King of the Cowboys

You know him as Roy Rogers but he was born Leonard Slye in a tenement home on Second Street in downtown Cincinnati in 1911.  He used to joke that Second base in the old Riverfront Stadium was his birthplace.  Unfortunately, Riverfront Stadium no longer exists either.  Len, as his family called him had a hard scrabble life and quit school early to help provide for his family.  The family was rather poor and for entertainment they often had square dances where Len and his family members took turns singing and playing instruments.  

Len was an especially talented yodeler because yodeling was used to communicate across the farm.  Different yodels meant different things.  This talent would serve young Len well when he started his music career.

The family built their own riverboat home and floated down the Ohio River to Portsmouth in search of better employment.  When Len’s older sister married and moved to California, his father decided to move the family out West in search of better jobs.  This move occurred in 1929 right at the beginning of the Great Depression.  

Len’s sister Mary talked him in to trying out for a radio show called Midnight Frolic in 1931 after Len lost his job driving gravel trucks and had to turn to picking peaches for Del Monte.  These were desperate times during the Depression era and reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath.  Mary made Len a Western style shirt and Len yodeled and played the guitar for the radio station.  He was soon hired into a group called the Mountaineers.  Len continued to improve and traveled around singing and yodeling.  He later became part of a group called the Pioneers but the radio announcer changed their name to the Sons of the Pioneers since the members were just in their early 20’s.

Len started appearing in bit parts in Westerns.  The original singing cowboy, Gene Autry, was demanding higher pay so Republic Pictures had a contest to find a new singing cowboy and Leonard Slye won and Republic gave him the stage name of Roy Rogers.

There is so much more to learn about Roy Rogers and his famous horse Trigger and faithful dog, Bullet.  He was second to Walt Disney in the 1940’s as far as merchandising.  He married one of his co-stars, Dale Evans who was his third wife.  His second wife died shortly after the birth of a child.  Roy and Dale were committed Christians and advocates for adoption.  They had several adopted children including those with special needs.  They made the transition from film to television in the 1950’s and cemented their fame as the King and Queen of the Cowboys.  There was even a Roy Rogers museum but sadly, the museum was closed and the collection auctioned off a few years after their deaths.  I urge you to read the whole story of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans on your favorite search engine because there is just so much more than I can cover in this column.

Roy Rogers will always be known as one of the good guys of the Golden Age of Westerns. He had a beautiful voice and he tried to live a good life.  My mom and dad remember listening to cowboy shows on the radio and watched them on television as children.  Those days are becoming more forgotten each day.  A Roy Rogers lunchbox used to bring hundreds of dollars but since most collectors today don’t remember the yodeling cowboy, values are about half of what they used to be.  Who knows, trends come and go and maybe it’s time for a new generation to learn about the King of Cowboys!  Happy Collecting!