chain of restaurants. His memorabilia/souvenir output became quite collectible for youngsters. He made a few movies later but Roy Jr. released an album in 1983, DUSTY. He revived his theme song, "Happy Trails," with Randy Travis in 1990 and the rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service put out a 1968 album called HAPPY TRAILS. Rogers made an album in 1991, TRIBUTE, which included guest shots from contemporary country stars, and by the middle of the '90s he was active again. He died in 1998.

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