NRR Project: Will Rogers speaks -- 'Bacon, Beans, and Limousines' (1931)

 

NRR Project: ‘Bacon, Beans, and Limousines’

Written and performed by Will Rogers

Broadcast October 18, 1931

10:35

One hundred years ago, the most popular entertainer in America was Will Rogers. Few people today know how pervasive his presence was. He dominated all media, including films, radio, newspapers, and the stage.

Rogers (1879-1935) is the American humorist best known for saying, “I never met a man I didn’t like,” which was not strictly true. (He was mean once to H. Allen Smith when Smith tried to interview him at Cheyenne Frontier Days. So there.) He was a cowboy philosopher, a fount of common sense during a crazy time in American history.

He was born in Oklahoma, and grew up on a ranch. He dropped out of school after the 10^th grade, and began performing as a rider and a trick roper in rodeos. Gradually, around 1905, he transitioned into vaudeville, where he spun his lariat and interjected jokes and observations if his trick didn’t come off. He started working in more prestigious New York shows. Soon his humorous remarks began to supersede the rope tricks, and he was making money as a comic monologist.

From that role he branched out into other disciplines. He appeared on Broadway. He made 48 silent films, and 21 sound features. He was a top box office draw. It was only natural that the government turned to him to broadcast on behalf of President Hoover’s Organization on Unemployment Relief. He stepped up to the microphone and delivered his take on the trouble he found America in.

It was during this address that he famously stated, “We’ll hold the distinction of being the only nation in the history of the world that ever went to the poor house in an automobile.” In his address, Rogers makes note of the unequal distribution of wealth, and argued for full employment (he was a Democrat). Such candor, couched in humor, had not been heard over the airwaves before, and it proved incredibly popular with the listening audience.

Rogers would continue to make his sharp and funny observations until he died tragically young in a plane crash in 1935.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Stokowski in stereo.