Roy's Biography #1
Welcome
To
By Laurence Zwisohn

Roy Rogers was everyone's image of what a cowboy should be, from his white Stetson
with its silver hatband to his hand-tooled boots. His face was strong and handsome with
eyes that squinted yet still showed a twinkle. His smile was warm and reassuring. Whether
he was wearing fringed Western wear or a checkered cowboy shirt, he was the epitome of
what a cowboy should be. He was the picture of honesty and integrity. And was there ever
a more exciting sight than watching Roy and Trigger riding majestically across the
television screen or a rodeo arena? No wonder three generations of kids (and adults)
wanted to be like Roy Rogers. We wanted to look like Roy, dress like Roy, and be as
honest and forthright as Roy.

He gave us standards to live by that helped teach us the difference between right and
wrong. His willingness to stand up for the things he believed in inspired us. And his
religious faith and his concern for the less fortunate helped mold our character. Roy lived
his life off camera with the same decency and humility that he projected on television and
on the silver screen. He was the hero who never let us down. Despite all the success that
came to him, Roy never seemed to lose his way. And he never forgot that his fans were
the ones who made it possible for a poor boy from Ohio to attain a level of success greater
than anything he could ever have imagined. His decency and strength of character come
from a simpler time in America. Yet it was anything but an easy time.

Roy Rogers, the King of the Cowboys, was actually born in the city. It was in Cincinnati,
Ohio, on November 5, 1911, that Leonard Slye (later to be known as Roy Rogers) was born
to Mattie and Andy Slye. Years later, the building where he was born was torn down to
make way for Riverfront Stadium (recently renamed Cinergy Field), the home of the
Cincinnati Reds baseball team. Roy liked to say that he was born right where second base
is now located. But the Slye family was never cut out for city life, so a few months after
Roy was born, Andy Slye moved his family to Portsmouth, Ohio (a hundred miles east of
Cincinnati), where they lived on the houseboat that he and Roy's uncle built. When Roy
was seven years old his father decided it was time they settled on solid ground, so he
bought a small farm in nearby Duck Run. Living on a farm meant long hours and hard work,
but no matter how hard they worked the land there was little money to be made. Roy often
said that about all they could raise on their farm were rocks. Eventually Andy Slye realized
that he'd have to return to his old factory job at the United States Shoe Company in
Cincinnati if he was going to be able to support his family. Since his father would be able to
return home only on weekends, this meant that even more of the responsibilities for farm
chores fell onto Roy's young shoulders.

Mattie Slye suffered from lameness as a result of the polio she had contracted as a child,
and Roy always marveled at the way she was able to raise four active children (Roy and
his sisters, Mary, Cleda, and Kathleen) despite her disability. Still, farm life agreed with
Roy, who often rode to school on Babe, the old, sulky racehorse his father had bought for
him. According to Roy, "We lived so far out in the country, they had to pipe sunlight to us."
Living on the farm meant they had to make their own entertainment, since radio was in its
earliest days and television was far in the future. On Saturday nights the Slye family often
invited some of their neighbors over for a square dance, during which Roy would sing and
play the mandolin. Before long he became skilled at calling square dances, and throughout
the years he always enjoyed finding opportunities to showcase this talent in his films and
television appearances.

It was also while he was growing up on the farm in Duck Run that Roy learned to yodel.
Andy Slye had brought home a cylinder player (the predecessor to the phonograph) along
with some cylinders, including one by a Swiss yodeler. Roy played that cylinder again and
again and soon began developing his own yodeling style. Before long, Roy and his mother
worked out a way of communicating with each other by using different types of yodels.
Mattie would use one type of yodel to let Roy know that it was time for lunch, another to
warn that a storm was brewing, and still another to call him in at the end of the day. Roy
would then relay that message to his sisters by yodeling across the fields to them.

By the time Roy had completed his second year of high school, it was clear that their farm
would never support the family, so he made the difficult decision to drop out of school and
take a job with his father at the shoe factory in Cincinnati. Roy quickly discovered that
factory work was just as hot, monotonous, and unpleasant for him as it was for his father.
Since his older sister Mary had married and moved to Lawndale, California (close to Los
Angeles), Roy and his father decided they should quit their jobs, pack up the car, and take
the family out to visit her. Somehow their old car held together, and they eventually made
it to Lawndale. (The old Dodge family car in which they made that trip is now on display at
The Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum.) After a four-month visit the Slye family returned to
Cincinnati, but by now the cold Ohio winters couldn't compete with the lure of California's
warmer climate. A few months later Roy returned to Southern California, where the rest of
his family soon joined him. Although the Depression was growing worse by the day, Roy
and his father had hoped that jobs would be easier to find on the West Coast than they
were in Ohio. However, California turned out to be just as hard hit as the rest of the
country. Jobs were hard to come by, and they didn't tend to last very long. Roy worked at
anything he could find, including driving a gravel truck on a highway construction crew
until the truck's owner went bankrupt. In the spring of 1931 Roy went up to Tulare (located
in central California's farm belt), where he picked peaches for Del Monte and lived in the
same labor camps John Steinbeck wrote about so powerfully in his classic novel, "The
Grapes Of Wrath".

After returning from Tulare, Roy happened to be playing his guitar and singing at his sister
Mary's house when she suggested that he try out for the Midnight Frolic radio program,
which featured amateur talent and was broadcast on KMCS in nearby Inglewood. Although
Roy was reluctant, Mary finally talked her brother into going on the program. A few nights
later, wearing a Western shirt his sister had made for him, Roy overcame his innate
shyness and appeared on the program, where he sang, yodeled, and played the guitar.
Years later, Roy said that he was so nervous when he came to the microphone that
afterward he never could remember what songs he sang that night. Still, he must have
done all right, because a few days later he received a phone call asking if he'd like to join a
local country music group called The Rocky Mountaineers. Despite his shyness Roy was
always willing to reach out for any opportunity that came his way, so he accepted the
group's offer and became a member of the band in August of 1931. Before long, he began
urging the group to let him find another vocalist, so they could harmonize together.
Eventually they gave in, and he placed an ad in the Los Angeles Examiner seeking a
"yodeler." Roy always enjoyed telling the story about how Bob Nolan showed up for his
audition carrying his shoes in his hand. Bob had spent the summer working as a lifeguard
at Venice Beach, and the long walk from the old red car trolley line to the house where The
Rocky Mountaineers were rehearsing had caused his new shoes to give him blisters. But
with or without shoes, Bob Nolan was a singular talent. As soon as Roy heard Bob yodel,
his eyes lit up, and Bob said he knew he had the job. Before long, Bob's friend Bill
"Slumber" Nichols joined the group, and they began singing together as a trio.

Bob Nolan stayed with The Rocky Mountaineers for about a year before deciding the group
really didn't have a future. Roy placed another newspaper ad, and Tim Spencer became
the newest member of the group. In September 1932 Roy, Tim, and Slumber left The Rocky
Mountaineers and worked briefly with The International Cowboys. In June 1933 Roy and
Tim joined a new group called The O-Bar-O Cowboys and embarked on what turned out to
be a disastrous tour of the Southwest. The Depression had hit rock bottom and
entertainment was something most people simply couldn't afford. The boys barely made
enough money to pay for gasoline as they drove throughout Arizona and New Mexico in
the heat of summer in the days before air conditioning. Roy recalled, "We starved to death
on that trip. We ate jack rabbits, we ate anything we could get to eat." While in Roswell,
New Mexico, the group was given air time on the local radio station so that they could
promote their appearance in town. Each of the boys talked about how homesick he was
and mentioned his favorite foods in hopes someone might take pity on them. Roy
mentioned how much he missed his mom's lemon pies, and a short time later a call came
in to the station saying that if he would sing "The Swiss Yodel" the caller would bake him a
pie. That evening there was a knock on the cabin door at the motor court where the boys
were staying. When the door was opened, there stood Arline Wilkins and her mother, each
with a freshly baked lemon pie. After Roy's return to Los Angeles, he and Arline began
corresponding, and in 1936 they were married.

In September 1933 The O-Bar-O Cowboys straggled back to Los Angeles and the fellows
went their separate ways. Roy was able to land a job singing with Jack And His Texas
Outlaws on radio station KFWB. Still, the desire to be part of a good harmony group
wouldn't leave him. Roy always loved harmony singing, and even after achieving success
as a solo performer, he always preferred singing harmony to singing solo. He contacted
Tim Spencer and talked him into giving it another try and said he thought Bob Nolan should
be the third member of the trio. Roy and Tim drove out to the Bel Air Country Club where
Bob was working as a golf caddy. (Somehow or other, even in the midst of the Depression,
Roy always managed to have "wheels.") Although Bob was somewhat reluctant, he agreed
to join with them and see if they could make a go of it. The three fellows moved into a
boarding house in Hollywood (that had once been owned by Tom Mix), and they began
rehearsing. The boys decided to put the emphasis on Western music and call themselves
The Pioneer Trio. Day after day and hour after hour they rehearsed until someone's voice
gave out. Throughout this time Roy continued singing with The Texas Outlaws so they
could pay their rent. After weeks of constant rehearsing, the trio finally felt they were
ready to be heard.

The boys were able to get an audition at KFWB, and many years later Bob Nolan recalled
that day. He and Roy and Tim were confident they'd developed a good vocal blend, had
some fine original songs, and had come up with a unique trio yodel. While they stood on
stage singing, Jerry King, the station's general manager, along with staff announcer Harry
Hall, listened to them from the control booth. After a couple of tunes The Pioneer Trio went
into Bob's song "Way Out There," which featured their distinctive trio yodel. As soon as
they began the yodel, Jerry King got up and left the booth. Bob recalled, "our hearts fell to
our feet." It seemed as if the endless weeks of rehearsing, developing a new sound,
writing songs, and building a large library of musical material had all been for nothing.
When a smiling Harry Hall came over to the boys, they asked why he was so happy when
the station manager had just walked out on them. Hall told them that as soon as Jerry King
had heard their trio yodel he'd turned to him and told him the group was hired. The boys'
dejection rapidly turned to joy.
Happy
Trails!
The Life & Time Of Roy Rogers
Happy Trails To The King of Cowboys
Click for #2