American postcard by Los Angeles Photo Post Card Co.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 698. Photo: Fox.
Oklahoma's Favorite Son
William Penn Adair Rogers was born in 1879 on his parents' Dog Iron Ranch in Oologah in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory, near present-day Claremore, Oklahoma. Rogers is known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son". His parents, Clement V. (Clem) Rogers and Mary America Schrimsher, were both mixed-race with Cherokee ancestry and considered themselves Cherokee. Clement, was an attorney and Cherokee judge and a leader in the Cherokee Nation.
Rogers learned how to ride a horse and do rope tricks while growing up on a ranch in what would eventually become Oklahoma. In 1899, Rogers appeared at the St. Louis Fair as part of the Mulhall Rodeo. Near the end of 1901, when he was 22 years old, he and a friend left home hoping to work as gauchos in Argentina. They spent five months trying to make it as ranch owners in the Pampas but lost all their money.
Rogers sailed for South Africa and there, he began his show business career as a trick roper with horse and lasso in 'Texas Jack's Wild West Circus'. When he quit the circus, he went to Australia. Texas Jack gave him a reference letter for the Wirth Brothers Circus there, and Rogers continued to perform as a rider and trick roper and worked on his pony act.
He returned to the United States in 1904, appeared at the Saint Louis World's Fair, and began to try his roping skills on the vaudeville circuits. In 1905 he performed in a show at Madison Square Garden. The good reviews prompted his decision to stay in New York City and work in vaudeville.
When a wild steer broke out of the arena and began to climb into the viewing stands. Rogers roped the steer to the delight of the crowd. The feat got front-page attention from the newspapers, giving him valuable publicity and an audience eager to see more. Willie Hammerstein saw his vaudeville act and signed Rogers to appear on the Victoria Roof — which was literally on a rooftop — with his pony.
American postcard by Mid West Map Co., Aurora, Montana, for The Mason Hotel / The Radium Bathhouse, Claremont, Oklahoma. Sent by mail in 1943.
American postcard by Storer S Cards, Tulsa, Oklahoma, no. S-616. Caption: Will Rogers - America's beloved cowboy humorist - columnist - ambassador at large.
I never met a man I didn't like
In 1912, Will Rogers appeared in his first Broadway show, 'The Wall Street Girl' and demonstrated his roping skills between acts. He did the same in a few less successful shows in 1915, but he impressed producer Flo Ziegfeld enough to be hired later that year for the cast of 'Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic'. Upon discovering that audiences loved his Western drawl, he began to ad-lib patter in his previously silent act.
To keep his act fresh, Rogers poked fun at prominent audience members and commented on the events of the day, especially political news. At one performance, with President Woodrow Wilson in the audience, Rogers improvised a "roast" of presidential policies that had Wilson, and the entire audience, in stitches.
Gently kidding Democrats and Republicans alike, Rogers became a master of the political one-liner, such as “Every time Congress makes a joke it’s law, and every time they make a law it’s a joke.” From 'Midnight Frolic', Rogers moved to the prestigious 'Ziegfeld Follies', on Broadway in 1916, a yearly production to which he frequently returned until 1925.
In 1922 his weekly articles for the New York Times became so popular that they appeared in more than 500 U.S. newspapers daily. An editorial in The New York Times said that "Will Rogers in the Follies is carrying on the tradition of Aristophanes, and not unworthily." His column and his radio appearances increased his visibility and popularity.
Rogers's earthy anecdotes and folksy style allowed him to poke fun at gangsters, prohibition, politicians, government programs, and a host of other controversial topics in a way that found general acclaim from a national audience with no one offended. His aphorisms, couched in humorous terms, were widely quoted, for example, "I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat." One of Rogers's most famous sayings was "I never met a man I didn't like".
American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co, Chicago. Photo: First National Pictures. Will Rogers, Mack Swain, William Orlamond and Lucien Littlefield in A Texas Steer (Richard Wallace, 1927).
Honorary mayor of Beverly Hills
In 1918 Will Rogers starred in his first film, Laughing Bill Hyde (Hobart Henley, 1918). A three-year contract with producer Samuel Goldwyn, at triple the Broadway salary, moved Rogers west. He bought a ranch in Pacific Palisades and set up his own production company. Though Rogers would never admit to being anything but an amateur actor, critics appreciated his natural charm and appealingly plain face.
For the next few years, he appeared in silent features for Goldwyn, as well as several comedies he produced himself and a series of Hal Roach two-reelers that made light of Hollywood and Washington. Among the films he made for Roach in 1924 were three directed by Rob Wagner: Two Wagons Both Covered, Going to Congress, and Our Congressman. He wrote many of the title cards appearing in his films.
Rogers also wrote books, articles, and a syndicated newspaper column; he frequently performed on radio and was a popular after-dinner speaker. In 1929 with the arrival of sound film, Rogers signed a movie contract with the Fox Film Corporation and made his first talking picture, the comedy They Had to See Paris (Frank Borzage, 1929) with Irene Rich. He played a wealthy American oil tycoon who travels to Paris with his family at his wife's request, despite the fact he hates the French.
Sound films suited the talkative Rogers, and his popular films made him a bigger star than ever before. A success was A Connecticut Yankee (David Butler, 1931), based on Mark Twain’s humorous novel. His favourite director was John Ford, who directed him three times. He played a homespun farmer in State Fair (Henry King, 1933) with Janet Gaynor, an old-fashioned doctor in Dr. Bull (John Ford, 1933), a small-town banker in David Harum (James Cruze, 1934), and a rustic politician in Judge Priest (John Ford, 1934). He also acted in The County Chairman (John G. Blystone, 1935), Steamboat Round the Bend (John Ford, 1935), and In Old Kentucky (George Marshall, 1935).
In politics, Rogers preferred to remain an observer, but he spent a few weeks in 1926 as honorary mayor of Beverly Hills until California legislation declared his position illegal (“I ain’t the first mayor that’s been kicked out,” he mused), and he was a supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential candidacy. In 1935, at the height of his popularity, Rogers died in a plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska. His last two films, Steamboat ’Round the Bend and In Old Kentucky, were released posthumously the same year. In 1935, Will Rogers died in the Arctic crash of a plane piloted by the world-renowned, one-eyed pioneer aviator, Wiley Post, near Point Barrow, Alaska. Post died as well. Will Rogers was buried in Claremore, Oklahoma, at the Will Rogers Memorial, now a popular tourist attraction. Since 1908 Rogers was married to Betty Blake Rogers and they had four children, Fred, Mary, Will Rogers Jr. and Jimmy Rogers. Will Rogers was portrayed by his son, Will Rogers Jr., in the film, The Story of Will Rogers (Michael Curtiz, 1952) with Jane Wyman as Betty.
American postcard in the "C.T. American Art" series by Curteich, Chicago / Mid-Continet News Co. Oklahoma City, Okl., no. 8A339. Sent by mail in 1940.
American 'Mirro-Krome' postcard by H.S. Crocker Co. Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, no. SCC-303. Photo: Donald Cantrell. Caption: Photo of a portrait of Will Rogers world citizen and Oklahoma's favorite son.
Sources: Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.
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