Free Republic

Roy Rogers' recent death, untimely to millions of Americans who loved him, was, in a tragic sense, symbolic of the death of an era of wholesome television entertainment. Actually, the era of good TV has long since passed. But the black and white clips of Roy Rogers' Hollywood in this week's memorial reviews, provide a jolting look at how far we have slipped. Roy Rogers was wholesome. His episodes never offended decency. Any child could watch Roy Rogers without a nervous parent monitoring the show to quickly "click off" the bad parts as is so necessary with TV today. Roy...

By CHARLIE LeDUFF (NYT) VICTORVILLE, Calif., May 27 -- A small yet not insignificant piece of news occurred in April while the world's attention was turned toward Iraq. The Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum, an old-West cavalry-style fort on Highway 15 in the high Mojave Desert, picked up and moved. It has resettled in Branson, Mo., the transplanted heart of country-western life and culture. The move was economic, said Victorville city fathers. Fewer and fewer people, it seems, are interested in the life of the ''King of the Cowboys'' or his wife, Dale Evans, known as the ''Queen of the West.''...