Quote of the Day (Washington Irving, on Ichabod Crane)

“The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.” — American fiction writer, biographer and diplomat Washington Irving (1783-1859), “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” in The Complete Tales of Washington Irving, edited by Charles Neider (1975)

The image accompanying this post shows Will Rogers as Ichabod Crane and Lois Meredith as Katrina Van Tassel, in the 1922 silent film The Headless Horseman.

At five feet 11 inches, Rogers was not the beanpole imagined by Irving. But the lovable humorist was already well launched on a career that would make him one of Hollywood’s most highly paid stars before dying in a plane crash in 1935, so that made him a box-office draw.

Joke of the Day (Will Rogers, on Elections, ‘The Only Advertised and Known Calamity’)

“We have various pestilences every once in a while, but the only advertised and known calamity is our elections. It's just like an operation, the anesthetic is the worst part of it. It's these weeks of putting you under that is the trying part of an election.”—Comedian-actor-columnist Will Rogers (1879-1935), in Will Rogers' World: America's Foremost Political Humorist Comments on the 20’s and 30’s—and 80’s and 90’s, edited by Bryan and Frances Sterling (1993)

Somebody help me, please—wake me when this is all over!!!!

Joke of the Day (Will Rogers, With a Political Observation More True Than Ever)

“Politics has got so expensive that it takes a lot of money to even get beat with nowadays.”—American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935), Daily Telegrams, June 28, 1931

Joke of the Day (Will Rogers, on Rumor and Truth)

“Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth.”— American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935), “Politics Getting Ready to Jell,” The Illiterate Digest (1924)

Quote of the Day (Will Rogers, on Time)

“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”—Will Rogers, The New York Times, April 29, 1930

Time ran out for Will Rogers unexpectedly 80 years ago today, when he crashed in a small plane, along with pilot Wiley Post, near Point Barrow, Alaska. The body of the beloved 55-year-old comedian—the best-known American at the time besides President Franklin Roosevelt—was flown back to Los Angeles to be buried, before his remains were transferred, nine years later, to a memorial in Claremore, Okla.

Nobody has ever managed to take the place in American culture once occupied by Rogers. He might have started out as a cowboy, but before long his lassoing skills had earned him a place on the vaudeville circuit. That act came to include his humorous comments on life, American society and government. As early as 1918, he appeared in a silent movie—and he would make another 70 films, even being voted the most popular actor in Hollywood a year before his untimely death.

Even that wasn’t the extent of his fame. In the 1920s, the heyday of big-city newspapers gave rise to the syndicated column, and Rogers would end up writing 4,000 of them, collected in six books. Moreover, as Scott Simon noted in a piece on National Public Radio, he took advantage of a new medium—radio—to reach even more people. 

Who is like him today? Who has reached as many people, in so many different communication forms? 

Really, nobody. That occurred, in no small part, because listeners and readers sensed in him a comedian who, for all his sharp humor, was fundamentally without bile or party axes to grind, someone whose intelligence was fully matched by a generous heart. 

If he didn’t believe 100% in his most famous saying, he came closer to it than anyone else has since: "When I die, my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read: 'I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn't like.' "

Quote of the Day (Richard Brookhiser, on Humor at the Constitutional Convention—or Lack of It)

“A good joke always distracted [New York delegate Gouverneur] Morris. The one story about him that everyone knows is about a humorous bet. At the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Hamilton, a fellow delegate, offered to buy Morris dinner if he would go up to George Washington, president of the Convention, hero of the Revolution, and father of his country, slap him on the shoulder, and say, ‘My dear General, I am glad to see you looking so well.’ Morris slapped his slap and won his dinner, but said afterward that the look Washington gave him had been the worst moment of his life.”— Richard Brookhiser, “The Forgotten Founding Father,” City Journal, Spring 2002

Okay, even Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Jimmy Fallon would have a hard time loosening up ol’ George. But he was the indispensable presence at the Constitutional Convention, which, in Philadelphia on this date in 1787, after four months of debates, concluded with its 55 remaining delegates (some had dropped out, in opposition to the final product, already) signing the Constitution of the United States.

Gouverneur Morris, the convention’s wordsmith, wrote the clauses that would be cited for generations to come, and the Virginia delegate James Madison became known as the Father of the Constitution for the original plan that the delegates haggled over. 

But it was George Washington—so dignified, alas, that he was humorless, as poor Morris found out—who was the one everyone else framed the document around. He might not have wanted the job, but everyone knew that he would become the first President of the republic under this new plan to replace the Articles of Confederation. Would the new government be strong enough under him? The delegates debated, pondered—then voted accordingly.

I don’t think we need to be too upset about the lack of humor at the original proceedings, do you? The last 225 years have brought more than its share of levity from our nation’s representatives, even if they did so inadvertently. As Will Rogers remarked: “Things are terribly dull now. We won’t have any more serious comedy until Congress meets.”

Quote of the Day (Will Rogers, on Wall Street)

“This country is bigger than Wall Street. If they don’t believe it, show ’em the map.”—Attributed to humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Quote of the Day (Will Rogers, on How Elections Are Like Marriages)

"Elections are a good deal like marriages. There's no accounting for anyone's taste. Every time we see a bridegroom we wonder why she ever picked him, and it's the same with public officials."— Attributed to American humorist and man-of-all-media Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Quote of the Day (Will Rogers, on Politics as the ‘Best Show in America’)

"Politics is the best show in America. I love animals and I love politicians and I love to watch both of 'em play either back home in their native state or after they have been captured and sent to the zoo or to Washington."—Entertainer/columnist/film star Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Quote of the Day (Will Rogers, Anticipating Jon Stewart by Decades)

"Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."—American humorist and man-of-all media Will Rogers (1879-1935)