286

THREE GRINS FROM OKLAHOMA: BOB HARBISON, WILL ROGERS AND GEORGE COPELAND

Visiting Will RogersSoonersfind his home is America's mecca

ELL, FOLKS, I guess we justdidn't realize that there was somuch to be seen in two short

weeks between O . U . and Will Rogers .But then right there is where we missedour guess . We pulled out of here onebalmy Saturday afternoon last month, justone day before the terrible "jake" epidemicstruck everyone around Oklahoma, so Iguess that was why we were able tostand on our feet while we were gone .Really, though, it's surprising how manyschools expected to see the two boys fromOklahoma come to town on crutchesor with a walking cane .Anyhow it wasn't long until we were

well under way and as soon as we gotout of Kansas we began to enjoy thetrip . Along about noon Sunday therebegan to appear in the distance whatlooked like white clouds, but soon be-came the mighty Rockies . You know thoseRockies make you think of these squabbleswe have here in Oklahoma when we kickout a governor . They begin with prac-tically nothing and just keep growingand growing until pretty soon there isPike's Peak out there before you . Butanyway Pike's Peak in the winter time,I believe, is really majestic . The snowcovers the entire summit and makes itstand out above everything else, and you

By GEORGE COPELAND, '31

can still see it when all the other moun-tains fade away .

Well, along about dark we arrived inBoulder, and let me tell you, the atmos-phere up there is certainly "shocking ."Every time we would reach for the doorknob or go to turn on the lights or touchanything metallic, a long spark wouldreach out to greet us . Before we left, wegot to where we would flip a pickle tosee who would open the door . Anyway,after we convinced a group of Quakersin their own church that the world shouldcease fighting it seemed as though wewere quite successful .

So the next day we started through thatworld famous Royal Gorge . Somehowthings like that are impossible of descrip-tion . Down by the side of the train wasflowing, sometimes over rapids and againsmoothly, the river that had carved thatgreat monument to the glory of MotherNature . The train stopped and let usget out and look up and try to seethe top of the Gorge if we could . Afterabout two hours of traveling between thosetwo huge walls of vari-colored rocks,night found us getting higher and higheruntil soon we were way up in the snow .There was a beautiful moon that nightand as it illuminated the mountains andsnow all about us it seemed as though

THE SOONER MAGAZINE

PHOTOGRAPH BY VICE-PRESIDENT JEFFRIES OF THE UNION PACIFIC:

it would be folly to go to Alaska forsuch scenery .The next day at noon we pulled into

that famous city of many wives, Salt LakeCity . Bob warned me not to get hitchedup to a couple of wives, but I told himthat it wouldn't make any difference, be-

POLO IN THE OKLAHOMAMANNER

FOR MAY, 1930

WILL ROGERS' RANCH NEAR LOS ANGELES (IN THE BACKGROUND) ; CORRAL AT EXTREME LEFT

cause we would be in Reno, Nevada, thenext day, and I could easily get rid ofthem in no time . Well, we listened tosome guide telling us about the wondersout there and he seemed to think thegreatest wonder was how Brigham Youngever had so many wives and still did sowell . He took us by a little old fashioned

MR JEFFRIES AND FAMILYWITH WILL

power plant and explained that therewas where Brigham got all his power. Healso told us that there was enough coal inUtah to furnish the world for years tocome, and told him that there was enoughgas in Oklahoma that the world wouldn'tneed coal for years to come .But then we soon headed even farther

west when our trip took us on out acrossthe Great Salt Lake . I tell you I didn'tknow there could be so much salt waterin one place, without calling it an ocean.It is thirty miles across and by the timethe .train was in the middle all you could

see was water except the Rockies grad-ually fading in the west as the sun wassetting and casting a golden reflectionon their snow capped peaks. Before weknew it the next morning, we were in thatcity of "opportunity," Reno . The firstthing we visited was the divorce court.As soon as we walked in, the judge want-ed to know how long we had made ourresidence there, but finding that that was-n't our purpose, he offered to give us adivorce and place it on file for future use,if ever needed . They have a place outfrom town there that f understand MonteCarlo was modeled after. Fortunately wewere nearly broke, so the temptation totry the roulette wheel wasn't very strong .

287

Then the next morning caught us inStockton, California . At last we hadreached that state of sunshine . We pulledour coats up high around our necks andran through the rain and hail from thetrain to the station . While we were there,they showed us the canal which was castas the famous Mississippi river in the pic-ture, Show Boat .

VT the morrow was to bring thegreatest thrill, for then it was that

the small band of Sooners finally brokethrough to the Pacific coast . Our trainreached the ferry at San Francisco bayjust about dawn and we got off and

(Turn to page 293, please)

WHERE WILL WRITES HIS DAILY WISECRACK

FOR MAY, 1930

and Harold Hopping, March 15 in OklahomaCity. Home, 722 East Eighteenth Street, Okla-homa City .KEYS-ROLLOW: Miss Helen Keys, '29 arts-sc .,and Tom B. Rollow, ex '27, March 12 in Reno,Nevada .BATES-LARSH: Miss Bonnie Elizabeth Bates

and Kenneth Parker Larsh, ex '29, March 16 inOklahoma City. Home, Roff .

BIRTHSMr and Mrs John O. Beach of Norman an-

nounce the birth on March 28 of a daughter,Norma Jean . Mr Beach, secretary of the Okla-homa Geological Survey, is of the class of '23;Mrs Beach, formerly Miss Jessie Bullard, is ex'24.Ralph A. Beegle, '22 pharm, and Imogene

Steele Beegle, ex '22, a son, John Montgomery,"Jack," on March 17 . Home, 316 East Keith,Norman .James Eagleton, '24 arts-sc ., '25 law, and Mrs

Eagleton, a son, James jr., in March . Home, 128North Columbia Place, Tulsa.

Mrs Lucille Robberson Yeager, '28 ed ., andR. L. Yeager, a daughter, Hyla Sue, March 20 .Home, 230 West 15th, Amarillo, Texas.Mrs Margaret Harlow Elmore, '18 arts-sc.,

(M . A. '24) and LeRoy Elmore, '18 law, a son,Robert LeRoy, April 6. Home, 429 West Com-anche, Norman .

Cecil E. Oakes, '25 arts-sc ., and Mrs Oakes,a son, Cecil jr ., April 1 . Address, Paden, Okla-homa .Mrs Mary Ray Sexton, '20 arts-sc ., and L. 11 .

Sexton, a son, William Ernest, March 30 . Home,614 Delaware, Bartlesville.Herbert J . Heiman, '18 law, and Mrs Heiman,

a (laughter, Barbara Jane, March 29 . Home,605 West Thirty-fifth Street, Oklahoma City .Max C. Seton, ex '22, and Mrs Seton, a son,

Max Dell, March 24 . Address Pure oil com-pany, Seminole .

VISITING WILL ROGERS(Continued from page 287)

boarded it . As we were gliding softlythrough the water the sun rose and thereahead of us was the most, beautiful sightimaginable . The great city of San Fran-cisco stood out in bold relief in the morn-ing sun across the Bay. There we visitedthe well known Chinatown, the fisher-men's docks, the Japanese gardens, andfinally stood on that Sunday afternoonon the cliffs and viewed for our first timethe Golden Gate .Though the Golden Gate was beautiful

then, it was breath-taking the next after-noon, when, at sunset we sailed out ofthe San Francisco harbor and saw it dis-appear in the distance, painted a beauti-ful gold by the far reaching rays of thesun which was then drooping into thesea far to the west .The next afternoon after twenty-four

hours on the steamer, we sighted in thedistance, Wilmington, the outskirts of LosAngeles, and soon the boat was made fastat the dock and one hour later we were inthe midst of the great city of beauty .There you can find almost anything yourheart could desire . To the west is therolling ocean ; to the east rises a beautifulrange of mountains, some covered withsnow, and some as green as you will findin the Blue Ridge mountains of Vir-ginia. On further out there are desertsthat could not but please the loneliestArab. There are orange groves at the

MABEL BASSETT

Democratic Candidate For

STATE COMMISSIONER OFCHARITIES ANDCORRECTIONS

Will continue to give efficientconstructive service

SOONER ALUMNIPROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY

RAYMOND A. TOLBERT, '12Embry, Johnson & Tolbert,

Lawyers

1204 Perrine Building,Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

THE RECONSTRUCTIONHOSPITAL

For Diseases of Bones and JointsEarl D. McBride, M. D. '12717-723 North Robinson Street

Oklahoma City, Okla .

CARL H. KUNSEMULLER, '20Special Agent

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303 W. Symmes St .

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Write Business Manager,The Sooner Magazine

Union Building,Norman, Oklahoma

THE VILLAGRA BOOKSHOP,

Santa Fe, N. M., can supply thatbook you want . If it is an out-ofprint book we'll hunt for it .

993

B. RAY HUNTER, M. D. '21Physician and Surgeon

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Phone 3-1920

Oklahoma City

TOM F. CAREY, '08Certified Public Accountant

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Diseases of the heart and lungs

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294

foot of the mountains that, just looking atthem, you get so thirsty you want to"Whistle ."

But if we had been enjoying this tripso far, we were soon to receive the mostpleasant surprise of the entire jaunt. Aswe drove up to the University of Cali-fornia there debaters rushed out to tell ussome great news . They asked us whomdid we suppose was in the auditoriumwaiting to hear us . Well sir, when theytold us that Mr Will Rogers was there,I could hardly imagine such luck . Beforewe went on the platform, he came backto talk to us a little . You know I couldhave missed all the other thrills and stillthis one would have been enough to lastme for a long, long time to come . Wedidn't get to talk very long then, butwere to get to later. As he went backinto the audience, he told us he would callus at 8 :30 the next morning and wantedus to spend the day with him so he couldlearn something about this disarmamentstuff, since they didn't say much aboutit while he was in London .

Well, the next morning, right on time,the phone rang with the sweetest tone Iever heard. His wife was talking, andI'll tell you if she is as sweet as she sound-ed over the phone, Will Rogers will stillbe wealthy, even if he should becomefinancially bankrupt . She told us thatMr Rogers had gone on out to the newFox studio and wanted us to come on out

W. A. Pat MurphyDemocratic Candidate for

Commissioner of LaborSECOND TERM

Your Support Earnestly Solicited

as soon as we could. You can depend onit, we didn't stop to eat breakfast . Finallyafter arguing with the page at the gatefor about an hour, we convinced him thatwe were the persons Will had told himto let in . He pointed out the set wherethe next big picture of the year is beingproduced, So This Is London . We dashedon over there and came up breathlesslyto find Will acting before the camera .Maybe I should have said being naturalbefore the camera. Pretty soon he glancedover our way and noticed us standingoutside looking in, and as soon as theystopped shooting that scene he holleredout, "Howdy boys, come on in here .Don't be standing around out there.Come on in, pull up a couple of stoolsand sit down." Well after everybody hadlooked around to see to whom he wastalking, we strutted in, no longer bash-ful . They gave us chairs and put usright at the edge of the scene where wecould see everything. Then they wenton with the acting.

This particular scene they were shoot-ing at that time had as its setting alarge, dignified English home . Will, hiswife, his son and a young lady were justcoming in and Will's wife, Irene Rich,had just started up the stairs when theyoung lady remarked to Miss Rich some-thing about what a lovely time they weregoing to have when they had their "runwith the hounds ." Miss Rich remarkedwhat a beautiful place it was and at thatWill gazed all around the room out ofhis squint eyes and said, "I didn't haveany idea there was anything like this inEngland. I bet this is one of those placesthey brought over here from Long Island ."Then his wife and the young lady wenton upstairs and Will whispered to hisson, "What they got to be running aroundwith hounds for, ain't we good enoughfor them?"

Well, before long I nearly ruined agood scene. Will's son in this picturewas apologizing to him for runningaround after an English girl, and Willwhispered to him, "Aw, that's all rightson, when I was your age I followed aGypsy half way across Texas . In fact, Icame mighty near being a male fortuneteller ." Well, sir, just the way he putsthat one across would make any onelaugh and that's what I did, and almostgave the director hysterics, but it hap-pened not to be loud enough to be heardin the recorder .Then along came noon, and he says,

"Come on boys and lets go down to mycottage. I am supposed to meet the vice-president of the Union Pacific railroadin a few minutes ." We didn't refuse .But really, you should see that little cot-tage of his, made western fashion, andyou will find a picture of it accompanyingthis article . While we were waiting for'the vice-president, he sat down at histypewriter and told us to make ourselves'at home, while he wrote his article for

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the newspapers . Little did we realizethat he was writing about its .UT soon here came a great big blacl

Packard up to the cottage, and MRogers rushed out to greet a big-busineslooking man . He called us out and introduced us to Mr J. B. Jeffries, vice-president of the Union Pacific, and his wifand daughter . He told them we wera couple of boys from his home and soonwe felt like a member of the family . Hetook us all to some French cafe, wherthere were a lot of actors and actresseAs we walked in the entrance, I could heapeople turn and whisper, "there goes Wil

Re-Elect

JESSIE ELIZABETHMOORE

Democratic Candidate for

Clerk of the Supreme Courtand

Criminal Court of Appeals

of Oklahoma

Platform : Honest, EfficientService

A native born daughter of Oklahoma .

Elected Clerk Supreme Court andCriminal Court of Appeals November2nd, 1926, on the Democratic Ticket .

4' As Clerk of these two AppellateCourts I have tried to give courteous,efficient, impartial service to every oneand it is on this record I am asking,your support for re-election to thisoffice .

1' If nominated and elecced I pledge thesame faithful service in the future Ihave rendered in the past to thecitizens of Oklahoma .

296

Rogers ." You can imagine how import-ant Bob and I felt walking in such a placeunder those circumstances.While there, he pointed out several stars

to us . We saw Irene Rich, George O'Brienand several others that I can't remember .Then he took us all over to the set andtold the director he would be back in themorning and he put Bob and me in thefront seat of his car with him, the vice-president and family in the back seat, andwe were off to see Hollywood and every-thing there was to be seen . First heshowed us some old familiar sights . Heshowed us the famous castle he used inhis picture, They Had To See Paris. Thenwe saw the saloon that was used in theLone Star Ranger, right next to whichwas a "bank" that had been robbed moretimes than any bank in the United States .Then we saw the famous Alaskan moun-tain that was used in Lenore Ulric's pic-ture, Frozen Justice . They were just fix-ing to take it down . Then over in an-other part of the lot were the famous NewYork elevated railways, and so on in-definitely .

Soon he was taking us over throughBeverly Hills. He pointed out whereMary Pickford lives. He used to livenext door to her, and explained that Marydecided that she wanted another bathroom but didn't have the space, so he ex-plained that he had to tear down part ofhis home in order that Mary could haveanother bath. He told us how he had anarchitect come out and make a certainlittle change in his home and before theman finished he decided the whole housemust be torn down . Will said "The archi-tect found that the house was poorly putup . In fact, it was so poorly put up thatit cost me $15,000 to get it tore down."

DesksChairs

Black BoardsSchool Text Books

Laboratory FurniturePlayground Apparatus

Jasper SipesCompanyHERE SINCE '89

"STILL GROWING WITH THESTATE"

Oklahoma City

Phone LD 259

So he just sold the lots and is now livingin a residential hotel until he gets hisranch in good shape.

Well, next he took us to a polo fieldwhere he was looking for his boy, Bill .Bill wasn't there so Will decided to playa period or two of polo, and man, canhe play- He made those fellows outthere look sick when he showed themsome real Oklahoma cowboy riding . Whenhe had all he wanted of that he took uson out to his ranch which is close to theocean. But on his way out there he paseeda place that was literally covered withoil wells. He pointed it out and said,"You know, when I was looking aroundfor a place to fix a ranch, I decided thiswould be a good place. That was before

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"1 'H F: SOONER MAGAZINE

ARE YOU UN-DECIDED ASTO YO URLIFE'S WORK?ROGER BABSON says :"Next to the preachers, doctors,

and school teachers, probably nopersons do so much real good ashonest and competent insurancesalesmen . If I were a young manand for any reason could not bein the work I am now in, I wouldsell Life Insurance."

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FOR MAY, 1930

THESE OLD FRIENDSWERE HERE WHEN YOUATTENDED UNIVER-SITY . PATRONIZE

THEM

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NORMAN STEAMLAUNDRY

"If it's good to eat-We have it"

Phone 4

ELM STREET

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We fill prescriptions accurately

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Phone 298Main and CrawfordNorman, Okla .

at the sign of theGOLD HATCHETSPECIAL DINNERS

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they struck oil out here. Well my wifefound out that the last man who livedout there killed his self . So she decidedwe wouldn't take it . Now just look atit . Oil wells everywhere . If I could findwhere that man killed his self 1'd go outthere and do the same thing."

RETTY soon we came to his ranch,and, if you are ever in Los Angeles

don't fail to drive out and view this ranchfrom the highway. He has white fences allover it and that makes it stand out veryclearly . "There is everything out thereyou could possibly imagine on any ranch,and lots that you couldn't . He has threepolo fields in the finest condition. Hehas so many polo ponies I couldn't countthem all . There is a corral built in orderthat his boys can rope steers and goats.He explained, "I've got goats around inthese hills for the boys to rope, but I can'tever catch them to put them in the corralso the boys can rope them." Over a littlefurther there is a kind of a circus pa-vilion in which Jimmie, his youngest sonlearns to do riding tricks . Then we goto his cabin, and it is some cabin too.Hanging from the roof is a chandelier . It

hand organ, which he played for us, andit was real music. There were animalskins all over the walls, and bear skinrugs in the floor . Over by his mantle,which covers a great open fire place,hangs a picture of Benito Mussolini posingwith Will himself. Then on the otherside is a picture of Will and Lindbergh inan airplane . Will explained that theplace was so durable that the boys couldride their ponies in if they wanted to .Then we saw the guest cottage, in whichFred Stone stayed not long ago, and inwhich I expect to hear of a great numberof notables staying yet.

i'being nearly dark, I called Bob off

to one side and told him "Look here,Bob, you know you've been on that studentcouncil back at O. U. too long, and no-body will ever believe a word you saynow, so we had better get a picture of the`Great Triumvirate' for proof." So thevice-president of the Union Pacific becamethe photographer and we brought homethe evidence .

But of all we shall remember from thistrip, there will always be two things thatwill remain long after others are for-gotten, and that is the real Southern hos-pitality shown us by our friends, the Me-Kinnons of Oakland, and the fact that ifthere ever was a man who is truly greatin every sense of the word, that man isWill Rogers . He is a man who has akeen sense of understanding of humanbeings, a real love for his fellow man, aliving desire to cheer his people, and is,without a doubt, one of the smartest menwho ever lived .

299

THESE BUSINESS FIRMSWILL APPRECIATEYOUR PATRONAGE

GEORGE ORENBAUNPhone 491 121 E. Main

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is a big wagon wheel at the end of aNorman, Okla. chain. Where the hub fits is a light

globe. Then all around the wheel aresmaller lights . Over by the wall is a