Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10
snenial pispatch to rhe Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
HOLLYWOOD, Calf, August 9
This is a journalistic cu-
riosity.
1t is an interview with Will Rogers
the first he has given in Hollywood. and
one of the few real interviews he has
given anywhere.
It is poor business for Will Rogers
to permit some one to interview him.
why should he give to some other
writer that which he can sell?
In Hollywood, Will has all the sur
roundings of big shot" There is a
conspiracy to see that he gets privacy
and plenty of it.
VIII Is Skittish.
1--WE gotta be kinda skittish about in
terviews," he said. You see, out here
in Hollywiid the woods are full of people
that learned to write but evidently
can't read. If they could read their
stuff they'd stop writing. I don't know
how I'd ever face the family If ever
let one of these here gusny movie gals
get me in one of the fan magazines"
The first thing to learn about Will
Rogers is that he is canny and shrewd.
He will pursue bargain with q per-
sistence born of years of horse trading.
Like any other actor in Hollywood he
remakes scenes that do not prove as
good as expected.
Those who prepare the script for a
Rogers talkie write all the lines except
those Will is to speak. In his speeches
they indicate the plot action that must
be advanced by his dialogue. The
company gets up in its lines and then
Will proceeds to work.
Thinking Up His Movie Gags.
Will goes through the scenes and adds
what wise cracks he thinks will At in.
He does not remember lines word for
word, because he gets self-conscious
when he tries to remember set speeches.
Sometimes do think up q gag on
the spur of the moment" he says.
when do stick it in. II it's any
good they leave 1t. II 1t isn't they make
| me do 1t over"
The thing that occasions the long
delays in making win Rogers pictures
| is business, not temperament II dam
| is being opened in Utah, Will goes out
to look at it. If endurance flyers are
| spinning in Chicago, Will Is on hand to
Squint upward with the crowd. He
never has permitted the movies to
supersede in Importance his interest in
| himself as national critic and OBJ
server.
| He's travelling all the time. He talks
with Swede farmers in Minnesota and
| New Mexico.
He doesn't spend much time lettering
| in the congressional Offices of WASH
/ ington, but he spends great deal
listening to the straphangers of Kansas.
Have to Be Funny to Stay.
Most people think of me as a gag
funny to keep EN- listening and read
ing. But try to give EN- more than
gags. I'm just an ignorant fellow with
! out any education-so to speak-but I
try to know what I'm talkin' about. 1
! joke to the public, but do a lot of
studyin because although might hand
out robustness don't want to hand
out stuff that might be misleadin'.
When go to a national convention
1 have to know what they're talkin'
| about to know what's funny. I'm
travelin' all the time and I'm dom my
best to understand what see. I'm not
takin' sides, but I'm askin' questions.
II was just clown Borah and
Reed and Mellon and all those fellows
wouldn't take trouble to explain what
they're dr1vin' at to me. We joke, but
we have lot of serious conversation
They're always anxious to know what
the people I've been talkin' to are
thinkin' about. never worked harder
In my life than at that London Dis
armament Conference"
POking Fun at the Mighty.
you make pretty free with the
names of the great" 1t was suggested
| it?" s0' ~ "''li
III tell you how I get BY" he said.
i get by because I amt for ANYTHING
amt selling anything, I amt arguir1'
ior anything. amt got remedy for
nothin'. That's what puts me over.
II get on joke at the expense of
the Drys, they know I amt trying to
repeal prohibition. If think the VETS
| look funny, they know I amt eoin' to
say the country ought to be run by the
Antt-Saloon League the next minute.
I amt tryin' to cram anything down
the public's throat All I'm dom q
talkin Anybody that don't like it
don't have to listen to it. I tune OF
easily, an that's great comfort.
The minute man takes a side in
anything he's no humorist, he amt
even a philosopher. The country needs
somebody that's got enough tolerance
not to be for anything too much. Some
body that can see somethin' good in the
Vets without thinkin' all the Drys are
hypocrites. somebody who can see some
thin good in the Drys without sayin'
every Wet Is bum and q lost sinner.
Laughs at All Of 'em.
II amt anything I look at all of 'em
and laugh at all of 'em, but don't
advocate. I haven't hardly any poll
| tics. OF course, I do belong to the
Democratic party, but even the best Of
us has got to let a little cussedness
come out now and then"
| wills origins were obscure, but not
humble He was born In Oklahoma
when It was part of the Indian Terri
| tory. Rogers County, Okla, is named
after his family.
There is a strong Indian strain in
Rogers. His father was one-eighth and