|
Did you know ...?
-
Roy Rogers was the first movie cowboy to have his
photograph on the front cover of a comic book, Dell Publishing Company's
Four Color comic #38, in 1944.
-
Dale Evans performed on radio more than a year
before Roy's initial appearance. Dale, at age 16, performed on
Memphis station WMC in October of 1929. Roy's first performance was
sometime in mid 1931 on Midnight Frolics, over station
KMCS in Inglewood, California.
-
Charles Bronson, using his real name, Charles
Buchinski, played a boxer in one episode, "The Knockout," of The Roy
Rogers Show, aired on December 28, 1952.
-
Roy appeared in more than 240 comics between 1944
and 2005. The first one was a Dell Four Color comic, and the last one
was a reprint in Bill Black's Best of the West series #39 in 2004
and some Roy Rogers art by artist Alex Toth in America's Greatest
#10 in 2005.
-
Dale composed "The Bible Tells Me So" in about
20 minutes for an episode of The Roy Rogers Show. A popular
hit, the song was featured on Your Hit Parade, and Don Cornell's
recording of the song on Coral Records (45: 9-61467) climbed to the
thirty-first spot on the Billboard charts.
-
Roy's theme song before "Happy Trails" was "Smiles
are Made Out of Sunshine," composed by Ray Gilbert. Roy recorded the
tune for RCA in 1950 and it was issued on both 78 and 45 rpm recordings: 78:
21-0373-A; 45: 48-0373-A.
-
Dale Evans appeared not only on The Chase and
Sanborn Hour (NBC, 1942-1943), but also as a vocalist on The
Jack Carson Show (CBS, 1944) and The Camel Caravan (CBS,
1945-1946), which starred Jimmy Durante and Gary Moore.
-
Roy Rogers was a champion powerboat racer who won
several events racing his boat, "Miss Yellowjacket," in the Pacific
Ocean along the California coast. In 1956, Roy sped to a winning finish
in his speedboat, after a punishing 120-mile race over a rough sea.
-
In 1982 Dale recorded 176 inspirational cassette
tape recordings. Evans dramatized Biblical stories and other spiritual
topics. The Entertainment Marketing Company of Los Angeles produced
these cassettes, but apparently they were never marketed.
-
Van Halen recorded his version of "Happy Trails"
on the album Diver Down, released by Warner Bros. in 1982. Other
performers who recorded their versions include the blues guitarist, Roy
Rogers, and a Texas-based country music group, The Light Crust Doughboys.
For Rogers' blues rendering, listen to Roy Rogers: Chops Not Chaps
(Blind Pig Records: 1985). For the Light Crust Doughboys' interpretation,
hear Texas Swing the Light Crust Doughboys' Way, vol. 2, cassette
DR-1005 (Mesquite, Texas, 1993).
|
|
Recommended Reading |
