New York City, 1942
(The Calin Coburn Collections ©2004)
From October 7-21, the Sons of the Pioneers appeared with Roy Rogers at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo for the first of many engagements there. Through 26 shows, they entertained 390,000 people and from there they went on to other rodeos at Boston and Buffalo. While they were in New York City, they were fêted with the top rodeo riders. They met and were photographed with the important people of the City.
On October 17, they were invited to the 2nd Annual Convention Rodeo Fans of America banquet at the Hotel Belvedere. Bob was presented with some kind of award or honorary title by Foghorn Clancy, rodeo announcer and promoter. He was also invited to a private informal party with the top rodeo performers Tad Lucas, Berenice & Carl Dossey, George & Polly Mills (later Burson), Harry Knight and Turk Greenough with his famous fan-dancer wife, Sally Rand.
They performed at the internationally-known Stage Door Canteen. Here you see Roy Rogers presenting Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia with a pair of spurs. Soon-to-be Governor Dewey can be seen in the back row (with the mustache).
At that time, Bob Nolan met Olaf Wieghorst, then a New York City mounted policeman, and bought some of his sketches for a pittance. (Olaf went on to become one of American's renowned western artists and his paintings are in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, in countless books, and gracing the walls of the homes of a great many private citizens.)
And even more important for the Perryman family, Lloyd and his new wife, Violet (Buddie) spent their honeymoon on this tour. The Sons of the Pioneers, as "movie cowboys", were jeered at in a friendly way by the rodeo performers but their talent, good nature and genuine concern for their fans won the real cowboys over, too.
Below, some of the faces in this crowd were identified for us by the late Polly Mills Burson who was a top notch stunt rider and doubled many of the stars in the movies.
