TV Radio Mirror (Jul - Dec 1956)

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Will's first two years of high school were spent at the Culver Military Academy in Indiana, the last two at Beverly Hills High School. In 1931, he attended Leland Stanford University for a year, transferred to the University of Arizona for a year, then returned to Stanford. There, he captained the polo team, participated in varsity swimming and debating — and met his future bride. He was graduated from Stanford in 1935. Curiously enough, although their childhood was conditioned by the fact that their father was in show business, the Rogers children don't think of him as an actor. They remember him as a writer, with a daily column to get out, who sometimes traveled all over the world to dig up material. "Dad kept us away from the theatrical world," Will recalls. "And then, in later years, he was much more political than theatrical. The people who came to our house were governors and senators, not actors." Not that this accounts for Will's becoming a newspaperman. "In my freshman year at high school," he explains, "I started out to be a printer. I guess it was while setting up type that I became interested in what type had to say. Ever since, my life has fallen into a journalistic direction." Will edited his school paper, The Beverly Hills Highlights, and became highschool correspondent for The Beverly Hills Citizen, a weekly he was later to buy. At Stanford, he studied journalism and became an editor of The Stanford Daily. After graduation, he became editor and publisher of The Beverly Hills Citizen. "I knew the owner," he recalls. "It was predestined that I was to buy it." In 1936, Will took a leave of absence from the paper and went to Spain for three months to cover the Spanish Civil War as a correspondent for the McNaught Newspaper Syndicate. In 1941, he married Collier Connell, whom he had met while working on The Stanford Daily. (She was editor of the woman's page.) In 1942, he enlisted in the Army as a private, attended officers training school, and was commissioned a second lieutenant. In November of that year, he was elected Democratic representative from California's Sixteenth Congressional District. Since he was still in the Army, the election campaign was conducted by friends. In January, 1943, Will got a leave from active duty and took his seat in the House of Representatives. In the summer of 1944, he resigned from Congress to resume active duty. Assigned to the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion, Will was part of the Seventh Armored Division which crossed Europe on the heels of the German Army. During the last days of World War II, he suffered a shrapnel wound while heading a platoon in the Ruhr Valley. In 1947, he was separated from the service as a first lieutenant and returned to manage his newspaper. Five years later, he took a leave of absence to act in "The Will Rogers Story." It proved to be a turning point. "Before this," Will says, "I had made public speeches, but never done any acting. From then on, my career has been primarily theatrical." In 1953, he sold The Beverly Hills Citizen and returned to Hollywood to film "The Boy From Oklahoma." Then, from July, 1953, until the following January, he did a short series for CBS Radio called Rogers Of The Gazette. He also appeared in a few television shows— Schlitz Playhouse Of Stars, Ford Theater, and the Ed Sullivan show. But mostly, during this period of his life, Will was living in what amounted to semi-retirement. Thanks to the Rogers Company, a real-estate company which also handles his father's estate, he had "the advantage of security." And he had time — time to read, to think, and to live with his family. "We're quite close," Will says of his family, which includes three boys — Randy, 18; Clem, 17; and Carl, 4 — whom he and Collier have adopted. They live a simple, outdoor kind of life, alternating "between Malibu and the desert." Their house at Malibu Beach is "right on the ocean" in Santa Monica, California. "It's not large," Will says, "but it's nice and pleasant." And then the Rogers' have another home at 29 Palms, a little desert town near Palm Springs. Twice each week, Will used to drive to Beverly Hills to see how things were going at the Rogers Company. Otherwise, he was free to do what he liked — play volleyball with the boys, go swimming with his wife, or even accompany the Governor of Oklahoma to New York for the world premiere of "Oklahoma!" And that's when it happened. . . . Ever since 1952, when NBC proved with Today that the public is ready and eager for television — even at seven in the morning— CBS has been trying to compete with a show of its own. But NBC had not only gotten there first, it had gotten there with the most — for it had Dave Garroway. Last fall, however, CBS decided to try again. A group of its top executives held a meeting to map strategy. "What we need," they decided, "is primarily a program built around a strong, warm, 'oldchew' personality." This didn't mean that he actually had to chew cut-plug, of course. It merely meant he had to be a real character — lovable and unspoiled — down-to-earth, full of homespun philosophy and folksy good humor — you know, exactly like Arthur Godfrey, only completely different. CBS was asking for the impossible, but that's how television shows are made. They found their man that very night. Louis G. Cowan, who originated The $64, 000 Question, was sitting in front of his television set, watching an interview program conducted by Hy Gardner, the Manhattan columnist. One of his guests was Will Rogers, Jr., in town to attend that aforementioned premiere of "Oklahoma!" And that's how it happened. . . . When CBS told Will about their new early-morning show, he reminded them: "It's like opening another newspaper in a town that already has one." But then he grinned, for this was "the kind of challenge I gladly accept." Only he didn't sign up with CBS then and there. He wanted to talk it over with his family. "No one at home wanted me to take this job," he recalls. "I like New York. 1 used to visit my dad when he was living at the Astor Hotel. But the rest of the family doesn't care for the East. My two older boys complained that they didn't have any girl friends in New York." Will, however, wanted the job. "After living on the desert," he says, "I wanted to get back in the swim of things again." And so, on February 20, CBS-TV launched Good Morning!, "a program