A PHOTO of Roy Rogers in Glasgow brought back bittersweet memories for one Times Past reader.
Catherine Brown was 16 years old when the star, resplendent in his white cowboy suit and silver pointed shoes, arrived in the city with his golden palomino stallion.
“I was so excited - he was my teenage crush,” she smiles.
“My father, mother, young sister and wee brother were at Central Station with me on the day Roy and Trigger arrived.
“My father told us to go to the front where the barrier was.
“Seeing them there was brilliant, I shall never forget that day as long as I live, and I’m 83 now.
“We couldn’t afford to go and see them at the Empire as money was tight, but it was a great feeling to see them outside the hotel.”
Catherine, who is from Carntyne, left school in 1952 at Christmas time and started work in Templeton’s Carpet Factory.
“I worked there until I got married in 1957,” she explains.
“My father bought newspapers and I’d always cut out photos of Roy and Trigger and put them on my locker door at work.
“I used to get laughed at, because I had a crush on Roy Rogers. It made me mad, so I stopped speaking to the other girls and one day I went in to find my pictures torn and written all over.
“I never forgave them.”
Roy came to Glasgow in 1954 and thousands of people turned up to see him. At Central Station, he brought the horse round the crush barriers to allow some of the delighted children watching to get up close.
Trigger was then led into the Central Hotel where, with a pen in its mouth, the horse “signed in” at reception before being taken up the stairs to room 130.
Roy was one of the biggest US movie stars of the time, with 100 films to his name and his movies were shown regularly at Glasgow cinemas.
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This was the first time he had ever appeared on stage in Britain.
Between the first and second shows on the opening night, Rogers appeared at a window of the Empire and led a singalong of Home on the Range for thousands of fans, most of them small boys on their parents’ shoulders, packed into West Nile Street.
Which Hollywood stars have you seen in Glasgow over the decades? Get in touch with Times Past to share your stories and photographs.
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