Roy Rogers Auction Keeps Bullet and Trigger Together

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jul 16th 2010 at 6:01PM

In a bit of auction serendipity Roy Rogers' horse Trigger and his dog Bullet will get to stay together. The auction of the contents of the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum was held on Wednesday and Thursday this week at Christie's New York. A Nebraska network, RFD-TV was the winner of the lots for Trigger and Bullet, picking up Trigger for $265,500 and Bullet for $35,000. The stuffed pair will also have a TV career again. RFD-TV owner Patrick Gottsch plans to have the network air old Roy Rogers movies on Saturdays starting November 6. The movie cowboy's son, Roy Jr., will introduce each film with Trigger and Bullet as a backdrop. Gottsch is hoping he can get a whole new generation of children excited about the legendary cowboy. Children can also come to the RFD-TV headquarters in Omaha to visit the famous horse. Alas two other preserved horses, Dale Evans' Buttermilk and Trigger's body double, Trigger Jr. went elsewhere, selling to private buyers for $25,000 and $18,750.

Thousands of items were up for bid, from furniture to costumes and guitars. The handwritten lyrics and music to "Happy Trails" sold for $27,500. The silver jeep Nellybelle sold for $116,500 far above the $20,000-$30,000 estimate. Overall the sale brought in $2.98 million. The AP reports that at the end of the auction the audience broke out spontaneously in a rendition of the Roy Rogers theme song "Happy Trails."

Tags: christies, nellybelle, roy rogers, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Roy Rogers Auction, roy rogers jr., roy rogers museum, trigger