Will Rogers (William Penn Adair Rogers) Biography

American humorist, born in Oologah, Oklahoma. In the 1920s and early 1930s Rogers was one of America's most popular humorists. He was already acquiring an international reputation when he joined Ziegfeld's Follies in 1915. He made his first motion picture in 1918 (Laughing Bill Hyde) and in 1919 published the first two collections of his jokes, Rogersisms: The Cowboy Philosopher on the Peace Conference and Rogersisms: The Cowboy Philosopher on Prohibition, following which his reputation as a humorous commentator on American political affairs grew rapidly. Between 1925 and 1928 he travelled widely in the USA on lecture tours; he reported on the Democratic Convention of 1928 for the New York Times, at the same time offering himself as the candidate for the ‘Anti-Bunk’ party. He made a series of popular films in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including A Connecticut Yankee, Young as You Feel, and State Fair.