Vintage Roy Rogers Toys

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1911, Leonard Franklin Slye was already a performing "singing cowboy" when he won his stage name, Roy Rogers, in a contest promoted by Republic Pictures in 1938. From the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, Roy Rogers Westerns were hits at the box office. That notoriety led to a television show with his wife and co-star, Dale Evans, in 1951, which in turn spurred the production of all sorts of merchandise, from cap guns and lunch boxes to character wristwatches, alarm clocks, and View-Master reels. Today, Roy Rogers is a ubiquitous brand in the vintage-toys landscape. The cap guns alone offer a dazzling array of objects to collect. Throughout much of the 1950s, a firm in Los Angeles called the George Schmidt Manufacturing Company made Roy Rogers cap guns with polished or engraved barrels. These "Shoot'n Iron" cap guns were sold in both Roy Rogers and Dale Evans models, with the names of the stars stamped between the trigger and barrel. Another manufacturer was Kilgore of Ohio, whose cast-iron Roy Rogers cap guns featured plastic handles. Kilgore's Long Tom cap guns, which were also branded with the name Roy Rogers, were made of steel, and the boxes for these toys advertised Roy Rogers as the "Robin Hood of the Range" and a "Republic Pictures Star." The Leslie-Henry Company of Pennsylvania produced beautifully ornate cap guns for movie stars such as Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, and Roy Rogers, as well as TV shows such as "The Rifleman" and "Gunsmoke." The company's Roy Rogers Forty Niner Pistol was sold in gold or silver, with or without spurs and holsters, and promised 50 shots, each of which produced a puff of smoke. Thermos made numerous Roy Rogers lunch boxes, from those featuring Roy Rogers (on his horse, Trigger) and Dale Evans at their Double R Bar Ranch to blue lunch boxes featuring only Trigger. One vintage Roy Rogers lunch box that's popular with collectors is the domed Chow Wagon. Western Roy Rogers clothing was also produced in great quantities in children's sizes, from jackets to cowboy hats to boots. Sometimes Roy Rogers boots were transformed into banks, other times Roy Rogers was used as a way to encourage children to brush their teeth. Naturally there were plenty of Roy Rogers children's books, and Marx Toys made a number of tin toys covered in colorful lithographs that depicted, for example, a truck pulling a trailer for Trigger. There were Roy Rogers flashlights, Roy Rogers toy guitars, Roy Rogers cereal bowls, and Roy Rogers games, from jigsaw puzzles to horseshoes.