Will Rogers Days

This years Will Rogers Days will celebrate with the inaugural Will Rogers Motion Picture Festival, October 30th through November 4th.  

Entries from around the world will be shown at various locations in Claremore. Workshops and lectures are also scheduled during the Festival.   Ticket prices will vary but the All-Access pass at $100 allows free admission to the Museum and to all Festival films and workshops. Ticket and more information Dogirons.com

Friday, November 1st is Movie Night at the Museum, 7 p.m., showing Will Rogers with Joel McCrea in “Lightnin.’”  Will’s great-granddaughter, Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry, and McCrea’s grandson, Wyatt, will be talking about their shared family history and answer questions.

Saturday, November 2, Will Rogers Race, Cherokee Nation Wings Race, 1K fun run, 8 a.m.; 5K, 8:30 a.m.; through Rogers State University Nature Preserve. Check in starts at 6:30 a.m. Will Rogers Memorial Museum

Saturday, November 2nd, Indian Women’s Pocahontas Club, Hats off to Will, wreath-laying ceremony, 10 a.m., with entertainment and reception following. Will Rogers Memorial Museum

Saturday, November 2nd, RSU Native American Festival, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Centennial Center, RSU campus, free and open to the public, Indian taco dinner concessions available in afternoon

Saturday, November 2nd, 7 p.m., Dog Iron Awards Ceremony, presentation of Dog Iron Awards to winning films, Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium on campus of Rogers State University

 Celebration of Will Rogers, November 4th, 1879 birth on an Oologah, Indian Territory Ranch. Full details on willrogers.com


will rogers

About Will Rogers

William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers was an American cowboy, vaudeville performer, humorist, newspaper columnist, social commentator, and stage and motion picture actor.

Known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son", Rogers was born to a prominent Cherokee Nation family in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). He traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s, the American people adored Rogers. He was the leading political wit of his time, and was the highest paid Hollywood movie star. Rogers died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their small airplane crashed in northern Alaska.

Rogers's vaudeville rope act led to success in the Ziegfeld Follies, which in turn led to the first of his many movie contracts. His 1920s syndicated newspaper column and his radio appearances increased his visibility and popularity. Rogers crusaded for aviation expansion, and provided Americans with first-hand accounts of his world travels.