When Dad (Roy Rogers) started starring in movies, the studio tried several things to get him to open his eyes wider. You can see in the above photo (just received from my friend, Larry Zwisohn) why the studios thought they needed to do that.
Flash cameras just didn’t have a fast enough shutter speed to catch his eyes before they reacted to the light. But the giant foil-covered reflectors (3 X 5 panels) they used on location were even worse. The makeup people tried eye drops and even tried gluing his upper eyelids open. He said that the eyedrops gave him headaches but the glue made his upper lids raw and his eyeballs felt burnt by the late
morning. I’m surprised that he didn’t have trouble with his eyes later but he had been blessed with incredible vision — that’s one of the reasons why he was such a great athlete.
I think his laughing eyes were his best features!
Recent Comments