I Met a Man I Liked
by Sally Shattuck
Hi: I’m Sally Shattuck from Ashland, Kansas and I’ve been reading “Never Met a Man I Didn’t Like - The Life and Writings of Will Rogers:” by Joseph H. Carter.
Route 66 is “The Will Rogers Highway”. It begins near his home in Santa Monica, California and ends in Chicago.
Will Rogers was born and raised in Rogers County, Oklahoma (named from his family) when it was Indian Territory, on the family ranch, the youngest of eight children. He left home in the 10th grade, and traveled the world: from St Louis to Argentina to Higgins, Texas, to South Africa, to vaudeville, to Hollywood. He developed into a commentator as he remarked on current events while performing his vaudeville rope tricks. He was an excellent roper, a skill he perfected while working in Higgins.(Incidentally, Higgins annually celebrates Will Rogers Day in August.)
Rogers would begin his performance with his signature statement “I only know what I read in the papers” and proceed to comment on the events of the day.
I knew about Rogers slightly because as a kid I had watched the biopic “The Will Rogers Story” staring his son Will Rogers Jr. in the title role.
But I fell in love with Will Rogers when I was in college and found a record in the university library of some of Rogers radio programs. Rogers was on the radio from 1929 until his death in 1935.By that time he had become a fixture in America’s newspapers with daily columns, his movies , and in books.
I particularly remember one bit, which I will get mostly right. Commenting on the federal estate tax he said what bothered him about the federal estate tax was the government seemed to know exactly who was going to die. He said he was sure that Mr. Vanderbilt (I think) was as patriotic as the next American, but he wasn’t sure he would die on schedule for his county.
I thought that was brilliant, I still do.
As I read this book, my thoughts turned to modern comedians and what they owe Will Rogers. There certainly were commentators before Rogers who poked fun at politicians. Mark Twain said “Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself.”
But I think none of his predecessors were as prolific and perhaps as influential as Will Rogers. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jon Stewart owe him a lot.
But, holey moley, there is vast difference between the approach of Rogers and modern commentators. Rogers is famously remembered for saying “I never met a man I didn’t like.”Obviously we don’t say that today.
I’m Sally Shattuck from Ashland KS for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club.
