Will Rogers

Cowboy

• Born: November 4, 1879
• Birthplace: Near Oologah, Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma)
• Died: August 15, 1935
• Place of death: Walakpa Lagoon, near Point Barrow, Alaska

American humorist

An internationally prominent humorist and satirist, Rogers functioned as a constructive social critic and humanitarian as well as an entertainer.

Areas of achievement Theater and entertainment, film, radio, literature

Early Life

William Penn Adair Rogers was born in the Indian Territory of the United States of America near what eventually became Oologah, Oklahoma. Both of his parents came from the Indian Territory and contributed to his status as a quarter-blood Cherokee Indian. His father, Clement Van “Clem” Rogers, was a rough and wealthy rancher, farmer, banker, and businessman, in addition to being a prominent politician. His mother, Mary Schrimsher Rogers, was a loving woman who came from a financially successful and politically powerful family. Will was the youngest of eight children, three of whom died at birth, and the only male to survive childhood.

Rogers developed a lasting love for the life and basic skills of the cowboy, horseback riding and roping, in his early years. At home, he adored his affectionate mother but developed a complex and not completely positive relationship with his father. Rogers clearly loved his father, who provided a masculine establishment figure with whom to identify. At the same time, Will possessed a strong personality that eventually clashed with that of the elder Rogers. Then, at age ten, disaster entered the young Oklahoman’s life when his mother died and the closing of the open range heralded an end to the cowboy’s life. These conditions changed a relatively secure and happy child into a sad wanderer who sought desperately to replace the love and sense of purpose that had been taken from him.

Tension increased between Rogers and his father in the years following Mary Rogers’s death. The elder Rogers was particularly infuriated by his son’s uneven performance in school. Between the ages of eight and eighteen, Rogers attended six different educational institutions and left each one under questionable circumstances. His main interests during these years were playing the class clown and participating in theatrical activities. He also developed a growing fascination with trick roping. In 1898, after running away from the last school he attended, the eighteen-year-old embarked on a seven-year odyssey. He worked variously as a wandering cowboy, as the manager of the family ranch, and as a trick-rope artist in Wild West shows, then turned to vaudeville. His travels took him literally across the globe. Such behavior merely increased the elder Rogers’s dissatisfaction with his son. The son, on the other hand, manifested guilt at not having lived up to the father’s expectations and example of success.

One final factor remains to be discussed in connection with Rogers’s teenage and early adult years: his sensitivity to his Cherokee Indian heritage. This sensitivity was evident in his militant reaction to any criticism of Indians or those of Indian ancestry. Furthermore, because of his own Indian background, he was the victim of racial prejudice in trying to establish relationships with women.

The year 1905 proved to be a crucial one for Rogers. He went to New York and entered vaudeville as a trick-rope artist. At the same time, he began making serious proposals of marriage to Betty Blake of Roger, Arkansas, whom he had first met in 1899. When Rogers and Blake were married in 1908, the Oklahoman had taken the first step in what proved to be one of the most successful entertainment careers in American history. Perhaps more important, however, these events assisted Rogers in overcoming the sadness that had enshrouded him since youth: His marriage helped to replace the female love and sense of belonging he had lost when his mother died, while his success in show business enabled him to establish a more positive relationship with his father and compensated Rogers for the loss of the cowboy life.

Life’s Work

Will Rogers’s career can be divided into four periods. During the first, from 1905 to 1915, he became a successful vaudevillian. He began his stage career with a trick-roping act, in which he lassoed simultaneously a moving horse and its rider. Gradually, the young performer began making comical remarks as his lariats whirled about. By 1911, he was a bona fide monologuist, making humorous comments about other artists and the theater world. Traveling the famous Orpheum Circuit, he used the same material each evening. Rogers also toured England and Western Europe several times. The Rogers family numbered five by 1915: Will and Betty, William Vann Rogers, Jr. (born 1911), Mary Amelia Rogers (born 1913), and James Blake Rogers (born 1915).

The next stage in Rogers’s rise to prominence started in 1915, when he began performing in Florenz Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic. The Midnight Frolic was staged on the roof of the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City, the home of the Ziegfeld Follies. Rogers encountered a problem working in the Midnight Frolic. Since it attracted many repeat customers, he had to struggle to present new material each night. Eventually, the daily newspapers provided him with constantly changing material concerning contemporary society on which he could base his humorous monologues.

Rogers’s career received a giant boost in 1916, when he joined the Ziegfeld Follies. Within two years, Rogers had finished developing the basic characteristics of his humor. Fittingly, it was at this time that the budding comedian became known as the Cowboy Philosopher and began each performance with his famous line: “Well, all I know is what I read in the newspapers.” Rogers’s humor was based on the following precepts: Proven material was mixed with continually changing jokes about contemporary news; neutrality on controversial topics was maintained by poking fun at all sides; truth and realism, sometimes exaggerated, provided the best foundation for humor; the comical style involved the projection of Rogers’s personality. With his humor resting on these tenets, Will quickly assumed the characteristics of a cracker-barrel philosopher and satirist who functioned as a constructive social critic. As such, he became increasingly serious about what he said.

An additional facet of Rogers’s life emerged during World War I: his genuine humanitarianism. He pledged one tenth of what he made during the conflict to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and he was extremely active in raising funds for both organizations.

The third stage of Rogers’s career encompassed the years from 1918 to 1928. He became a national figure during this era, expanding into new fields of endeavor. Much of his success was a result of his physical appearance and bearing. Slender, athletic, six feet tall, with handsome facial features that reflected his Indian heritage, Rogers performed in cowboy regalia, chomping on an ever-present wad of chewing gum, and twirling ropes that he watched while making detached comments concerning contemporary events. His ungrammatical speech, Western accent, contagious smile, and unruly forelock merely added to the pretense of an illiterate, homespun yokel, perceptively satirizing society. This pose enabled Rogers to get away with saying things that other performers would never have considered saying.

In 1918, Samuel Goldwyn offered Rogers a starring role in the film Laughing Bill Hyde. The humorist hesitantly accepted, since the New Jersey shooting location of the film allowed him to continue working in the Ziegfeld Follies. Laughing Bill Hyde proved to be a reasonable success, and Goldwyn presented Rogers with a two-year contract tomake motion pictures in California. He agreed to the arrangement and moved to Los Angeles. Rogers added another dimension to his work in 1919, with the publication of two books: Rogers-isms: The Cowboy Philosopher on the Peace Conference and Rogers-isms: The Cowboy Philosopher on Prohibition.

The move to California was not without its troubles. The newest Rogers baby, Fred Stone Rogers, died of diphtheria when he was eighteen months old. The numerous two-reel motion pictures that Rogers made for Goldwyn did not turn the aspiring actor into a star, and when his contract with Goldwyn was not renewed in 1921, Rogers himself made three two-reel pictures in which he played the leading role. A complex set of circumstances resulted in his losing a large amount of money in the venture. Faced with bankruptcy, the determined performer left Betty and the children in California while he returned to New York and the Ziegfeld Follies. Between 1921 and 1923, Rogers launched a banquet speaking career and began a syndicated weekly newspaper column, in addition to his work for Ziegfeld. Two years of laboring around the clock in this fashion enabled him to pay off his debts.

Rogers continued to pursue a career in motion pictures, despite his initial difficulties. Thus, in 1923, after he had taken care of his money problems, he returned to Los Angeles and signed a contract with the Hal E. Roach Studio to make a series of two-reel comedies. Thirteen films resulted from this agreement. They were more successful than the Goldwyn films but Rogers was still not a great motion-picture success. He eventually reached the conclusion that the problem resided with the unwillingness of studios and directors to allow him to project his own personality. Frustrated, the humorist once again returned to New York and the Ziegfeld Follies. A third book, Illiterate Digest, composed mainly of weekly newspaper articles, appeared in 1924.

Rogers added still another dimension to his work in the mid-1920’s. He began his one-person lecture tour in 1925, repeating it in 1926 and in 1927, and periodically thereafter. Additionally, the energetic satirist published a number of magazine articles for The Saturday Evening Post and Life (at that time a humor magazine). In 1926, he began his short daily syndicated newspaper column, which frequently appeared under the caption “Will Rogers Says.” Two more books followed quickly: Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President (1926) and There’s Not a Bathing Suit in Russia and Other Bare Facts (1927). These were collections of articles he had written for The Saturday Evening Post, as was his 1929 offering, Ether and Me: Or, “Just Relax.”

In the 1920’s, Rogers also expanded his humanitarian efforts. While in Europe during 1926, he traveled to Dublin, Ireland, and did a benefit for the survivors of a theater fire. The same year, he took similar action to assist survivors of Florida tornadoes and Mississippi River flood victims. His daily and weekly newspaper columns complemented these efforts, repeatedly appealing for public support.

The final phase in Rogers’s professional evolution covered the years from 1929 to 1935. During this time, Rogers was catapulted into the elite arena of superstardom. His salary, popularity, influence, and the range of media he employed to communicate with his massive audiences all contributed to this achievement.

Rogers made his first sound motion picture, They Had to See Paris, in 1929 for Fox Film Corporation. It was successful, and Rogers became a star overnight. He soon signed a two-year contract with Fox to make five pictures. A leading figure in the development of sound films, in 1934 Rogers was voted the nation’s most popular box-office attraction in a poll taken among independent theater owners. It is estimated that at the time of his death in 1935, Rogers was making one million dollars a year performing in motion pictures, a sum then unsurpassed by any screen personality.

Rogers made infrequent radio appearances during the 1920’s but did not feel comfortable with the medium. Nevertheless, he did seventy-five radio programs between 1927 and 1935. His radio appearances increased after 1930, when he did fourteen programs sponsored by E. R. Squibb and Sons. A longer but more sporadic series was sponsored by the Gulf Oil Corporation between 1933 and 1935. In time, Rogers became one of the most popular radio entertainers in the country; as early as 1930, he was receiving $350 per minute for his radio performances.

The onset of the Depression in 1929 elicited a predictable response from Rogers. He devoted more and more time to benefits for victims of all sorts of natural disasters and the disadvantaged. These activities took him all over the United States and as far afield as Nicaragua.

Haphazard vacation plans in August of 1935 resulted in Rogers joining the famous aviator Wiley Post on a flight in a newly constructed plane of Post’s design. Plans called for the two to fly from Seattle, Washington, to Point Barrow, Alaska, with stops in between. The plane crashed on August 15, 1935, at Walakpa Lagoon, sixteen miles short of its destination. Both Rogers, age fifty-five, and Post were killed in what became one of the most famous air tragedies of the twentieth century.

Significance

Rogers’s philosophy remained consistent throughout his career. He generally sided with the disadvantaged and weak against the powerful and wealthy on both domestic and international questions. This outlook in part reflected Rogers’s early experiences. His Indian heritage, for example, exposed him to racial prejudice. Having experienced such prejudice, he became more understanding of society’s disadvantaged people and more supportive of the weak and the poor.

Underlying Rogers’s humor was a combination of realism and optimism. Regardless of how bad the truth seemed to be, there was almost always a positive message in what he said and wrote. This quality reflected the experience of his nation and region. In both, the task of carving a civilization out of a primitive environment made reality impossible to ignore and hope necessary for survival.

In the entertainment world, Rogers established several important precedents. His method of remaining neutral on controversial topics by criticizing all involved established an approach to satire that has been employed by succeeding generations of performers. His commitment to humanitarian activities set a standard that many entertainers have followed. Finally, his reliance on contemporary news as the basis for his constantly changing material has been widely imitated.

Bibliography

Carter, Joseph H. The Quotable Will Rogers. Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2005. Brief biography tracing Rogers’s family history, career, and America’s fascination with him. Interwoven throughout with Rogers’s quotations and quips.

Day, Donald. Will Rogers: A Biography. New York: David McKay, 1962. This volume is unbalanced since it overemphasizes the importance of the early days in Rogers’s relationship with his wife. Includes no footnotes or bibliography. Well written, but of questionable value for research.

Keith, Harold. Boy’s Life of Will Rogers. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1938. A valuable work for reminiscences by hundreds of Rogers’s relatives and friends, supported by the author’s study of books, magazines, and newspapers that contained information by or about Rogers.

Ketchum, Richard M. Will Rogers: His Life and Times. New York: American Heritage, 1973. This book is well written, accompanied by an excellent collection of photographs, and based on many materials not previously used. Unfortunately, it is not documented, fails to describe causative factors in Rogers’s life, and does not analyze the humorist’s philosophy.

Milsten, David Randolph. An Appreciation of Will Rogers. San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor, 1935. Valuable for interviews with close friends and associates of Rogers.

Rogers, Betty. Will Rogers: The Story of His Life Told by His Wife. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing, 1943. Betty’s recollection of her life with Will is a key source. Contains no footnotes or bibliography. Rogers states that her direct quotes frequently come from her husband’s newspaper articles.

Rogers, Will. The Autobiography of Will Rogers. Edited by Donald Day. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1949. Day mixes in various materials from numerous other sources and does not inform the reader. The work is not documented.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Writings of Will Rogers. 23 vols. Edited by Joseph A. Stout, Jr., Peter C. Rollins, Steven K. Gragert, and James M. Smallwood. Stillwater: Oklahoma State University Press, 1973-1984. A twenty-three-volume set of the edited, annotated writings of Rogers with some radio broadcasts included. Includes a subject index for the entire set; most of the individual volumes possess an index as well.

Rollins, Peter C. Will Rogers: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984. The most significant resource for anyone doing research on Rogers. It contains a wealth of information ranging from a biographical overview to a complete listing of the available primary and secondary sources. This material is not only described, but much of it is also summarized and evaluated. A treasure trove without equal.

Trent, Spi M. My Cousin Will Rogers: Intimate and Untold Tales. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1938. Trent was a close companion of Rogers during the latter’s youth and early adulthood. His work is a valuable source for those years. It must be used cautiously when dealing with the period after Rogers’s marriage.

Yagoda, Ben. Will Rogers: A Biography. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. Comprehensive biography, in which Yagoda describes how Rogers grew into his public persona of the wry, commonsensical commentator.

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