On the long and winding road to stardom, Roy Rogers moved from Ohio, changed his name (from Leonard Franklin Slye), shifted from singing to radio and movies to television, and met countless would-be stars with similar aspirations. One of them was Robert Ellsworth Patrick Aloysius Brady, aka, Pat Brady. Rogers recommended Brady as his replacement in the band Sons of the Pioneers, one of the first Western music bands in the US. Eventually, Brady moved on to film and ran into Rogers again. He was hired to provide a comic counterpoint to the King of the Cowboys. His steed was not flesh and blood – it was Rogers’ Willys CJ-2A Jeep affectionately named “Nelly Belle”. The Roy Rogers Show rang with Brady’s encouragement to the Jeep’s perpetually bad brakes – “Whoa Nelly Belle!” To cash in on the Roy Rogers trade, several toy companies made pedal cars in the likeness of Nelly Belle. This one by Hamilton was for sale on eBay and though the listing has expired, interested parties can still find it here at Classic Auto Mall, priced at $4500. Hilariously, an ad for Hagerty on the same site suggests classic car insurance at $160 per year.
Captivating kids and adults alike, Roy Rogers conducted several “giveaways”, including real Jeeps, ponies, bicycles, movie cameras, cash, and countless other prizes. Meanwhile, Nelly Belle pedal cars were turned out by Marx and Hamilton at least, and likely many other makers. This one is by Hamilton, it dates to 1954, and it is represented as unrestored. The grey color is accurate for the time, as Nelly Belle was kept as neutral as possible on the black and white set where she bedeviled the characters with her bad brakes.
A combination horn/pistol is ready for action at the driver’s left, and the graphics show Roy Rogers on his famous horse Trigger. While the Jeep in the TV series was usually painted with “Nellybelle”, the graphic is an add-on, favored by all the toymakers to associate the pedal car with the actor. The “armored plate” behind the windshield provided cover when Roy Rogers was forced to wield his gun to scatter the bad guys.
The real Nelly Belle was sequestered in the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum, first in California, then in Missouri until 2009. In 2010, the Jeep was sold by Christie’s, reportedly for $116,000. A sale in 2018 saw the price fall to $38,400. (Barn Finds covered a Nelly Belle II here, with questionable provenance.) Depreciation seems to be a way of life for Nelly Belle because two pedal cars have sold recently at steep discounts to our profiled example. This one made just $350 and here’s another at $550, though both have been restored which usually diminishes value. Reminding us of the damage the passage of time can inflict, this Hamilton Nelly Belle sold for a hefty $2875 back in 2008, when Roy Rogers was still sharp in our memories. The appeal of an unrestored example is compelling, but not at this price, even for the most elaborate man cave.
Michelle, you are digging with this one. I’m pushing 70, and just missed this era in TV. I think I remember the song,,,( ahem): “Happy trails to you, until we meet again”,,,however , I don’t remember anything from the show. My grandparents, however, we’re glued to the old B&W Sylvania. I read, the high sides were to primarily conceal the stunt driver crouched down, for when the Jeep took off by itself. Roy Rogers was HUGE, and his wealthy heirs are probably still enjoying that. Everything from boots, to cap guns( that looked remarkably like the real ones, try that today), and of course, Jeeps were our heroes, and the combination of Roy Rogers and the Jeep, was a hit. The show, one of the 1st TV western action shows, aired from 1951 to 1957, and while Roy was the claimed owner, he was rarely seen driving it.
Pedal cars are popular, not so much from reality TV shows, but it seems for just about everybody, a pedal car was their 1st set of wheels, and went from there. Happy trails,,,all.
As a side note quiz, does anyone remember what “Nelly Belles” most common problem was? (I had to look it up, hint, it had something to do with the concealed stunt driver)
I watched Roy Rogers regularly on Great Falls TV. I preferred Nelly Belle probably because we already had a Trigger lookalike on the ranch. Nelly Belle was very independent and often took off without Pat behind the wheel.
We had a Roy Rogers record we used to play (on 78 rpm) and one of the songs was Pat Brady singing about why he no longer rode a horse but drove Nelly Belle instead.
Back in the early Nineties we went to the Roy Rodgers Museum in Victorville. It was an amazing place. Looked like a fort. It contained thousands of pieces of his life from a stuffed trigger to the busted down old truck that brought his family west from Ohio around 1915, A Nelly Belle was there too. I wanted to talk to Roy but he had gone home early as he was feeling poorly. I did get a cardboard cutout of him signed .by him. To this day it hangs in my workshop.. Last of The Good Guys for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y-2MBaRpXc
Brakes. In most cases the brakes went out. While researching, I saw “Nelly Belle” had adapters for dual wheels, only rarely seen. Roy claimed, while equipped, “it would climb a hill like a mountain goat”.
I’ve never seen one of these. Roy Rogers was off TV by the time I started watching on Saturday mornings in `63-`64 so I was never a big fan, nor did I know about “Nelly Belle”. Since this pedal car is unrestored and in such good condition given it’s 70 years of age, I can understand the prices. It would certainly be the crown of anyone’s pedal car collection for sure. Very nice.
Nice write-up Michelle. Your comment
‘Reminding us of the damage the passage of time can inflict…..” made me chuckle as it also reminded me of times growing up when we all had fun with very little talk of product “safety”.
I mean, talk about inflicting damage…check out the edges on this thing! Topped off with a bar stock bumper, steering wheel capscrew and rollbar all sitting atop a high center of gravity……and Ralph Nader thought the Corvair was dangerous. lol
Have never seen one of these. Who knew?
A very popular “kid rumor” at the time was that the reason Pat Brady rode this Jeep was because he couldn’t ride a horse. No idea if this was true or not but it made for great fun as we would quiz new kids if they knew why the Jeep character was in the show. We got to act all superior when we told them.
Unlikely it was an early form of diversity or
handicap inclusion. Which, when you think about it, would have been a great educational element of the show.
Different times different show.
Wow !
A vintage Barn Find jeep I can afford, not only cheap to insure, but great on gas too !
I just turned 70. However by the time I was five, the Roy Rogers television program was gone. I did get to see a few episodes as syndicated re-runs and I remember Nellie Belle. I was a fence climbin’ tree swingin’ rock throwin’ neighborhood urchin, along with my next door neighbor friends in Garden Grove California. Digging through our toy boxes for our guns, hats, and Roy Roger’s chaps to get together on weekend mornings to play cowboys ‘n Indians was a common activity. A common phrase I heard (and repeated) among me and my peers was “When I grow up, I want to be Roy Rogers.”
What a time to be a kid! Saturday morning TV was great back then. A wide variety of programming awaited
you when you got up that morning.
Roy Rogers, Sky King, My Friend Flicka, The Lone Ranger, and so many
more. If you weren’t at the Saturday
matinee, or cleaning the church with
my Mom like I was, you were in front
of your TV set taking it all in. Then,
after that, you went outside and played Army or Cowboys and Indians.
And on Summer days, you hopped on
your bike and rode down to your local
pool for some really cool fun. After Mom and I cleaned the church, we
picked up my sister at the pastor’s
house, we went home and I watched
The Blue Angels and Ripcord too!
Then me, my Mom, and my sister would dance to all the latest music on
a local TV show called The Hop. Mom’s gone now, and my sister and I
now live in different parts of the country. But those great old memories will never die. Great times
for all!
As I recall, the idea for Nelly Belle was to appeal to the post-war era kids who had heard about Jeeps and saw them in the newsreels showing the feats accomplished by Jeeps during WWII. I believe Pat Brady’s wartime service was partly involved with driving a Jeep ( to pick up casualties, perhaps) so he and Nelly Belle were well matched in that way, as well. So by setting the television show in the contemporary era, the horse fanciers of the wild west genre and the post war gear-heads who liked Jeeps, trucks, etc. all had something to appeal to them. As a kid, I coveted the Jeep much more than Trigger! I suspect this broad spectrum appeal was a primary reason the TV show was such a success–there was something for everyone. Very astute marketing!
Ol’ Roy was a hell of a promoter! He could talk early-50s kids into wanting ANYTHING with his name on it.
The whole toy gun thing was big back in the early days of TV, and he did it better than anyone. There’s one on Facebook, derringer is hidden on your hat… when your friend comes to arrest you, you take the hat off and the gun pops up to shoot yer buddies in the face! What FUN!!!!
There’s a story for another time of his opinion of the third generation Trans Am. Roy could be pretty earthy when Dale wasnt around…
Marx and Hamilton are fortunate not to have produced these during Chrysler’s ownership of Jeep. Chrysler would have demanded a royalty for each pedal car, or sued for trademark infringement!
Very cool, but it stinks that this is very 3B like, not a 2A like the real Nellybelle is.