Will Rogers On…

On Will Rogers…

"...Will can't help being funny no matter where he happens to be. His humor isn't the artificial kind that you can put on and take off like a coat. He's just himself. He's always himself. He doesn't try to be funny. He just is."
-- Betty, Will Rogers' wife.

"I think that is a most important ingredient in Will Rogers' humor-reality. Unlike most humorists, he seldom told 'tall tales' about how-the-roof-fell-in-when-cousin-Zeb-was-sparkin'-in-the-parlor-and-the-bull-climbed-in-the-second-story-window-when-the-fire-department-arrived. When Will Rogers tells a story . . . the details may wander around a bit, but the basic events are as they actually occurred. He invented the gags, never the situation."
-- from Will Rogers, Jr.'s preface to Will Rogers' Ether and Me.

"He was a compassionate man; he was always pleasant, he was always kindly. That is the key word--kindly!"
-- actress Peggy Wood.

“He was unique. Will Rogers had a way of slapping you, while he picked you up. That is a great art, and Rogers certainly was great.”
-- actor Lew Ayres.

“His humor and his comments were always kind. His was no biting sarcasm that hurt the highest or the lowest of his fellow citizens. When he wanted people to laugh out loud, he used the methods of pure fun. And when he wanted to make a point for the good of mankind, he used the kind of gentle irony that left no scars behind it.”
-- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.