Page 2 - lw3361

WILL

and

CHARLIE

By ARNOLD MARQUIS

Photos Courtesy Author

Will Charlie
Rogers Russell

If they were sitting across the room making sign talk today,
would it go something like this-"Who•d ever thought -we•d
both wind up drawin• four aces!"

MILLIONS of people paid to hear Will should gravitate to these affairs, for corner, sat Will Rogers. Charlie was mak-
Rogers talk-but when Charlie Rus- Charlie Lummis' background was like his ing Indian signs to Will. Neither was
sell talked, especially when he talked own. Both had come from the "East"- paying attention to the conversation.
about the Old West, Will Rogers sat Charlie Russell from St. Louis and Will's face. reflected his amusement as
silent and listened. Charlie Lummis from Massachusetts. he "read" what Charlie was "saying."
"No matter at what party or who was Charlie Lummis had walked from Cin- Unknown to both, Maude Allan, the
present," Will said, "no one would dare cinnati to Los Angeles, almost three dancer, was watching them from a van-
take up a minute of the time with any of thousand miles, every step of the way; tage point between. Charlie "said" some-
their stories. Everyone always wanted to He was a writer, editor, poet and biblio- thing in the sign language and Will
hear Charlie." phile and, like Charlie Russell, was smiled broadly and shook his head.
Charlie and Will were frequent guests dedicated to the Old West. He was stir- "Careful what you say, Charlie," said
at Charlie Lummis' famous "Saturday ring California and leading the move- Maude Allan. "You know I can read In-
Nights" at El Alisa!, the stone house that ment to save and restore the old Spanish dian sign language, too!"
Lummis had built with his own hands missions.
in a grove of sycamores along the The guests chatted easily as they W ILL AND CHARLIE were friends
Arroyo Seco near Pasadena, California. lounged around the patio and an Indian about twenty years. They drifted
Celebrities of all kinds gathered at these woman pre.pared the barbecue. At twi- and gravitated to each other like two of
affairs. Writers, painters, actors, editors light a Mexican trovador served the food a kind which, in many ways, they were.
and opera singers, scientists, cowboys, and sang as he served. Will Rogers loved But how they met is a little blurred.
dancers, foreign dignitaries, Indians, big to sing and, in a lyric tenor that was Will's wife, Betty, said they met when
people and little people, came to visit, almost falsetto, often joined the trova- Will played Great Falls in vaudeville.
exchange thoughts and often to enter- dor; and so did Leo Carrillo, especially Will started in vaudeville in 1905 at the
tain. when he sang the Spanish songs of old old Hammerstein Roof Garden in New
Late Saturday afternoons they gath- California. York. He played the circuits all over the
ered in the shade of the giant sycamore The conversation grew animated as country after that.
on the. patio, people like Schumann-Heink, night fell, but when the talk simmered But another account says they met on
Nicholas Murray Butler, Leo Carrillo, down. usually everyone. was listening to a train. Charlie and his wife, Nancy,
David Starr Jordan, Mary Garden. Wil- Charlie Russell-especially Will Rogers. were bound for New York to try their
liam Allen White, Harry Carey, William One Saturday mght, when conversa- luck, and so was Will. Being what they
S. Hart-and Charlie Russell and Will tion had droppe.d to a murmur, Charlie were-and Charlie, with his bright
Rogers. Russell was sitting in one corner, silent. sash, tight pants, boots and that low-
It was natural that Charlie Russell Cater-corner from him, in the opposite crowned Western hat-they could very
6 Frontier Times