Uniform in the Biography series - not one of the best. The hagiographic approach doesn't make for a major documentary.
The accepted version of the Rogers story here providing more detail. The Cherokee Nation recognised his Indian heritage. The death of his mother, demerits at Military School, travelling to South Africa and Australia with Wild West Shows and coming back to Oklahoma to raise his family.
The evolution of his routines when he ad libs a failed rope stunt on stage is followed. He took his act to the Ziegfield Follies and Sam Goldfish put him in the movies. After a few false starts, Rogers signed on for Hal Roach movies and, his status enhanced by his news paper columns, got a six hundred grand contract for Talkies with William Fox.
It's about half way through before we hear his voice in the Borzage They Had to See Paris The quality of the clips has deteriorated in the half century though Connecticut Yankee ("advertising makes you spend money you haven't got on things you don't need") and State Fair are sharp and detailed. The clips are unremarkable outside the routine with Bojangles Robinson teaching dancing.
In with this we have his public speaking, newspaper columns, Ziegfield and Aviation.
His heritage is represented by James Whitmore's one man show and the 1919 Broadway David Carradine "Will Rogers Follies" where there's a buzz to be had out of hearing him repeat the celebrated "I don't belong to any organised party. I'm a democrat."
The accepted version of the Rogers story here providing more detail. The Cherokee Nation recognised his Indian heritage. The death of his mother, demerits at Military School, travelling to South Africa and Australia with Wild West Shows and coming back to Oklahoma to raise his family.
The evolution of his routines when he ad libs a failed rope stunt on stage is followed. He took his act to the Ziegfield Follies and Sam Goldfish put him in the movies. After a few false starts, Rogers signed on for Hal Roach movies and, his status enhanced by his news paper columns, got a six hundred grand contract for Talkies with William Fox.
It's about half way through before we hear his voice in the Borzage They Had to See Paris The quality of the clips has deteriorated in the half century though Connecticut Yankee ("advertising makes you spend money you haven't got on things you don't need") and State Fair are sharp and detailed. The clips are unremarkable outside the routine with Bojangles Robinson teaching dancing.
In with this we have his public speaking, newspaper columns, Ziegfield and Aviation.
His heritage is represented by James Whitmore's one man show and the 1919 Broadway David Carradine "Will Rogers Follies" where there's a buzz to be had out of hearing him repeat the celebrated "I don't belong to any organised party. I'm a democrat."
