Bullet, of course, had to come home, too.
After Elkhorn-area businessman Patrick Gottsch secured Trigger, the famed horse of famed movie cowboy Roy Rogers, he went after another piece of Americana up for auction Thursday at Christie's in New York: Roy's famous dog, Bullet.
Now Gottsch plans to display both Trigger and Bullet to the public in a new downtown Omaha headquarters for RFD-TV, his 10-year-old rural-themed cable network, probably within the next year. Gottsch has been talking to city officials about a site but hasn't finalized anything.
Wednesday, Gottsch paid more than $266,000 for the golden palomino. Thursday he added Bullet to his collection, paying $35,000. The two animals, which appeared in dozens of movies and on Rogers' 1950s TV show, were taxidermically preserved after they died. They had been on display at the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo., until it closed last year. Christie's auctioned the museum's collection Wednesday and Thursday.
“Got Trigger some company,” said Gottsch late Thursday afternoon from New York. Bullet, as the auction house noted, helped maintain law and order in the fictional western town of Mineral City and was often filmed running alongside Trigger.
“It's almost surreal,” said Gottsch, 57. “You don't even dream of stuff like this. Here you're standing next to the horse and dog you used to watch on Saturday mornings. And now we're bringing them home to Omaha.”
Gottsch has spoken with Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle about the new headquarters and is in talks with the City Planning Department. He said he envisions the company being a visiting spot for tourists, given the acquisitions of Trigger and Bullet and memorabilia he would like to add.
“Now we're going to have a museum wing,” he said.
Currently, RFD-TV has corporate offices at One Valmont Plaza near 144th Street and West Dodge Road, along with a production studio in Nashville, Tenn., and branch offices in Dallas, Denver and Atlanta.
In the past decade, the channel's reach has grown tenfold, from 4 million households in 2000 to more than 40 million today. The company, which employs 60 across its offices, will grow to 100 employees by the end of the year, Gottsch said.
Ron Gerard, spokesman for Suttle, called Gottsch's decision to relocate “a fantastic addition to downtown.”
“We will work with him to see what's possible,” Gerard said.
The city is far more receptive to this proposal from Gottsch than one he made a year ago when he offered the cash-strapped city $3 million to undo its 2007 annexation of Elkhorn. That time, the city's answer was no.
Gottsch's Elkhorn roots stretch back to a boyhood familiar to those of his generation, one spent watching Trigger and Bullet on TV.
Gottsch said bidding Wednesday was “very aggressive” on the Rogers memorabilia. The mounted animals will be on an RFD-TV set weekly in November, when Rogers' son and grandson will introduce 53-minute-long Rogers films. Gottsch said he's seeking rights for the Rogers TV shows and has 35 of the Rogers movies.
Gottsch had hoped to purchase the entire Rogers collection but said he found out too late about the auction. Nevertheless, he said Trigger and Bullet were the two items he had wanted most.
“Everybody sure thinks RFD-TV is the right home for Trigger,” Gottsch said.
RFD-TV was launched initially through the DISH satellite network and has substantially expanded its reach through new availability on major cable networks, including Cox Cable in Omaha, and most recently Comcast in Denver.
The channel identifies itself as a family-values network that is trying to bring country to the city and give viewers, through its mix of cattle auctions, “Hee Haw” reruns and more, television — in Gottsch's words — “like it used to be.”
Contact the writer:
444-1136, erin.grace@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
