HOLLYWOOD – Cheryl Rogers Barnett, eldest child of the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers, is the featured host of Turner Classic Movie’s July 1 Salute to the original singing cowboy honoring what would have been his 100th year birthday tomorrow.
TCM will be playing five movies consecutively throughout the day on July 1, including the following:
Cowboy and the Señorita – 1944
Don’t Fence me In – 1945
My Pal Trigger – 1946
The Golden Stallion – 1949
Trigger Junior – 1950
Cheryl, a resident of Southern Utah’s Washington City, shares with St. George News her insights on why this televised Film Festival is so special.
“What’s so important with these,” she says, “is that this will be the first time that these films have been shown full length on television. These are now full length and fully restored. Trigger Junior is in full color.”
“One of the biggest complaints I hear [of re-showings of her dad’s films] is that they are scratchy, cut, stepped on 25 times …”
She explains, “Before now, every time these films have been shown on TV, they have been cut – shortened versions to allow for commercials – missing as much as 7 to 15 minutes of the original films.”
Much of what were cut from previous televised showings of Roy Rogers’ films were musical numbers.
“With Dad, some of the songs were integral to the story – if you didn’t hear Vote for Rogers [a character of the same name in one of his films], you would have no idea that he ran for congress!”
Cheryl continues, “It is thrilling to me that [TCM] is doing this, saluting not only Dad but the other singing cowboys, too; because that was what we did every Saturday – that was our babysitter on the weekend – we went to see these.”
She is particularly pleased that the first of the five films to be shown is Cowboy and the Señorita, as that is the first film that her folks, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, did together. Roy and Dale married when Cheryl was seven and a half years old. She laughs, “they were the Brad and Angelina of the 1940’s, ’50s and ’60s.” Many will remember that well; and those too young for the memory can catch the romance of Roy and Dale on TCM throughout July.
Of the films restored and showing uncut, Cheryl says that Don’t Fence me In is one of her favorites because Gabby Hayes had a part in it, as he did in many of Roy Rogers’ movies. “He was like a grandfather to us kids, he and Dad worked together for a number of years. [Gabby Hayes] was one of the finest actors ever in Hollywood – he started on Broadway at 19 playing Hamlet, he did vaudevialle, he had an all girl band …” and she drifts off into reminiscence too much for words.
TCM flew Cheryl to Los Angeles last winter to do an archival piece for them. She believes part of that is what will be shown between the movies in the July 1 Film Festival.
TCM will not only air the Film Festival on July 1, but will also be airing pieces on Roy Rogers, including Cheryl’s spots, throughout the month of July. TCM indicates these will be among the main features throughout the month of July and will re-air many times.
Southern Utah has been blessed with Cheryl Rogers’ availability and contribution to our community since she and her husband, Larry Barnett, moved here seven years ago.
“We moved to Washington because it feels like home. We were going to Kanab every August for the Hollywood Legends, which made us aware of St. George. We had been doing that for three years, then Mom passed away and we had a friend who lived in Bloomington. We came, and the next thing we knew we bought a lot in Washington and built a house!”
In addition to offering talks at various venues and events in our community,including library talks, guesting at local ward function and participating in community book fairs, featuring her own auto-biography, Cowboy Princess, published by Taylor Trade Publishing, Cheryl tours and speaks throughout the Country.
For more information on Cheryl and her tour schedule, see [email protected]
TCM representatives invited Cheryl to direct readers of this story to visit their website where they have posted the interstitial, and all are invited to watch it there as well as on the network. The website is www.tcm.com.
email [email protected]
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