The Best: Roy Rogers & Dale Evans

The famous movie and TV cowboy, Roy Rogers (Leonard Franklin Slye) was born in 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio and became a western movie star by the mid-1940’s.

It was his desire to reflect his Christian ethics into his cowboy character as much as he could. Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans, were devoted Christians and were well known for their charitable work and the adoption of as many as twenty orphans and other children, plus raising their own.

Roy was one of those actors who was a straight shooter, both on and off the screen. But one of the few stigmas he carried was the issue of not serving in the military during WW-2. But Roy was not a draft dodger.

Roy was classified by the draft board as 1-A in 1945, and he was ready and willing to ship out when called. But because of his age (over 30) and being married with children,

his classification was soon changed to 3-A. It is not clear whether Republic Pictures played any part in Roy's deferment, as was the case for another movie giant, John Wayne. But Roy Rogers as a draft dodger? Not Likely.

I remember in Roy’s TV series that he promoted his ‘Roy Rogers Rider’s Rules’ to encourage youngsters to do what was right and remind them to love God and honor our country.
Here are those rules:

1. Be neat and clean.
2. Be courteous and polite.
3. Always obey your parents.
4. Protect the weak and help them.
5. Be brave but never take chances.
6. Study hard and learn all you can.
7. Be kind to animals and take care of them.
8. Eat all your food and never waste any.
9. Love God and go to Sunday school regularly.
10. Always respect our flag and our country.

I also found this prayer that Roy had written:

Lord, I reckon I’m not much just by myself,
I fail to do a lot of things I ought to do.
But Lord, when trails are steep and passes high,
Help me ride it straight the whole way through.
And when in the falling dusk I get that final call,
I do not care how many flowers they send,
Above all else, the happiest trail would be,
For YOU to say to me, “Let’s ride, My Friend.” -- Roy Rogers

Our younger generation has sadly missed out on having movie stars such as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans to look up to. So much of what they represented would be mocked and ridiculed in many of our movie theaters and public schools these days. And with so many parents, and even grandparents who have let these old truths slip away, I often wonder who will teach today’s youth to ride or walk those paths of righteousness. 

And remembering Roy as a singing cowboy, I think that some of his best songs as presented in the movies and on records were where Roy appeared with the Sons of The Pioneers.

If you cannot see this video, click here.

Roy Rogers provided us with many fond memories of those days back in the 1940's and 50's. He and Dale will be remembered by a great number of us old timers for the rest of our lives.

There have been many articles written about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, but I'll just let the following video close my post here, as it tells the story much better than I can:

If you cannot see this video, click here.

Happy Trails To All!

Gary Miller

Whatever Happened to the Cast of Gunsmoke?

The television series called Gunsmoke lasted approximately 20 years. It began production in 1955, when I was only 5 years old. I grew up with Marshal Matt Dillon, Chester, Miss Kitty, Festus, and all the rest of the cast of this wonderful glimpse into Dodge City. This was a time in our history when the nation was young and the West was wild and everyone was truly free.

The Boot Hill Museum (2010)

My own memory of Gunsmoke involves Sunday evening visits to my cousins where we'd sit in his living room as a family and watch the show. Talk about a clean, clear, moral message, Gunsmoke was it. The world lost a wonderful asset when the movie was discontinued in 1975. I was 25 years old, one year married, and my youngest daughter, Susan, was born the same year.

What a sad day that must have been for the cast. I suppose the only other show I watched any where near as long as Gun Smoke was the Andy Griffith Show which ran from 1960 through 1968.

The following is a documentary on the cast of Gunsmoke. It goes into the lives and eventual deaths of all the major players in this wonderful show. If you're as old as I am, it will bring tears to your eyes. Scroll down for additional information and some great offers, provided by Amazon, the best.

--Al Colombo

James Arness (born James King Aurness, May 26, 1923 – June 3, 2011) was an American actor, best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon for 20 years in the CBS television series Gunsmoke. Arness has the distinction of having played the role of Dillon in five separate decades: 1955 to 1975 in the weekly series, then in Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987) and four more made-for-television Gunsmoke films in the 1990s. In Europe, Arness reached cult status for his role as Zeb Macahan in the western series How the West Was Won. He was the older brother of actor Peter Graves. For more info on James Arness, click here.