Travel
From about 1925 to 1928, Rogers traveled the length and breadth of the United States in a "lecture tour". (He began his lectures by pointing out that "A humorist entertains, and a lecturer annoys.") During this time he became the first civilian to fly from coast to coast with pilots flying the mail in early air mail flights. The National Press Club dubbed him "Ambassador at Large of the United States." He visited Mexico City, along with Charles Lindbergh, as a guest of U.S. Ambassador Dwight Morrow. Rogers gave numerous after-dinner speeches, became a popular convention speaker, and gave dozens of benefits for victims of floods, droughts, or earthquakes.
He made a trip to the Orient in 1931 and to Central and South America the following year. In 1934, he made a globe-girdling tour and returned to play the lead in Eugene O'Neill's stage play Ah, Wilderness! He had tentatively agreed to go on loan from Fox to MGM to star in the 1935 movie version of the play; however, his concern over a fan's reaction to the 'facts-of-life' talk between his character and its son caused him to decline the role—and that freed up his schedule allowing him to fly with Wiley Post that summer.
Read more about this topic: Will Rogers
Famous quotes containing the word travel:
“Ours is the century of enforced travel ... of disappearances. The century of people helplessly seeing others, who were close to them, disappear over the horizon.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“We can travel longer, night and day, without losing our spirits than almost any persons we ever met.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)