Nostalgia - - Will Rogers

My paternal grandparents were fans of humorist Will Rogers. Among their belongings was the biography of Rogers by Donald Day, marked with a postcard from the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, which they had apparently visited in their retirement. I read the book and enjoyed it immensely, and cried like a little baby at the end of it when Rogers died in a tragic Alaska plane crash.

Wikipedia will tell you all about him, but I thought I'd link a couple of his old film clips. The first is from a silent movie that he financed himself, called The Roping Fool, showing some of his skill with a cowboy's lariat, which is how he first became famous. The roping led him into Wild West shows and later to Vaudeville, and finally to Broadway, where he was one of the stars of the Ziegfeld Follies.



During his Vaudeville time he began telling humorous stories between rope tricks, and, lacking material, began commenting on stories that he read in the newspaper. Later the commentaries overshadowed the roping, and he became a newspaper columnist, radio star, and movie star; at the time of his death he was the most famous and popular actor in Hollywood, with only Shirley Temple able to match his star power. If you can imagine Johnny Carson and Bob Hope rolled into one you can begin to understand his fame and the American people's love for him.

Here's a radio address he gave during the early part of the Great Depression, when Herbert Hoover was still President. Rogers was a liberal Democrat, but had good relations with all the men who were President during those years, with the exception of Warren G. Harding, who didn't appreciate his humor. He sounds like a hayseed here, but the US was a rural country back then, and the common people adored him as one of their own. The gum-chewing was one of his trademarks. His commentary reads better than it sounds here, because he had time to reflect when writing for the newspapers.



A truly remarkable man.