EXIT STAGE LEFT…

A quote from Will Rogers: "He (Texas Jack Jnr.) had a little Wild West aggregation that visited the camps and did a tremendous business. I did some roping and riding, and Jack, who was one of the smartest showmen I ever knew, took a great interest in me. It was he who gave me the idea for my original stage act with my pony. I learned a lot about the show business from him. He could do a bum act with a rope that an ordinary man couldn't get away with, and make the audience think it was great, so I used to study him by the hour, and from him I learned the great secret of the show business – knowing when to get off. It's the fellow who knows when to quit that the audience wants more of."

The youngest of eight children, Will Rogers was born in 1879 at the family ranch in Oologah, Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma). His first real job was in the livestock business in Argentina. He transported pack animals across the South Atlantic from Buenos Aires to South Africa for use in the Boer War (1899-1902), and it was there that he joined ‘Texas Jack's Wild West Show’, where he drew upon his expertise with horse and lasso. Returning to America, he brought his talents to vaudeville, and by 1917 was a Ziegfeld Follies star.

Roger’s cracker-barrel philosophy; folksy humour, and pithy comments about the government appealed to the average American citizen.

He starred in 71 films and several Broadway productions. In 1934, he was voted the most popular male actor in Hollywood. His career broadened beyond the realm of show business. He became a prominent radio broadcaster and political commentator, and wrote 4,000 syndicated columns and six books.

Tragically, in 1935, his life was cut short at the age of 55, when he died in the Arctic crash of a plane piloted by the world-renowned, one-eyed pioneer aviator, Wiley Post (in which Post died as well).

Texas Jack (Jnr.) c.1860-1905, was the adopted son of frontier scout, actor and cowboy, Texas Jack Omohundro, who in 1872, appeared with "Buffalo Bill" Cody in one of the original Wild West Shows, in Chicago.