CLAREMORE – The Will Rogers Memorial Museum will open a new exhibit entitled “Aces and Actors: Will Rogers’s Famous Friends” at 6 p.m., Friday, May 30.
The exhibit explores the actor’s vast connections to Hollywood and the then-fledgling aviation industry through a series of photographs that follow his film career and associations with pilots.
The exhibit begins with pilots and Will’s love of adventure and flying. Will knew that air travel was the future and jumped at the chance to fly. He flew with early pioneering aviators like Wiley Post, Frank Hawks, Jocko Clark and more.
In addition to being a newspaperman, a radio pundit, a humanitarian and a philosopher, Will Rogers is possibly best known for his film career. Rogers began with silent films and was one of the few movie stars to successfully transition to talkies. He made more than 70 films during his career, which helped him gain international fame.
Another part of the exhibit explores Will Rogers’s early career in live entertainment with Wild West shows and Vaudeville, plus the friends he made along the way. As the top box office star in the 1930s, Rogers befriended several stars early in their careers, including Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch in “The Wizard of Oz,” and Hattie McDaniel, the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for her work on the film “Gone With The Wind” (1939). Some of the Hollywood stars featured in the exhibit include Mickey Rooney, Shirley Temple and Sterling Holloway, the famous voice of Winnie the Pooh.
Rarely seen Walt Disney sketches of Will Rogers will be on display for two weeks only before they return to the vault for safekeeping on June 13. Disney and Rogers often played polo at Rogers’s ranch in California. Disney also included Rogers in the 1933 cartoon “Mickey’s Gala Premier.” Pencil sketches from this cartoon, including drawings of Will Rogers and Mickey Mouse, will be on display.
