Will’s Worldly Wit
Will Rogers in his trick roping days.
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” Will Rogers
Rogers is remembered as a vaudeville/circus performer, actor, and humorous political and social commentator. He was born a citizen of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and is known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son". He'd tell his audience that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower, but they "met the boat".
Will Rogers quit school to live the cowboy life, riding horses and learning how to rope. He learned roping tricks with his lariat and joined a rodeo show. At age 22, he and a friend went to Argentina with a dream to work as gauchos. They spent five months failing to make it as ranch owners. Rogers gave up and sailed for South Africa and found work at a ranch there. His show business career began as a trick roper in the "Texas Jack's Wild West Circus" in South Africa. Rogers then sailed to Australia to work at the Wirth Brothers Circus. There he performed as a rider and trick roper. When he returned to the US, he appeared at the Saint Louis World's Fair and began his silent roping routine at various vaudeville circuits. It was when he joined the Ziegfeld Follies that he began to ad lib while showing his rope tricks. He’d look at his audience and say things like, " Swingin' a rope's all right... if your neck ain't in it."
Americans loved his ability to poke fun at gangsters, prohibition, politicians, government programs and other controversial topics in a way that was not offensive and offered food for thought. 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 and proved his remarkable skill at off-the-cuff, witty commentary on current events.
“Everything is funny as long as it's happening to somebody else.” Will Rogers
When Hollywood discovered Will Rogers and he became a film star, his salary tripled. He moved West and bought a ranch in the Pacific Palisades. In between movies, he wrote a weekly and daily short column "Will Rogers Says" that reached 40 million readers of the New York Times.
As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled the world three times, made 71 films and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. In the mid-1930's Rogers was hugely popular in the US for his leading political wit and he was also the highest paid Hollywood film star.
Like Mark Twain before him, Will Rogers connected with his audience using political humor. Bob Hope is the best-known political humorist to follow Rogers's example.
“Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like.” Will Rogers
During the Great Depression, Rogers enjoyed a brief stint as Mayor of Beverly Hills which allowed him to joke about do-nothing politicians such as himself. He increasingly expressed the views of the working man of America.
Today, besides a museum in Oklahoma featuring this man's accomplishments, there are many landmarks named in his honor: 13 public schools in OK, including the Will Rogers High School in Tulsa and the Will Rogers World Airport. In LA County, California, one can visit the Will Rogers State Beach, the Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, but, sadly, the Will Rogers State Historic Park with his ranch house and polo field was destroyed in the January Palisades Fire. Authors of western writing appreciate the annual Will Rogers Medallion Award ceremony that highlights “work that represents an accurate reflection of Western Americana, or cowboy and ranch life, historical or contemporary.”
There’s even a song dedicated to the life of the memorable man:
The Ballad of Will Rogers by Chris LeDoux
NOTES
Books abound about America’s Cowboy Philosopher, Will Rogers.
