Retrovision Radio

From his first film appearance in 1935, Roy Rogers worked steadily in western films, including a large supporting role as a singing cowboy while still billed as “Leonard Slye” in a Gene Autry movie. In 1938 when Autry temporarily walked out on his movie contract, Slye was immediately rechristened “Roy Rogers”^[1] and assigned the lead in Under Western Stars. Rogers became a matinee idol and American legend. A competitor for Gene Autry was suddenly born. In addition to his own movies, Rogers played a supporting role in the John Wayne classic Dark Command (1940), a harrowing fictionalization of Quantrill’s Raiders directed by Raoul Walsh, who had discovered Wayne in 1929 and changed his name while casting him in The Big Trail, Wayne’s first leading role. Rogers became a major box office attraction, and Dale Evans was cast in a movie with him in 1945. The next year, Roy’s wife, Arline, died of a massive brain embolism from a bloodclot following the birth of Roy Rogers, Jr. (called Dusty).

Tags: Old Time Radio, Old Time Radio, Roy Rogers, Western

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