 The Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Every era in American history has been sagesly interpreted by its humorists. In the frantic era we've just passed through it was Will Rogers. As endearing to his generation as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Bill Nye and Mark Twain were to theirs, Will Rogers, in the words of a contemporary, was the spokesman for his countrymen, Vox Populi in person. His kindly humor enabled him to walk with kings, nor lose the common touch. The Cavalcade of America brings you his story, in an original radio play written by and starring his friend, the popular columnist Cal Tenney. Our Cavalcade Orchestra and the original musical score are under the direction of Don Voorhees. DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents Cal Tenney in the story of Will Rogers on the Cavalcade of America. And in territory, the year 1899. On the station platform in the little town of Claremont, Oklahoma, a lanky youth in boots and jeans is perched on the baggage truck, passing the time of day with the station agent. Yes, sir, see where they're making plans to get the territory admitted as a state. If you ask me, they don't know when they're well off. I'll come, Bill. It's nice and peaceful here now. Just a kind of a blank space on the map. I'll give it a name and a couple of senators. Pretty soon, there'll be so many people on the roads that we won't be able to drive the cattle to range. I guess there's something in there. Sure. Take Texas. Used to be Texas, it's just Cal Country. I was down there last June. Punter pointed out a fella to me, town's first citizen. A self-made man, what's more. When that fella come to Texas, he didn't have a penny. Now, he owes $100,000. Now, I'm right. She's on time. We're gonna have to climb down so I can move this truck up. You don't need it. Nobody coming in but my old man. I'll just lug this stuff over to the buckboard myself. Oh, there's Papa up ahead there. Hey, Papa! Son, you looking fine? Papa, gosh, it's good to see you. Here, let me help you. I ain't making it all right. Buggy's right over here. Well, son, how's things going? How's your courting coming along? Papa, I come to the conclusion women are like elephants. They're nice to look at, but I'd hate to own one. Well, you'll change your mind about that. Hank, if I know where you get your notion, not for me, anyway. Maybe not. You know, son, I was worried a little when the market fell the way it did. When I knew you'd have sense to sell our steers quick the minute prices started down. How much are you clear, actually? You see, it was this way, Papa. Gosh, I'm mighty. Look at that herd over there. Whoever that is must be crazy. Waiting for prices to go up. Why in Chicago they say they're going even lower. As a matter of fact, Papa... Absolutely. Sure of it. Well, I knew my boy would look after things. I'm proud of you, son. Thanks, Papa. Is it as I was saying to... Hey, wait a minute, Bill, rain up there. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's the trouble, Papa? Why, Bill, that's our brand. Whole herd's our brand. Well, what does this mean? Right, and it means it's our herd. Well, of all that, what have you been doing all this time? Well, I entered the roping contest. And I won a medal. And $50. $50? I stand to lose my shirt so you can win $50. Well, I give up. What do you want to do, Willie? I don't know. I thought I'd sell you my herd and go to Argentina. Stop off and see London on the way. Well, son, I don't know how to advise you anymore. If you're going to be a fool, I guess there's no help for it. So go ahead and get it out of your system. I only ask you for one thing. If you've got to be a fool, be a money-making fool. Johannesburg, South Africa, the year 1902. Ladies and gentlemen, step right up close. Little closer, please. That's right, one cautious thing. You've just seen me do this here now, stupendous rope trick. And I'm making a bonafide and sensational offer of $100 American dollars. 100 good old USA simoleons and a man, woman, all child in the audience today who can duplicate this trick. Now, if you think she can, just let them step right up here and try it. Just a minute there, brother. What is it, partner? If you don't mind, I think I'd like to pry my hand there. Well, here's your chance to show off what you can do, partner. Step right this way. Don't be afraid of the crowd. They won't bite you. That's it. Right down here. Get out of the way, sonny. Let that gen through. All right, partner. Here's your rope. Thanks, brother. He must think he's good. All right now, pal. Let's see you do it. Easy does it, you know. Right, slick rope you got here. Yeah. He's putting it out, fella. Regular cowboy. Honorable, just hear a minute. And to prove it, I'm going to take him inside and give him that $100. Just step in the tent here, stranger. Yes, sir. I sure will. Yeah, watch your head there. Watch your head. That's it. All right. Yeah, great little town, Johannesburg, ain't it? Say, you sure are handy with the rope, kid. Well, what's your name? Will Rogers. Now, about that $100. Say, can you handle a horse as well as you can a rope? Sure. Road to range ever since is knee-high to a jackrabbit. Yeah. Well, how would you like to join my outfit here, rider and roper? We're going on to Australia. What'd you say? Well, what about that $100? I'm plumb, bro. Well, uh, to tell you the truth, I'm kind of hard up myself, friend. But I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll put you in my show instead. Billy has the Cherokee kid. How's that sound? What? I reckon so. Sure. We'll get back to Claremont, Bill. I'll be back in about a week. The place has changed. See, the town's got a new Nickelodeon now. Yeah, getting too settled, if you ask me. Heard you was with some Wild West outfit in the Orient, Bill. Yeah. You know what, Zack? That they billed me as the Cherokee kid. Get out. You should have seen us and said me. What are you doing now, Zack? Well, I'm getting together a little old riding and roping outfit for the pike at St. Louis Exposition. I'd like to have you join up with us, Bill. Thanks, Zack. I'll just, uh, I'll think it over. No, no, I can't seem to make up my mind to nothing. Tell your fortune for a dime, Jan. Step right this way, and the gypsy tanned only a dime. Fortune teller. Oh, 10 cents. Come on. May be good for lab. Ah, the two gentlemen wish the Laker to read the future. Come on. Come on. What do you say, Bill? Well... Why not? Okay, Zuleke. Here's your dime. One dime. Just step inside. I'll read the shy one first, yes. The hand, please. The youth has a pretentious future. The Laker has much to tell him. Listen, I ain't raising the ante none. Just a dime's worth, please. Huh? You have the hand of genius. It is a strange and wonderful hand, as I see here. Now, wait a minute. That bump's where a mule bit me. Well, that is no matter. Ah, you will become very famous. Maybe, uh, maybe on the stage. What's he going to play, Hamlet? It is not a joke. Yes, yes, he will be famous. People will throne to him. He will be paid there. He will be paid millions. What for? I see... I see a great talker. I see the great orator. I don't know. I don't know. It is in the hand. Talking to the multitude. Oh, that's enough. Never heard such foolishness in my life. Anybody pay to listen to a cow hand like me shoot off his mouth? Something's a matter with him. 1912. A down-at-the-hill opera house in a Midwestern town. I don't understand it, George. That's the best rope I've ever done. Last time on a horse and rider, just like that. Sure it was. An audience out there, they're just settin' on their hands. Bill, I'll tell you what's wrong. The act needs a little spiel. Huh? You know, the old build-up. I noticed when you were roping, you mumbled to yourself, well, why don't you try that? Only loud enough so the audience can hear it. But I ain't a talker that. Well, go ahead. Try it just once. Well, maybe. Well, try anything once. Oh, there's my cue now. Good luck, Bill. Two, Professor. Gentlemen. I ought to call you show enough attention to this next little stunt I'm going to worry the pony with. I'm gonna throw about two of these ropes at once. Catching the pony with one and the rider with the other. Don't have any idea I'll get it, but here goes. It wasn't supposed to be funny. Just trying to tell you what I'm going to do. Ain't nothing funny about that. Unless it's cause folks nowadays don't hear the truth very often. Well, anyway, I'll do my best for you. Okay, Professor. See, George, I went and made a fool of myself. Just taking your advice. But Bill, the audience likes you. Didn't you hear them? I heard them laugh at me. That's what you mean. Sure, they laughed at you. It's the way you talk. Brother, I can talk English as good as they can. And I don't aim to be no laughing stock. Just cause I ain't so good talking on a stage. I'll never open my crap out there again, George. You understand? All right, Bill, all right. But you're making a big mistake. These people like you. Whether you like it or not, kid, that's your ticket. A casual word from a theatrical manager and Will Rogers discovered his destiny. From that moment on, he became the humorous interpreter of American Common Sense. It was this quality that so endeared him to audiences that by 1916 he was performing in the most envied place in the entertainment world, the Ziegfeld Follies. Broadway, the Midnight Follies, the war year 1917. You know, folks, this year's a new rope I got with me. Ain't quite broke in yet. Anyway, this is just sort of a little interlude, keeping your seats to help Mr. Ziegfield out while the girls are changing their outfits for you. You know, we had quite a lot of trouble keeping our girls together on tour. Every town we went to, some of them were married millionaires. But in a few weeks, they'd catch up with the show again. Oh, and now we'll take his hero. Bigger than the other one, ain't it? You know, this is one that Mr. Ziegfield bars from. So he can lasso the girls every time to see a pierced arrow somewhere. You know what? If they'd send a lot of these here follies pippings overseas in the same sort of costumes they wear here, they'd not only get the soldier boys out of the trenches but Christmas, dog on bed, have cars rebuilt and Clemens sew shooting crafts to see which one would head the line to the stage door. Oh, here the girls come. There I go. Hello, Mr. Rogers. Huh? Oh, hi, you sister. Say, how's the baby? Oh, he's well, Mr. Rogers. Cut his first tooth yesterday. Can you leave that? Say, lookit, take this, sis. Oh, no, no. I'll go and take it. Now, find the toothbrush with it. Oh, okay, I will. And thanks a lot, Mr. Rogers. Hello. How's tricks, Mr. Rogers? Oh, say, just a minute, sister. Hold on there, there. Huh? I see that fella again. Out there in the second row? Eight nights straight now, ain't it? Yeah. Cute, isn't he? You kind of like getting into limousine every night after show, don't you? Sure beats the subway. And he's a smart-looking young chap. What does he do for a living? Well, he doesn't have to work. There's millions in his family. Well, let me tell you something, sister. When it comes to a question of choosing the fella that can earn his meal ticket and the guy that inherits his, you're safer choosing the first one. Because the other fella loses his. Where are you? Well, out in the cold, I guess. You've earned too many of them. I've been around, sister. You watch your step. Well, thanks. Thanks, Mr. Rogers. I'll remember what you did. The twaties, ear of whoopee and the speakeasy, of the flapper, the hip flask and the coon-skin coat, of babbit-baiting and the boyish bob, the Charleston and the black bottom and the blues. Well, all I know is what I read in the papers. Looks to me like a marathon's like an insane asylum. They just sold in it to the limit that they're crazy. The Scopes Monkey Trial, teapot dorm and muscle shoals, gangsters, rum-runners and racketeers, the Florida boom, lady evangelists and Hindu messiahs, and the followers of Dr. Cuell. You know, there's still a lot of monkey in the human race. Throw anything you want into our cage and we'll give it serious consideration. Rudolph Valentino, King Tut and Queen Marie. Several thousand women were said to have fainted at the sight of the Prince of Wales. But Will Rogers weathered the storm and it was to Will Rogers that the air to England's throne went for understanding of the American public. In an atty room of a Long Island mansion, Will was received by the Prince's Aquary. You're familiar with the etiquette of royal audiences, Mr. Rogers. Oh, sure, sure. I'm Heaven's gift to the people that didn't get to see Queen Marie. Yes, correct. You understand, of course, that the Prince of Wales is here in Cognito as Baron Remprew, but must be addressed as your Royal Highness. Well, I get it. Very well. If you'll just come this way, Mr. Rogers. Thanks, thanks. Your Royal Highness, Mr. Will Rogers. Howdy, Prince, house tricks. Okay, Mr. Rogers. You know, I've seen Englishmen before, but I knew you'd be different, Prince. You're the first Englishman that didn't come over here to lecture. I'll leave that to you, Mr. Rogers. I don't speak the language well enough. You're doing all right, Prince. Say, you know, this ain't a bad joint for a rented house. I'm glad you like it. Tell me, Mr. Rogers, how do you think I should go about being an ambassador of goodwill in America? I mean, do you think being royalty is a disadvantage? We figure it this way, Prince. You've made yourself mighty popular in spite of your birth. Americans admire any man who can rise above his surroundings. Another thing, Mr. Rogers, you know the stories that are going the rounds about my taking spills from horses and staple chases and polo matches. Sure, that's the best joke material sits the Model T. Of course, I don't care about myself, Mr. Rogers, but there is a more serious side to my American visit. Maybe you could help me out. I've heard in England you speak for America with few but very effective words. Prince, don't think I'll hit you that way. And I'll tell you what, I used to feel like you when people laughed at me, but I found taking it all and fun made people like me. Remember this, Prince, as long as your countryman and mine can laugh at each other's shortcomings, just so long and no longer, we'll be good friends. That sounds like good advice from a typical American. I ain't just a typical American, Prince. I'm an original American, too. Part Indian. My ancestors, oh, they didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they met the boat. The familiar sunburned face and the quizzical gray eyes, the careless forelock, and a good-natured smile. Will Rogers, a national figure, his syndicated news column read daily by 40 million readers, the spokesman of his generation. In Europe, it was accepted as fact that what Will Rogers said was what the American people thought. And it was in 1926 that President Calvin Coolidge summoned him to the White House. Mr. President, may I present Mr. Will Rogers? Big pardon. I didn't catch the name. Coolidge. Now, that wasn't fair, was it? I fussed you, and folks always laugh when they're fussed. Well, on the contrary, I was warned you'd try something like that. I laughed to oblige you. You called that a laugh? All right. I give up. Now, sit down, Mr. Rogers. Thanks. Thanks. Mr. Rogers, you've rendered your country a great service as a sort of ambassador at large. As a matter of fact, I called you here because I have been somewhat worried of late. Oh, God. I never knew any Vermonter to do much worrying on $75,000 a year. That's another matter. As President, I must tell you, our relations with Mexico are absolutely stalemated. You are the one man who could get President Coolidge to relax and talk freely with us. You mean just kid along? Like you and me, then kiddin'? That's the idea. Well, all right. But on one condition. And what is that, Mr. Rogers? That I can sleep late a morning. I don't hanker to be shot at sunrise. The 20s were tumbling to a chaotic close. Prosperity, bull markets, America riding the crest, the talkies, cellophane and streamlining. And then, 1929, Black Thursday, Headlines, breadlines, bonus marches, and Will Rogers continuing to voice the common sense of the American people. Seems funny to hear people carrying on about this country being broke. Hell, can it be broke? This'll be the first time a nation ever went to the poor house in an automobile. Just one thing worries me right now. That's all this talk about me running for President. Now, as long as it was a joke, it's okay. But let me make this clear. Now, once and for all, this country's got enough problems to face without putting a professional comedian in the White House. In Seattle on the morning of August 23rd, 1934, Will Rogers and Wiley Post took off on what was to have been a pioneering round-the-world flight to blaze a trail for North Polar Aviation. All the world knows the outcome of that flight. America remembers the picture of the man in a rumpled sack suit who emerged from that plane at Fairbanks, Alaska, the last picture ever taken of Will Rogers. Well, pal, I guess we're all set. Motor okay? Well, it's long, friend. We should see that this box fur piece gets mailed home. It gets a dandy pelt, ain't it? Sure is, yeah. Glad to mail it, Bill. But I think you and Wiley had ought to wait over. Just got a report of fog all along your route up to Point Barrow. Well, if we meet bad weather, we'll just set her down. Open up a can of chili. We'll throw a party till it clears. Won't we, Wiley? Ah, yeah, there you go, Bill. Okay. Well, here we go. All for some work. Goodbye, pal. Had a fine time here. See you next time around this way. Bye, Bill. Bye, Wiley. Good luck. Guess you like putting air everyone, Bill. Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I never met a man I didn't like. One of stone and bronze standing on a windswept hill near his hometown of Claremont, Oklahoma. The other in the hearts of his fellow men who have come to remember him for that gentle philosophy and homespun wit that characterized him as the spokesman of a fabulous era in American life. Will Rogers, whose memory belongs to the great tradition that is the cavalcade of America. To Calteni and the cavalcade players our thanks for their performance of the story of Will Rogers. And now the DuPont Company brings you its story from the wonder world of chemistry. The new year. The first day of the fifth decade of the 20th century of our Lord. Behind us fading like fireworks in the dark sky we put the dreams and deeds of the past year. But we do know that both the dreams and the deeds of men of good heart live after them. And looking back we can see that our great men always have shared much the same dream. The dignity of the human spirit flowering in liberty. It was that dream a vision of free men in a new world which guided the young fathers of this republic as they wrote we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal. So let us not forget ourselves. Let us not forget that here in America we have inherited the great dream and its fruits. Our freedom flies like a flag on the wind and we know it is good. The great dead bear testimony. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson Patrick Henry, Lincoln, Lee. We call the role of the cavalcade of America and not only of the statesmen and soldiers, but of the many great builders in the fields of science and discovery. Robert Fulton and John Fitch Steamships Charles Goodyear, rubber vulcanization Samuel F. B. Morse The Telegraph Eli Whitney, the cotton gin Luther Burbank, horticulture Alexander Graham Bell The telephone Thomas Edison, the electric light Walter Reed, preventive medicine Wright Brothers, flight. These are Americans. This is America. These are the men freedom has produced and these the good things which came to be under freedom's banner. Now in this new year we march forward for history is a one way street. In a cavalcade as vast as that of America the part any single company plays is a humble one. With the very same spirit of free enterprise so characteristic of America's great discoverers likewise makes possible the manifold achievement of DuPont chemists. Such better things as lucite plastic cellophane cellulose fill DuCo and Dulux finishes neoprene chemical rubber DuPont rayon, nylon and countless other triumphs of research laboratories which enrich our daily lives for our national security. It is to the continued creation of these good things and continued service to the best welfare of their country that the 76,000 men and women of the DuPont company rededicate themselves this new year in the words of the DuPont pledge better things for better living through chemistry. Next week the cavalcade of America presents Mightier Than the Sword an original radio play on the life of one of the foremost cartoonists in American journalism and now the star of that broadcast William Johnstone of the cavalcade players ladies and gentlemen we all know the symbols of our political parties but very few of us realize that the elephant and the donkey were symbols created by a 19th century cartoonist named Thomas Nast he lived during a time when civic corruption was threatening to ruin American politics and he fought it with the best weapon the cartoon admiring anyone of such courage as we all do I am honored to portray the role of Thomas Nast on our broadcast next week thank you on the cavalcade of America your announcer is Clayton Collier sending best wishes for the new year from DuPont this is the national broadcasting company