Will Rogers: A Centennial Tribute Page: 31
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And Rogers' career did take a new twist in 1927. He became the country's
number one booster of aviation. Always interested in aviation, Rogers had
championed to no avail Colonel William "Billy" Mitchell's attempts to
expand the Army Air Corps. Then an event occurred in 1927 which cap-
tured the international public's attention which gave Will a "selling point."
In the Spirit of St. Louis Charles A. Lindbergh made the first solo, trans-
Atlantic flight from New York City to Paris. Internationally acclaimed a
hero, Lindbergh returned home to promote the aviation industry. He found
a willing ally in Will Rogers, who began to boost the industry in his daily
and weekly newspaper columns. Rogers perhaps lavished more praise on
Lindbergh than on any other public figure. After Lindbergh's epic flight,
other pioneer aviators like Roscoe Turner, Frank Hawks, and Wiley Post
began setting point-to-point speed records. And Rogers in his columns
reminded the public of their feats. In essence, he kept public attention
focused on aviation and helped the infant industry.50
After his illness in 1927, Rogers made a dozen travelogue pictures,
vignettes depicting his European travels, and his last silent feature film,
A Texas Steer. Upon its release, Rogers' films, features, and "shorts" num-
bered forty-eight. The next year he made another short, Over the Bounding
Blue.-5
In 1928 Rogers returned from Mexico where he had met with United
States Ambassador Dwight Morrow and Mexican President Plutarco
Calles to cover the political conventions and to begin a lecture tour. How-
ever, when he learned that his close friend, actor Fred Stone, had been in-
jured while piloting his plane at a time when Stone's new play, Three
Cheers, was about to open in New York City, Rogers volunteered to take
his friend's place even though the play was a musical. Rogers succeeded but
was somewhat bothered by the singing: "When I sing, I feel that is as far
as any man has ever gone for a friend.""
Three Cheers closed in the summer of 1929, and Rogers returned to
Hollywood to find, he said, everyone practicing talking. While he had been
away Hollywood had experienced the advent of talking motion pictures.
In the old days of silent films, Will said, everyone practiced silent nodding.
But now, said Will, "you meet an actor or a girl and . . . they stop and
start chattering. Whether politics, Babe Ruth, anything to practice
talking."53
50 Will Rogers biographical files, WRRP.
51 Will Rogers movie files, WRRP.
52 Rogers, Will Rogers, p. 230.
53 Ibid., p. 234.31
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Will Rogers: A Centennial Tribute (Book)
Compilation of biographical stories about Will Rogers in Oklahoma, discussing his career, roots, and actions during his lifetime. Index starts on page 144.
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Gibson, Arrell Morgan. Will Rogers: A Centennial Tribute, book, 1979; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc862884/m1/41/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; .