Wow! That was fast, Larry. I hadn’t finished last night’s post to ya’ll when Larry Z. sent some additional timeline information.  By the way, I’m adding the photos — some of which are in my last book, “Cowboy Princess Rides Again.”  Dad, his parents and younger sister, Kathleen, had only just gotten to Southern California when:

August, 1931  After failing to find success as part of a singing duo with his cousin Stan Slye, young Leonard Slye takes his older sister Mary’s suggestion and appears on the “Midnight Frolic” radio program which features amateur talent.

Stan and Leonard Slye. (See Dad with the banjo!)

(Dad didn’t win the amateur contest that night but) this leads to an offer to join an old time music group called The Rocky Mountaineers. (Dad, when hired, was the only singer in that group.)

June, 1933  While working with the soon to disband Benny Nawahi and His International Cowboys, a radio time salesman offers young Leonard, Tim Spencer and Cactus Mack a chance to put together a group for a tour of the Southwest, where the public is “hungry for entertainment.”  The tour is a total disaster, however, both Leonard and Tim meet their future wives during the tour.

Benny Nawahi and His International Cowboys (Tim on the
far left and Dad is 2nd from the right)

September, 1933  Back in Los Angeles, Leonard Slye lands a job on the Jack and His Texas Outlaws radio program on KFWB.

October, 1933  Unhappiness with the Texas Outlaws’ vocal harmony leads Leonard to talk Tim Spencer and Bob Nolan (both of whom he worked with, at different times, while with The Rocky Mountaineers) into joining with him to form the Pioneer Trio.

The Pioneer Trio — Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan and Leonard Slye

After weeks of rehearsals, The Pioneer Trio get an audition at KFWB and are hired to perform on Jack and His Texas Outlaws’ radio program.

January, 1934  After only a couple of months on KFWB, The Pioneer Trio was attracting nice write-ups in newspapers and began receiving their own fan mail.  This lead KFWB to give them their own radio program. They added two more performers (Hugh and Karl Farr) and were performing on KFWB as The Sons of the Pioneers and as Farley’s Gold Star Rangers (Gold Star flour sponsored a separate program – thus giving The Pioneers a chance to perform on two separate programs).

The Gold Star Rangers (l to r; Hugh Farr, Leonard Slye, the announcer,
Lloyd Perryman [standing in for Tim Spencer] Bob Nolan and Karl Farr.

February, 1935   Success in the Los Angeles area is broadened when the renamed Sons of the Pioneers record a series of transcriptions which are played on radio stations throughout the United States and Canada.

February, 1942  Now managed by Art Rush (Dad finally got a manager), a man well-versed in radio, Roy Rogers (the former Leonard Slye and now Republic Studios’ B-Western star) begins making frequent guest-star appearances on the popular hit radio shows of the day: the Fred Allen Show, Chase & Sanborn Hour, the Bing Crosby Show, Eddie Cantor’s show, Lux Radio Theatre, Rudy Vallee’s show, Truth and Consequences and Command Performance.

November 1944  The Roy Rogers Show debuts on Mutual Radio.

The Roy Rogers Show (Dale Evans, Pat Buttram,
Roy Rogers, George “Gabby” Hayes

Thanks, Larry for all the great information.

I just got a wonderful email from our friend, Larry Zwisohn. He sends me lots of good information and some really good suggestions. Following is the latest selection of both:

Hi Cheryl, Your website entries about the films and shorts your Dad (Roy Rogers) made during the war years got me to thinking.  Your Dad’s career, in my view, really took off thanks to two things during those years.  First were the rodeo appearances which got your Dad off the one-nighters, going from small theater to small theater for $125 to $150 a night – before expenses.  Rodeos put him in one big city for a week or longer, for much better paydays, before larger audiences.

Dad and Trigger make an appearance at
Madison Square Garden in New York.

The next thing that helped your Dad’s career begin to flourish were his radio appearances.  None o the other cowboys, including Gene Autry, appeared as a guest on as many radio shows as your Dad.  A lot of the credit for this goes to Art Rush (Dad’s agent), who knew radio very well and had many contacts in the field (Art was an artist representative for RCA for years).

Dad and Art Rush in Hawaii,1954

As far as I can tell, your Dad’s buildup on radio began with several dramatic programs, including Skippy Hollywood Playhouses’s “Badge of Authority” in November, 1941.  A week later, he was on “Radio Rodeo” (the announcer was Neil Reagan, Ronald Reagan’s older brother).  In February 1942, Roy was on Stars Over Hollywood’s, “Way Out West in Trouble.”  In April 1942, he was on NBC’s “The Call of the West.”

More importantly, on October 25, 1943 your Dad was the guest on Fred Allen’s show. This was one of radio’s top rated shows and proved your Dad appealed not only to kids but to adults as well.  His success on that show led to many other guest appearances on top radio shows, including the first of several appearances he made on “The Chase & Sanborn Hour” starring Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy.  The vocalist on that first show was Dale Evans. (Larry says he has no idea what became of her – Ha Ha!)

Mom (Dale Evans) with Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen.

The point of all of this is to suggest you mention your Dad’s and Mom’s radio work and…here’s another suggestion: you ask those who read your website if they have copies of any of those programs.  It would be nice to collect them together and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of your web visitors have copies in their attics or garages.  Just a thought.  Best always, Larry

Well, I think Larry always has great suggestions and I hope that some of you out there do have and enjoy some of Dad’s and Mom’s old radio shows. If you would like to share them, you can contact me here, at cheryl@cherylrogers.com and we’ll figure out a way to do that.  Cheryl