The ruby-red lips of Roy Rogers alone are worth the price of your Bells of Rosarita ticket

I realize that it’s simply a byproduct of imprecise 1940s coloring, but it looks like Roy Rogers is wearing lipstick in this ad. Someone’s been playing with Mommy’s makeup!

If you were around in the 1940s and loved westerns and musicals, it would seem that Bells of Rosarita, starring the lovely Dale Evans (it says she’s lovely right in the ad, so she has/had to be) and Roy Rogers (with Trigger, natch) would have been right up your alley. Throw in a little bit of Gabby Hayes for seasoning and you have a good hour-plus of black and white merrymaking.

Evans and Rogers were married in 1947, two years after the release of Rosarita, and they stayed together right up until Rogers’ death in 1998. Maybe it was his luscious and pouty red kisser than kept the two together all those years.