March 31-April 2, 2001
Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Estate Sale
The following short descriptions occur in no particular sequence. These are stories I was told or overheard while attending the Roy Rogers – Dale Evans estate auction at their home in Apple Valley California on March 31 – April 2, 2001. For photos related to the event, please follow the link at the bottom of this page. A lot of the experience of this sale was being around the other fans and collectors, hearing the personal stories about each piece, and being able to see the unique Roy Rogers collectables laid out for display.
Introduction
I
flew from Columbus, Ohio to Las Vegas, Nevada on Thursday, March 29.
There was a 2 day preview of the auction on the 29th and 30th.
I planned to spend Thursday in Vegas and then drive to Apple Valley for
the auction preview on Friday the 30th. When I got to Vegas the traffic was horrible.
There was road construction everywhere so I decided to leave and
drive to Apple Valley via Death Valley. My
original plans were to drive through Death Valley on Monday, April 2 on my way
back to Vegas. In retrospect it was
a stroke of luck that I made this decision.
The
drive through Death Valley was totally awesome. That is a story I will try to record later.
Especially paying $2.40 a gallon for gas in Furnace Creek.
I
thought that I would come out of Death Valley and get a motel for the night in
Baker, CA. When I got to Baker I
did not see any decent looking motels near the interstate so I got on I-15 and
headed south. As is the case in
many southwestern states, the facilities are few and far between.
To keep this part short, suffice it to say that I ended up in a Motel 6
in Barstow, Ca for the night. Had
dinner at Denny’s. After
breakfast at Denny’s the next morning I made the short drive to Apple Valley.
It
was easy to find the house after going into Apple Valley, at first thinking
that I had missed a turn somewhere. There was no parking problem and I was
there, ROY’S house. Sure was a
funny feeling parking across the street and knowing that I was going into the
house where Roy and Dale and their family had spent 20+ years.
Passing
through the gates consisted of proving that you had paid your $100 entry fee
(NON REFUNDABLE – not counting toward purchase, etc) and walking up the drive.
What a rush.
I
spent an incredible 5 hours touring the house, looking at the thousands of items
to be auctioned and listening to Dusty and Cheryl answer questions and tell
stories of “Growing Up With Roy and Dale.” Darn, that is the title of Dusty’s book, which I
continually kicked myself for not bringing with me and getting it signed by
Dusty. The book is out of print, but you may be able to locate a copy at AbeBooks.
The auction catalog listed
over 1000 items to be sold. Actually,
there were closer to 3000 items that actually went on the block.
It made for an incredible 3 day sale.
Yes, I said 3 days. As it
turned out, they had come with so many additional items that Monday was added as
a sale day. This is why I said
earlier it was a stroke of luck that I went to Death Valley on Thursday.
REMBRANDT
One
of Roy’s fancy cowboy shirts came up for sale.
It was white material and decorated in a cowboy motif.
A picture of Roy wearing the shirt was included with the shirt.
The picture showed Roy with nothing behind him but blue sky. Dusty told the following story about the photo session that
produced the picture. The
photographer wanted Roy pictured with nothing but sky behind him. So they climbed onto the roof of the RR museum to get the
desired angle on the picture. After
the photographer had shot about 20 rolls, Roy said “OK Rembrandt, if you
don’t have the picture by now you never will.
After about 10 more rolls Roy said something like "XKG!#$%^&* Happy
Trails, I’m out of here." And, he
left.
ANDREW’S RESTAURANT
During one of the conversations with Cheryl on Friday, she was asked where Roy like to eat. She said his favorite restaurant was Andrew’s on Palmdale Road. He also like DiNapoli’s for Italian and named a restaurant for Mexican. I did not catch the latter name. Friday after leaving the preview and visiting Roy and Dale’s gravesite, I went to Andrew’s for dinner. Andrew’s is a Family Restaurant with a varied menu of “standard” American cuisine. I opted for the T-Bone steak. I could have probably have made a better selection. The steak was alright, but I have had many better. The homemade rolls are commendable and the pies are baked on-site, served in generous slices and lots of ice cream. All in all it was a pleasant experience and seemed just like a place that “good ole Roy” would have chosen for dinner. I thought that maybe they would have pictures of him there, but there were none.
THE DOWN- SIDE OF THE AUCTION
All things considered, my trip was fantastic. It was a once in a lifetime to visit Roy’s house, see many of the everyday items used by Roy and Dale and have the opportunity to buy them. However, like most things in life there were down sides to the event.
The
first thing that really disappointed me was the family’s request and the
volunteer’s directive that no pictures be taken inside the house.
I had really looked forward to taking lots of digital pictures to share
with my family and other RR fans. I
heard two different related reasons for this no picture mandate.
One was that during the preview on Thursday, pictures were taken and they
were posted for sale on the Internet by Thursday night.
The second I heard was that the family felt that having the pictures in
the hands of the general public and on the Internet was an invasion of privacy
The
second downer was the high prices. The
common man (or woman) did not have a chance to go home with a real treasure
unless you were willing to take out a mortgage on your home.
A few examples: a child’s coffee table that Dusty had put on eBay with
a $900 reserve, that was not met on eBay, sold at the auction for $8,500.
It was signed by both Roy and Dale, but really!; a life-sized cardboard cut
out of Roy that sells retail for around $33 went for $250; a 10 speed Schwinn
bicycle with a picture of Roy on the bike went for $4,000.
There were a few pieces of common household items that were
“reasonable”, but they were few and far between. Be sure to see my later comments on the sale of a bathroom
toilet plunger.
One
more thing that was very POORLY managed was the process to pay for items.
The auction company was poorly equipped to handle the process which
they themselves had created to take your money, furnish your certificate of
authenticity and get you your merchandise.
On Saturday I stayed until the action sales ended around 5:30 or 6:00 P.
M. I then stood in line for 2 ½
hours to pay for my one item. Sunday was better.
I got in line before the auction ended and only had to wait 1 ½ hours.
When I reached the window to pay, they could not find the ticket for my
one item. Monday was much the same;
a one hour wait to pay. The process
to pick up items, which you could get only after paying, was also totally
disorganized. Merchandise was
poorly marked at the time of sale and there seemed to be no rime or reason to
the way items was stored in the garage pick-up area.
Twice I had lengthy waits while auction employees searched for my items.
Overall I would rate the auction company at a 3 on a scale of 10.
Jack Pope made a big deal on Saturday morning about Roy’s punctuality
and that he would be starting everything on time.
This only held true for Saturday. Sunday
and Monday sales both started later than the stated time.
ROY and the POOL QUEUE
While standing in a line for 1 ½ hours on Sunday night to
pay for one item I heard the following story.
It was related to me by a couple that lived in Apple Valley and saw Roy
around town frequently driving his Lincoln Mark V or riding his motorcycle.
The fellow was acquainted with a man who ran one of the satellite dish
companies in the area. The
satellite dish man had sold Roy a unit and was called to do some adjustments on
the antennae and the control box. When
he was in the den, Roy was sitting in his recliner and using a pool queue to
push the buttons to change channels on the control box.
The man asked Roy why he didn’t use the remote and Roy replied that the
remote control was broken. Roy was
told that the remote control could be replaced for $ 100 to which he replied,
why bother this works fine. The
mark of a truly conservative man.
The furnishings and contents of the
house available at the auction were not in the least fancy or extravagant.
Roy used the same desk and desk chair that he had at his first home in
the Hollywood Hills. Additionally,
Roy was typified as a “pack rat” that never threw anything away.
From some of the things offered at the auction, this was easy to believe.
FIVE HOUR TRIP in THREE HOURS
Roy’s personal car was sold at the
auction. It was, I believe, a 1979
Lincoln Mark V with around 65K miles. The
car appeared to be in near perfect condition.
Dusty was asked about the car and said that all required maintenance had
been done on the car at the recommended intervals and it had been kept in the
garage either at the house or at the museum.
When asked about the engine, Dusty said that he did know the size but
that it was the biggest engine offered for the car.
He also said that the car would move right down the road.
As an example he told of making a trip to visit one of his sisters in the
car. The trip normally took 5
hours, but with Roy at the wheel of the Lincoln, it took only 3 hours. At one point Dusty said, “Dad, do you know you are doing
103 MPH.” Roy’s reply was
“Don’t worry about it.”
The Lincoln sold for $25K.
Two other vehicles were sold at the auction.
Dale’s Toyota Corolla went for around $6K and her 2000 Toyota van
brought $18K. I thought these were
reasonable prices for these 2 vehicles. A
1998 Tahoe 27 foot travel trailer was sold for $9K.
I thought this was a real bargain. The
trailer was in great condition and showed very little sign of being used.
ALL the KIDS on TRIGGER
During the preview of the sale on Friday, Cheryl was
talking about her childhood and how they always had lots of animals around the
ranch. One of the stories she told
was how “all” the kids would get on Trigger and ride him at the same time.
She was still impressed with Trigger’s intelligence, gentleness and
patience. I have seen pictures of
Trigger with several of the Rogers kids on him at the same time, but I don’t
think I’ve seen a picture with “all” the kids riding at the same time.
RIDING to the END of the ROAD
Cheryl went on to talk about how the
kids always had horses and ponies. She
had a pony at a young age, but was not allowed to ride it off of the ranch
property. Older sister Linda was
allowed to ride to the end of the road while Cheryl had to stop at the property
line and wait. Her pony had other
ideas. After watching Linda’s
horse proceed past the property line and go further, Cheryl’s pony decided
that he too could exceed the parental limits.
So, with Cheryl trying to stop the pony, she too rode to the “End of
the Road.”
ROY BIT a HORSE
Another story from Cheryl.
There was one particular horse on the ranch that was a very cantankerous
animal. He had a bad habit of
biting Roy on the leg, or other available parts of his anatomy, while Roy was
grooming him. The horse went one
bite to far and Roy turned around and bit the horse.
After that , the horse never bit Roy again.
BOLO TIE – GOLD SLIDE with SILVER TIPS
During the auction many of Roy’s bolo
ties were sold. Roy had made a lot
of the ties and decorated them with polished stones that he had polished and
shaped. One of Roy’s hobbies was lapidary.
Anyway, Roy frequently gave these ties as gifts.
At times he would use gold colored material to make the upper metal slide
portion of the tie and would put silver tips on the same tie.
Dusty asked him about the non-matching parts as he didn’t think it was
quite kosher. Roy’s reply to
Dusty was “What the hell, it’s a gift.”
Roy’s bolo ties, especially ones that he had made, sold for very high
prices at the auction.
CHEERING the HONEY WAGON
There were about 5 or 6 port-a-potties
set up for use by the public during the auction.
After heavy use during the preview on Thursday and Friday, these
facilities were full to overflowing and not fit to use.
On Monday morning during the auction the “honey wagon” arrived to
refresh and sanitize the units. They
were met with a hearty round of applause. Dusty
commented that he bet that this was the only time those guys ever were
applauded. He went on to say that
one of Roy’s first jobs upon arriving in California was dipping out septics
and outhouses by hand. (Ughhh)
$380
TOILET PLUNGER
As a joke, one of the auction workers handed the auctioneer a toilet plunger. At first he rejected the item, but then he said he was going to see how good an auctioneer he was. He said maybe I can get $ 5 for this and then went on to say (jokingly) that this was the only plunger in the house and that Roy had carried it around to all 7 bathrooms. The plunger brought spirited and low dollar bidding until Dusty signed the handle. He said he would sign the handle but wasn’t going to touch the other part. He said was going to sign it “Happy Tails to You.” The bidding ended at $380 with the winning bid coming from a lady from Texas.
$
4000 BICYCLE
A Schwinn bicycle, just an ordinary
lightweight 10 speed, sold for $4K. It
came with a snapshot of Roy sitting on it and a story from Dusty about the times
Roy would come home carrying the bike after running it into the sand and bending
the wheel or puncturing a tire. What is the mentality of some people to pay these exorbitant
prices?
PICTURES of the FRONT DOOR FROM
OUTSIDE
The main entrance to Roy and Dale’s
home is a beautiful carved wood and stained glass door.
During the preview, the door was propped open.
I was attempting to take a picture of the door while standing inside the
house. One of the volunteers quickly told me there were to be no
pictures taken inside the house. Since
pictures on the outside were permitted, I convinced the volunteer to close the
door long enough to enable me to photograph it. The results are pictured on this site.
SQUIRRELS in the GARDEN
Another story from Dusty:
Roy tried to raise a vegetable garden behind the house.
However, as soon as anything green sprouted from the ground, the
squirrels ate it. Roy’s solution
to this was to sit on the patio and shoot at the squirrels with a .22 rifle. As it turned out, golfers on the course immediately behind
Roy’s house did not find that they enjoyed being in Roy’s line of fire.
Thus ended the protection of the vegetables.
ROY'S REVENGE
And yet another story related by Dusty:
One solitary golf club came up for sale.
Dusty said that he called the club “Roy’s Revenge.”
Being right on the golf course a number of golf balls were constantly
coming over the fence into the yard. Roy
used the club to hit the balls back at the golfers.
NRA SHIRT
An emerald green shirt with fancy cowboy
decoration came up for sale. Dusty
said that Roy had ordered the shirt custom made for Dusty.
However, Roy had not taken into consideration that at the time Dusty was
working as a carpenter and that his upper body had grown and developed.
The shirt was too small to fit Dusty.
Roy took the shirt to wear himself.
If you will look back at some old advertising for a membership drive for
the National Rifle Association called “I Am the NRA”, you will see pictures
of Roy wearing the shirt. It sold
for several thousands of dollars.
OPTOMETRIST'S
CASE was a GIFT FROM OPTOMETRIST
One of the items that I was able to
purchase at the auction was an old optometrist’s case.
It is a leather bound case approximately 10 x 16 inches.
It contains wire frames and a large number of individual lenses that fit
into the frames. It was patented in
the late 1890s. It is the tool that
was used to check eyesight and determine the corrective lenses needed to improve
sight.
During the auction Dusty told stories
about many of the items being sold. When this case was sold, no story went along with it.
After the auction on Saturday I asked Dusty if there was a story about
the case or if it had been one of Roy’s swap meet acquisitions.
Dusty said that his dad had been visiting his optometrist’s home one
evening. During the visit the good
Doctor had shown some antiques to Roy. The
case had been among the items displayed. All
the many lenses and the different optical qualities of the varied lenses
fascinated Roy. The doctor gave the
case to Roy as a gift. So much for
the source.
I thought I had seen a similar case in
display at the RR/DE museum on an earlier visit.
Dusty said that the case and other items had been in the museum.
As the kids moved out and there was more room in the house Roy had
brought items back to the house from the museum and the case one such item. So, bingo, not only do I own an item from Roy’s home but
one that was also displayed at the museum.
After I returned home, I was looking
through a book I have in my collection. On one of the pages there is a picture of a display from the
museum. Included in the picture are
an antique secretary/bookcase and a Charles doll that were both sold at the
auction. It would appear that in
addition to items form the house, items from the museum were also included in
the sale.
DUSTY COPIED A PICTURE for ME
Hanging
on the wall of my computer room/den in an antique oak frame I have a 16 x 20
inch signed print of Roy. One item
for sale at the auction was a polyester shirt of Roy’s.
A snapshot of Roy wearing the shirt while he was signing the prints
accompanied the shirt. I would have
liked to added the shirt to my collection but the final bid of $450 was a little
more than I cared to pay. I was
discussing this item with Dusty later and he made me a color copy of the
snapshot and autographed it for me. A
lesser addition to my meager collection, but one that cost less than $450.
DUSTY’S COMMENTS on KIDS and GUNS
I missed much of Dusty’s diatribe on
gun control and kids taking guns to school.
His points included the fact that he had been around guns all his life
and never once even considered taking a gun to school or using one to shoot a
person. He also blamed much of the
gun-oriented violence in children on video guns and lack of proper parental
training and control of their children. At
one point he stated that he was “getting to sound just like dad” and he sat
down. This was followed by a
standing ovation by much of the audience.
VISIT to the CEMETERY
On Friday I got directions from one of the volunteers at the house on how to get to the cemetery, Sunset Memorial Park, where Roy and Dale are buried. She ended the directions with “keep driving until you think you are going to hit the rocks.” The directions were easy to follow and there were only 2 turns to make after getting back to route 18, Happy Trails Highway. The distance from house to cemetery seemed to be about 8 – 10 miles. Most of the country around Apple Valley is high desert and barren of green growth. The path led through fairly flat level terrain and passed through housing sub-divisions of typical small California homes. The lady who gave me directions was correct, it appeared as though I would drive right into a rocky hillside at the end of Waalew Road. There, at the end of the flats, as the road ended at a rock-strewn hillside, is a small beautiful cemetery. The grass is brilliant green and a waterfall flows through the rocks and into a small pool near the gravesite of Roy and Dale.
A large eagle hangs majestically in place over the glimmering pool providing a feeling of calmness and instilling a certain feeling of freedom and serenity. The view back over Apple Valley is breathtaking and don’t miss the opportunity to pause a moment and read the “Cowboy’s Prayer.” Each of their burial plots is covered with a full size slab of stone. On the top of each stone are three crosses, under that are engraved the names by which they were best known, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. On the bottom of the slab are their real names, Leonard Franklin Slye and Frances Octavia Smith and their dates of birth and death. In the middle of Roy’s stone is a large triangle surrounding “33”, signifying him as a 33rd degree Mason. Dale’s stone has a bible and a feather quill engraved in the middle of it.
Although the RR/DE museum is probably a
more visited tourist spot, no true fan of the King of the Cowboys and the Queen
of the West should miss an opportunity to visit this site.
RETIRED AUCTIONEER
The sale on Monday started 30+ minutes
later than advertised. So much for
the auction company’s claims on Saturday that everything would be punctual and
on time. The crowd on Monday was
much smaller and the auctioneers and their employees did not seem very motivated
to move the items across the auction block quickly. There were frequent pauses after the sale of one item while
the auctioneer waited for another item to be held up. This was the case even though the customers had been allowed
in the house prior to Monday’s sale to identify items on which they wanted to
bid. Many of these items were
outside on tables right beside the auctioneer.
The auction was really dragging and the
auction crew did not really seem interested in selling items.
The older gentleman sitting in front of me was getting agitated at the
way things were proceeding. We
started to talk and he said that he had been an auctioneer for 27 years, retired
for the last 10 years, and these people certainly did not know how to conduct an
auction. After a few more of the
breaks between sales, he got up and went to the front. He proceeded to get items off the table and either hand them
to the auctioneer in a rapid and business like manner. The pace of the auction significantly increased at this
point. You could see he was really
enjoying himself. His wife went out
and came back with his white straw “cowboy” hat and he definitely got into
the swing of things. When I went
through the line to pay for my purchases and left, he was still hard at it.
BOX LOT 986
While I was previewing the items for
sale on Friday, I noticed one box sitting on the patio that was lot number 986.
It is listed in the catalog simply as “box misc. papers from office.”
On closer inspection I noticed that there was a large volume of papers in
Dale’s handwriting. There were
poems, songs, and a lot of papers that I did not take a lot of time reading.
Throughout the auction on Saturday and Sunday I kept waiting for that box
to come on the auction block. I had
decided to buy it if at all possible. The
sale had been extended through Monday due to the number of items that had been
added to the sale. On Saturday and
Sunday we had not been allowed into the house.
Prior to the beginning of the sale on Monday we were once again allowed
into the house. The auctioneer
asked that we identify the items we were interested in bidding on so they could
be taken outside. I picked out a
couple of items I had my eye on, and subsequently purchased, and then went
looking for box 986. After
searching the rooms that were open to us and looking on the patio, I could not
find the box. After further
searching, I asked the auctioneer. He
said that family had pulled the box back from the sale.
In addition to handwritten poems and songs that Dale had written for Roy
there were handwritten pages that represented about one-half of an unpublished
book that Dale was working on. What
a prize that would have been!!!!!!
THE $5 BARRELS
Cheryl was talking about how Roy was a
big time pack rat. As an example
she told how he would go to a place where they sold damaged and unclaimed
freight from the railroad. Roy
would buy barrels of “stuff” for $ 5 a barrel.
When he brought it home and went through it, he acted like a kid at
Christmas.
SUMMARY
I have rambled on enough here, probably
more than anyone will care to read.
After my trip plans were cast and
transportation and lodging reservations made, I had some serious doubts as to
whether I really should make this trip. It required a significant investment in vacation time and
money, both of which are In short supply.
In retrospect however, I would not have
missed this opportunity. I got to
stand in the house where Roy and Dale had lived for 20+ years, sit in Roy’s
lounge chair, talk with the Rogers children and experience the overwhelming
feeling of “being there”.
Until and unless the RR/DE museum is closed, there will be no such
opportunity to own items that were part of Roy’s daily life and the few
hundred individuals who were able to attend the auction should consider
themselves to be fortunate.
This ended an era of American history.
There are no great American heroes left!
And there will never be another to come close to ROY ROGERS, King of the
Cowboys.