Blue Shadows on My Trail

I think I’m about to find out, yet again, how irrelevant my formative years were, growing up simple-headed in a small town in California in the mid-20th century. I loved Roy Rogers and probably saw all of his movies, several times over. They were all exactly the same with predictably derivative plots. White hats and black hats. Beautiful horses and dogs and jeeps. Who knew from nuance?

Today, Christie’s auction house is selling Trigger to the highest bidder. Legend has it that when Trigger died in 1965 at the ripe old horse-age of 30, Roy couldn’t bear saying goodbye to his beloved equine friend and had him stuffed and subsequently prominently displayed in the front yard of his dude ranch near Victorville, Calif. I think the ranch was called Happy Valley, but I don’t feel like doing the research to corroborate that semi-informed guess. Maybe Apple Valley?

Trigger isn’t the only Rogers memorabilia for sale; his trusty dog Bullet and his wife Dale Evans’ horse Buttercup is also up for grabs. The jeep is there too. Christie’s is expecting to sell Trigger for $100,000 to $200,000 with Bullet fetching $10,000 or so. (Dale and Roy’s best bunkhouse buddy, ahem, Gabby Hayes; will probably garner considerably less since that sort of thing is no longer a true, or profitable, collectible). I understand that the Smithsonian asked Roy’s heirs for Trigger but they refused; preferring instead to negotiate the for-profit margins. I’m trying to come up with some psychological sense to the reason behind Roy and Dale naming their son Dusty. Maybe it’s just a nickname…that would be easiest.

I put in a pre-auction bid of $200 (the minimum) for one pair of Roy’s boots (there are about 100 available) but I don’t expect that to hold up.

Update 7/16/10: Trigger sold to a television station, RFD-TV in Omaha, NE, for $266,500. Separately, the saddle went for $386,500 which was, oddly enough, one of the questions I had when this auction was publicized. Also, it turns out I made a mistake in my attempt to buy some RR boots. Instead of just one pair I had bid on a lot of ten, so I think my $200 was slightly low-ball. It doesn't really matter because I heard (not confirmed) that somebody bought all 100 pairs pre-auction (price undisclosed). So all is not lost, I guess, if I want to ride into that particular sunset on e-bay.