Movie actor, radio commentator and newspaper columnist Will Rogers made three movies with director John Ford. His droll wit and dry humor on people and worldly events were on full display for many years, making him one of the country's most popular observers of life. When he wrapped up filming September 1935's "Steamboat Round the Bend," it was sadly his final movie. A fatal aviation crash in Alaska ended Rogers' life at 55.
"I never met a man I didn't like," Rogers famously said. "I am so proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved." His phrase became prophetic when Rogers decided to accompany fellow Oklahoman and veteran aviator Wiley Post on a whirlwind aerial tour of Alaska to write newspaper columns about the large United States territory. On August 15, attempting to navigate in bad weather flying into Barrow, Post's plane nosedived into the tundra, killing both Rogers and the pilot.
Ford was devastated by the news. The director had asked Rogers to join him on his sailboat to Hawaii departing California for a relaxing ocean voyage. Rogers respectfully declined, writing he needed fodder for his papers' columns. The newly-minted 20th Century-Fox was about to release Rogers' previously-filmed movie, "In Old Kentucky," when the news emerged on his death. The studio realized Ford's latest motion picture was much better, and decided to release "Steamboat Round the Bend" as a testimony to Rogers' greatness.
Roger's career in cinema was long. Beginning in 1918, he starred in 48 silent movies before transitioning to talkies, making 21 feature films. His homespun humor was perfect for sound, where multitudes lapped up his movies, including 1933's "State Fair" and the three Ford films, 1933 "Doctor Bill," 1934 "Judge Priest" and his last one, "Steamboat Round the Bend." Rogers was Hollywood's top box office star from 1933 until 1935, according to the Motion Picture Herald. Rogers bought the rights to Ben Burman's 1933's novel, 'Steamboat Round the Bend,' so he could play Doctor John Pearly, a huckster salesman for a cure-all drink whose ambition was to own a steamboat. Pearly realizes his dream alongside his nephew, Duke, but the young man killed someone while defending his girlfriend, Fleety Belle (Anne Shirley). Searching for the only witness to the killing to prove Duke's self-defense innocence, Pearly finds a preacher, New Moses (Benton Churchill), who vouches for the nephew's claim. Only a race on Dr. Pearly's steamboat to the site where Duke's hanging is about to take place can save the young lad.
In a 1968 BBC interview, Ford claimed Rogers ad-libbed much of his dialogue. "He'd read it and memorize the script and when the time would come he'd say it in his own words and they were much better than what a writer wrote because no one could write for Will Rogers. He was Will Rogers. He was more human than all the writers in the world, and it was said in his own way, which was good." Ford filmed Rogers waving to the camera at the concluding scene as written in the script. The studio felt the shot would be too emotional for viewers so soon after the actor's death. They substituted for one that abruptly ends, showing Rogers sitting on the deck of his steamboat looking in the distance.
Wiley Post's plane 'Winnie Mae,' the one the aviator set multiple records, belongs to the Smithsonian in Washington, D. C. at the National Air and Space Museum.
"I never met a man I didn't like," Rogers famously said. "I am so proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved." His phrase became prophetic when Rogers decided to accompany fellow Oklahoman and veteran aviator Wiley Post on a whirlwind aerial tour of Alaska to write newspaper columns about the large United States territory. On August 15, attempting to navigate in bad weather flying into Barrow, Post's plane nosedived into the tundra, killing both Rogers and the pilot.
Ford was devastated by the news. The director had asked Rogers to join him on his sailboat to Hawaii departing California for a relaxing ocean voyage. Rogers respectfully declined, writing he needed fodder for his papers' columns. The newly-minted 20th Century-Fox was about to release Rogers' previously-filmed movie, "In Old Kentucky," when the news emerged on his death. The studio realized Ford's latest motion picture was much better, and decided to release "Steamboat Round the Bend" as a testimony to Rogers' greatness.
Roger's career in cinema was long. Beginning in 1918, he starred in 48 silent movies before transitioning to talkies, making 21 feature films. His homespun humor was perfect for sound, where multitudes lapped up his movies, including 1933's "State Fair" and the three Ford films, 1933 "Doctor Bill," 1934 "Judge Priest" and his last one, "Steamboat Round the Bend." Rogers was Hollywood's top box office star from 1933 until 1935, according to the Motion Picture Herald. Rogers bought the rights to Ben Burman's 1933's novel, 'Steamboat Round the Bend,' so he could play Doctor John Pearly, a huckster salesman for a cure-all drink whose ambition was to own a steamboat. Pearly realizes his dream alongside his nephew, Duke, but the young man killed someone while defending his girlfriend, Fleety Belle (Anne Shirley). Searching for the only witness to the killing to prove Duke's self-defense innocence, Pearly finds a preacher, New Moses (Benton Churchill), who vouches for the nephew's claim. Only a race on Dr. Pearly's steamboat to the site where Duke's hanging is about to take place can save the young lad.
In a 1968 BBC interview, Ford claimed Rogers ad-libbed much of his dialogue. "He'd read it and memorize the script and when the time would come he'd say it in his own words and they were much better than what a writer wrote because no one could write for Will Rogers. He was Will Rogers. He was more human than all the writers in the world, and it was said in his own way, which was good." Ford filmed Rogers waving to the camera at the concluding scene as written in the script. The studio felt the shot would be too emotional for viewers so soon after the actor's death. They substituted for one that abruptly ends, showing Rogers sitting on the deck of his steamboat looking in the distance.
Wiley Post's plane 'Winnie Mae,' the one the aviator set multiple records, belongs to the Smithsonian in Washington, D. C. at the National Air and Space Museum.