CLAREMORE - Close to 35,000 people a year visit the Will Rogers Memorial Museum. Some know quite a lot about the late humorist, said Museum Director Steve Gragert. Some don't know as much as they think.
"I still get a few people who ask me where Trigger is," said Gragert, who oversees the museum that will celebrate its 75th anniversary this week.
Trigger, of course, was the horse of western actor Roy Rogers, not Will Rogers.
But there is a connection. "Roy Rogers," the stage name of Leonard Franklin Slye, was derived from "Will Rogers" by Republic Pictures' publicity department.
Then and now, Will Rogers' influence reveals itself in sometimes surprising ways. Long before a generation of Americans adopted Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as primary news sources, Will Rogers said, "Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."
Rogers combined humor, political commentary and a deft use of the media never before seen or duplicated since. At the time of his death in a 1935 plane crash, Rogers was the nation's No. 1 male box office attraction, No. 1 newspaper columnist and No. 1-rated radio commentator.
And he did it just by paying attention to what was going on around him.
"I don't make jokes," he said. "I just watch the government and report the facts."
Eighty years on, the context of some of Will Rogers' observations have been lost, but the humor and the humanity haven't.
Relatively few Americans today remember Leon Trotsky, but they almost certainly know what Will Rogers said about the Russian revolutionary.
"I bet you if I had met him and had a chat with him, I would have found him a very interesting and human fellow, for I never yet met a man that I dident like," Rogers wrote in 1926.
On. Jan. 1, 2012, the World began carrying a daily Will Rogers quote, with no expectations of how it would be received. More than 20 months later, it remains a popular feature with readers.
Rogers' words, said Gragert, still draw people to him.
"They continue to have relevance," said Gragert. "Even people from other parts of the world can relate to what he had to say."
Although Rogers famously said, "I don't belong to any organized party, I'm a Democrat," he transcended partisan politics.
"He jibed all politicians," said Gragert. "His views were such that they crossed party lines. ... He had very strong, strong friends on both sides of the aisle."
Rogers' connection to people of all walks of life, from the poorest of the poor to the leaders of the free world, was extraordinary. A memorial fund started shortly after Rogers' death received 575,000 contributions.
The average contribution was 45 cents.
"No philosopher, no character in American history, had a better understanding of our country ... than Will Rogers," said Jesse Jones, one of the speakers at the 1938 opening of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum.
The museum's opening 75 years ago this fall was the biggest event in the history of Claremore. Twenty-five thousand people, more than the entire population of Rogers County at that time, filled the main streets and surged along the Oologah road and up the hill west of town.
Cowboys, Indians, movie stars and heavyweight politicians converged to pay homage to Rogers. By radio, President Franklin Roose velt, singer Eddie Cantor, writer Irvin S. Cobb and entertainer George M. Cohan eulogized the late humorist under a cold but sunny November sky.
"No stage or screen play which Rogers made famous was ever packed with such drama and pathos," wrote the World's Malvina Stephenson. "His friends and family shuffled nervously and dabbed at stubborn tears."
Designed by Tulsa architect John Duncan Forsyth, the museum is set on 20 acres bought by Will Rogers and his wife, Betty, in 1911 and deeded to the state by Betty Rogers in 1937. The museum cost $200,000 - a considerable sum in those days - and encompassed 15,000 square feet. An expansion in the early 1980s added 11,000 square feet.
The central feature of the museum, then and now, was Jo Davidson's heroic-scale sculpture of Rogers standing with hands in pockets, hip cocked, grinning down at his visitors. Davidson, a friend of Rogers', had been commissioned by the state to produce a piece for the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. Davidson made two copies and gave one to the museum.
Betty Rogers agreed to move Rogers' remains to the crypt on the Memorial grounds in 1944. The life-sized sculpture of Rogers on his horse Soapsuds, donated by Amon Carter of Fort Worth, was added in 1951.
The Diamond Jubilee celebration planned for Thursday and Friday in Claremore and Tulsa may not be quite as dramatic as the original dedication, but it is big enough that it is being called simply "The Event."
The $125-per-person gala at 6 p.m. Thursday in the museum will feature Oklahoma City University President Robert Henry, fiddler Jana Jae, world champion roper Doug Smith, Wild West entertainer Kowboy Kal, the Tulsa Playboys, Troy Scott, and Tulsa Oratorio Chorus.
Another celebration is scheduled for Friday night at Cain's Ballroom, where Jessi Colter, Shooter Jennings and the Red Dirt Rangers will perform.
The events - or rather, The Event - benefits the Will Rogers Memorial Foundation, which has had to shoulder a greater share of the museum's operating costs as state appropriations dwindled by 25 percent in recent years.
The Event
Thursday
Where: Will Rogers Memorial Museum, Claremore
Honorary Co-Chairs: Former Gov. Frank Keating and former Gov. George Nigh
Keynote Speaker: Judge Robert Henry
president, Oklahoma City University
Entertainment: Jana Jae, first lady of the country fiddle; Kowboy Kal, Wild West entertainer; Doug Smith, world champion roper; Tulsa Playboys; Troy Scott, Outstanding Shows performer (mime); members of the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus
Tickets: $125.
tulsaworld.com/rogerstickets
Friday
Where: Cain's Ballroom
Entertainment: Jessi Colter; Shooter Jennings; and the Red Dirt Rangers
Tickets: $20 in advance, $22 day of show, $24 at the door.
tulsaworld.com/eventtickets
Randy Krehbiel 918-581-8365
randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Celebrating a legend
Will Rogers: The Story
Vaudeville made him famous. Hollywood turned him into a legend.
WillRogers
Long before a generation of Americans adopted Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as primary news sources, Will Rogers said, “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
All those nations over there have been hatin' each other for years and they can't hate us as bad as they hate each other... - April 6, 1930
