A Cowboy for the People
Will Rogers came into his own at a time when his nation was most needful of what only a cowboy could deliver.

By Joseph H. Carter

It was in 1905 at a Wild West Show in New York’s Madison Square Garden that a then-25-year-old Will Rogers saved the day, coming to the rescue when a breakaway Longhorn steer leaped into the audience. His roping feat was the talk of the town, and Rogers parlayed his lariat expertise and cowboy lingo into a career break that took him onto the stages of the explosively popular vaudeville circuit.

Were theatre patrons ready for a drawling part-Indian cowboy trick roper? Would a skit that had him lassoing a horse and rider sell in vaudeville? Will Rogers was both imaginative and determined.

Back west, Will Rogers’s beloved cattle trail drives had been replaced by railroad boxcars hauling beef on rails. Why hire horseback cowboys when trains were rapidly and increasingly criss-crossing America, enriched by a federal deal that awarded promoters a square mile of right-of-way land for every mile of track they laid?

Dying were Wild West Shows that had lifted Rogers from the monotony of a rancher’s life and hurled him into a career as an around-the-world performer, a phase in his performing life that was capped by his heroism when he went and nabbed that steer that had put 6,000 audience members into flight.

The trick and fancy roping talents of Will Rogers, coupled with his special horse act, won him a booking at Keith’s famous vaudeville house in New York City for $75 a week, far more than any previous cowboy work had paid.

Handmade leather shoes were fashioned by the roper for his horse Teddy to wear, so the pony wouldn’t slip. Rogers, in boots and chaps, would take position on stage and hurl lassos nabbing a moving rider and horse. Throwing figure eights and catching all four legs was the norm...

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Will and Betty Rogers with their family Long Island, N.Y., in 1916. The children, from left, are Will Jr., Mary, and Jim (on Will’s lap).

Rogers astraddle Teddy, who performed trick roping feats in vaudeville, 1904-05. ON THE INDEX PAGE: Rogers in 1930 during his regular Sunday 10 p.m. CBS radio broadcast.   "Guys were getting hurt right and left."

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