Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Happy Birthday to the King of the Cowboys.
Were he still alive, Roy Rogers would have turned 100 years old on Nov. 5.
And if you watch the Rose Parade Monday, you'll see a fitting tribute to the singing cowboy star.
A 75-foot-long float topped with a 35-foot likeness of the cowboy will be led through the parade by 100 riders on golden palominos.
Topping the float will be Rogers' faithful horse and dog — Trigger and Bullet — and his son and grandson — Dusty and Dustin — will sing "Happy Trails."
Omaha-based rural lifestyle cable channel RFD-TV purchased the taxidermied animals and have brought them on tour around the country.
"We really consider ourselves not the owners but the caretakers. We take that responsibility seriously," said Patrick Gottsch, RFD-TV founder and president. "He wanted people to see them and have memories served up."
For sure, the Rose Parade float will be popular with the generation that grew up watching his show and movies. In its heyday, the Roy Rogers Riders Club boasted more than 2.5 million members.
Gottsch said he's received thousands of letters and emails from fans about how the animals have reminded them of their childhoods.
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart, RFD-TV and all the family of Roy Rogers for bringing my beloved Roy and Trigger back to me," said Janice Kucera of Exeter, Neb., on the new Riders Club website. "I cry and thrill, all at once, to see my hero back on the silver screen!"
Kucera said she even named her bicycle "Trigger" when she was a child.
"I get why Roy saved Trigger and Bullet in the first place. I get it," Gottsch said. "He saved them to keep the memories alive that 'The Roy Rogers Show' and movies and living the cowboy way and what the western lifestyle represents."
Gottsch remembers watching the show "just like everyone else: sitting on the floor eating Oreo cookies and watching the shows.
"Then we'd be playing cowboys outside with friends," he said.
The float, which will be the parade's finale, will be decorated with more than 11,000 roses, 5,000 gerberas and 500 carnations.
It's the fourth year that an RFD-TV float has appeared in the parade. In addition to ABC, NBC and several other channels, RFD-TV will broadcast the parade.
Prior to the parade, they'll show a one-hour special on the making of the float.
Rogers' wife and partner, Dale Evans, would have turned 100 years old this year, so RFD-TV plans to keep the "Happy Trails Tour" going through 2012.
Gottsch said he's proud to be able to feature Rogers' show and movies on his channel. And showing off Trigger and Bullet is just another way to pay tribute to Rogers and what he meant for a generation.
"What he represents, how he lived ... He really was the real deal," he said.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com
twitter.com/owhmusicguy
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.
