The working title of the film was The Will Rogers Story. The opening title card reads: "The Story of Will Rogers as told by His Wife." The film opens with shots of the many memorials built to honor Will Rogers, and a voice-over narration comments on Rogers' status as a "folk hero." Voice-over narration by Jane Wyman as "Mrs. Will Rogers" is heard intermittently throughout the film.
As depicted in the film, the cowboy-philosopher Will Rogers was born in Oolagah, OK, near present-day Claremore, on November 4, 1879. His mother and father, a wealthy rancher and banker, were both part Cherokee. Rogers was a cowboy in the Texas Panhandle, then journeyed to Argentina and on to South Africa. Calling himself "The Cherokee Kid," he toured the world with "Texas Jack's Wild West Circus" as a rope-twirling cowboy, and later performed at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, and in 1905, at Madison Square Garden in New York. After adding jokes and political humor to his act, Rogers performed in several Broadway musicals, and from 1916 to 1918, starred in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Rogers made his first screen appearance in the 1918 Rex Beach Pictures production Laughing Bill Hyde, playing the title role (see entry in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20). Rogers moved to Southern California with his wife Betty and their children, continued to star in films and became the top box office star in the world. During this time he was also elected the first honorary mayor of Beverly Hills. In 1922, he returned to New York to perform again in the Ziegfeld Follies and in 1926 began writing a weekly syndicated column for the New York Times. Also in 1926, he toured Europe and the Soviet Union, and after his introduction to air travel, flew around South America and the Far East in the early 1930s.
Fox Film Corp.'s 1935 Steamboat Round the Bend, directed by John Ford and co-starring Anne Shirley and Irvin S. Cobb, was the last film Rogers made, although two other films were released later. As implied in The Story of Will Rogers, Rogers and his pilot, Wiley Post, died in an airplane accident near Point Barrow, AK on August 15, 1935. For more information about Steamboat Round the Bend and the impact of Rogers' death on the entertainment community, see the entry for the film in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40.
Betty Blake Rogers wrote the 1940 Saturday Evening Post serial on which the film is based, and according to a May 1952 Los Angeles Times interview with Will Rogers, Jr., she and Will, Jr. interested Warner Bros. in taking an option on the idea in 1941, three years before she died. Will, Jr. stated that he was tested for the role of his father, as were several Hollywood actors, including Spencer Tracy and Bing Crosby, but, according to an April 1950 Daily Variety news item, the studio let the option lapse. Later, when Warner Bros. revived the idea, they paid $100,000 to the family, and although his only previous theatrical performance was in a high school play, in the Los Angeles Times interview Will, Jr. claimed that his appearance in the title role was part of the deal.
Although generally pleased with the film's accuracy in portraying Rogers' life, Will, Jr. pointed out that Clem Rogers died while Rogers was still in New York. Other sentimental connections to Rogers' life occur in the film: The director Michael Curtiz played polo with Rogers; the hurdy-gurdy and the stuffed cow appearing in the film belonged to Rogers and were borrowed from his home, which became a museum after his Santa Monica ranch was donated to the State of California and became the Will Rogers State Park. Film clips of several of Rogers' contemporaries, Fanny Brice, Marilyn Miller and Al Jolson, were used in the film.
Although she did not appear in the final film, Ruth Roman was originally assigned the role of "Betty Rogers," according to an October 1951 Variety news item. According to Warner Bros. production notes, portions of the film were shot on Rogers' ranch in Santa Monica, and the town of Oolagah was recreated at the Warner Ranch in Calabasas, CA.
The nine-day cross-country ceremonies dedicating the Will Rogers Memorial Highway, culminating in Santa Monica were planned to tie in with the Hollywood premiere of The Story of Will Rogers, according to a July 1952 Hollywood Reporter news item. Another July 1952 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that BHC, which was owned by Will, Jr., published a twelve-page souvenir insert in its weekly edition that contained a biography of Rogers and proclaimed "Will Rogers Week," and was endorsed by the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association. The Southern California Motion Picture Council awarded the film a citation of merit, according to an August 1952 Hollywood Reporter news item. In conjunction with the film, Warner Bros. published a brochure about Rogers' life and career for schools and libraries. Warner Bros. also offered a series of "good neighbor" premieres of the film in foreign capitals around the globe, to capitalize on Rogers' memory as a traveling goodwill U.S. ambassador, according to a July 1952 Daily Variety news item.
On January 12, 1952, Will, Jr., and Jane Wyman reprised their roles in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast. Will, Jr. also portrayed his father in two other Warner Bros. films, The Eddie Cantor Story in 1953 (see entry above) and Look for the Silver Lining in 1949 (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1941-50). Andrew A. Trimble portrayed Rogers in the 1936 M-G-M production of The Great Ziegfeld and the 1937 Universal production of You're a Sweetheart. Two memorable films from Rogers' later years, both Fox Films productions, were the 1931 A Connecticut Yankee, directed by David Butler and co-starring William Farnum, Maureen O'Sullivan and Myrna Loy, and the 1933 State Fair, directed by Henry King, co-starring Janet Gaynor and Lew Ayres (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40). In the early 1940s, Rogers' second son Jimmy starred with Noah Beery, Jr. in three films directed by Hal Roach: Dudes Are Pretty People, Calaboose and Prairie Chickens (see entries in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1941-50).
