By Brad Dison
Leonard Franklin Slye was born on November 5, 1911, in a tenement building on 2nd Street in Cincinnati, Ohio. His family and friends called him Len. Eventually, the tenement building where Len was born was torn down and the Riverfront baseball stadium was built on the location. Len always said that he was born at second base.
Within months of Len’s birth, Len’s father Andy, and his brother Will tired of their jobs and built a houseboat from salvaged lumber. In July 1912, Andy, his wife Mattie, and their three children, Mary, Cleda, and Len, along with Will, his wife Elizabeth, and their son Raymond, sailed east along the Ohio River from Cincinnati towards Portsmouth in the homemade 12-foot by 50-foot houseboat. The Slye families jointly purchased land near Portsmouth where they planned to disassemble their houseboat and build a house from the lumber, but mother nature altered their plans.
On March 23, 1913, heavy rain began to fall which continued for at least four days. Flooding from the rain killed an estimated 650 people in at least 13 states. Damages to property exceeded $330 million. This became known as the Great Flood of 1913. The majority of the deaths—somewhere between 422 and 470—happened in Ohio. In Dayton, Ohio, downtown streets were covered with water 10 feet deep. Fourteen square miles of the city were flooded. An estimated 123 people were killed in Dayton alone. In Hamilton, 35 miles downstream from Dayton, about 100 people were killed when water from 10 to 18 feet deep flowed through its residential districts. 93 people died from flooding in Columbus, Ohio.
As the waters rose near Portsmouth, the Slye families used the high water to their advantage and moved their houseboat onto the water which covered their property. They carefully positioned the houseboat and tied it off. As the water slowly receded, they placed foundation piers under the houseboat. The houseboat eventually rested perfectly on their land. There was another benefit in keeping the houseboat river worthy. If the river flooded again, their home would be protected from the water because it would float.
In 1915, Len’s sister Kathleen was born in the former houseboat. In 1919, Andy purchased farmland near Lucasville, Ohio, about 12 miles north of Portsmouth, where he built a six-room house. Despite his best efforts, Andy was unable to earn enough income from the farm for his family to survive. He took a job at a shoe factory in Portsmouth. During the work week, Andy stayed in Portsmouth. On weekends, he returned to the farm. While Andy was away, the rest of the family was pretty much isolated from the outside world. To communicate over long distances on the farm, Len and his mother used different yodels. The varying pitch of their voices carried much farther than yelling. Yodeling was a skill that helped Len later on.
In the days before electronic devices, television, or radio, the Slye family found ways to entertain themselves. Saturday night square dances were common on the Slye family farm. Len would often play the mandolin and call the square dances or sing. This began before Len was a teenager. By the time he turned 18, Len’s musical abilities were like a finely tuned machine. In 1929, Andy, Mattie, Len, and Kathleen drove in their 1923 Dodge to Lawndale, California to visit Len’s older sister Mary and her husband. In the spring of 1930, the Slye family moved to Lawndale permanently. Soon thereafter, Mary suggested that Len audition for a radio show called the Midnight Frolic. Producers of the show were surprised by Len’s talents. A few nights later, Len, dressed in his best western attire, played guitar, sang, and yodeled on the program.
Len was in demand from then on, and became part of several western musical groups. The most successful was the Pioneers Trio, which became the Sons of the Pioneers when a radio station announcer changed their name because he thought they were too young to be seen as pioneers. In 1934, the Sons of the Pioneers signed a recording contract and began recording material in August of that year. One of the songs to come out of that session was the western standard “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” Their 1934 recording was selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
In 1935, Len began working in western films using his real name Leonard Slye. Gene Autry was the king of western films, but he kept demanding more money for his work as the singing cowboy. Studios began looking for another singing cowboy that they could get for less money. Len fit the part perfectly… well, almost. Republic Pictures, who hired Len, thought Lenoard Slye was not a suitable name for a western star. The film company finally settled on a stage name for Len.
While working in Hollywood, Len’s alter ego taught lessons in fairness and gentleness. He was always on the right side of the law and respected the law. His was a positive character with unwavering principles. This was more than just a Hollywood-created persona, this was Leonard Slye. He was a positive role model, something that we could use more of in our modern times.
Republic Pictures chose Len’s stage name carefully. They thought Roy had a good western ring to it. At the time, Will Rogers was a popular western comic entertainer, and they wanted to take advantage of the name recognition. From that point on, the world knew Leonard “Len” Slye, the King of Cowboys, as Roy Rogers.
Sources:
1. Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1998, p.97.
2. The Cincinnati Enquirer, July 7, 1998, p.28.
3. Desert Dispatch, July 7, 1998, p.1.