Will Rogers Trivia

1. In a Daily Telegram dated March 16, 1932, Will Rogers shared the following thought. Can you identify the missing word? "People's minds are changed through observation and not through _____."

From Quiz Quotes From Will Rogers

Answer: argument

William Penn Adair Rogers was born in 1879, the last of eight children, on a ranch in the Cherokee Nation, in an area that would later become Oklahoma. He learned the roping skills while working the ranch, and dropped out of school after the tenth grade and began driving cattle. He was always proud and never shy about his Cherokee heritage. It was in 1902 that he left to work in Argentina, but had no success there. He got a job tending livestock on a ship to South Africa. There he visited Texas Jack's Wild West Show and was hired at twenty dollars a week as the "Cherokee Kid". His grand finale was the "Crinoline", a feat where the size of a lasso increases to encompass the performer, his horse and lastly, the audience--some of the reports say that he was able to form a lasso of 100 feet in circumference.

From Quiz Will Rogers, Favorite Son

Answer: Will Rogers Productions

The Goldwyn contract ended in 1921. According to several sources, three films were made, "The Ropin' Fool" (1922), "Fruits of Faith" (1922), and "One Day in 365" (never released). Only "The Ropin' Fool" has survived intact. This is a fantastic film of 22 minutes with 53 rope tricks. It also included a new technology, slow motion, which allowed viewers to see that the tricks were real. "An actor is a fellow that just has a little more monkey in him than the fellow that can't act." - Will Rogers

From Quiz Will Rogers, Favorite Son

Answer: roping an escaped steer

In "The Papers of Will Rogers: Wild West and Vaudeville, April 1904-September 1908" there are cuttings from prior to the show and a clipping from his scrapbook from April 28, 1905. The clipping from the "New York Herald" said "Will Rogers, a Cherokee Indian, and three other cowboys" went after the steer. "Rogers got a rope over the steer's horns just as he turned to run down into the arena. Rogers clung to the rope, but was dragged over the seats and down the stairs. He was seriously bruised." Interestingly, there are several versions of the story, some of which are mentioned in the footnotes. A letter home to his father included the following note for the Claremore "Progress" editor: "I never did get to write you but here is a clipping or two. I made the biggest hit I ever dreamed of in my Roping Act and finished my good luck by catching a wild steer that went clear up into the dress circles of the garden among the people."

From Quiz Will Rogers, Favorite Son

Answer: Wiley Post

Wiley Post was an aviation hero. He had been flying since around 1913 when he was about fifteen years of age. He was a U.S. Army Air Service pilot during World War I and had worked in a "flying circus", and as an oil field pilot. He completed the first solo flying around the world in seven days, 18 hours and 49.5 minutes. He is also credited with discovering jet streams. Will was an aviation advocate. He used mail planes to fly back and forth across country, and several anecdotes tell that he would weigh himself and pay by the pound, like the rest of the postage. Will was said to have logged more than 300,000 miles as a passenger, both domestically and internationally. In one of his 1918 newspaper articles he stated: "Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the first flying machine flight by the Wright Brothers. People wouldn't believe a man could fly then and Congress don't believe it yet."

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