Existing comment:
Will Rogers, 1879-1935:
Will Rogers, who was part Cherokee, once told a Boston audience, "My ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower -- they met the boat." He spent his youth in traveling circuses as a rope artist and roughrider, later adding jokes to his lariat tricks. Eventually, he wound up on the vaudeville circuit, and by 1912 on Broadway, where he became a star of the Ziegfeld "Follies". He also embarked on a motion picture and then a radio career that would establish him as America's homespun philosopher. When he died in an airplane crash in 1935, Rogers was arguably the nation's best-loved personality.
Jo Davidson, cast after 1938 original |