None of the children wanted to keep things going for good business reasons. Roy and Dale were solid examples of the capitalism of the '50 and '60s. They only cared about personal gain. The museum collection had no sentimental value. Sentiment, loyalty and caring for things other than money were simply prop-themes to make them attractive on TV.

Dale and Roy taught their children well to emulate their crass commercial interest in things and the exclusion of other values. So the children don't donate old things to museums, but rake in what they can right now, while ensuring that their parents' legacy is scattered to the wind, to be lost and forgotten, while they live on the small addendum to their already great wealth that an auction might bring.

Because, as always, it come down to "How much money can we make off this?". Cover 2 of my "pet peeves" (literally) the enslavment of animals for our own entertainment (Poor animals can even escape it in death) and the need to use everything andf anything to turn a profit. Perhaps we should allow the animals to teach us a few things. Ever see any animal care about how much money it's going to make??

It's a shame they didn't donate all this memorabilia to the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum.

The already moved the musuem from Victorville, Ca. to Branson, Mo. which continued it for about 10 yrs. longer. They can only do so much in this economy. If the musuem isn't making enough to maintain it one finally has to bite the bullet and ride off into the sunset. The children have really been devoted and done the best they can. They are also getting up in age.

I totally agree that it is a shame the collection is being sold. The sad thing is, it'll probably get sold to some foreign collector from Japan or someplace similar. That is what happened when the 75,000 or so artifacts at the Wells Fargo Museum in Tombstone, AZ were sold back in 1983. And we Americans only heard about it from a very small innocuous place in the local newspaper AFTER the fact!! Think about it, American History of any kind or form being sold to someone who can't possibly appreciate its true value, and I'm not talking monetary value. It's a sad, sad day:(

Roy Jr. said last year that no one was coming to the museum any more. It was costing too much to maintain.

ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY