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MEMORIES of
by Ed Churchill
They Are Still talking about Will Rogers in Hollywood. They still will, in the years to come, even as they remember Marie Dressier now, long after her death. Each was so human, so understanding, and so charitable.
Will Rogers' own family didn't want him to make that last flight into the Arctic. Never before had they seriously objected to his air roaming. He had flown nearly two hundred thousand miles without a mishap. His eagle spirit had looked down upon two continents; he had winged his way over the mighty Andes as a part of the routine of air travel.
Was it any wonder, then, that Will Rogers felt no fear in climbing aboard a plane with Wiley Post, who had spanned the whole world alone? He sent Wiley on his way north, then stole out to the airport and boarded a transport ship himself. A few days later these two fearless men met again at Seattle and winged away on their last flight.
When aviation first came into its own, one might have expected Will Rogers to duck his head in that lovable, inimitable way and mutter, "Mebbe I better stay out of them newfangled contraptions. They ain't any too safe."
Instead, he put his indefatigable spirit behind the new mode of travel, and helped it through the difficult stages of infancy. He was always helping out, with money and with personal enthusiasm.
On the set he was as unassuming and friendly as anywhere else. He once sent the whole company into
Last night
As the dying sun
Cast a golden glow
Over the evening sea ,
Last night, I say,
I gazed into the scarlet splendor
Of the skies ;
And far below, a little steamer
Wandered into the west.
Overhead, an airplane
Slipped beyond the horizon.
And then, in the measureless calm
Of understanding
I knew why the Dead
Never bother to return.
—TED MAGEE
please?" He was rewarded with a generous chuckle from the President.
No other person was as adept at mixing political sagacity with satire as Will Rogers. Because he could get pointed remarks across without being taken seriously, he revealed many a vulnerable spot on political big-wigs without bringing them personal ridicule.
His friends were legion. If he had any enemies, no one has ever met them. He had the facility of standing on neutral ground and pointing out fallacies on both sides of {Continued on page 59]
shrieks of laughter when he arrived a few minutes late in a dilapidated old machine.
"Hold everything," he called to the director as he ran to the rumble seat. Opening it with a jerk, he yanked out his makeup kit and hurriedly smeared on grease paint. A moment later he was loping across the ground toward the set.
Friends recall the time that he was introduced at the White House to President Coolidge. The formalities of exchanging names being completed, Will Rogers stuck out his hand, grinned and said, "What's the name,
The noted humorist and his wife, Betty Blake Rogers, represented the most steadfast marriage in Hollywood. The photo above was taken a short time before his death. Left, the original Will Rogers polo teamthatwas so often seen at the Riviera Country Club Field: Johnny Mack Brown (far left), Rogers, Charlie Farrell and Big Boy Williams
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