Will Rogers once said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” The most popular man in America during the 1920’s and early 1930’s was undoubtedly Will Rogers. The glib mouthed cowboy and trick rope performer was a spokesman and supporter of the common man and his monologues made them laugh as well as think. Born on a ranch near Oologah, Oklahoma in 1879, Rogers was part Cherokee on both his mother’s and father’s side. After his mother died when he was ten, his father was left to raise Rogers and his two sisters alone. Rogers was, according to his father and his father’s standards, wild and irresponsible. He had learned roping as a child and became quite an expert with a lasso, constantly practicing more and more difficult tricks. He was also quite and adept wrangler and cowboy. After the tenth grade, Rogers dropped out of school, and eventually left home over conflicts with his father before he was twenty. He enjoyed travel, using his cowboy skills and rope twirling to ear a living as he traveled around the country. Rogers eventually signed up for the Wild West Show where be became enormously popular because of the complexities of his trick roping and riding. He later returned home to marry Betty Blake. They spent their honeymoon traveling around the country with another Wild West Show. They were on the road for several years. The Rogers later moved to California, where he bought a large, non-working ranch. He began making silent movies, using his roping skills, and became extrememly popular in that medium as well. During this time he met a young pilot named Wiley Post, the two were both from the west and both part Cherokee. Both shared a love for airplanes, adventure and travel and they became lifelong friends. A flight to Alaska later claimed both Post’s and Rogers’ life in 1935. ...
