Roy Rogers Museum has closed its doors forever.











This is for the over "55 group" who know Roy Rogers & Dale Evans. ( King & Queen of the Cowboys )

The Roy Rogers Museum has closed its doors forever.

Here is a partial listing of some of the items that were sold at auction . . .

Roy's 1964 Bonneville sold for $254,500, it was estimated to sell between 100 and 150 thousand dollars.







His script book from the January 14,1953 episode of This Is Your Life sold for $10,000 (est. $800-$1,000)

A collection of signed baseballs (Pete Rose, Duke Snyder and other greats) sold for $3,750

A collection of signed bats (Yogi Berra, Enos Slaughter, Bob Feller, and others) sold for $2,750.

Trigger's saddle and bridle sold for $386,500 (est. 100-150 K)

One of many of Roy's shirts sold for $16,250 and one of his many cowboy hats sold for $17,500.



One set of boot spurs sold for $10,625. (He never used a set of spurs on Trigger.)

A life size shooting gallery sold for $27,500.

Various chandeliers sold from $6,875 to $20,000. Very unique and artistic in their western style.

A signed photograph by Don Larsen taken during his perfect game in the world series against the Dodgers on Oct. 8, 1953, along with a signed baseball to Roy from Don, sold for $2,500

Two fabulous limited edition BB guns in their original boxes with numerous photos of Roy, Dale, Gabby, and Pat sold for $3,750.

A collection of memorabilia from his shows entertaining the troops in Vietnam sold for $938. I never knew he was there. His flight jacket sold for $7,500.



His set of dinner ware plates and silverware sold for $11,875.

The Bible they used at the dinner table every night sold for $8,750.

One of several of his guitars sold for $27,500.

Nelly belle sold for $116,500.



A fabulous painting of Roy, Dale, Pat, Buttermilk, Trigger, and Bullet sold for $10,625.

One of several sets of movie posters sold for $18,750.

A black and white photograph of Gene Autry with a touching inscription from Gene to Roy sold for $17,500.

A Republic Productions Poster bearing many autographs of the people that played in Roy's movies sold for $11,875.

Dale's horse, Buttermilk (whose history is very interesting) sold below the pre-sale estimate for $25,000. (est. 30-40 K)



Bullet sold for $35,000 (est. 10-15 K). He was their real pet.

Dale's parade saddle, estimated to sell between 20-30 K, sold for $104,500.

One of many pairs of Roy's boots sold for $21,250.

Trigger sold for $266,500.








Do you remember the 1938 movie The Adventures of Robin hood with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland? Well Olivia rode Trigger in that movie. Trigger was bred on a farm co-owned by Bing Crosby. Roy bought Trigger on a time payment plan for $2,500. Roy and Trigger made 188 movies together. Trigger even out did Bob Hope by winning an Oscar in the movie Son of Paleface in 1953.

It is extremely sad to see this era lost forever. Despite the fact that Gene and Roy's movies, as well as those of other great characters, can be bought or rented for viewing, today's kids would rather spend their time playing video games. Today it takes a very special pair of parents to raise their kids with the right values and morals. These were the great heroes of our childhood, and they did teach us right from wrong, and how to have and show respect for each other and the animals that share this earth.

You and I were born at the right time. We were able to grow up with these great people even if we never met them. In their own way they taught us patriotism and honor, we learned that lying and cheating were bad, and sex wasn't as important as love. We learned how to suffer through disappointment and failure and work through it. Our lives were drug free.

So it's good-bye to Roy and Dale, Gene and Hoppy, The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Farewell to Sky King and Superman and Sgt. Friday. Thanks to Capt. Kangaroo, Mr. Rogers and Capt. Noah and all those people whose lives touched ours, and made them better.

A time in History, never to be seen again, but what a ride it was.

HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU!

THOSE WERE THE DAYS, MY FRIENDS

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"Don't worry be happy"

OK, w/o looking it up in Goggle, tell me: Who was Pat Butram (sp?), what did he ride (hint, it wasn't a horse) and what was its name? And if you know the answer you're probably drawing SS.

Here's my bit of Roy Rogers history.I used to eat every meal on this plate back in the 50's.Great times back then.Happy trails to all.Slow

Sidekick. Jeep. Nellybelle. Yes.

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David Wilson

That is very sad indeed.
Thank you for posting it.

Lefty

He also rode a mule, but I can't remembver it's name. Was that Nellybell?

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Dick

At those prices listed I would think everything went to a good home. I find it a bit sad when any museum closes, but with western cowboy culture falling into a nitch status I guess this was a matter of time with this one. I just hope these treasures are well kept beyond just their new owners.

Roy did well for a country boy from Duck Run, Ohio ( near Portsmouth ) His real name was Leonard Slye.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

Thanks for the post. Too young to have ever watched any of his work but I couldn't help but break out in spontaneous song. My 4 year old is looking at me like I am crazy.

I use to live in the area and visited both his museums several times. He had a fair amount of guns on display. He had hunted on safari`s etc.
His first museum was at apple valley and it moved to victorville california. I never heard a bad word about him and I knew people that knew him. You cant say that about many celebertys now days.

I pretended to be him many times as a kid. Heck, I may still be pretending.

With the internet, he'll live on forever, probably.

I thought I wasn't going crazy. Pat Buttram was Gene Autry's sidekick.
Pat Buttram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He rode a mule named Dandruff (that one I had to look up). Seems like I can remember him on a mule with a circle around its eye, but maybe that's Smiley Burnett.

Pat Brady was Roy's sidekick, who drove Nellybelle.
Pat Brady - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


edit: Nope. Just looked up Smiley. His horse had a ring around his left eye, but it was a horse, not a mule.

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I always take precautions

Really sad to know the museum is no more. Glad I got to see it in Apple Valley back in the 70's. I grew up on Roy and Dale, also, and being horse happy, Trigger was my imaginary friend for many years (shh, don't tell anyone). All of us who watched didn't know we were learning good moral standards at the time, it was just the cowboys and horses and a happy ending.

The National Rodeo Finals are held in Vegas every year. At that time they have some killer shopping with western themed items called Cowboy Christmas. I was there this last Dec. and came across Trigger and Bullet. RFDTV bought them and brought the display. Gone for 46 years, now, he doesn't look too bad.

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2 Blessed 2B Stressed

Pat BUTTRAM. Pat BRADY. I couldn't keep those guys straight when I was eight and obviously I still can't. Gene and Roy should have made them wear name tags.

Anybody remember Mr. Haney on Green Acres? One of them was him, and I never got that right either.

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David Wilson

Pat Buttram.

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I always take precautions

Man, this is sad news.

I had a Roy Rogers lunch box, way back when. I have no idea what happened to it. It would be worth money now....except that it was all beat up from being carried to school day in and day out.

I can remember watching his movies: he was ALWAYS the good guy, and I can't remember him ever shooting anyone: he would shoot the revolvers out of the bad guys' hands, and bring him in alive.

He really was a good role model. He ALWAYS did the 'right thing'; he always kept his word, and he protected the 'innocents' in any situation.

I'm curious: where did the money from the auction of the Roy Roger's memorabilia go?

The fellow that bought Trigger and Bullet is the founder and owner of RFDTV out of Omaha, they are now showing RR movies and I think the animal mounts are on display there. Jeff

The truth is, as much as we loved them and they were a part of many of our childhoods, only a devoted cinema fan of old westerns today could enjoy the shows. The plots and acting were somewhat cheesy by today's standards but it was a different time when it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad and the good guys always did things for the right reason, always upheld the right and defended the weak, and the bad guy always got his just desserts. Unfortunately a romanticized and unrealistic comparison to the way life really has always worked.

If you were born much past the mid 60's (that's the 1960's to the anal retentive among us ) then you probably grew up with different values and a somewhat more jaded if more realistic view of the world. We loved Dirty Harry because he did things Roy & Dale wouldn't; he may have done it for the ultimate right reason and the bad guy usually got his just desserts via Harry's justice, but Harry didn't always do things above board to accomplish his goals. Roy Rogers always did and most will admit (though they hate to) that it wasn't usually very realistic. But we admired the ideal.

I was born shortly after the close of WWII so the books, movies, TV shows were rife with it and many of us had fathers, uncles and grandfathers who had served so it was very real and relevant to me.

To my kids, Viet Nam was "ancient history". Over about the same period for them when they were born as WWII was for me - but the mood had changed and the country wasn't feeling good about Viet Nam in the aftermath in the mid 70's. It's all relative. WWII is just something akin to the Crusades or the Civil War they read about in a history book that has little or no relevance to anything they relate to. As it is with the type of entertainment they grew up with - an inability to relate to what Roy Rogers represented to those of us who remember him and his day fondly.

I doubt aside from a sense of curiosity and quaint nostalgia that it's possible for someone who didn't grow up during the time to appreciate Roy Rogers and the time he represented. And I count it as their loss that they have nothing equivalent to look back on that imparts the same values. Part of what we have lost as our "culture" has become more "refined". More's the pity.

We have shifted our focus away from ideals and standards to celebrate the lowering of the bar. We musn't aspire to the ideal because so many fall short and refuse to even try and it makes them feel bad when others point that out. It's discriminatory, or racist, or heartless, or "mean spirited". Therefore our "heroes" (how that word has been cheapened and watered down to next to nothingness !) are people who garner the most attention by their perverted, narcissistic, or anti-social behavior or how much money or notoriety they have.

It's popular now, because of this, to try to tear down those idealistic images of the past, since mediocrity is the standard of today. If there is no one truly outstanding by the ideal, then the rest don't have to feel bad by comparison.

My wife and I discussed this recently as we were leaving the movie theater, a past time I find myself participating in less and less these days. Been a long time since I left a film with real, true "feel good" feeling; not what it's supposed to be about these days, I guess.

Happy trails, Roy & Dale. History marches on - we touch who we can when we can and nothing lasts forever in this world. Growing older and more introspective is not without it's pitfalls.

Thanks Fred for a well written post. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

Back in my army days I was stationed at Chatsworth, Ca. which is in the San Fernando Valley next to Topanga Canyon. Roy's Double R Bar ranch was located there. I was getting my haircut in Chatsworth & Roy drove up in the Bonneville and came in & got a haircut just like regular folks!!.

That is a GREAT post, Fred.

My Father was a WWII veteran, and I learned good values from both my parents, or I got my backside tanned!

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans also practiced what they preached.. They had a large number of foster children over the years. They tried to raise them right but I remember one dying in Germany 62-64 from acute alcohol poisoning. (I was there at the time) He was a young GI and apparently drank way too much, was admitted and then while in bed, aspirated and suffocated.
Sometimes you do the best you can and it's just not enough.

Met Roy one time out at the Apple Valley Gun Club... who would have thought he'd be shooting a Colt 1911. Did right well with it too !!!

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A closed mouth gathers no foot

Some movie stars use their money to try to to some good in the world.

They were extremely famous, but did TONS of personal appearances for free, so kids can get an autograph.

Good role models. I didn't know about the foster children, but it doesn't surprise me in the least.

Look at Jimmy Stewert: he could have stayed out of the War, entertaining the troops, and making pro-USA morale pictures, like many in Hollywood did, but he enlisted, served his country, and returned as big a star as when he enlisted.

Nowadays, kids' 'role models' are thugs that play football or baseball, do lots of drugs, beat up women (or rape them
(....cough...Mike Tyson....cough...) drive REALLY expensive, fancy cars and wear outlandish clothes and jewelry.

Our society seems to be circling the drain.

Sad story, but not surprising. Many young folks today probably don't even know who Roy Rogers was, and have no interest in him. That's the sort of thing that kills museums.

I heard on the news a couple of weeks ago that the Jimmy Stewart Museum is in trouble too, for the same reason.

In the 70's, my mother taught English at the high school in McDermott where Leonard Slye had attended. Out of curiosity she researched his records and it was apparent he wasn't much for "book learnin'" She said if he were to be in school in the modern era he would have been put in what we used to call Special Ed. Goes to show an education from an institution isn't always necessary.

I saw his place out on Duck Run once. Just another house up a holler.

They lived very good lives, took their parts as role models for kids very seriously and were an inspiration to the generations who knew them. Unfortunately, time marches on.

That's sad...I'm taking Dino to the Gene Autry museum in Griffith Park Wendesday...lots of history on the cowboy days...and some cool guns to boot.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

For those interested it is still on every day on the western channel, I still watch’em, I don’t think they are cheesy, and yes I am on SS. I find solace in seeing things the way they are supposed to be. My wife is 9 years younger than I she just laughs when I watch ol Roy while eating my lunch. Then I go out and start feed’n the cows.

Roy, Gene, Hopalong, John Wayne and the Lone Ranger and Tonto! Good Americans who brought us entertainment and a way of life. I'd love to be seven again and do it all over. I know they influenced my way of thinking. Thanks guys!

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Term limits!

I know it was a small oversight but you do of course realize you left out Randolph Scott.

I wont burst your bubble about randolf scott----------

In the mid sixties, Roy Rogers wrote a monthly column in one of the gun magazines in publication at that time. I think it had to do with shotguns, or skeet shooting.
I remember reading one month about a Gold Cup, Audie Murphy had given him. Roy wrote that he could "drive tacks", with it.
Needless to say that impressed me!
In the mid ninties I was working in the City Of Industry for a couple months. During my stay out there I visited the museum in Victorville a couple of times.
Wow!
As a RR fan growing up, I really was awed at the things on display there.
There was one spot that was empty. I do not think the missing item was identified, but it was the perfect size for a Gold Cup!
I reasoned ole Roy needed it close by him for the bad guys.
RIP Roy!

I have ole Nellybell stuffed in my garage. Put you on it for, oh about $350,000.

How about his guns?? Did they get auctioned off too? Sorry to hear about the museum closing. I too got the answers right to the over 65 question. A sad day.

A friend of mine was in show business and got to meet both Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. He said Roy was just a really nice guy. Would talk to anybody. As a matter of fact, he said when he did public appearances later in life, he had someone with him to make sure he made his appointments. He would get to talking to just anybody and forget the time. Dale handled most of the business in that family, I am told.

Hello Hawkeye, Thanks for the super tour down memory lane. I as a kid never missed a Saturday matinee with Roy, Gene, Tom Mix and Johnny Mac Brown to name a few. The kids now will never have the true and precious moments we shared in our childhood. Glad I am one of the alumni of this era. They were really our HEROS. Funny how some things that we took for granted then, we have stored away in our minds now, and have brought us back to a simple and honorable time. They always caught the "BAD GUYS" and we left the movies feeling safe and contented! Thanks again Buckaroo!

When I was a kid in wisconsin around 1949 my mother had a fruit stand in front of our house. Gene autry and his wife stopped and toured our little farm with my folks. We had sheep, goats, rabbits and calves etc. The lady seemed to get a kick out of it. I was timid and stayed pretty much on the fringe. I remember the car had cowhide upholstery with the hair on etc. They were on their way to some rodeo or fair. They spent a hour or so with my folks.
In later years I met a number of western actors along with "just" actors on my job as a universal movie studio`s guard, but the excitement was as a boy meeting one.

A vendor at National Gun Day here in Louisville a couple weekends ago had a couple of Roy's Weatherby Rifles for sale and some other memorabilia on display.

So one day I'm driving the back way from Phoenix to Tucson when I see a sign out in the middle of nowhere that says "Tom Mix Memorial." It's at the spot where he was killed in a car accident. I jumped on the brakes and swerved off the road to see it, while yelling "Tom MIx!" My wife is holding on for dear life, and says "Who's Tom Mix?" I look at her like she has six heads and ask her if she's an American. In her defense, we are both too young to be expected to know who Tom Mix was, but I come from a long line of "young fogeys."

Nope. Not true. I have an 8x10 black and white autographed photo of Roy and Trigger that was given to me when I was five years old...59 years ago. Roy autographed it to me with "Always be good for Roy Rogers and Trigger."

It shows Trigger rearing with Roy giving him light pressure with the spurs. Below is another picture. If you look closely, Roy is cuing Trigger with light spur pressure again to make him rear.



When used properly, a large-roweled spur is not cruel or inhumane punishment. You are, in essence, rolling a wheel along its flank. On the other hand, a small-roweled spur is like goosing a horse with a screwdriver.

When leading a pack string, most packers will wear spurs...not to jab the horse, but in a dicey situation where the lead animal gets too close to a drop-off or edge, you need an immediate response in order to keep your whole pack string from going over. With most animals that are spur trained, they just have to hear the jingle to know that you are wearing spurs...then, when they feel the slightest bit of pressure from your calf, they move away from the edge p.d.q.

So...bottom line...it's no sin that Roy used spurs on Trigger. He used them properly...as a subtle cue, not an instrument of torture.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

Never met him, but sure spent a lot of time with him.
RR was the guy.

I know, and I am

Watched The Roy Rogers show every week growing up. I also believe he was part of the famous music group "Sons of the Pioneers" and in addition performed many Christian hymns in his singing career....... Yes, I collect SS too.............Thanks Hawkey10 for a great post !

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Sierra 255
Ret. LEO/ NRA-LIFE

I'm sorry. I really am. But whenever I hear that name it brings to mind "Blazing Saddles!"

I got to see Roy Rogers and Dale Evans at the Arkansas State Fair & Rodeo in 1969. They were the half time entertainment for the Rodeo and it was a sell out crowd. I was 6 years old and my dad knew someone that knew someone and he was able to take my brother and I backstage to shake their hands. They were bigger than life to a 6 year old kid!

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- Change it back -

This is news to me, even though the thread is over 2 years old, I have to ask, why would anyone want to close down and auction off memorabilia of an American icon; was it a down and out family member? Besides the financial gain, which pales in comparison to maintaining the legacy of so many great memories of my youth, why on earth would something so callous be done to this small slice of great Americana?

Can you maintain a museum?

It was a business. Customers quit coming. The business went out of business. They auctioned off the assets of the business. Happens all the time.

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I always take precautions

I'm glad this thread came back. I missed, the first time, that comment about Buttermilk's history. So I looked him up.

That was the first thing I found interesting. HIM. I allus figgered, with a name like Buttermilk, he was a mare. Nope. Buckskin gelding.

Originally the horse they picked for Dale looked too much like Trigger. I presume that means another golden Palomino. They decided against it (makes sense. Lone Ranger woulda looked weird if Scout has also been grey) and had to find her another one.

'Cause she was from Texas, they assumed she could ride. Had never been on a horse in her life.

Buttermilk was faster off the line than Trigger. This annoyed Roy, and necessitated retakes, when Roy and Dale went charging off, and Buttermilk was in the lead.

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I always take precautions

Roy and Dale did tons for underpriveleged kids in Southern California back in the day as well. Kind of gets forgotten with time.

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Jim
Many K and N Frames