The May 16, 1925, issue of the Meeker Herald proclaimed that the Princess Theater in town would be showing “The Rough Rider,” another of Kenneth Sanderson’s pictures. Kenneth was acting under the name of Buddy Roosevelt. Kenneth was a homegrown Meekerite, so the community was delighted to see someone they knew on the big screen. Hollywood loves a pretty face and Kenneth made a very handsome actor. He even doubled once for Rudolph Valentino.
Kenneth left home at the age of 18 to join the C.B. Irwin Wild West Show at Grand Junction. Charles Burton Irwin had the Y6 ranch near Cheyenne and contributed greatly to the early years of the Cheyenne Frontier Days. C.B. was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame as a stock contractor and rodeo promoter. His Wild West Show was disbanded in 1917.
Kenneth went on to Hollywood as an extra and stuntman. This career was interrupted by WWI when he enlisted in the Navy. After WWI, He returned to Hollywood and found work in 18 silent pictures for Universal Film Company. Many actors did not survive the transition to “talkies.” Kenneth did well because of his skills as a cowboy and stuntman. In 1924 he was picked to star in a five-reeler feature story of the Alaska Gold Rush entitled “The Lure of the Yukon.”It was about this time when his name in movie credits changed to Buddy Roosevelt. He worked in 38 silent five-reel westerns and 12 sound five-reel westerns for Monogram Films. Two of his movies are still available on DVD: “Boss Cowboy” and “Lightning Range.”
WWII came along and once again, Kenneth served his country, this time in the U.S. Coast Guard. Kenneth married three times: In 1926 to Willie Kathryn De Forrest; 1929 to Francies Harriet Gable; and Wanda F. Lang who bore him a son: Keith Douglas Sanderson in 1946. In later years, Kenneth worked as freelance character parts until 1963, when he retired. Kenneth came back to live in Meeker and died in 1973 at the VA hospital in Grand Junction. He is buried in Highland Cemetery. For more information, please visit the White River Museum in Meeker.
By ED PECK
Sources: Excerpts from the Meeker Herald; Ancestry.com; US census; White River Museum, Meeker, CO; Hans J. Wollstein, actor and Hollywood historian.
