The Story of Will Rogers

1952
Approved
1h 49m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Will Rogers Jr. and Jane Wyman in The Story of Will Rogers (1952)

The homespun humorist and social critic starts as a cowboy and goes on to vaudeville, movies, and radio.The homespun humorist and social critic starts as a cowboy and goes on to vaudeville, movies, and radio.The homespun humorist and social critic starts as a cowboy and goes on to vaudeville, movies, and radio.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

540

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on Janaury 12, 1953 with Will Rogers Jr. and Jane Wyman reprising their film roles.

Goofs
When Will Rogers leaves on his flight to Alaska in 1935 the plane that he and Wiley Post are flying is a Vultee BT-13 or -15 (depending on the engine used), an aircraft that didn't come into use until 1940. In the background as they are taking off are Boeing 377s (or C-97s), which debuted in the mid-1940s.

Quotes
Will Rogers: Well it looks like the women are finally gonna get the vote. A lot of men say they shouldn't be trusted with it. Seems kind of silly to stop trustin' them now after eatin' their cookin' for 4000 years.

Connections
Edited from Rhapsody in Blue (1945)

Soundtracks
Home on the Range
(uncredited)
Music by Daniel E. Kelley
Lyrics by Brewster M. Higley
Played at the beginning and during the opening credits
Sung at the Rogers party and used often in the score

User reviews19

Review

Featured review

He Never Met A Man He Didn't Like

This one is now out on DVD in the Warner Archives Collection. I saw this picture when it first came out - I was 11 at the time and I wanted to see if it held up in the ensuing 58 years, and I'm pleased to report it is just as entertaining and absorbing the second time around.

Such is not always the case. I did the same thing with "The High And The Mighty", and was disappointed at how trite and stagey the picture seemed when I saw it recently. But "Will Rogers" holds up, probably because it is a biography of a very famous American from the early part of the last century. Then as now, I was fascinated by what a dead ringer for his dad Will Rogers, Jr. was. I also think the movie benefited from a superior direction job.

Can I make one criticism? I didn't think Jane Wyman fit the part of a girlfriend/ wife from Oologah, Okla. She was too sophisticated, like a society chick from Riverside Drive who wouldn't bother with a bumpkin from Oologah. But that's just me.

In any case, this is worth buying and watching. I don't think it will be on TV any time soon as there are two scenes of Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson performing in blackface. Can't upset the PC crowd, you know.