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Hooves pound against the sand. Wind whips in the face of a mighty cowboy as he runs across a landscape of dark brown. In one hand the skilled rider has firm grip on the reigns, keeping total control of his horse. The other twirls a lasso overhead in such a way that the rope actually spells out a word, foreign to the warriors of the old west, but quite familiar to consumers in the first half of the 20th century. For this is the Silvertone Cowboy radio.

I must admit this set became a bit of a personal obsession to me. I first learned of its existence earlier this year when one went up for sale on eBay. I fell in love.

Maybe it was the amount of detail the artist put into creating this horse and rider, right down to the decorative dots on the horse’s bridle, or the star on the Cowboys’ stirrup, or the kerchief around his neck.

Maybe it was the beautiful way the lasso spelled Silvertone, including the loop around the top of the “T” which turned the letter into a cowboy hat.

Or, instead of a boring arrow to point the tuner in the direction of a particular radio station, you got a rip-roarin six shooter instead! Just twist the barrel and turn on the fun! Or was it the fact that this cowboy, horse and pistol weren’t just flat drawings painted across the plastic housing. No, these figures were three-dimensional. (More on that later.)

On was it all of the above? I’m not sure.

One thing I do know. This particular set is unlike anything other. I wanted it, but I didn’t get it, at least not then. Unfortunately, it came up for auction right before I went on a big trip, so I didn’t buy it. It didn’t help that when I did a little research, I found out how rare this set was, if I could find any mention of it at all.

Silvertone itself was easy to track down. The company started making electronic products for Sears in 1915. Their first product was a hand-cranked phonograph. Radios followed in the 1920s and 30s. In World War Two the company introduced something called the “Silvertone Stratobeam.” I think it was some kind of fancy antenna.

After the war came guitars with the Silvertone name, and of course, my cowboy, at least according to a listing from radiomuseum.org. They call it the “Silvertone 4 Roy Rogers” set, made in 1951. If the title is accurate, then the 3D cowboy is a tribute to one of the finest Western entertainers of all time.

Roy Rogers, also known as the “King of the Cowboys,” was a man who entertained kids and adults alike in the early 20th century.  Born Leonard Franklin Slye, Roy’s first major success was singing with a group he helped create called “Sons of the Pioneers.” Two of their biggest hits were “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and “Cool Water.” Roy then found work in the movies as a singing cowboy and became a smash hit. He appeared in over 100 films and on both radio and television. He and his wife, Dale Evans, shared top billing in their various series. His horse, Trigger and dog Bullet were popular co-stars. Kids especially loved Roy’s TV show, which ran for six seasons on NBC in the early fifties.

Now the only actual connection I found between Roy and this set was the title in a variety of posts, including the radio museum listing. I even went to wishbookweb.com and looked though several years worth of Sears Christmas catalogs and came up empty. Oh, there were plenty of Roy products. They had cowboy and cowgirl outfits for the kids, complete with cap guns, play sets, clocks, watches, even a lamp, but no radio. All this stuff is so glorious, I wish I could go back in time and buy it all. Also, if I was back in 1950 I could find a clerk and ask her if my Silvertone had been sold at Sears, but unfortunately I don’t have a time machine in my basement.

Back to searching the web. I found an article from “The Northland Antique Radio Club Newsletter” called “Old Cowboy’s and Old Radios.” They did have a paragraph on the Silvertone Cowboy, but they were not able to identify the cow poke, so I still don’t know if the set really has anything to do with Roy. I suspect not, since I couldn’t find a trace of it in the Sears Catalog for the period, but maybe I didn’t look in the right place.

I did learn it was a “Teletone” model radio with the cowboy and pistol added.

You must be wondering why I’m going on and on about a radio I didn’t own. One I thought I would never own, since it seemed to vanish from the face of the Earth, leaving only a few pictures behind. Well, here is where I got extremely lucky. For the radio showed up for sale on eBay again. You can bet I didn’t let this second chance go by. The Silvertone Cowboy is mine and sitting proudly in my living room.

Now that I could touch it, I understood why it was so important, at least to me.

Earlier I mentioned that the cowboy, horse and pistol were three-dimensional. It seems Silvertone took a plastic action figure, cut it in two and stuck the front half to a flat surface, making them almost real. This is what makes this particular set unique, unlike any other I have ever seen. Perhaps unlike any other piece of vintage stuff in the 20th century.

However, I do own something like it. An item from a much earlier era. Something I treasure almost as much as my collection of vintage stuff. For this is not the first horse-riding 3D warrior I have run across, attached to a flat background, yet ready for battle.

As soon as I pulled my Silvertone from the shipping box and ran my fingers over the 3D figure, I made the connection… to the British Museum of all places.

Back in the 90s my mom and I traveled to England and one of the places we visited was the British Museum. There are millions of glorious things to see, but one artifact that captured my attention right away, was a slab of marble with Greek soldiers on horseback, half carved out of the stone. The the horsemen were three-dimensional, just like my cowboy. This particular piece of art is called a “Parthenon Frieze.”

To me the Frieze’s were more than just another example of a fantastic sculpture, mainly because of a decision made at some point by museum staff. These artworks were not only displayed in a gallery, some were actually hung in the cafeteria and not back behind the counter either! No, these warriors protected us while we ate our lunch!

It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. Being next to ancient art really made me feel close history. I loved these art pieces so much, I was thrilled when they had a reproduction for sale in the gift shop! I didn’t care that the was huge, 15” long and 11” wide, or that it weighed a whopping 14 pounds! I bought it and put it in my suitcase and carried it all through London and Scotland.

It made it home without a scratch and even survived the Northridge Earthquake. Those warriors are tough!

As is my Silvertone Cowboy. No wonder I had to have it. The 3-D cowboy not only has a connection to the ancient past, but conjures up a warm memory from my personal history as well.

I will always sleep well at night knowing I have my own calvary of 3-D warriors to protect me.

All Glorious examples of Vintage Stuff!