Description
This excerpt is from "American Original: A Life of Will Rogers" by Ray Robinson. Rogers was a humorist and commentator who was very popular during the early 20th century. He was born in Oklahoma in 1879 and died in 1935. He is best known for his column "The Cowboy Philosopher" which was read by over 40 million people. He also had a successful career in Hollywood acting.
Hailed by The New York Times as "America's Aristophanes," Will Rogers was one of this century's most astute and beloved humorists. If he once remarked that he never met a man he didn't like, it is also true that Rogers never met a man he didn't like to make fun of. Everyone from Congressmen and Presidents to Hollywood movie moguls and wealthy industrialists bore the brunt of his gently lacerating wit--and seemed, mostly, to be charmed in the process. So popular did Rogers become--through dozens of films, a daily column that ran for nine years in newspapers across the country, and countless lectures and stage performances--that he was often urged to run for Congress and even the Presidency. Upon receiving a mock appointment as Congressman at large for the whole United States, Rogers protested, "I regret the disgrace that's been thrust upon me here tonight. I've tried to live my whole life so that I would never become a Congressman." In American Original, Ray Robinson chronicles the remarkable trajectory of Will Rogers' most remarkable life. Written with engaging immediacy and filled with a wealth of delightful anecdotes, this lively portrait follows Rogers from his childhood in the Indian Territory of what is now Oklahoma, to his first spellbinding lariat performances in the Wild West shows (where he would often lasso prominent audience members and drag them on stage), to his stardom in vaudeville and the Ziegfield Follies, to his early silent movies and the later "talkies," and finally to his astonishing influence as a "cowboy philosopher" columnist read by over 40 million Americans. Far more than other biographers, Robinson excels at conveying Rogers's impact as a political commentator ("I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat") and his fame as a Hollywood actor, the leading star for Fox Pictures. And along the way, Robinson paints a vibrant portrait of one of America's most colorful eras. We follow the early evolution of modern entertainment, enjoy vivid snapshots of W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Florence Ziegfield, Samuel Goldwyn, and John Ford, and, perhaps most important, witness the major political events of the era through Will Rogers' uniquely perceptive eyes. American Original succeeds most appealingly in bringing Will Rogers before us with all the spontaneity, intimacy, and honesty of a live performance. In it we are given front row seats to the life of a character unabashedly American and unforgettably original.
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