Will Rogers

[charliechaplinfan]

I've recently watched Judge Priest (terrible copy but I stuck with it) and They Had To See Paris. Will Rogers is a name I've heard of but know little about. The imdb carries a few lines on him, he sounds like the conscience of America. Can anyone round out his history for me?

Also Roy Rogers, is he a famous relative?

[JackFavell]

I don't think Roy and WIll are related.

MissGoddess will know everything there is to know about Will, and has some fantastic photos to boot. If we are lucky, she will post "Ropin' Fool", a silent film of Rogers doing some of his incredible rope tricks.

When I grew up in Oklahoma, Rogers was revered - schools were named after him, he was an amazing man because although he was an actor and radio personality, he was instrumental in helping ordinary folks get through the worst of the Great Depression. I don't mean that he cheered them up, although he did that too - I mean he raised millions of dollars in relief money for those who were hit the hardest in the poorest sections of the midwest. He traveled throughout the country, meeting people and taking what he saw back to the politicians who were blind or indifferent to the poverty and starvation in our country. He forced the issue in the most gentle and humorous way possible. This is why Will Rogers is remembered in the midwest.

All this and as funny and brilliant a man as you would ever want to meet. His words are as relevant now as they were back in 1935.

How did you like Judge Priest?

[silentscreen]

Alison,

Roy Rogers was a separate Western star. He and his wife had their own television show back in the fifties. All the little boys tried to emulate him. HIs horse "Trigger" was quite famous too. He was very well known here in the States.

Brenda

[MichiganJ]

The Slapstick Encyclopedia DVD collection includes the Will Rogers short: Big Moments From Little Pictures (1924), in which Rogers parodies a number of silent film stars including, among others, Valentino from Blood and Sand and Fairbanks in Robin Hood.

Also, the Will Rogers Museum store has recently released a DVD of some of his silent films. I have the disc on order so don't yet know about the quality of the prints.
http://www.willrogers.com/store/video/DV001132.html

[jdb1]

Alison, as you will see from the information given on the other posts, Will Rogers was a big, big star in the early days of the 20th Century. My impression of him, garnered from my parents and grandparents, and from his films, is that he was a natural performer, who embodied a mixture of innocence and canny. He was as adept at "rural" comedy as he was at trenchant political commentary, and subsequent generations of comedians have been greatly influenced by him. There was a Broadway show in the 70s or 80s based on Rogers' career. I believe Keith Carradine played Rogers.

He was immensely popular, and his untimely death was a terrible shock to his fans.

I think my first contact with Will Rogers was at the movies, where they frequently ran a short film of various stars promoting the Will Rogers Institute, a hospital in Saranac Lake in upstate New York that was founded originally to treat tuberculosis patients from the Hollywood community. After the appeal, the ushers and matrons would come around to the movie audience to collect money, and I always put five cents (a considerable sum in those days) into the cannister.

[MissGoddess]

Thanks for mentioning that DVD, MichiganJ----I'm going to order it myself. I haven't checked that site in a while. I've seen clips of Big Moments in Little Pictures on YouTube and if I find that I'll post it here.

CCFan, I'll try to write more as soon as I can. I adore sweet Willie, as anyone can tell. Thank you for starting a thread about him.

[stuart.uk]

I read something that said Bill Rodgers didn't travel well to the UK in the same way Will Hay and Gracie Fields struggled to hit it big in the U.S during the same period

[SSO Admins]

Jack, I didn't know you were a fellow Okie.

Will is revered there for sure. I have a little book full of Will Rogers clippings that was handed down to me from my grandfather. Much of it is as funny and relevant as ever.

[MissGoddess]

Jack, I didn't know you were a fellow Okie.

Will is revered there for sure. I have a little book full of Will Rogers clippings that was handed down to me from my grandfather. Much of it is as funny and relevant as ever.

I was born in Oklahoma, too (Norman). However, when I was still an infant my folks moved to Texas so there I was raised.

I never heard anything abuot Will Rogers until much later in life. I don't know, no one in my father's side of the family ever spoke of him, and yet I think there is a branch that could be related to his family, distantly.

[JackFavell]

Jondaris -

Oh my gosh! I had no idea there were so many of us around! I lived in Norman too, but was born in Texas - we moved to Norman when I was about 4 months old. MissG and I have discussed this before, because my favorite actor is Ben Johnson, another Okie.... and hers, I think, is Will himself.

Are you still in Oklahoma? I miss the wide open spaces, sometimes Connecticut is too claustrophobic for me even after living here for years. Too many trees...

I finally found the photos I was looking for:

[MissGoddess]

Those are among my favorite pix, too, Jackie. What a cutie!

Will's just one of my all-around favorite people, and one of those from history I would most like to meet.

[stuart.uk]

Bill was directed by Herbert Wilcox at Elstree, making Tiptoes with Dorothy Gish in 1927. Wilcox was a movie mogul, who is best know for directing his wife Anna Neagle in a number of classic British movies

[Ollie]

JackF's comment about missing "the wide open spaces" of Oklahoma. May, 1999...



I don't like this photo - it misses the incredible scale. This shows about 10-home-lots, and I believe the actual strip-of-destruction was about 200 home-lots long. The following day's OKC paper had a much better photo, taken from the west, facing eastward, which showed this terrible several-mile-long scouring path of the "new wide open spaces" of that small OK-City suburb. Unfortunately, I can't find that photo.

My computer company had run up to OKC in 1995 after the McVeigh bombing to help out, and we'd made a bunch of hospital-clients during that stint and years later. I was working in a couple of those hospitals this May 1999 weekend, trying to recover from the April 1999 Columbine news. I found myself standing - loitering - in hospital nurseries, watching newborns being scrubbed down, wailing away, or looking so uncomfortably red and stretched out just on the other side of that glass. Then, the tornado hit. I kept thinking, "I gotta see more newborns - there's gotta be a better way of life than Columbine, bombings and tornados."

OK City's had this great old ice-cream parlor up on 10th Street - just a diner with a counter and tables. I hope it's still there. At least they have Braum's up here for decent milkshakes.

As for Will and Roy... oh boy - a NEW way to inflict more vengence on CCFan! I can't wait! She, unfortunately, is going to have a month or so's respite. But I'll get her!

[charliechaplinfan]

Wow, I've struck a chord here.

I loved Judge Priest and I loved Will Rogers natural style in They Had To See Paris, I knew he was more than you average vaudeville veteran. Will Rogers to me was another name but after seeing two of his movies and listening to his drawl (I bet he could sell snow to the eskimos) and looking on the imdb I knew I had to come here and ask you guys. From what you've is a truly benevolent star using his celebrity for the benefit of others. We need more like him today.

Judith, why was the hospital for the TB victims of Hollywood opened in New York, or have I misunderstood.

I read that Fifi D'Orsay was his frequent partner, I presume that was business partner rather than girlfriend. I read he was married with 4 children.

Thank you for filling in the gaps and continue, I want to read your trips down memory lane.

[MissGoddess]

What a tragic picture, Ollie. Yes, I remember "tornado drills" growing up in Northern Texas, which has its share of twisters. I never actually was in the middle of one, they always seemed to swoop around our little town, thank goodness, but they scared the willies (ha) out of me ever since I saw The Wizard of Oz. Anything that forces you to go underground to avoid isn't good.

My chief memory of Oklahoma, besides some fun summers with cousins, is the red dirt and windmills.