“When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do — well, that’s Memoirs.”
That excellent advice from Will Rogers to all of us is a good beginning to his life’s story.
Where to begin with such a complicated and fascinating man? He was born on his parents’ Dog Iron Ranch in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory (near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma).
Both his folks were of mixed-race and Cherokee ancestry. Will was just over one-fourth Cherokee and quipped that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower but they “met the boat.”
He was the youngest of eight children and his father was an attorney and a Cherokee judge active in area politics.
Supposedly, Will was a good student but he dropped out of school after the 10th grade. He was more interested in horses and cowboys, leading to his occupations prior to show business.
His show business career began as a trick rider and roper in “Texas Jack’s Wild West Circus” in South Africa.
He parlayed those skills through several other like entertainments until he wound up in New York City in April of 1905.
He was at Madison Square Garden when a wild steer broke out of the arena and began to climb into the stands. Will roped it to the appreciation of the crowd. That was his breakthrough moment as it received front page attention from the newspapers and gave him valuable publicity.
His bookings led him to the famous “Ziegfeld Follies” and he began to employ his laconic but pointed humor.
He transformed from the “Ropin’ Fool” to the “Talkin’ Fool”; his off-the-cuff, witty commentary and skill at ad-libs launched him into motion pictures in 1918 and in the next decade he made 48 silent movies.
Those were entertaining but when sound films arrived in 1929 he became a top star.
These roles such as a homespun farmer, an old-fashioned doctor and a small town banker gave him the opportunity to exercise his verbal wit.
This era of Hollywood motion pictures saw him appearing alongside noted performers: Lew Ayres, Hattie McDaniel, Joel McCrea, Maureen O’Sullivan and Dick Powell. Rogers’ favorite director was the superb John Ford.
Rogers’ voice was so familiar to movie-goers that he basically played himself in each movie, without makeup and working in his favorite commentaries on politics through his ad-libs.
Then radio attracted him and he became a star there as well, broadcasting his newspaper columns. Yes, he also wrote a weekly column in the New York Times from 1922 to 1935; “Will Rogers Says” reached 40 million readers.
Rogers was a Democrat but mostly remained apolitical in his commentaries. He did run a mock campaign for president in 1928 representing the “Anti-Bunk Party.”
He became an advocate for the aviation industry, which led to his flying with famed aviator Wiley Post on a flight through Alaska. Their plane went down near Point Barrow, Alaska and both were killed.
Rogers’ legacy to the American people lives in his writings, “This would be a great world to dance in if we didn’t have to pay the fiddler.”
