Can We Talk 2

Dale Evans

         I have come to see this woman in a different light. She isn't just Roy's wife or the writer of "Happy Trails". In her early movies, she was quite pretty. She had a small waist, wore high heels, pulled her hair back, and had huge round eyes. The two of them did mostly shows from their own time period, rather than pretend to be in the "old west". On the rare occasions when they did do historical settings, they did not use their own names.

         On the Roy Rogers Show, she was supportive of Roy in all the stories. But she wasn't a wall flower or diminutive in any way. She rode horses with the men, sometimes doing tricks, she handled a weapon just like they did, and was generally fearless. She made good decisions, hired and fired, and took a strong role for a woman without disrespecting or demeaning her man. In a movie from the 40's, she fired all the men who worked on her ranch, and replaced them with all women, who did a lot of fancy riding, and did all the men's chores just as well. She was an early liberated woman, even before Barbara Stanwyck took a strong leading role in The Big Valley.

         I can't speak for the radio show, which came first, because I never heard it. But the TV show had children as a primary audience, yet can still entertain adults. It was clean, no swearing, no saloon girls, no one was ever killed. There was some shooting, and occasionally, someone was wounded. This may have been misleading because there was no emphasis on the danger involved or the pain and healing. However, most conflicts were handled with fisticuffs, which can be bad enough for a gullible audience. That's why parents need to watch what their kids are watching and have discussions.

         Dale wore fringe and cowgirl outfits occasionally, but she also wore an apron when working at the café. She and Roy and sidekick Pat always worked with the law and played by the rules. They usually drew some kind of moral conclusion at the end, even before making fun of Pat. Yeah, they did run the show by their formula, a lot of flash mixed with integrity, law, clean living, charity, and other high values. Dale seems to be a good role model for girls to emulate-hard working, feminine, bold, self-reliant, strong, and courageous.