Happy Trails to you (can you hear the music? Sure can, I don't know how many Saturday mornings I watched the trailer of the show.
Although right now I'm listening to "Whiskey for my Men, Beer for My Horses". I most always like the sound of Willie's music, but not always the lyrics. These I like. I've got it right on my desktop, where I can play it to cheer myself up. :)
Since this is TC's thread here's the Happy Trails Commemorative Revolver: (although I bet TC likes the song too, although he was a rough tough Marine by the time the TV show was on.
"(although I bet TC likes the song too, although he was a rough tough Marine by the time the TV show was on.)" You've no idea how hard I laughed reading this!!
You apparently think we 'Venerable Ones' emerged from caves
with animal skins on and stepped right into adulthood and television??..:))
Sorry...we chilluns were privileged to see Moving Pichurs, and Roy and Dale and Gene Autrey, etc. first were OUR heroes!
As a very little girl, we listened to radios!!, and if I cleaned my room on Saturday mornings, I earned a whole quarter -- that got me into the Saturday matinee and also popcorn and 2 candies.
We all were quite vociferous in cheering the Good Guys in white hats, and booing the Bad Uns with black hats...
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Roy's biography describes his very poor farm background and struggles to succeed, on radio and in several singing/musical groups, until:
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"In the summer of 1934 Jerry King began Standard Radio, his own transcription company, and the first artists he recorded were The Sons Of The Pioneers. Up until that point the Pioneers had been heard only in the Southern California area through their radio broadcasts and personal appearances. All this changed when their transcriptions began being played on hundreds of radio stations throughout the United States and Canada.
Meanwhile, radio work had led to the Pioneers' first film appearance, in the Warner Bros. short Radio Scout, starring Swedish comedian El Brendel. A few months later the Pioneers made their feature film debut, in The Old Homestead, which featured Mary Carlisle. These films were soon followed by their appearances in two Westerns starring Charles Starrett (Gallant Defender and The Mysterious Avenger), two with Dick Foran (Song Of The Saddle and California Mail), and an appearance in the Bing Crosby film Rhythm On The Range, where they joined Bing in singing "I'm An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande)." In July 1936 the Pioneers left KFWB and traveled to Dallas to appear at the Texas Centennial. While performing there they appeared in Gene Autry's film The Big Show, which was partially filmed on location at the Centennial. Interestingly, one of the visitors who saw The Sons Of The Pioneers perform at the Texas Centennial was a young singer named Dale Evans.
Back in Los Angeles the Pioneers continued radio work on KHJ along with more film work and recordings for Decca and OKeh. The enormous success of Gene Autry's films had caused just about every movie studio to jump on the singing cowboy bandwagon, and Columbia Pictures signed The Sons Of The Pioneers to appear in Charles Starrett's series of Westerns. In the meantime Gene Autry had grown unhappy with his contract with Republic Pictures and was threatening that he might not report for the start of his next film. Republic decided to prepare themselves just in case he carried through on this. One day while Roy (who was still known as Len Slye) was in a hat store in Glendale, he heard someone say that Republic was holding auditions for a singing cowboy the following day. "I saddled my guitar the next morning and went out there, but I couldn't get in because I didn't have an appointment. So I waited around until the extras began coming back from lunch, and I got on the opposite side of the crowd of people and came in with them. I'd just gotten inside the door when a hand fell on my shoulder. It was Sol Siegel, the head producer of Western pictures." Siegel, who remembered Roy from the work he and the Pioneers had done in two of Gene Autry's films, asked what he was doing there. When Roy said he'd heard they were looking for another singing cowboy, Siegel asked if he'd brought his guitar with him. Roy said it was in his car, but that he'd run back and get it. By the time he got back to the producer's office he was out of breath and couldn't sing. Siegel told Roy to rest for a minute and then he'd listen to him. The wait must have been worthwhile, because on Wednesday, October 13, 1937, Republic Pictures signed Len Slye to a seven-year contract. Republic put him to work in the Three Mesquiteers film Wild Horse Rodeo in which billed as Dick Weston, he sang one song. Things were quiet for a few months until Gene Autry failed to report for the start of his next film. By then the studio was prepared, and they put Len Slye, who had been renamed Roy Rogers, into the lead role in Under Western Stars, the film that had been scheduled for Autry. When Under Western Stars was released in April 1938, it became an immediate hit, and it made a star of Roy Rogers. Gene Autry and the studio soon resolved their differences, but in the meantime Republic Pictures had launched Roy Rogers' career.
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Didn't your parents talk about seeing them when they were growing up??