![]() ![]() ![]() I did some roping and riding, and Jack, who was one of the smartest showmen I ever knew, took a great interest in me. He had a little Wild West aggregation that visited the camps and did a tremendous business. Rogers began his show business career as a trick roper in "Texas Jack's Wild West Circus" in South Africa: Rogers was hired at James Piccione's ranch near Mooi River Station in the Pietermaritzburg district of Natal. It is often claimed he took a job breaking in horses for the British Army, but the Boer War had ended three months earlier. ![]() Rogers and his partner lost all their money, and he later said, “I was ashamed to send home for more.” The two friends separated and Rogers sailed for South Africa. They arrived in Argentina in May 1902, and spent five months trying to make it as ranch owners in the Pampas. Near the end of 1901, when he was 22 years old, he and a friend left home hoping to work as gauchos in Argentina. Rogers later said that he was a poor student, saying that he "studied the Fourth Reader for ten years". He was much more interested in cowboys and horses, and learned to rope and use a lariat. Will Rogers attended school in Missouri, at the Willow Hassel School at Neosho, and then the Kemper Military School at Boonville over the 1897-1898 year. He was a good student and an avid reader of The New York Times, but he dropped out of school after the 10th grade. ROGERS LITTLE THEATRE FULLClement’s death in 1911 precluded a full reconciliation. Only after Will won acclaim in vaudeville did the rift begin to heal. The personality clash increased after his mother's death when the boy was eleven. Young Will went from one venture to another with little success. Will was more easygoing and oriented toward the loving affection offered by his mother, Mary, rather than the harshness of his father. Clement had high expectations for his son and wanted him to be more responsible and business-minded. Roach (1980) presents a sociological-psychological assessment of the relationship between Will and his father during the formative boyhood and teenage years. He served several terms in the Cherokee Senate. Rogers County, Oklahoma, is named in honor of him. He served as a delegate to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention. His father, Clement, was a leader in the Cherokee Nation. An attorney and Cherokee judge, he was a Confederate veteran. Only three of his siblings, sisters Sallie Clementine, Maude Ethel, and May (Mary), survived into adulthood. Rogers was the youngest of eight children. He was named for the Cherokee leader Col. She died when Will was eleven. His father remarried less than two years after her death. His mother was one quarter-Cherokee and born into the Paint Clan. Rogers quipped that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower, but they "met the boat". His parents, Clement Vann Rogers (1839–1911) and Mary America Schrimsher (1838–1890), were both of mixed race and Cherokee ancestry, and identified as Cherokee. The house in which he was born had been built in 1875 and was known as the "White House on the Verdigris River". Rogers was born on his parents' Dog Iron Ranch in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory, near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma, now in Rogers County, named in honor of his father, Clem Vann Rogers. The White House on the Verdigris River, Will Rogers' birthplace, near Oologah, Oklahoma His aphorisms, couched in humorous terms, were widely quoted: "I am not a member of an organized political party. His earthy anecdotes and folksy style allowed him to poke fun at gangsters, prohibition, politicians, government programs, and a host of other controversial topics in a way that found general acclaim from a national audience with no one offended. Rogers crusaded for aviation expansion and provided Americans with first-hand accounts of his world travels. His 1920s syndicated newspaper column and his radio appearances increased his visibility and popularity. ROGERS LITTLE THEATRE MOVIEHis rope act led to success in the Ziegfeld Follies, which in turn led to the first of his many movie contracts. Rogers began his career as a performer on vaudeville. He died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post when their small airplane crashed in northern Alaska. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was hugely popular in the United States for his leading political wit and was the highest paid of Hollywood film stars. As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma), and is known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son". William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. ![]()
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