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Roy Rogers' Horse Trigger (1932? - 1965): A Biography
It seems like there wasn't a child in the world from the late 1930s into the 1950s that
didn't instantly recognize the name Trigger. He was a cowboy's best
friend, a high rearing, fast running superhero that could shoot a gun and untie
ropes, but still allow the weakest and most timid of children to sit safely on
his magnificent back. Trigger was a horse, officially known as The Smartest
Horse In The Movies, and he belonged to the King Of The Cowboys himself, Roy
Rogers. In their hearts children knew that Trigger loved them, and dreamed that
up on his back they could be a cowboy hero, too. Trigger brought sunshine into
the lives of people worldwide, particularly children, with the brilliance of his
golden coat, and with his bravery and brains on movie and television screens. He
brought encouragement and hope to people in a very personal way when he walked quietly up stairs or rode in elevators to visit those
who needed him most while they were in hospitals or shelters. As much as we love
and remember his owner and best pal Roy Rogers, we also love and remember
Trigger, The Smartest Horse In The Movies.
Trigger: Beginnings as Golden Cloud
The golden palomino stallion that would become famous to the world with the
name Trigger was born on a ranch in San Diego, California. In researching this
article we found conflicting information that he was born in either 1932 or
1934. The manager of the ranch was a man named Roy F. Cloud, and the name
originally given to Trigger was Golden Cloud.
Golden Cloud's sire was a thoroughbred and
his dam was an unregistered mare sometimes described as a cold-blooded mare. At
around the age of three Golden Cloud
was sold to Hudkins Stables of Hollywood, California, a stable that provided
horses for use in the movie industry. Golden Cloud's first job in the
movies was as a mount for Olivia de Havilland for her role as Maid Marian in the
1938 movie "The Adventures of Robin Hood."
At right: Trigger
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Starring Roy Rogers and Trigger, Too
In 1938, the same year Golden Cloud appeared in "The Adventures of Robin
Hood," a young singing cowboy who had recently changed his name from
Leonard Slye to Roy Rogers
was cast in his first leading role in a movie. The movie was a Western called
"Under Western Stars" and like any good cowboy the
new leading man needed a horse. Several different stables in the area brought horses
to Roy for him to try out. Roy remembered that there were six or seven really
good horses to choose from, everyone of them good looking, fast, and well
trained. One of those horses was Golden Cloud.
When Roy Rogers rode Golden Cloud for the first time it was love at
first ride. The horse had speed and power, an easy lope, and a calm and willing
attitude. The young actor remembered that after he rode Golden Cloud he never
even considered any of the other horses. One day after Roy had chosen Golden
Cloud he was on the set of "Under Western Stars" practicing his quick-draw when the character actor Smiley Burnette, who played
Roy's sidekick in the movie, commented, "Roy, as quick as that horse of yours
is, you ought to call him Trigger." Roy liked the suggestion and began calling
Golden Cloud by his new name of Trigger from then on.
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When "Under Western Stars" was released it was a success with critics and
audiences both. It was a "B" grade Western but its popularity caused it to be
shown in many first-run movie theatres. The crowds loved Roy Rogers and they
loved Trigger, too. One of the most successful duos in entertainment history was
born.
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"Sell The Palomino To Me"
In the months after "Under Western Stars" was released Roy toured the country
promoting the film. People everywhere asked him about the horse he rode in the
movie, and he quickly realized that audiences loved Trigger almost as much as he
did himself. From the beginning Roy openly and unapologetically loved the horse,
and wanted to own him for his own so he could not only ride him in more movies,
but take him out on personal appearances, too. As the full measure of
Trigger's popularity began to sink in, Roy also realized that a huge part of his
newfound stardom was because he had been paired with Trigger, and he began to
worry that the horse might be paired with someone else. As badly as he wanted to
own Trigger, however, and even though "Under Western Stars" had made him a star,
he was a contract player with Republic Pictures making $75.00 per week. It
hardly seemed like enough to take care of himself and his wife and have enough
left over to buy a rising equine star.
But Roy Rogers often described himself as an optimist, and having no idea how
he would actually afford the horse he went ahead and asked Clyde Hudkins of
Hudkins Stables to sell him Trigger. Clyde Hudkins agreed to sell
Trigger to Roy for the whopping sum of $2,500 (roughly equivalent to $30,000
today). Roy's head spun when he heard the amount, but he shook hands on the deal.
He made payments on Trigger, "just like a bedroom set," until the horse was
completely paid for. Roy would later say it was "for sure and certain the
best $2,500 I have ever spent."
Note: When writing this
article we were able to find photocopies of invoices for Roy's purchase of
Trigger from Hudkins Stables showing the first payment of $500 made in September
of 1943, and a second payment of $2,000 made in December of 1943. However, the
Roy Rogers, Dale Evans autobiography "Happy Trails, Our Life Story" indicates
the purchase was probably made in 1938 or 1939 right after "Under Western
Stars" was made with the payment amounts being
smaller.
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Trigger The Superstar
Starting from Roy Rogers' very first leading role in "Under Western Stars" Trigger
appeared in all of Roy's movies, 88 movies total by Roy's count.
Trigger also appeared with Roy in all 100 episodes (some sources say 104) of The Roy Rogers Show
on television, which aired on NBC from 1951 - 1957.
As Roy Rogers career soared to superstardom Trigger carried him along for the
ride, becoming just as much an American icon as his human counterpart. As soon
as Roy had enough influence with the movie studio he insisted that Trigger got top billing, right along with himself. Trigger dazzled audiences with his beauty
and brains, performing a seemingly endless list of tricks that included untying ropes and shooting a gun. While Roy and Trigger
always stood for what was right they never let that get in the way of a lot of
good, heart-pumping action. In movie after movie and in their television shows Roy and Trigger never failed to
thrill audiences with their wild cowboy-and-faithful-horse adventures. Trigger
and Roy not only starred in movies and television together but also made
countless personal appearances all across the country, and tirelessly visited
children in hospitals and shelters.
At left: Trigger and Roy Rogers
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only obvious to Roy and his fans, but also to Herbert Yates, the head of the
movie studio Roy was under contract with. Not long after Roy
and Trigger had established themselves as a highly successful team Mr. Yates
wanted to cast Roy in a non-Western as a cigarette
smoking, hard drinking reporter. Roy refused the part, telling Mr. Yates he knew
his fans wouldn't like him in that kind of a role and he didn't want
to let them down. Herbert Yates was furious at Roy's refusal and retaliated by
telling him that if he didn't take the part he would take away his upcoming
roles in Westerns. Not only that, Yates went on to say that he would let another
actor ride Trigger, confident the horse could make a star out of anyone. The argument ended abruptly when Roy told
the studio head that he had purchased Trigger for his own, and if Yates
continued to try to cast Roy in the role of a drunkard Yates wouldn't just be
losing him in upcoming Westerns, he would be losing Trigger, too. As furious as
he was Herbert Yates quickly backed down, casting someone else as the reporter and never
taking away any of Roy's cowboy roles, either. He had been angry
enough to lose Roy, his wildly popular human star, but he
wasn't about to lose Trigger, too. |
Goodbye, Trigger
Trigger retired from show business when Roy stopped doing "The Roy
Rogers Show" on television in 1957. According to "Happy Trails, Our Life Story,"
by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Trigger was retired to a stable near the Rogers'
home where he could roam through green grass and relax in the California
sunshine. Trigger passed away peacefully in 1965. Assuming he was born in 1932,
he would have been 33 years old at the time of his death.
Upon hearing of Trigger's death the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
asked Roy for Trigger's body for their collection of historical Americana. Roy
declined, not wanting Trigger's final resting place to be so far away from
himself out in California. Dale Evans, Roy's wife and co-star in many of his
movies and in "The Roy Rogers Show" on television, wanted Trigger to have a nice
funeral with a beautiful headstone. Roy wasn't comfortable with that idea either,
not liking the thought of putting his friend and partner of so many years into the
ground. Roy knew he wanted to preserve Trigger not only for himself but for all
the fans that loved him too, so he contacted Bischoff's Taxidermy,
located at that time in Los Angeles, California. With great care Bischoff's
mounted Trigger's hide over a plaster likeness of a horse in a rearing position, a famous
pose recognizable to Roy Rogers and Trigger fans everywhere.
The mounted Trigger was first put on display at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans
Museum when it originally opened in Apple Valley, California in 1967. The entire
museum, including Trigger, was relocated to nearby Victorville, California in
1976. After Roy's death in 1998 and Dale's death in 2001 the museum was moved in
2003 to its current home in Branson, Missouri. Trigger, the museum's most
popular attraction, again made the move. Dale's buckskin horse Buttermilk and
Bullet the Wonder Dog (a German Shepherd who was also a family pet) were also
mounted after their deaths and can still be seen at the museum, too.
More Than One Trigger?
Roy Rogers' and Trigger's popularity soared so high so quickly that Roy knew
early on that it would take more than one horse to meet his needs for movies,
personal appearances, and later on, television shows. While the original Trigger
was mostly reserved for movies and television, Roy purchased another palomino
for personal appearances, a horse he called Little Trigger.
Little Trigger was not registered with any breed organization and was used extensively by Roy for personal
appearances in the 1940s and the 1950s and also appeared in some of Roy's
movies.
Roy also purchased another horse to give the original Trigger a break. The second
"other Trigger" was a registered Tennessee Walking Horse with the registered
name of Allen's Gold Zephyr, but Roy called him Trigger Jr.
Roy Rogers didn't like to publicly discuss that there was more than one
Trigger, and liked to keep up the outward appearance that there was just one. Roy
knew that many of his and Trigger's fans were children too young to understand
that one horse shouldn't be asked to keep up the same demands Roy himself kept.
Roy loved his young fans, and never wanted the ones that saw him and Trigger in
person to miss out on the thrill of believing they were seeing the horse they had fallen in love
with on the movie and television screen right before their very eyes.
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Above:
Trigger with Roy Rogers in "Lights of Old Santa Fe," (1944).
This horse is the original Trigger. The white of his bald face extends
over his left eye (upper arrow), and also completely covers his right
nostril (lower arrow). |
Above: A close-up of
Trigger's face in "Lights of Old Santa Fe," (1944).
This is also the original Trigger. Notice that his bald face does NOT
completely cover his nostril on the LEFT side of his face. |
Not shown:
The original Trigger had a left hind sock, but this sock was difficult
to see in many of his movie and television scenes.
Little Trigger and Trigger Jr., in comparison, had stockings on all four legs. |
Trigger Trivia
- Trigger's original name was Golden Cloud. He was born on a ranch in San
Diego, California in either 1932 or 1934. Roy Rogers changed Golden Cloud's name
to Trigger in 1938 for their first movie together, "Under Western Stars."
- When Trigger died in 1965 his hide was mounted over a plaster cast of a
rearing horse. The mounting was done by Bischoff's Taxidermy, originally located
in Los Angeles,
California, but currently located in Burbank, California.
- Trigger's first movie role was with Olivia de Havilland for her role
as Maid Marian in the 1938 movie "The Adventures of Robin Hood." Miss de Havilland
may be best know for playing Melanie in "Gone With The Wind" (1939). She also
won two Oscars, one for Best Actress in "The Heiress" (1949) and one for
Best Actress in "To Each His Own" (1946).
- Roy Rogers purchased Trigger from Hudkins Stables of Hollywood,
California for the amount of $2,500, paying for the horse on payments, Rogers
said, "just like you would a bedroom set." When writing this article we were
able to find photocopies of invoices for Roy's purchase of Trigger showing the
first payment of $500 made in September of 1943 and a second payment of $2,000
made in December of 1943. However, the Roy Rogers, Dale Evans autobiography
"Happy Trails, Our Life Story" implies the purchase was probably made in 1938
or 1939 with the payment amounts being smaller.
- In 1943 $2,500 was roughly equivalent to $30,000 today.
- Every chance he got when making personal appearances, Roy placed Trigger and
his fancy horse trailer outside of the arena or building where they were
appearing before the show. He wanted all the kids to be able to see Trigger,
especially the ones that couldn't afford to buy a ticket.
- Trigger's finest saddles were made by Edward H. Bohlin, known as the
Michelangelo of saddle making. Mr. Bohlin got his start as a famous saddle maker
by making tack for Tony, the famous movie horse of cowboy actor Tom
Mix. Many of Trigger's saddles were covered in intricate patterns in silver and gold,
and some of them weighed as much as 150 pounds.
- The word "palomino" is a description of a horse's color, not its
breeding. A palomino horse has a coat of varying shades of a yellow or
golden color, and a white mane and tail. Trigger was a golden palomino,
meaning his coat was a deep gold.
- While Trigger was not registered with any horse breed association, he
was registered with the Palomino Horse Association, an association that
registers horses according to their color as opposed to their breeding.
- Roy Rogers was careful not to overwork his equine partner, so, along with the original Trigger, there was also Little Trigger (not registered
with any breed association) and Trigger Jr. (a registered
Tennessee Walking Horse with the registered name of Allen's Gold Zephyr).
Neither Little Trigger or Trigger Jr. were related to the original Trigger.
- The original Trigger remained a stallion his entire life, but never sired any
offspring.
- The Roy Rogers-Dale Evans museum was moved from Victorville,
California to Branson, Missouri in 2003. Trigger, Trigger Jr.,
Dale's buckskin horse Buttermilk, and Bullet the Wonder Dog (a German Shepherd
who was also a family pet) were
all mounted after their deaths and can still be seen there.
- Trigger passed away peacefully in 1965. Assuming he was born in 1932, he
would have been 33 years old at the time of his death.
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