One of the earliest non-fiction programs on broadcast television, “The Greatest Drama” dates to 1954. This episode profiles “The Cowboy Humorist” Will Rogers.
Opening: ticker tape parade in New York City. Title: The Greatest Drama – The Cowboy Humorist (:07-:37). Statue of Will Rogers. Picture of Will Rogers. Born in 1879 in Oklahoma. Men ride horses, a stampede of horses. Cowboys on his father’s ranch. Will Rogers does a roping trick. New York City, Broadway, Ziegfeld Follies. Dancing women. Will Rogers is applauded. Will with his children (:38-2:09). Children do rope tricks. Children ride horses. Will teaches roping to his family. Will rides horses with his gamily. Train on the tracks. Will Rogers tours the country. Will Rogers to write a column for over five hundred newspapers (2:10-3:19). John W. Davis, the Democratic nominee for President in 1924. Rogers pokes fun at Davis in front of a crowd. The people laugh. At a Notre Dame football banquet, Rogers makes people laugh (3:20-5:14). In 1926, Will Rogers sails to Europe on a Cruise Ship. Rogers walks with General Billy Mitchell near an airplane. Rogers flew in early airplanes and loved flying (5:15-6:08). Will Rogers in an airplane. A ranch in California, Rogers plays polo on his own field in Los Angeles. Will Rogers speaks to people. Rogers was a guest at John D. Rockefeller’s birthday. In the White House, he attended Franklin Roosevelt’s birthday party. Shirley Temple had a party and he was there as well (6:09-7:52). Rogers was at the dedication of the Coolidge Dam. He pokes fun at Coolidge. Rogers with Fred Stone. Rogers would watch the World Series in the stands, sometimes he was a guest of the Commissioner. Rodeo. Rogers sits amongst the people. 1929, Stock Market crashes (7:53-9:03). Rogers was upset with the crash of the stock market. Rogers went to the Southwest and Texas, donated money to local relief. 1932, Democratic Convention, Rogers speaks and doesn’t run for President. Large crowds. 1933, 34, Adolf Hitler rises to power in Germany, troops on the march. Mussolini is in power. Planes fly in the German skies. Will Rogers decides to fly around the world with Wiley Post (9:04-10:57). August 1935, Post takes off with Rogers in a modified Lockheed Sirius. August 15, 1935, the plane is wrecked in the Alaskan snow. Will Rogers smiles, talks (10:58-11:54). End credits (11:55-12:36).
William Penn Adair Rogers (1879 – 1935) was an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator from Oklahoma. He was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films, and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was hugely popular and was the highest paid of Hollywood film stars. He died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post when their small airplane crashed in northern Alaska
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