NOT for Roy Rogers, the “King of the Cowboys”, a long and arduous journey on his horse, Trigger, when he made the journey from London to Scotland for concert dates in Glasgow and Edinburgh in February, 1954.
He chose, instead, another form of horsepower:a new British sports car, which he had bought when he arrived in the UK. He was accompanied by his wife, Dale Evans.
“There’s a queue a mile long to buy them in the United States,” Rogers told the Evening Times’s film writer, Tom Goldie,, “and the only way I could get one was by coming to Britain.”
Goldie noted that Rogers had to be one of the most unassuming film stars Glasgow had seen – “except for the dress, which is all part of the show.
"When I spoke to him he was gaily attired in an all-white cowboy suit and stetson hat.
“His jacket bore thunderbird and other Indian designs in brilliant colours; his hat had a leather and silver band, the toecaps of his shoes were solid silver, and for a tie-chain he had a model spur, also in solid silver.”
During his sold-out performances at the Glasgow Empire, Rogers visited some children in such hospitals, shaking their hands and signing autographs for him. In almost every autograph he wrote: “Always be good for Roy Rogers and Trigger”.
He told Goldie that he had severed his connections with film studios. His last movie had been Son of Paleface, with Bob Hope and Jane Russell.
“They wouldn’t agree to let me appear on TV,” he said, “and I was rather annoyed because every other film cowboy but myself was making bigger money on television than they ever made in movies.”
He also said that Trigger, who was 20 years old, knew more than 100 tricks but was bored with some of them. “He’s a ham actor at heart and he likes an appreciative audience,” Rogers said with affection.
The photograph shows Trigger taking a bow in front of excited young fans at Edinburgh's Waverley Station.
Read more: Herald Diary
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