A few weeks back, Roy Rogers died and many of us, especially those of a certain age, were gripped by nostalgia for a vanished innocence.
For me, the feeling quickly passed. But then this young fellow–too young to have done much more than hear Roy Rogers’ name–threw down a couple of photos and said, “Look at these.”
The photographer’s name is Wes Pope, the pictures are the ones you see on this page and the story begins in March when Pope was on his way to Chicago from Los Angeles.
He was taking Route 66, the highway that defines a bygone America, when he decided, on a guidebook’s prodding, to stop at the Roy Rogers Western World & Museum in Victorville, Calif. He wanted to see Trigger, the famous horse, now stuffed and on display.
He was walking in the museum door as a man was walking out. The man spoke excitedly: “You’d better hurry. Roy and Dale are in there.”
And so they were, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, the King of the Cowboys and the Queen of the Cowgirls, both of them sitting in wheelchairs but eagerly signing autographs for fans.
Eventually, Pope edged over to the couple and showed them a strange contraption he was carrying: a camera made of two halves of aluminum soda cans and held together with tape. He explained that he was using this “pop-can pinhole” camera to document his travels and asked the couple to pose. They agreed to meet Pope behind the museum.
Pope and Evans went outside and waited for Rogers, who was still talking with fans. Evans threatened to leave; she had a doctor’s appointment. The King of the Cowboys finally showed up, and he and his wife smiled as Pope took his first exposure. As he was setting up for another, Rogers said, “Hurry it up,” and Pope did.
Pope got three exposures (each took eight seconds) before Roy and Dale departed. Pope went back inside the museum and got a shot of Trigger and then he headed east, eventually making his way to Chicago and a job at the Tribune.
When he heard of Rogers’ death, he remembered the photos and the pleasant afternoon when an old cowboy and his cowgirl smiled for a young fella and his pinhole camera.
