Everything’s Coming Up Rogers
Part of a Series: Exploring the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive
The Autry Institute is currently processing the generously donated business archive of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. At the beginning of each month, the Autry Libraries blog will feature highlights from the collection in anticipation of the processing’s completion.
"I Love a Western," sponsored by Post Cereals and General Foods, from Tournament of Roses Giant Post Card booklet 1956. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
The Tournament of Roses Parade has delighted onlookers with its colorful floral floats since 1890. The 123rd Rose Parade on January 2, 2012, closed with a float with unusual riders. The original Trigger and Bullet, stuffed and mounted, rode on the RFD TV float with Roy Rogers Jr. and Dustin Rogers in honor of the 100th anniversary of Roy Rogers’s birth in 1911.
Image of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans used for the 1977 Official Parade Souvenir Program. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
The float tribute was fitting, as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were frequent participants in the parade. In the 1950s the duo joined the festivities as float riders, appearing on floats for their sponsors Post Cereals and Chevrolet and as parade Grand Marshals in 1977. The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive documents their Rose Parade adventures through official programs and commemorative pictorials that showcase the floats and capture the spirit of each year’s parade.
"The Covered Wagon," sponsored by Post Cereals and General Foods, from the 1954 Tournament of Roses Pictorial. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
Rogers and Evans’s first appearance on a Rose Parade float was on the 1954 Grand Prize–winning “The Covered Wagon,” sponsored by Post Cereals and General Foods. Since Post Cereals sponsored their television series, the float partnership was natural. This first float was covered in hybrid orchids, Hawaiian torch ginger, anthurium, roses, and carnations. The program called it “one of the most vivid entries” in the parade’s history.
"Go West Young Man," sponsored by Post Cereal and General Foods from the Tournament of Roses Review 1955. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
Rogers and Evans continued to work with Post Cereals on floats with such themes as “Go West, Young Man” and “I Love a Western.” “Go West, Young Man” won the Governor’s Trophy for “best characterization of romance of California” in 1955. The float featured Rogers and Evans atop a mountain, with a moving waterfall made of sweet peas and Vanda orchids. At the opposite end of the float, two children reading a book were circled by imagery drawn from the popular Western imagination, described in the program as “an Indian on the warpath, a stage coach, and a train.”
"Adventures in Spotsmanship," sponsored by Chevrolet and General Motors from the Tournament of Roses Pictorial 1959. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
After a brief float hiatus, Rogers and Evans returned as float riders from 1959 to 1961, debuting Chevrolet’s new sponsorship with “Adventures in Sportsmanship” for that year’s theme, Adventures in Flowers. The 1959 float featured more than 12,000 Vanda orchids and 8,000 American Beauty roses, not to mention the rainbow of carnations, chrysanthemums, anthuriums, bachelor’s buttons, croton leaves, poinsettias, and gladioli utilized to bring to life a scene from an “All-American Soap Box Derby.”
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as Grand Marshals of the Rose Parade, from the Tournament of Roses Pictorial 1977. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, Autry Library, Autry National Center; T2010-28.
In 1977 Rogers and Evans were honored as parade Grand Marshals. As of that year they were the first parade participants to be both veteran float riders and Grand Marshals, and also the first husband and wife team. Rogers and Evans’s marriage had occurred on New Year’s Eve 1947, making this Rose Parade a wedding anniversary of sorts and the honor of being first married couple Grand Marshals even more meaningful.
The 1977 parade program stated that Rogers and Evans completely represented the theme of “The Good Life.” It is not hard to imagine that many fans agreed with this statement. The King of the Cowboys and Queen of the West represented a nostalgic American ideal, making them fitting leaders for something as nostalgic and American as the annual Rose Parade.
