TV & Film
Roy Rogers films inspired by Western skies
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Roy Rogers under Western — and California — skies
Roy Rogers' first starring role was in the movie Under Western Stars (1938), in which he gets elected to Congress to bring water to drought-challenged ranchers in his district.
The part was supposed to have gone to Gene Autry, but Autry was at odds with Republic Pictures at the time; even so, Autry's song "Dust" gets screen time, but with Roy Rogers delivering it and earning an Oscar nomination for best song.
Ten years later, Rogers and Trigger were full-blown stars in Under California Stars, in which Rancher Roy and his boys go to the rescue of Trigger, who is being held for ransom by horse thieves who have been trapping wild horses on Roy's Double R Ranch.
Watch this clip from Under Western Stars — the 1938 movie that launched Roy Rogers' career — for some shootin', ridin', and score-settlin' in glorious black-and-white. Cool clothes, too.
• Buy Under Western Stars
What happens when a cowboys sings a song
If it's Roy Rogers, magic happens. See for yourself in the clip to the right from Under Western Stars, the movie that made him a star.
What's a King of the Cowboys movie without a song or two? In the clip, Roy Rogers sings "When a Cowboy Sings a Song" and strums his signature C.F. Martin OM-45 Deluxe.
Under California Stars (1948): The bad guys steal Trigger, but you know Roy's not going to let that situation go unremedied. In case you've forgotten what a magnificent horse Trigger was, just watch.
• Buy Under California Stars
Produced in 1930, this very guitar was the first of only 15 Martin made of the model.
Originally purchased used for $30 at a California pawn shop in 1933 by a young and unknown musician by the name of Leonard Slye, it was the prototype for one of Martin's rarest, most beautiful, and highly coveted models.
Five years after buying the guitar, Slye would go on to fame as Roy Rogers in Under Western Stars, and about 70 years later, in April 2009, Rogers' famous guitar would sell at Christies in New York for $460,000 (put up for auction by the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri).
• Also on C&I: Celebrate the International Year of Astronomy under Western skies
