Citizen cowboy : Will Rogers and the American people / Steven Watts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Watts, Steven, 1952- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Entertainers--United States--Biography.

Entertainers.

Humorists, American--Biography.

Humorists, American.

Rogers, Will, 1879-1935.

Rogers, Will.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 457 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Pres, 2024.

Summary:

"Citizen Cowboy is a probing biography of one of America's most influential cultural figures. Will Rogers was a youth from the Cherokee Indian Territory of Oklahoma who rose to conquer nearly every form of media and entertainment in the early twentieth century's rapidly expanding consumer society. Through vaudeville, the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway, syndicated newspaper and magazine writing, the lecture circuit, radio, and Hollywood movies, Rogers built his reputation as a folksy humorist whose wit made him a national symbol of common sense, common decency, and common people. Though a friend of presidents, movie stars and industrial leaders, it was his bond with ordinary people that endeared him to mass audiences. Making his fellow Americans laugh and think while honoring the past and embracing the future, Rogers helped ease them into the modern world and they loved him for it"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Introduction. Will Rogers' America

The final frontier

The Cherokee kid

The Vaudeville romance

Follies and frolics

The celluloid cowboy

An age of publicity

The American soul

Politics is applesauce

The unfunny business of trying to be funny

The private man

The little fellow and the Great Depression

Man in motion

The man talkies were invented for

Epilogue. Thy will be done

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 26 Apr 2024).

ISBN:

9781108852685

1108852688

9781108852937

1108852939

9781108856393

110885639X