Western Hall of Fame Presents Its First Annual "Hoss Opera" Olympic Auditorium, November 28th, 1948, Souvenir Program

November 28, 1948: Western Hall of Fame. Quarto. This was one of the greatest gatherings of the Western Stars of Screen and Music that planned a "Hoss Opera" which would create the Western Hall of Fame. They began planning in the home of Roy Rogers and Tim Spencer was named Chairman, with "Wild Bill" Elliott Secretary-Treasurer. Among the committee members were Gene Autry, Bob Nolan, Spade Cooley, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Redd Harper, Jimmy Wakely, Stuart Hamblen, Andy Devine, William Boyd, and Tex Williams. Their proposed plan was to have a museum that would honor Tom Mix, Will Rogers, William S. Hart, Buck Jones, Harry Carey and others. Although the Opera was a great success, the follow up 1949 benefit plans ran into problems and ended the project so it took until 1955 when the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Museum was founded. It was changed in 1960 to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center and today has over 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. But here was the genesis of the dream that was not fully realized until 12 yeas later. A very scarce item not found either in OLCC or most Western museum catalogs. Laid in is a mimeographed sheet on Sons of the Pioneers Letterhead offering 8 x 10 glossy photographs of various members of the group and a special souvenir album to be given for $1.00 to those who purchased one of the photographs. (Inventory #: 018821)