Roy Rogers, after the end of his cowboy movie career, in the 50s he was spokesman for Chrysler Dodge, and went to Bonneville for speed week, and in the 60s, switched to Nissan

In 1954, the Dodge division had a new 241 CID Red ram hemi V8 and popular celebrity spokesman  cowboy Roy Rogers. Here’s Roy with the bright yellow Royal convertible pace car for ’54, decked out with Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels and a continental spare tire.

During speed week Roy ran his own Chrysler Town And Country station wagon with dual carbs to 107 mph.

Roy liked the Patrol, so Nissan offered him one (plus two pickups and a station wagon) in return for endorsing it. They still make a Nissan Patrol, some 40-50 years later

Late 50's early 60's photo of Roy Rogers piloting a Powercat Boat. The boat was powered by twin 70HP Mercury Outboards.

Yellow Jacket Boats were wooden boats made in Dennison, Texas from 1949-1959. At one time Roy Rogers was part owner and spokesman for the company.

Boat photographed at the Roy Rogers~Dale Evans Museum in Branson, MO. https://www.flickr.com/photos/9385421@N08/3062838644/  it closed in 2009, as it was losing money due to not enough people remembering Roy and Dale, and wanting to stop by the museum.

And Roy was part owner of a sports car dealership

In a season-long battle of ballots, Maury Wills received more votes than Tommy Davis as the most popular Dodger in an annual event sponsored by Roy Rogers and Frank Millard of Frank Millard Sports Car Center in Encino.

 Maury was presented a brand new MG roadster for stealing the show.

Thanks Steve!

http://www.autonews.com/article/20080519/OEM02/305199939/roy-rogers
http://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/2015/05/24/eight-great-but-forgotten-indy-500-pace-cars/

Here's something cool and unusual.... Fatimah has over a dozen cars, for renting to Hollywood studios for tv and movie use... and recently bought a 49 Dodge that Roy Rogers originally bought for his dad!

 Roy Rogers bought it for his dad, but the dad didn't want it after a while so it sat at Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Happy Trails Ranch in Apple Valley.

Then Roy sold it, and that man died and his wife took it to the Play Toys Classic Car dealership in Yucaipa and left it in consignment.

A guy working there bought it, kept it for 10 years, and then listed it on Facebook marketplace where Fatimah found it

She had been working as a driver on a movie set, and figured, if she had a car that the movie was renting, she's get more days on set, more pay, and that's a great way to make a living! 

The movie production company told her they'd book it, if she got it painted... and voila!

now it's really nice looking! 

I emailed her about this, and asked a couple questions, and she replied that she's even a fan of Roy, and old westerns, because when she was growing up, her dad was watching them! 

So, fast forward to nowadays, and she now has 16 Hollywood picture cars, (I posted about the Tercel yesterday) and has had them in Speilberg's movie the Fabelmans, Ford vs Ferrari, The Rookie, Dolomite Is My Name (really good Eddie Murphy movie in 2019) and many others!  The '49 was in the movie "On Swift Horses"  www.imdb.com/title/tt15042300

Her website for the car rentals (weddings, events, movies, etc!) http://itcosttofloss.com

Thanks Fatimah! Very cool hearing about your Hollywood picture car rental business... and your Roy Rogers Dodge! 

Roy wasn't messing around, he was Jeeping around, and that inspired him to put a Jeep on his tv show

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stiffspeed/permalink/1088515334628415/

the Jeep in the photo above was "Jezebel" - Roy's green Jeep. His daughter Cheryl had to drive it to high school and hated it...until she found out that the boys thought it was cool.

She later bought "Gertrude the Gutless Wonder" a mint green 1950 Chevy with a 3-speed manual

Roy may have gotten the name from the book "Jezebel The Jeep" by Fairfax Downey. It appeared in shortened pulp form in January 1944:

Thanks to Steve for identifying that Jeep!

One of the most memorable characters on the Roy Rogers TV show that ran from 1951 through 1957 was neither Roy, Dale, Trigger, Buttermilk or even Bullet - or for that matter even made of flesh and blood. It was a TV icon manufactured from good old American steel and named Nellybelle, a 1946 Willys CJ-2A Jeep with some very innovative bodywork.

Roy Rogers chose to include a Jeep into the program because he noticed that after WWII, Jeeps were very popular, especially with children. Rogers himself owned a Jeep which he used for hunting, off road cruising and travel to and from his studio. (the above black and white photo)

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/nellybelle-5338180-details.aspx

a Nudie Cohn made Pontiac was used in a Kid Rock video, and on the cover of his album... it was a Roy Rogers car

for 3 or 4 other Roy Rogers posts, as he was a car collector and Bonneville lakes racer: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=roy+rogers

For the definitive Nudie Cohn post http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/08/nudie-cohn-nuta-kotlyarenko-customizer.html

http://eclassicautos.com/870_cowboy-cars-amelia-island-concours.html

Roy Rogers, 1958 magazine cover photo on a Harley, and an Indian in 1946

Roy Rogers rode out to Hollywood in the early 30’s on a motorcycle when times were bad and transportation costs were high. He took a liking to the sport, riding his Indian until World War II. Out of the saddle for 16 years his last bike was a 74 cubic inch Harley-Davidson.

and he didn't play favorites it seems, not only did he advertise for Harley and Indian, he also advertised for Honda and Nissan http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/09/roy-rogers-after-end-of-his-cowboy.html

It's too bad he lived so long before me, I'd have liked to have met him. I bet he was one hell of a nice guy.

Thanks Steve!
https://quickthrottle.com/motorcycles-of-the-stars/

Nudie Cohn (Nuta Kotlyarenko) customizer of Bonnevilles to the western movie stars

Stars of the then popular western movies were no exception to the taste for extravagance in rolling stock. Indeed, with many of them having added a film career to their stardom as singers or rodeo performers were well used to glitz and glamour in their garb and extremes in what they drove. And indeed in the case of one Nudie Cohn who first put rhinestones on cowboys it was the same designer who decorated cowboys who also slathered their vehicles with western iconography. Silver six-shooters might be door handles or gear shift levers and silver dollars were imbedded in leather upholstery. Kiddie seats were little saddles. (All pre-seat belts and car seats obviously.)

 Nudie Cohn fled the anti-Semitism of the Ukraine as a pre-teen. A custom official in New York decreed that the shorter name was better for the lad's life in the new world than Nuta Kotlyarenko. He was probably right. Anyway, after wandering about the country, improving his English by going to western movies, Nudie ended up in the Hollywood area as a tailor and was soon turning his taste for westerns and an in-born imagination into fabulous costumes.

 Cars caught his fancy and since a publicity-aware General Motors favored him with a free Pontiac Bonneville every year to "dress", his Nudie Mobiles became as famous as his suits, boots and hats.

 Some seven or eight Nudie Mobiles may still be in running order. Certainly the best is one that Nudie presented to his friends and clients Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, two of the most popular country and western singers and "oater" stars ever. DeWayne Deck, a Denver business man with an eye for the unusual bought the car at a July 2010 auction when the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans museum closed its door in Branson, Mo. It was not that the stars had run out of fans so much as the fans had run out of mobility. The auction was a great success.

 DeWayne Deck knew what he wanted and what he wanted to pay for it. He made one bid and the world's most dramatic Bonneville was his for a total of $254,500. 

The Santa Fe Concorso tracked down the ex-Rogers and Evans car in Denver and invited its new owner to let it be one of three Cowboy Cars to be shown at the third edition of the Santa Fe Concorso. And thus its lane-wide steer horns mounted on the radiator will grace the greenery at the Club at Las Campanas Sept. 30.

 But not all cowboys in those days equated glamour with glitz. Call it perhaps a taste for exaggerated elegance; Tom Mix was attracted to the 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton with its unique coffin-nose and buttery color. It was just one of three made that was outfitted similarly (an exterior tire mount in the back for instance.) Bob White of Scottsdale AZ acquired his elegant Cowboy Car at a 2010 auction and oversaw a meticulous frame-off restoration before showing it at Amelia Island Concours of 2012. Bill Warner, founder of that fine Florida event 15 years ago said of the car: "The 812 Cord is rare, technologically advanced and extraordinarily desirable."

above article from http://santafeconcorso.com/about.html

 read more at http://mrkicks66.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/rhinestone-cowboy-nudie-cohn-pictures-new-western-cowboy-boot-tips-in-store/ which has more photos 

in 1939, a 4 cycle 1.5 hp motor was made to be bolted onto a Schwinn... and the Whizzer was born

During the beginning of World War II, Whizzer faced challenges but ultimately gained government approval to continue engine production by highlighting the Whizzer as essential transportation for defense workers. 

This led to the exclusive "New Model" engine designed solely for defense workers.

and there was a Roy Rogers Whizzer too

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/04/roy-rogers-brand-whizzer-thanks-steve.html

https://www.audrainautomuseum.org/colors-the-cars-of-summer/1955-schwinn-whizzer-model-wz-1955-motorbike

Roy Rogers liked Lincolns, and going to the swap meet... can anyone recall ever meeting a world wide known respectable celebrity in a swap meet? That blows my mind

This 1964 Lincoln (bought used by Roy in 1965) was supposed to be painted palomino color (originally it was baby blue), but Roy didn't realize that the friend he had paint it was colorblind, so it turned out canary yellow. Boy, was Roy surprised when he got back from vacation. But he kept it this color and he and Dale used it a lot to "take around town, or on the long road trip between Apple Valley and Los Angeles."

Thanks Steve! (Steve and I, maybe more me than him, were amazed at the many cars Roy was known to have, and these were two that I wasn't aware of)

Gene Autry's woody 50s Cadillac, coincidentally, Roy Rodgers had a 40s woody Cadillac

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-roy-rogers-and-dale-evans-honey.html to see Roy's

Roy Rogers was a Bonneville racer! 107 mph

Not sure why Roy is with the trophy given to the Shadoff Special but here's the history of it http://www.ugofadini.com/shadoffstory.html , and the Maremont trophy ( comes with a 1000 dollars ) given to the racecar with the best design and construction (engineering excellence).

The Shadoff Special was designed by Dean Batchelor

http://landracing.com/index.php/component/content/article?id=250

http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,5202.msg113046.html#msg113046

For a really cool 1952 Bonneville magazine coverage article http://books.google.com/books?id=jdwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA298&lpg=PA298&dq=%22maremont+trophy%22&source=bl&ots=KTT7gRf8EM&sig=E11vz0C8ceUn52H_E6AZiDnMEGk&hl=en&ei=ErwRTLXoHNL-nAfH5sWRAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22maremont%20trophy%22&f=false

Photos via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4917940

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by-part-2.1154030/page-420#post-13475944

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1153580206779374&set=a.481507413986660

Roy Rogers and Dale take a Chrysler to the proving grounds of hills and racetrack banks.... and Roy wasn't behind the wheel (thanks Steve!)

inspired by, and a tribute to, the Roy Rogers 1946 Cadillac Series 62 car

The full woody conversion was professionally done in Argentina. It has bull horns on the hood, six-shooter door handles, rear mounted shotgun, roof rack with saddles, full genuine cow hide interior, and exterior accents. The rear converts to a full camping kitchen complete with vintage products. It is powered by its correct 346cid V8 engine and automatic transmission.

 found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/834204169970608/
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/01/11/cowboy-cadillac-to-cross-the-block/

I wonder how many Messerschmitts ever did parade duty, in Wisconsin? Probably just this one, and who would guess it would be a cool little parade car?

 

Orin Benson, a nationally acclaimed dog trainer I've never heard of, and I grew up about a 100 miles away

Orin Benson was a pioneer trainer of hunting and field trial retrievers. After working at the famous Boalt Kennels in River Hills, Wisconsin, he opened his own training facility in Eagle, Wisconsin. There he drew clients from coast to coast.

 Over the years he befriended a wide range of customers including politicians and movie stars. Some of the notable ones were: Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, Gene Autrey, Clayton Moore, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Andy Devine and Prince Phillip of England.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by-part-2.1154030/page-1239#post-14098919