Photo of The Month – Apr 2013

Queen of the West

Picture contributor: Roy Lee Harris Collection

Two small boys, perhaps six and four, and their little sister. All are wearing their cowboy garb that Santa recently brought. The sweet little girl, holding a six-gun in each hand, looking for all the world like Dale Evans, is thrilled to be involved in the photo shoot. — Queen of the West

It must have been a day or two after Christmas that Mom and Dad took their brood to Roy Lee Harris’ studio for this official portrait, before the wear and tear of life on the range sullied these highly-authentic costumes of the Old West. In those days (the Fifties) about half the shows on our three TV channels were westerns. Had half been about orangutans, our impressionable kids would likely have run around in monkey suits.

No, such garb is not authentic, but created by gay wardrobe designers for Hollywood cowboys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, then sold in little buckaroo sizes in Sears-Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs.

We don’t know these little cowpokes’ identities, but if they are you, we dare you to come forward.