Tuesday, February 13, 2001

Dale Evans didn’t mind second billing
By Bill Whitaker

Roy Rogers may have been the star in both his many screen westerns and at his ranch home in Apple Valley, Ca., but I’ve always thought wife and co-star Dale Evans was the one with the healthiest perspective on life.

For instance, the so-called “Queen of the West” didn’t mind that Rogers might nuzzle his horse more than her during a singing cowboy picture — if it made fans happy.

Although Evans was already a headstrong presence on the movie set in the 1940s and ’50s, she knew her place in the scheme of things at Republic Pictures. When I interviewed her 15 years ago, she recalled with humor how Trigger — Rogers’ famous horse — “used to get billing above me.”

Eventually, the Uvalde native graduated to the point she got billing above Gabby Hayes, Rogers’ wizened, bearded, ever-cantankerous sidekick. But more often than not, Trigger still got more attention than she did, both in the film credits and in the film itself.

“It never bothered me that much,” she said, “but it bothered my agent!”

Although “The King of the Cowboys” slowed significantly after heart bypass surgery, Evans never slackened her pace, even with painful health woes of her own. In late 1984, she suffered through surgery for spurs — and, she reminded me, “not the kind I used to wear on Buttermilk!”

Whatever “Happy Trails” Rogers embarked on in 1998, Dale Evans joined him last week upon her own death at age 88. Doubtless, many local folks have fond memories of Evans, thanks to her lively appearances in Abilene through the years.

But perhaps the most idyllic recollection comes from Buffalo Gap artist and one-time Dallas advertising executive Rick Harvey, who in 1982 led cinematographer Tom Doades and a film crew to Rogers’ Apple Valley Ranch to do promotional spots for a Christian education group.

Just as Evans helped promote Abilene Christian Schools during its big 1985 fund-raiser, a few years before the staunchly religious Queen of the West was serving as spokeswoman for a Dallas-based outfit dedicated to Christian schooling.

“The plan was to shoot in the Roy Rogers Museum,” recalled deep-voiced Harvey, himself a near double for late western star Richard Boone. “Well, we got to talking with Dale and Roy about lighting problems and all and how, frankly, it’d be better if we did it in a home setting.

“Finally, we asked if we could look around their house, and Dale said, ‘Oh, why, we’ve never had a film crew in the house before.’ And I said, ‘Well, sure, I understand completely.’ And then she thought a moment and said, ‘Oh, what the heck! This is for a good cause!’”

During the four-day shoot, Harvey and the others discovered Evans was down-to-earth and straight-shooting, while Rogers was more sentimental, both about his own image as well as actually living up to the kind-hearted, heroic persona he displayed in so many movies and TV shows.

“It was funny,” Harvey said. “Roy loved cartoons and once we walked in while he was sitting in a rocker watching cartoons on TV. He was a little vain about his appearance — and when he realized we were there, he quickly took his glasses off and slipped them into his pocket.

“Then he pulled that rocker right up close to the TV!”

But Rogers had heart. At one point, the cowboy star suddenly became obsessed upon seeing someone lingering outside by the gate of his Apple Valley spread. Finally, he left everyone and went out to meet with an old, bearded codger who resembled Gabby Hayes, by then dead 13 years.

“He stood out there and talked with that old man for maybe 30 or 45 minutes,” Harvey said. “And when he came back, he had the old man’s phone number. Roy said it was another guy who told him that if he ever needed another Gabby Hayes, he was available.”

Later, Evans confided to Harvey: “You watch. Roy will call that old man. He just can’t stand to be mean to anyone!”

Unfortunately for Rick Harvey, neither Rogers nor Evans had any need for anybody who looked like Richard Boone — unless he was well behind the camera.

Contact associate editor Bill Whitaker at 676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com. Check out Bill’s previous columns at www.brazosbill.com. And check out our latest Web site, www.oldwildwest.com.