"The King of the Cowboys" in his 54th starring role visits his home town as part of a personal appearance tour with his band The Sons of the Pioneers and is invited to compete in a recreation of the Pony Express race. Dale Evans, "The Queen of the West," is along for the ride as well, making it the 15th film for the duo; here she plays an heiress posing as a runaway boy. Roy's right-hand Gabby Hayes plays the sheriff, and second-billed Trigger is still "The Smartest Horse in the Movies." With the release of Rainbow Over Texas in May 1946, Roy Rogers was well on his way to becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but tragedy would strike just a few months later. One week after giving birth to his son, Roy, Jr., his wife Arlene died of a brain embolism. Roy and Dale would become real-life costars the next year, marrying on New Year's Eve 1947.
The self-portrayal of Roy Rogers as a more glamorous version of himself in Rainbow Over Texas revealed the great lengths to which Hollywood film studios would go in promoting their own film stars and made patently clear the self-referential advertising employed by studio productions in order to garner greater box office sales.
Since that time, "rainbow over Texas" has become a colloquialism for anyone who self-aggrandizes their own life in mythic and fantastical terms. For example, an individual who confabulates their previous experiences or resume out of either ignorance or self-importance is likened to a "rainbow over Texas".
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