Changes

:When I die, my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read: "I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I dident like." I am so proud of that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved. And when you come to my grave you will find me sitting there, proudly reading it.<ref> 1930, in Paula McSpadden Love, ''The Will Rogers Book,'' (1972) pp. 166–67 </ref>

:When I die, my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read: "I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I dident like." I am so proud of that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved. And when you come to my grave you will find me sitting there, proudly reading it.<ref> 1930, in Paula McSpadden Love, ''The Will Rogers Book,'' (1972) pp. 166–67 </ref>

==Early life==

==Early life==

Rogers was born on November 4, 1879 in [[Indian Territory]], near the modern town of Oologah, [[Oklahoma]].  His family were members of the [[Cherokee]] tribe and came to Indian Territory during the removals of the 1830s.  His father, Clement V. Rogers, was a leader within Cherokee society; he served several terms on the Cherokee Senate.  Clement Rogers also achieved financial success as a rancher and used his influence to help soften the negative aspects of white acculturation on the tribe. 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 desired him to be more responsible and business-minded.  Will was more easygoing and oriented toward the loving affection offered by his mother Mary 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.<ref> Fred Roach, , Jr. "Will Rogers' Youthful Relationship with His Father, Clem Rogers: a Story of Love and Tension." ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 1980 58(3): 325-342. Issn: 0009-6024 </ref>  

Rogers was born on November 4, 1879 in [[Indian Territory]]; his parents were members of the [[Cherokee]] tribe and came to Indian Territory during the removals of the 1830s.  His father, Clement V. Rogers, was a leader within Cherokee society; he served several terms on the Cherokee Senate.  Clement Rogers also achieved financial success as a rancher and used his influence to help soften the negative aspects of white acculturation on the tribe. 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 desired him to be more responsible and business-minded.  Will was more easygoing and oriented toward the loving affection offered by his mother Mary 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.<ref> Fred Roach, , Jr. "Will Rogers' Youthful Relationship with His Father, Clem Rogers: a Story of Love and Tension." ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 1980 58(3): 325-342. Issn: 0009-6024 </ref>  

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.   Will 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.

Rogers was a good student and an avid reader of the ''New York Times,'' but too restless at home He learned roping, dropped out of the upscale Kemper Military School in Missouri, and became a ranch hand. Wanderlust took him to Argentina in 1901, where he thought all his clever rope tricks would make him a gaucho. They laughed at him and he went to South Africa, where his career as an entertainer began. As the "Cherokee Kid" in Texas Jack's Wild West Show, he toured South Africa; in the Wirth Brothers Circus, he toured Australia and New Zealand.  

== Vaudeville years ==

== Vaudeville and Broadway==

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.  

At this stage Rogers' act was strictly physical, a display of daring riding and clever tricks with his lariat. He discovered that audiences identified the cowboy as the arch-typical American--doubtless aided by [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s image as a cowboy. Rogers' cowboy showed an unfettered man free of institutional restraints, with no bureaucrats to order his life. Back in the United States, Rogers worked in several Wild West shows until he discovered that audiences were just as fascinated by his frontier, Oklahoma twang. He transformed from "Ropin' Fool" to "Talkin' Fool" about 1916. He made the big time as a featured star in Ziegfeld's Follies on Broadway. At one performance, with President Woodrow Wilson in the audience, he 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. the rest of his career he built around that skill.

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]].

He married Betty Blake on November 25, 1908. They had three sons. Fred, who died in childhood, Will Rogers, Jr., and James Rogers.

Hollywood discovered Rogers in 1918, as Samuel Goldwyn gave him the title role in ''Laughing Bill Hyde''.  A three-year contract with Goldwyn, at triple the Broadway salary, moved Rogers west.  He bought a ranch in Santa Monica and set up his own production company. He made 48 silent movies, but with the arrival of sound in 1929 he became a top star in that medium. His first sound film, They Had to See Paris (1929), finally gave him the chance to exercise his verbal magic, He played a homespun farmer (State Fair [1933]), an old-fashioned doctor (Dr. Bull [1933]), a small town banker (David Harum [1934]), and a rustic politician (Judge Priest [1934], County Chairman [1935], Steamboat 'Round the Bend [1935], and In Old Kentucky [1935]). His favorite director was [[John Ford]].  

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.

Rogers demonstrated multiple skills, and was an indefatigable workers. He toured the lecture circuit. The ''[[New York Times]]'' syndicated his weekly newspaper column, 1922-35. Going daily in 1926 his short "Will Rogers Says" reached forty million newspaper readers. He wrote frequently for the mass-circulation upscale magazine ''Saturday Evening Post'', where Rogers advised Americans to embrace the frontier values of neighborliness and democracy on the domestic front while remaining clear of foreign entanglements.  He took a strong, highly popular stand in favor of aviation, including a military air force of the sort his flying buddy General William "Billy" Mitchell advocated.  

 

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 1920s, 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."

 

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,"<ref>Ketchum, ''Rogers: His Life and Times'', p. 179</ref> 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 [[U.S. Democratic Party, history|Democrat]], but he also supported Republican [[Calvin Coolidge]]. Democrat [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] was his favorite. Although he supported Roosevelt's [[New Deal]], he could just as easily joke about it:

Rogers was a staunch [[U.S. Democratic Party, history|Democrat]], but he also supported Republican [[Calvin Coolidge]]. Democrat [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] was his favorite. Although he supported Roosevelt's [[New Deal]], he could just as easily joke about it:

:Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it’s not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.<ref> Paula McSpadden Love, ''The Will Rogers Book,'' (1972) p. 20.</ref>

:Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it’s not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.<ref> Paula McSpadden Love, ''The Will Rogers Book,'' (1972) p. 20.</ref>

* Sterling, Bryan B.,  and Frances N. Sterling, eds. ''Will Rogers Speaks: Over 1,000 Timeless Quotations for Public Speakers (And Writers, Politicians Comedians, Browsers)'' (1995).

* Sterling, Bryan B.,  and Frances N. Sterling, eds. ''Will Rogers Speaks: Over 1,000 Timeless Quotations for Public Speakers (And Writers, Politicians Comedians, Browsers)'' (1995).

===Films===

===Films and videos===

* Will Rogers Collection, Vol. 1 (''Life Begins at Forty / Steamboat Round the Bend / Doubting Thomas / In Old Kentucky'') (DVD 2006)  

* Will Rogers Collection, Vol. 1 (''Life Begins at Forty / Steamboat Round the Bend / Doubting Thomas / In Old Kentucky'') (DVD 2006)  

* Will Rogers Collection 2 (''Ambassador Bill / David Harum / Mr Skitch / Too Busy to Work'') (DVD 2006)

* Will Rogers Collection 2 (''Ambassador Bill / David Harum / Mr Skitch / Too Busy to Work'') (DVD 2006)

[[Category:Actors]][[Category:Cowboys]]

[[Category:Actors]][[Category:Cowboys]]