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I Owe a Lot to WILL ROGERS
says Elsie Janis. And so do the rest of us for his kindliness for his good pictures, and for his 100 per cent American wit that is not afraid to flash out at king or citizen
By ELSIE JANIS
Special Writer for New Movie
I THINK everybody owes a lot to Will — everybody who can read, see and hear. But long before it was the world's good fortune to know his grand lopsided grin or quote his wise and razor -edged witticisms, Will became a very important factor in my career.
He had roped his way into being the talk of New York when I returned from England in 1916 to appear in "The Century Girl" at the Century Theatre. That production was about the biggest thing New York ever saw until the advent of the Empire State Building. Charles Dillingham and Florenz Ziegfeld ~went into partnership to produce it. Victor Herbert and Irving Berlin collaborated on the score. The cast which, owing to my mother's astounding managerial maneuvers, I headed, read like Who's Who in the Theater; Marie Dressier, Eddie Foy, Sam Bernard, Hazel Dawn, Frank Tinney, Leon Errol, Harry Kelly, Maurice and Walton, Doyle and Dixon and others. Among the others was one of the swellest girls you or I ever knew, Lilyan Tashman.
I must not get started down memory lane with that great crowd of troupers because I'll get sobby, and after all this article is about Will Rogers who was not at the Century but knocking them for a loop, or looping them for a knockout, in the Ziegfeld Follies at the New Amsterdam Theatre. I must, however, revert to the Century long enough to say that you can imagine how, with a cast like that, it was every man for himself. One girl in particular worried very much about what hat trick she could pull to merit being billed above so many fine artists.
Enter Will Rogers! I had learned to throw a lariat three years before in 1916 while playing with Fred Stone in "The Lady of the Slipper.'' The public didn't know about that, however. So when I did an imitation of the man of the theatrical hour, Will Rogers, and not only twirled the rope, but danced in it as Will used to do, the first nighters at the Century thought I had walked into the New Amsterdam, taken a look at Rogers and leapt into the best imitation I ever did. They didn't know of the hours I spent learning to make the darn thing even spin, let alone keep on spinning while I talked a la Rogers, and danced at the same time.
Well, anyway the result was well worth the work, and Will Rogers became the sure-fire finish to my specialty in 1916. He remained same until I retired from the
stage.
Elsie Janis was the original Rogers fan. She imitated him when he had only horse and rope.
I imitated him in London before he himself had captured the city. I translated him into French and presented him to the Parisian public. On concert tours, which covered {Please turn to page 52)
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The New Movie Magazine, June, 1935