Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

Roy Rogers Auction Keeps Bullet and Trigger Together

Filed under: Auctions

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

Roy Rogers And More At Bonham's Natural History Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions

Roy Rogers was once an American icon and the "King of the Cowboys" but what you might not know about the singer and actor who died in 1998 was that he was a rockhound and mineral collector. Some of his mineral treasures are part of Bonhams upcoming Natural History auction on May 27 in New York City.

Rogers collected nearly every detail from his life. He held on to everything he could. In today's world he'd might end up an episode of a hoarding television show but instead the cowboy icon created a museum full of all the personal things he saved. Even his famous horse, Trigger, was mounted and displayed at the museum, which was first in Victorville, California. The museum suffered with dwindling attendance and in 2003 was moved to Branson, Missouri. Unfortunately it didn't fare too well there either and it closed last year. The various pieces of the collection, from the old battered car that took Rogers's family from Ohio to the large memorabilia archives from the family and the old Roy Rogers television show, will be sold off piecemeal through various auction houses with appropriate specialties.

Tags: cameos, gemstones, jewelry, jewelry designers, natural history, roy rogers, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

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