Staying Alive: The legacy of Will Rogers

By Steve Gragert, executive director Will Rogers Memorial Museum

February 4, 2010 — Yesterday, I received an email from a theatrical producer in Chicago. David happily shared with me the script of a new one-man show set to premiere at a theater in suburban Oakbrook in late March. Ticket sales are going great, he reported. People are excited, and two matinee performances are already sold out. The subject of the production just so happens to be a gum-chewing, lariat-tossing, wise and witty cowboy by the name of Will Rogers.

I continue to marvel at such stories. After all, it’s been 130 years since the Cherokee Kid was born on his parents’ ranch near present Oologah; nearly 75 since he perished with fellow Oklahoman Wiley Post in an airplane crash in Alaska Territory; and more than 70 since the doors of the Will Rogers Memorial first opened on the promontory in Claremore that Will’s widow, Betty, donated to the State of Oklahoma for a permanent remembrance to her husband.

Yes, scores of years have passed since Will Rogers last enjoyed a bowl at his favorite chili parlor. Yet, as the producer from Chicago noted in his email, “Will’s memory is staying alive.”

Indeed it is, and the evidence abounds. The legacy of Will Rogers remains vibrant. It resonates for example in the annual attendance numbers at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, Claremore, and Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch, Oologah. Together, the Oklahoma museum sites welcomed almost 165,000 visitors in 2009, the highest number in eight years.

Folks came from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 30 foreign countries and territories. In an average month, the Memorial saw visitors from 44 states and 11 countries. Only about a third of our visitors came from Oklahoma.

Will Rogers’ legacy knows no boundaries, either geographic or communicative. His life and his humor continue to be shared and interpreted across a wide spectrum of entertainment and communications.

Not only is “Will Rogers: An American Original” about to open at the First Folio Theatre near Chicago, a rope-spinning “Will Rogers” now appears nightly in the Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas.

The Tony Award-winning “Will Rogers’ Follies” continues to be staged in local and regional productions, and interpreters of Will Rogers frequently appear in one-man performances at microphones and before cameras throughout the country.

Research and writings about WR flourish. A new political biography of Will Rogers is in progress at Texas Tech University Press, and another study, also focused on WR’s political impact, is soon to be published as part of the Library of American Biography series at Prentice Hall. Will’s life is also the subject of a new book for children being written by an Oklahoma author.

Soon available from the University of Massachusetts Press will be a look at Will Rogers as the precedent of all gibers of presidents and politicians, the one who set the stage for the Mort Sahls, Pat Paulsens, and Chevy Chases.

Two other works being considered for publication are a massive annotated bibliography of writings by and about Will Rogers and “Will Rogers: The Soul of America,” an introspective look at his connectedness to people past and present.

RSU Public Television continues to work on a documentary spotlighting the political life of Will Rogers and narrated by Bill Kurtis, and public television in Ireland recently produced a documentary on a tragic fire in an Irish movie house in 1926. The film gives prominent attention to Will Rogers’ work there to raise funds for the many victims of the tragedy.

A New York songwriter, whose hero since boyhood is Will Rogers, is retracing WR’s life through music and video. Beau Jennings filmed at the Birthplace Ranch last summer and expects to conclude his production where Will lost his life, at Point Barrow, Alaska, next August.

A new eight-part series for young readers, “Will Rogers: Childhood Adventures of an Oklahoma Legend,” is now running in newspapers throughout Oklahoma. Sponsored by the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation, the well-crafted, historically-based work was penned by Carolyn Estes, the marketing director of the Oologah Lake Leader.

The legacy of Will Rogers obviously remains robust. It’s not just staying alive, it’s thriving. The books and writings, the performances, the documentaries, the attendance, the users of our website, our Friends of Will Rogers, our Will Rogers in Schools program, our docents-all are testament to Will’s staying power, his lasting importance, and the fulfilling of the mission of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum and Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch: to collect, preserve, and share the life, wisdom, and humor of Will Rogers for all generations.

Come visit your museums. Come experience Will Rogers.

n Steve Gragert is executive director of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum.

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