Roy Roger’s Journey Through Life
Roy Rogers was born into a middle class family of farmers. He started his music career in California with his cousin. He was also in several other music groups throughout his life. His acting career began in 1935. During his acting career, he legally changed his name multiple times until he finally changed his name to Roy Rogers. He has been rewarded with many accolades.Roy Rogers is considered one of the most popular western stars of his era. Born November 5, 1911, Roy Rogers left behind a large legacy in music and acting.
On November 5, 1911, Leonard Slye, later changed to Roy Rogers, was born in Con innate, Ohio to Andrew and Mattie Slye who was a middle class farming family. Rogers joked that, ”We were so far back in the woods, they almost had to pipe in sunlight” (Rogers). His family later moved to Duck Run, Ohio where the family worked on a farm and Rogers and his father worked in a shoe shop. The family businesses were
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not bringing in enough money and were too much to manage. When Rogers’s sister Mary moved to California, they went with her in 1930 hoping that they be able to find jobs easier on the west coast during the Great Depression. The only jobs Rogers could find was a truck driving job for a construction company hauling gravel and picking fruit for Del Monte (Zwisohn). Rogers stated that “You couldn't beg, borrow, or steal a job in 1931, or 1932” (Rogers). In 1931, Rogers and his cousin created a music group called the Slye Brothers.
The Slye Brothers went on tour. When the group was on tour, Rogers met a girl named Lucille Ascolese who he later proposed to over a radio broadcast in 1933. Then in June of 1933, Rogers went on tour with another group called the O-Bar-O Cowboys. Once Rogers finished the tour with the O-Bar-O Cowboys, he decided to begin his own group called Sons of the Pioneers. In 1934, Rogers and Ascolese began to get a divorce in order. Asolses said that they were separating because she was “jealous and tired of being a musician's wife” (Ascolese). Then in 1935, Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers were given a role in the 1935 film Slightly Static. On June 8,1936, the couple became officially separated. Then in the same month on June 11,1936, Rogers married Arline Wilkins who he met in Roswell, New Mexico while on tour with the O-Bar-O Cowboys. Also, in 1936, Rogers and Sons of the Pioneers were in Gene Autry’s film, The Big Show
(Sylvester). After the films like The Big Show, Roger’s acting career really began to gain momentum. After those films, Rogers got a contract with Republic Pictures. Then in 1938, Rogers was in Under Western Stars, a Western film. Under the Western Stars was the first starring role for Rogers, made under the contract with Republic Pictures. In 1940 Rogers played a supporting role in the John Wayne classic Dark Command (Zwisohn). In 1940 Rogers bought a clause into a contract with the studio where he would have the right to his likeness, voice and name for merchandising. Then in 1941 Rogers and Wilkins adopted a girl, Cheryl Darlene. In 1942 Rogers and his wife legally changed their names to Roy Rogers and Grace Arline Rogers (Biography.com). In 1943 Wilkins gave birth to Linda Lou Rogers. Rogers and Wilkins then had a son, Roy Jr. ("Dusty") in 1946. Arline died of complications from the birth a few days afterward on November 3,1946. Roy and Dale Evans married on New Year's Eve in 1947 at the Flying L Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma, where a few months earlier they had filmed Home in Oklahoma. In August 1950, Evans and Rogers had a daughter, Robin Elizabeth, who died of complications from Down Syndrome shortly before her second birthday (Manheim). In 1951 The Roy Rogers Show was created which aired from 1951 to 1957. The show was a western show which starred Rogers and Evans. His show featured Rogers as a ranch owner, Dale Evans as a restaurant owner, and Pat Brady as the cafe's cook (royrogersworld.com) Rogers’s program showed many situations that kids would likely be drawn too, including a Jeep that would ride off without a driver, lots of horses including Roy's golden palomino Trigger, and future television series star of his own, Bullet, the wonder dog (royrogersworld.com). Each week, Roy would be seen fighting corruption, rescuing the helpless, or lending aid to the needy. It was a show of constant action and high morals. The show’s moral lessons reflected on Rogers and Evans actual values; both Rogers and Evans were devout Christians and believed in high family values (royrogersworld.com). Rogers also made a fan club for kids which was called Roy Rogers Riders Club. The club was not really a club; it was a rule set that was made of moral values (cowboyway.com). Rogers said that his rule set was: One be neat and clean; Two be courteous and polite; Three always obey your parents; Four protect the weak and help them; Five be brave but never take chances; Six study hard and learn all you can; Seven be kind to animals and take care of them; Eight eat all your food and never waste any; Nine love God and go to Sunday school regularly; Finally, ten always respect our flag and our country (Rogers). Roy’s mom, Mattie died on November 3, 1958 in Apple Valley, San Bernardino County, California and was buried Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, California (Zwishon). In the fall of 1962, Rogers and Evans co-hosted a comedy-western-variety program, The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show. The show aired on ABC and was canceled after three months. Roger's horse Trigger, which he had on the Roy Rogers show, died July 3,1972. Rogers’s dad, Andy Slye died on August 3, 1972, in Apple Valley, California and was buried Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California (Biography.com). Roy Rogers and Dale Rogers were inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1976. Roy was inducted again as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers in 1995. On February 29, 1984 Roy appeared in the episode “King of the Cowboys” on the TV series, The Fall Guy (Biography.com). Rogers died of congestive heart failure on July 6, 1998 at the age of 86. Roy Rogers and Dale Rogers were living in Apple Valley, California at the time of his death. Rogers was buried at Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Apple Valley, San Bernardino County, California. Evans died February 7, 2001 at the age of 88 in Apple Valley, California (Sylvester). Long before their death Rogers and Evans bought a museum in 1967. The museum, though it is closed to the public, still holds memorabilia, archives, and remembrances of Roy Rogers life, legacy, and effect that he had and still has on the world. The museum since it has been built has gone through many location changes throughout the years. It was originally built in Apple Valley, California. The museum then moved to Victorville, California in 1976, and then finally to Branson, Missouri in 2003 (Biography.com). Roy Rogers is considered one of the most popular western stars of his era. Born November 5,1911 Roy Rogers left behind a large legacy in music and acting. Rogers had a rough start moving from place to place. His family could barely hold a stable job. The fact the Great Depression was starting did not help matters. Though times were hard Rogers defied the odds and became a successful actor and singer. He ended up coming out on top with many awards and accolades. In the end, Roy Rogers became an inspiration and legend to many.
If you went off on a quest would you come back a changed person? “The Hero’s Journey isn’t just a pattern from myth. It’s the pattern of life, growth, and experience for all of us”(Harris and Thompson 49). Charles Portis is the author of True Grit, a western novel that takes place through the Indian Territory in Arkansas. In the novel True Grit, the character Mattie Ross, shows an interesting example of “The Hero’s Journey.” As we read we learn she is very outspoken and strong willed, she always wants things to be her way. Mattie shows us a great example of being very independent at the age of fourteen, but after her journey does she truly change as a person?
“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us…The hero journey is a symbol that binds …. (Phil Cousineau).” Mattie Ross learns this in True Grit, by Charles Portis, when she experiences the death of her father. She says, ”…Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas and robbed him of his life and his horses and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band(11)”. Frank Ross, Matties’ father, who was shot to death, by a man named, Tom Chaney. Mattie Ross is just 14 years old in the 1870’s, she states, “Nothing is free in this world except the grace of god, you must pay for everything.(pg?)” Personal growth often comes at a great expense. She is in beginning of the separation stage in a hero’s journey, which consists of the call and threshold. Harris and Thompson define the call as, “…invites the initiate into the adventure, offers her the opportunity to face the unknown, an imbalance or injustice in her life”(50). Her father getting killed and Mattie getting vengeance, is her invite. This is followed by, the threshold, known as the jumping off point. She states, “We hit the river running…we came out some little ways down the river.”(107) She has now made it into the Choctaw Nation to assist in the pursuit, in the unknown world, “a different world full of dangers and challenges (Harris and Thompson 50)”. Next, is the initiation and transformation then, the return to the known world. You can see, Mattie encounters her call when her father was killed.
Watching a film, one can easily recognize plot, theme, characterization, etc., but not many realize what basic principle lies behind nearly every story conceived: the hero’s journey. This concept allows for a comprehensive, logical flow throughout a movie. Once the hero’s journey is thoroughly understood, anyone can pick out the elements in nearly every piece. The hero’s journey follows a simple outline. First the hero in question must have a disadvantaged childhood. Next the hero will find a mentor who wisely lays out his/her prophecy. Third the hero will go on a journey, either literal or figurative, to find him/herself. On this journey the hero will be discouraged and nearly quit his/her quest. Finally, the hero will fulfill the prophecy and find his/herself, realizing his/her full potential. This rubric may be easy to spot in epic action films, but if upon close inspection is found in a wide array of genres, some of which are fully surprising.
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Wilkins was born on August 30, 1901, in St Louis, to William D. and Mayfield Edmondson Wilkins. The previous year his parents had relocated from Holly Springs, Mississippi. Although his father was a college graduate and a minister, the only work he could find was tending a brick kiln. Wilkins's mother died of tuberculosis when the boy was four. In his book, Standing Fast, written in collaboration with Tom Matthews, a Newsweek senior editor, Wilkins revealed that his mother, knowing she was terminally ill, had written to her sister in St. Paul, Minnesota, asking her to rear her children. His father, fulfilling her last request, sent Roy and his younger brother and sister to live with the designated aunt and uncle, the Samuel Williamses. They lived in a low-income, integrated neighborhood but stressed to the children the value of an education and moral principles. Wilkins attended the integrated Mechanic Arts High School and became editor of the school newspaper.
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