In the fifties, the American singin’ cowboy Roy Rogers was the great hero of the silver screen, in Holland too. His films had fixed ingredients: the leading lady Mrs Rogers, Dale Evans; the horse Trigger, the finest of all film horses; and a side-kick for the comic relief George ‘Gabby’ Hayes or Smiley Burnette. Roy was dressed in the finest costumes and fought with crooks in dark suits who mockingly called him Rogers, while he was Roy to his friends.In Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys director Thijs Ockersen goes in search of his idol of yore. This quest takes him first to Hollywood, between today’s glamour and the revival of the Western. Then there is a visit to the Roy Rogers Festival in Ohio, where the guest of honour is not himself present because he wasn’t feeling up to it. In search of the ‘King of the Cowboys’ and the ‘Queen of the Wild West’ Ockersen travels on to Branson, Missouri where the Sons of the Pioneers perform, the group with which Roy always appeared in his films. He also manages to speak to William Witney, the director from the Republic Studios who made twenty-seven Roy Rogers films. The final showdown is in the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville, where Roy’s life is on display.Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys brings up back to the time when film still had a magic property and the hearts of children started beating faster when the cowboys raced over the silver screen.
