UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 7, Page 4
October 14, 1993
Author to speak about Will Rogers Oct. 19

     For there to be another Will Rogers today, he (or she) would have to
combine the separate attributes of Johnny Carson, Roy Rogers, Clark
Clifford, Walter Cronkite, Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Russell Baker, H. Ross
Perot and James Reston. It just can't happen. Which is all the more reason
to take a look back to how it once did."
     That's the opinion of Ben Yagoda, assistant professor of English, and
he should know. He's written a definitive biography, Will Rogers, just
published by Alfred A. Knopf.
     A quarter Cherokee Indian, who liked to say his ancestors met the
Mayflower, Rogers was, according to Yagoda, an "irresistible
personification of America," who rose from a rope-twirling cowboy and later
vaudeville entertainer to a media star of the 20s and 30s, as a newspaper
columnist, radio broadcaster and movie actor.
     Yagoda's book, which includes 85 photographs, has received kudos from
reviewers. A critic in The Philadelphia Inquirer said Yagoda "has written a
mighty yarn." The USA Today reviewer said, "how lucky we are to have this
good book about this good man." Margo Jefferson writes in The New York
Times that "English professor Ben Yagoda ably shows that a man who managed
to get himself liked and listened to by Calvin Coolidge, Dorothy Parker,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woody Guthrie and H.L. Mencken deserves more
sustained analytic attention."
     A few years ago, Yagoda made the conscious decision to write a
narrative biography. "Two of my interests are films and humor, and in
researching possible subjects, I came upon a bibliography of Rogers which
stated that no full-scale biography had been written about him," he said.
     Yagoda had found his subject. His research took him across the
continent, to California where Rogers had lived during his Hollywood years,
to the University of Missouri where papers of a former biographer were
housed, to the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center where there were
old clippings pertaining to Rogers' career, but mostly to Claremore, Okla.,
the land of Rogers' origins and where his family kept papers and
memorabilia about him.
     "It was a treasure trove. The two sons, Will Jr. and Jim, were very
cooperative and gave me permission to quote from the material, which
simplified my task considerably. I found wonderful things such as a letter
from Charles Lindbergh encouraging Rogers to fly but not to go up in
'single-engine planes at night' I also was able to use letters from Rogers
to his wife, Betty, which were written during their courtship between
1900-1908, which revealed more about the inner man than later, public
writing," he recalled.
     Born in 1879 to Clem and Mary Rogers, Will Rogers grew up on a ranch
where riding and roping were a way of life. He showed no particular
aptitude in school, and as a young man spent two years wandering around the
world in Argentina, Australia and South Africa-using his skills as a trick
roper.
     It was in South Africa that he got his first taste of show business,
as the Cherokee Kid in "Texas Jack's Wild West Show," returning home to
perform with a troupe at the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition in
1904. Eventually moving to New York, he broke into vaudeville and began to
include gags and dialogue in his act, the beginning of the homespun,
self-deprecating, understated humor that was to be his trademark.
     He was a man of his times and as Yagoda wrote, "the ascendance of Will
Rogers in the early 1920s was not just a product of hard work. He was also
the right man in the right place at exactly the right time" as mass media
culture began to come into its own. During his lifetime, Rogers became a
top box office star in the movies, was sought after as a public speaker,
performed in theatres, had his own radio show and wrote a column for The
New York Times-a first for the newspaper.
     His humor eventually took on a more political tone. On one occasion,
when the Times wrote a condescending disclaimer about his views, Rogers
answered in his column:
     "I would like to state to the readers of The New York Times that I am
in no way responsible for the editorial or political policy of this paper.
     "I allow them free reign (sic) as to their opinion, so long as it is
within the bounds of good subscription gathering....
     "Their editorials may be put in purely for humor, or just to fill
space.
     "Every paper must have its various entertaining features, and their
editorials are not always to be taken seriously and never to be construed
as my policy."
     At the age of 55 and at the height of his career, Rogers was killed in
an airplane crash in a remote area of Alaska. He was mourned by the entire
nation and eulogized in the U.S. Senate, where the House Majority Leader
Joe Robinson called him the "most widely known, private citizen and
certainly the best beloved."
     To his biographer, he was a good man and a family man, with no hint of
scandal surrounding his name. "He consciously and unconsciously responded
to what Americans felt and what they liked. He knew his audience and
carried over his rapport with them from the smaller vaudeville audience to
a nationwide audience of 150 million people. As one reviewer said, he
represented 'what we Americans think other Americans are like,' " Yagoda
said.
     A graduate of Yale University with a master's degree in American
civilization from the University of Pennsylvania, Yagoda has a background
in journalism as a reporter, movie critic and editor. A freelance writer,
he has contributed feature articles to such magazines as The New York Times
Magazine, Esquire, Saturday Review, Playboy, Saturday Evening Post, Rolling
Stone, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine and several others. Before
joining the Delaware faculty to teach journalism, Yagoda taught at Temple
University.
                                        -Sue Swyers Moncure

     Yagoda has been scheduled to make appearances related to the Will
Rogers biography in Oklahoma City, New York City, Los Angeles and
Philadelphia, including a book signing at Borders book shop in Bryn Mawr at
7:30 p.m., Nov. 2. On campus, he will be speaking about Will Rogers as part
of the English Department Speakers Series at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 19, in
205 Kirkbride Hall.