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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 Museum Auction Includes Trigger, Nellybelle

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

Last month I wrote about the auction of Roy Rogers' mineral collection and I wondered where the rest of the contents of the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum would end up. It will be auctioned off by Christie's on July 14 and 15 in association with High Noon Western Americana. The museum was closed last year and the auction will include everything from saddles, personal photos, awards to the famous Nellybelle jeep from the 1950s TV Show and even the horse Trigger. A press release notes that High Noon Western Americana, in conjunction with the Rogers family, did try to place Trigger, another horse Buttermilk and the Rogers' dog Bullet with a national museum but found that because of the recession museums did not have funds available to expand their permanent collections.

The Roy Rogers Personal Firearms & Hunting Collections will be sold at Brian Lebel's Old West Auction at the Denver Merchandise Mart on June 25-27. Roy's firearms will be sold including his very first belt and double holster rig. his gold-plated 101 Ranch revolvers, the shotgun he bought off Clark Gable, and one of Dale Evans' only guns, a pearl handled Colt. The collection includes antique, modern and commemorative firearms. Artifacts supporting Roy's avid hunting interests will be offered including his favorite hunting hat as well as his 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible and the last motorcycle he owned before retiring from riding, a 1982 V45 Honda, driven only 2,000 miles will also be sold at this auction.

UPDATE: A Nebraska cable TV network, RFD-TV paid $266,500 for Trigger, at the auction.The company's owner, Patrick Gottsch, was interested in buying the whole Roy Rogers collection but found out about the auction too late to get a deal together. RFD-TV is looking to put a Western museum together but until then Trigger will likely find a home either in the office lobby or in Gottsch's home.

Tags: dale evans, nellybelle, roy rogers, roy rogers museum, trigger, western memorabilia