ROGERS, WILL
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879–August
15, 1935) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist, book author, radio personality, movie actor, stage
performer, rodeo star, and early promoter of aviation. Will
Rogers was born on a ranch in the Indian Territory, now
Oklahoma. His appeal was that of the “regular guy,” modest, but able to outsmart politicians and city sophisticates.
He had little formal education, attending Scarritt College in
Missouri for a year and later running away from Kamper
Military Academy, also in Missouri. After working on his
family’s ranch for three years, he traveled to Argentina and
lived among that country’s gauchos, then sailed to South
Africa to break horses for the British military. There, Rogers, who was part Cherokee, got his start in entertainment
as a trick roper billed as “The Cherokee Kid” in Texas
Jack’s Wild West Show and later performed with Wirth
Brothers Circus. In 1914 he moved from the circus to the
Broadway stage and vaudeville, often combining stand-up
comedy with lariat tricks, and by 1916, he was a Ziegfeld
Follies star. His silent movie acting career began in 1918 in
Laughing Bill Hide, his book writing in 1919 with two volumes of Rogers-isms. His McNaught Newspaper Syndicate
humor column began in 1922. He also employed his folksy
yet insightful style of humor on the speakers’ circuit and in
The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines. He wrote
both a daily and a weekly newspaper column and in 1926,
added radio commentary, donating much of what he made
on the air to various charities. In 1934, Rogers appeared in
Eugene O’Neill’s stage comedy Ah, Wilderness! but gained
far wider fame that same year in the movie Judge Priest and
the following year in the even more popular film Steamboat
Round the Bend.
Rogers visited most of the nation on the speakers’ circuit; appeared in seventy-one movies; enjoyed a large radio
audience, sponsored from 1930 to 1935 by Gulf Oil; published six books; and wrote an estimated four thousand
“Will Rogers Says” newspaper columns from 1922 until his
death in 1935. As an American humor icon, he was the second Mark Twain in that he was almost universally known
and loved. He increased his fame abroad with trips to Asia,
Central and South America and a round-the-world journey
in 1934, the same year he moved to California, where he
starred in the Fox film Life Begins at 40. Politically, he was
a Franklin D. Roosevelt Democrat.
His demise came in August 1935 at Point Barrow, Alaska,
during a flying trip with a friend, aviator Wiley Post. Rogers
had been a supporter of air travel and in 1927 had been the
first U.S. civilian to fly coast to coast.
His fame, compared to that of other humorists, is evident
in the many things named for him: a state park, airport,
rodeo, band, school, beach, submarine, ranch-style development, hotel, horse race, educational institute, and poetry
competition.
Further Reading
Day, Donald, ed. The Autobiography of Will Rogers. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1955.
Robinson, Ray. American Original, a Life of Will Rogers. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Smallwood, James and Steven K. Gragert, eds. Will Rogers’
Weekly Articles, 5 vols. Stillwater, OK, 1980.
Yagoda, Ben. Will Rogers: a Biography. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2000.
Sam G. Riley