The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics by Greg Mitchell

Author:Greg Mitchell [Mitchell, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781468075724
Amazon: 1468075721
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2011-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

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America's greatest radio star, Will Rogers, wandered into California over the airwaves this evening from deep in the heart of Texas. It was a typical Rogers weekend. Saturday he flew from St. Louis to his hometown of Claremore, Oklahoma, to speak at a political rally, then crossed the border to keep this radio date in Fort Worth. He planned to fly out right after his nationwide broadcast, bound for Detroit and the final two games of the World Series.

"This gentleman's an old friend of mine," Rogers had remarked at yesterday's Democratic rally, referring to the party's nominee for governor of Oklahoma, "but I'm not endorsing him. I don't know whether he'd be any good." Will's policy against endorsing candidates also applied to California, but he confessed that since he had to "make a living joking about the Governor out there, it would be best for me if Sinclair's elected." This was a quip likely to be quoted in California all week.

Perhaps the question most often asked in America was Did you see what Will Rogers said? Some of his wisecracks had turned to cliche ("All I know is what I read in the papers"); others entered the American language as folk sayings or punch lines:

• "Every time Congress makes a joke it's a law, and every time they make a law it's a joke."

• "We hold the distinction of being the only nation that is goin' to the poorhouse in an automobile."

• "This would be a great world to dance in if we didn't have to pay the fiddler."

• "My idea of an honest man is a fellow who declares income tax on money he sold his vote for."

Will Rogers was America's "most complete human document... the heartbeat of America," Damon Runyon had observed. Reviewing one of his books, a New York Times critic insisted that "America has never produced anybody quite like him, and there has rarely been an American humorist whose words produced less empty laughter or more sober thought." The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr praised his facility in puncturing foibles "which more pretentious teachers leave untouched."

Rogers's life was an American amalgam. He liked to brag that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower—they met the boat. Rogers was born in Oklahoma Indian Territory in 1879, and he was part Indian, but his parents were prosperous Methodists. Before settling down as a political philosopher and movie star in the 1920s, Rogers worked as a cowboy, a circus performer, and a comedian. Rope tricks were his specialty, but Rogers was no bumpkin: he lived in New York City for many years while appearing with the Ziegfeld Follies, and he often traveled abroad. He hated to hunt and fish but loved to play polo.

Although he never took the trouble to vote, Rogers read newspapers and magazines voraciously and hobnobbed with politicians and foreign dignitaries, gathering material for his seemingly spontaneous political gibes. "This man Rogers has such a keen insight into the American panorama and the American people," Theodore

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