THE GREATEST DRAMA

[Applause] The greatest drama. The memorable story of the great among us. Written by you, the people. [Music] This chapter, the cowboy humorist, the story of Will Rogers. He was known as sweet old Will, a man whose affection for people was only equaled by their love for him. Roger started life as a humble cow puncher. And when he died, he was the most widely read writer and most popular entertainer in the world. With him, Americans laughed at themselves. And when he passed away, they lost their best and truest spokesman. Born in 1879 in Oklahoma, the last American frontier, he grew up with horses. Learned to ride almost before he could walk. Taught rope tricks by the cowboys on his father's ranch, young Will joined a Wild West show and wound up in New York City. One day, he tried to explain some fine points of roping to the audience. The crowd roared and Rogers learned accidentally that he could make people [Music] laugh. From the Wild West show in 1915, Will went to Broadway to the glamorous Ziggfeld Follys. The girls were attractive, but the biggest attraction was Roger's drawing wit. He quickly became the highest paid star in New York. Successful but unspoiled, Will was a devoted husband and father. He preferred playing with the kids to nightife. Like Will himself, they learned to ride as soon as they could walk. Rogers taught them hairraising stunts of horsemanship. He instructed them in the fine art of roping. Rogers was content with his family and his work, but because of poor investments, he needed money. In 1921, he was offered thousands of dollars to make an extended lecture tour. Will accepted and plunged into the routine of travel that was to separate him from those he loved for much of the rest of his life. Season after season, Will swung around the country, delighting lecture audiences with his common sense philosophy and humor. Then came the chance to make a big leap from an entertainer to a spokesman for [Music] millions. Will now had 40 million readers chuckling at his comments. At a political dinner, he poked fun at John W. Davis, the Democratic presidential candidate of 1924. the toastmaster here, my friend Mr. John Doug. You don't mind me calling your friend in public. It will mean something to me if you'll nod. And we uh and every you you want to be nice to me, Mr. Davis, because I will say that everybody has certainly been nice to you tonight. And uh and I certainly don't want to be the first speaker to drag in any of your past. At a Notre Dame football banquet, he philosophized and then kitted the Fighting Irish. All my life I've wondered what constituted a gentleman. I says, "That's a hard thing to define." And it is a hard thing. What What is a gentleman? It might be a man. Some of you might say it's a man with all of the social graces and and does everything in a lovely way and very polite and all that. Some others, of course, my definition has been it's a it's a man. It might be a a full-blooded Indian. He might be a native or something. He might be a primitive old mountaineer or something. It's my definition of a gentleman is a man who has great consideration for somebody else's feelings, for everybody's feelings first and last, whether he ate with his knife or what he might do, but as long as he thought of them first. There is something about your school, Notre Dame. I mean, it's a good thing you all went into athletics in the first place and showed you had a men team cuz at Notre Dame, I thought it was women for years. I mean, my hair. 1926, Will Rogers sailed to Europe, a self-made diplomat, writing hilarious reports to the president. That cruise was one of Will's last journeys by ship. He went up in an airplane with General Billy Mitchell, America's first champion of a powerful air force. That flight made Rogers an immediate convert to plane travel. Thereafter, on the many trips Will took across the country to learn what the people were thinking and saying, he traveled by plane whenever it was humanly possible. Those early planes weren't the safe means of transportation they are today. But Rogers loved the speed of flight and disregarded the dangers. He thought the risks were exaggerated. But he was wrong. Dead wrong. Will Rogers wouldn't give up flying. By plane, he could travel swiftly over the country, talking to people, gathering material for his newspaper columns. Yet, in those early planes, he was risking much. By now, Will's home was a fine ranch in California, where he played polo on his own field, a ranch with large stables and dozens of horses. He was one of the highest paid and most popular actors in Hollywood. Much sought after by visitors. My wife can get a new car which I got I got for living 51 years. It's a Cadillac and if I live a 100, I get a Rolls-Royce. Will's friends included all the great men and women of his day. He was an honored guest at John D. Rockefeller's birthday and later in the White House at Franklin Roosevelt's birthday, too. When little Shirley Temple had a birthday, Will was there. Also, we gathered here today to unveil a picture of you here. Now, I'm not going to make a speech cuz I'm so long- winded. I make speeches for everywhere for no reason whatever. And you are the biggest entertainer in the world today. And you have arrived at that position by not making speeches. Rogers went with Calvin Culage to the dedication of the Coolage Dam and poked fun at his old friend. I'm here. I'm here. How many years is a Democrat to offset Mr. Coolage? In fact, Miss Coolage is the best Democrat we ever had in the White House. Anyhow, really is good. Bernard Baroo gave him financial advice. He gave comedian Fred Stone, another old friend, advice on polo. At World Series ball games, we like best to sit in the stands eating peanuts. Although he was often the guest of baseball commissioner Landis, you'd find him often at the rodeo sitting among the ordinary folks, for he was their spokesman, and their wisdom was his wisdom. From them, he received the first warning of the storm that broke in 1929. [Music] Roger spoke out angrily at the folly of hunger in the richest land in the world. He did something about it. With Frank Hawks, one of the great aviators of the time, he flew to the hardhit Southwest. Together, they barnstormed across Texas. Rogers making personal appearances, turning over every penny he earned for local [Music] relief. 1932, a vast political upheaval was near. At the Democratic convention, Will Rogers had been mentioned as a presidential candidate. But Will was a humorist, not a politician. Boy, if I'm going to compl compliment the Republicans, they did the best they could with what little they had. Now, you can't beat that. You can't beat them. That's all. Rogers kept the people laughing during the early days of the New Deal. But over the laughter, he heard the march of the dictators beginning. The clouds of World War II were gathering. [Music] Will called for preparedness for an American air force of 50,000 planes. But America wasn't awake to the danger. Rogers wanted to sound the alarm. He decided to fly around the world to inspect the breeding spots of war and report his findings to the American people. Will's pilot for the flight was the man he considered the greatest flyer of them all, Wy Post, holder of the round the world speed record. Their plan to fly from Seattle to Alaska and from there by easy stages around the world. They took off in August of 1935. The world's best pilot and the world's best loved humorist. Disaster waited for them in the wilderness. They reached the northern part of Alaska and never came back alive. When Roger's body was found, there was a smile on his face. As he had lived, so he died. He never met a man he didn't like. and Americans may never meet a man like him again. His friendly humor was unique. There could only be one Will Rogers. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Be with us again next week at this time when the greatest drama, true film biographies of the great among us again comes your way. [Applause] [Applause]