Will Rogers

Portrait of Will Rogers, date unknown.

William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American cowboy, humorist, vaudeville and film actor, and commentator on national affairs.

Early life

Rogers was born on November 4, 1879 in Indian Territory, near the modern town of Oologah, Oklahoma , into a prosperous ranching family. His parents, Clem and Mary, both were of Cherokee descent. Roach (1980) presents a sociological-psychological assessment of the relationship between Will and his father during the formative boyhood and teenage years. The father had high expectations for his son and always demanded success from him. Will was more easygoing and oriented toward the loving affection offered by his mother rather than the harshness of his father. The personality clash increased after the mother's death, and young Will went from one venture to another with little success. Only after Will won acclaim in vaudeville did the rift begin to heal, but Clem's untimely death in 1911 prohibited the full reconciliation.

Throughout his youth, Rogers was enrolled in several private schools, none of which he stayed at very long. He was more passionate about roping, which he learned at a young age under the tutelage of Uncle Dan Walker, a freed slave that his father employed.

After giving up on school, he spent his early adult years working on ranches in Texas and New Mexico. He eventually returned home to find his father had moved to Claremore and became a wheat farmer. He was unsuited for farming, and as more white settlers moved to Oklahoma at the turn of the century he realized that ranching was becoming a thing of the past. In 1901, Rogers decided to move to Argentina with a friend after hearing stories about a thriving ranching community in the country. They finally arrived in Buenos Aires in May 1902, however their stay was short lived. Rogers did not have enough money to invest in property and was handicapped because he did not speak Spanish, and decided to move to South Africa after only a few months. In South Africa, he encountered Texas Jack’s Wild West Show and after an impressive audition he was offered a job. In 1903 Rogers left Texas Jack, with a glowing recommendation, and traveled to New Zealand and Australia before returning to Oklahoma in April 1904.

Vaudeville years

Shortly after his arrival in the States, he sought to continue his performance career. He landed a role in the Mulhall Wild West Show at the St. Louis World's Fair and broke into the vaudeville scene with a roping performance on stage in Chicago. In 1905, he rejoined the Wild West Show in New York City where they performed at Madison Square Garden. During another entertainers performance a steer got loose and charged the audience. Rogers headed off the animal, redirecting it to the arena so it could be roped, a feat for which the "Indian Cowpuncher" received public acclaim. Rogers used his notoriety to jump start his vaudeville career, which began at the Union Square Theatre on June 12, 1905. He was booked for the supper show with minimal advertisement, however he overcame these obstacles with an act that culminated in him roping a pony on stage. He also demonstrated a knack for inserting his natural, wry humor into the show. His show became an instant success and his show moved to the biggest stages in New York. In the following years, his success continued as he performed on many of the larger stages on the east coast.

Amidst his continuing stage success and after several years of courtship, primarily through written correspondence, Rogers married Betty Blake on November 25, 1908 at Betty's home in Rogers, Arkansas.

In 1914, Rogers experienced a brief but successful tenure in the musical The Merry-Go-Round in London. With the outbreak of World War I, he returned to New York where he took a job performing at the Midnight Frolic, which was run by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. who was the producer of America's most famous vaudeville show, the Ziegfeld Follies. Taking his wife's advice, Rogers incorporated commentary into his show about stories he read in the newspaper. This marked an important turning point in Rogers' career. Early in Rogers' career, he viewed his performances as serious and resented the laughter of audiences, but he eventually learned to embrace his homespun humor. His success led Ziegfeld to invite him to join the Follies in 1916. Rogers, now working two shows a night in the same theater, had to begin coming up with two new routines each night. He excelled in his new role and would earn national acclaim and emerged as star. He would remain working with the Follies off and on until 1924.

Movie star

Rogers rising popularity in the Follies drew the attention of Hollywood. In 1918, Rogers accepted the role of Bill Hyde in the silent film Laughing Bill Hyde, produced by Samuel Goldwyn. The movie was successful and Goldwyn offered Rogers a lucrative two year contract, tripling his Follies salary, and the family moved to Beverly Hills, California in 1919. When his contract expired in 1921, he had made twelve movies. Rogers decided to try his hand at producing his own movies, and although he made three movies, none were a financial success and he was on the verge of bankruptcy and he was forced to return to the Follies in New York.

Silent films were not the best medium for Rogers, who was unable to take full advantage of his humor. As motion pictures with sound, known as "talkies", were developed in the late 1920's, Rogers became involved with Hollywood again. His first "talkie", titled They Had to See Paris, opened in September, 1929. At the time of his death he had starred in 20 "talkies."

Later life

After returning to New York in 1922, Rogers found extra work making after dinner speeches at charity events and conventions. He expanded his routine from stories about current events to poking fun at those he was speaking to. Following a speech at a political rally for New York Representative Ogden Mills, in which he admitted he didn't know the candidate which made him "more apt to say something good of him than anyone else," he was offered a job writing a column for the New York Times. His first column appeared on December 24, 1922, and was syndicated one week later, becoming a standard feature in the Sunday newspapers across America for the next thirteen years.

When Rogers ended his run with Ziegfeld's Follies in 1924, he began touring the country on a lecture tour. He entertained crowds with his comedy across the United States, as well as Europe, until 1928. Rogers was a staunch Democrat, supporting Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also served as a goodwill ambassador to Mexico, a brief stint as mayor of Beverly Hills, and a being nomination for President of the United States. During the height of the Great Depression, angered by Washington's inability to feed the people, embarked on a cross country fund raising tour for the Red Cross. He was also an advocate for the aviation industry in the US after noticing aerospace advancements in Europe and befriending Charles Lindbergh.

Death

Rogers died in a plane crash on August 15, 1935. The plane, piloted by fellow Oklahoman Wiley Post, went down en route to Barrow, Alaska.

Political philosophy

After Rogers gained recognition as a humorist-philosopher in vaudeville, he gained a national audience in acting and literary careers in 1915-35. In these years, Rogers increasingly expressed the views of the "common man" in America. People of all walks admired his individualism, his appreciation for democratic ideas, and his liberal philosophies on most issues. Moreover, Rogers extolled hard work and long hours of toil in order to succeed, and such expressions upheld theories of many Americans on how best to realize their own dreams of success. He symbolized the self-made man, the common man, who believed in America, in progress, in the American Dream of upward mobility, and whose humor never offended even those who were the targets of it.