Looking back: Will Rogers in Stillwater
Friday, February 3, 2006
Will Rogers’ visit to the OSU (Oklahoma A&M) campus 75 years ago this month drew plenty
of attention and good reviews from the local press.
One A&M student, whose letter home was featured in a college magazine following Rogers’
February 5, 1931 visit, put it like this:
“Rogers’ wisecracks are spread from coast to coast—and when I say ‘wisecracks’ I
mean ‘wisecracks.’ He ridicules everyone from ‘king’ to ‘field mouse,’ and gets away
with it—Well! Just to prove his power—the receipts for the performance totaled $2,507.52—bring
on another individual who could extract two hundred and fifty thousand pennies from
these seemingly penniless students.”
Rogers came to Stillwater to raise money for families who’d been hit hard by drought
during the Great Depression. According to published accounts in The Daily O’Collegian and The Stillwater Gazette, his stop here was one of many he made during a lengthy fundraising tour at the time
and his popularity was obvious.
As the Gazette reporter put it: “… for two hours, Oklahoma’s favorite son rambled through a happy
monologue that had the nearly 2,000 persons alternately rocking with laughter, nudging
each other understandingly, or sitting alert, faces wreathed in smiles, ready to burst
out again in gales of mirth or hand-clapping, or both.”
What made Rogers so special? The Gazette reporter confirmed the A&M student’s comment on “kings to field mice” by writing:
“Will’s ready wit harpooned a sacred cow or two, polished off Governor Murray and
pricked any bubble of self-importance that might be in the process of blowing by the
thirteenth Oklahoma legislature. He handed a few warm ones to those present and the
homefolks yelled for more….”
Rogers, who was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars at the time, had a tenth grade education,
and his Stillwater visit allowed him to “serve up” plenty to his degree-bound audience.
“You know when a class graduates here, the smart ones go out and coach somewhere,
and the dumb ones, they go to the legislature.
“All your speakers bring a message to the youth of Oklahoma. I’m not going to hand
you any of that hooey. They generally say the future of the state depends on you.
You know, we’ve got too many of you now. You are a pretty hard looking group. I don’t
see anybody I’d like to take back to Hollywood.”
The day after his appearance in Stillwater, Rogers would write in his nationally
syndicated daily newspaper column: “Played this morning at the best agricultural school
in America, Oklahoma A and M. Their cattle win all the shows, and their boys win all
the judging contests. It’s not a raccoon coat college.”