Program

Legends & Lore®

Subject

Legend

Location

144 W Main St, Washington, NC 27889, USA

Lat/Long

35.542566, -77.05598

Grant Recipient

City of Washington

The historic Turnage Theater has called Washington’s Main Street home since 1913. In over a hundred years of show business, the hotspot entertained audiences as a vaudeville theater, a movie palace, and a performing arts venue, with notable names of the century gracing its stage. Indeed, locals still tell the legend of how Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy movie star, once rode his beloved golden palomino horse Trigger up the Turnage stairs and straight into the theater.

While this horseplay might seem a tall tale, it was no unusual feat for Trigger, one of the most talented equestrian acts in Hollywood history. Trigger was a consummate performer, and his repertoire included sitting in chairs, taking bows, and signing his name with an “X”. Despite his renowned speed and dexterity, Trigger was a domesticated steed with a gentle disposition. In fact, Rogers and Trigger had pulled the stairs entrance gag many times across the United States at hotels, theaters, and hospitals, where Trigger would simply welcome himself in, as he had at the Turnage Theater.