Circle Cinema plays Lightnin’

Todd Vradenburg, Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation executive director, and Stephanie LeFevers, Circle Cinema Foundation executive director

A medallion in honor of Will Rogers has been installed at Circle Cinema in Tulsa, an historic movie theater built in Will’s movie heyday. The medallion was dedicated with the showing of “Lightnin’” by special permission of Twentieth Century Fox. Todd Vradenburg, Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation executive director, helped make arrangements for the showing and attended the event as well as other Will Rogers Days activities.

The movie premiered in 1930 and co-starred Joel McCrea. Will Rogers' grandson, Kem; great-granddaughter Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry; and McCrea’s grandson Wyatt were at the program and talked about their family’s history in the movies.

Will Rogers and Joel McCrea in “lightning.”

Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry, Wyatt McCrea and Kem Rogers answer questions about the movie careers of their grandfathers.

It is largely through efforts of Kem Rogers and his two siblings that Fox has released some of Will’s movies. Etcheverry and Wyatt McCrea are involved in the Will Rogers Ranch in California. He serves on the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Museum in Oklahoma City.

Wyatt is the son of Dave McCrea, the middle of three sons of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee. He lives on his grandfather’s ranch in California, a property which Will encouraged Joel to buy. They also played again together in “Business and Pleasure.”

Similar to the Walk of Fame in California, Will’s name is engraved with the theater medallion on the walkway to the theater, which opened in 1928, according to Stephanie LeFevers, Circle Cinema Foundation executive director.

Will Rogers starred in 21 Twentieth Century Fox movies and was the star of 50 silent films.

“Ambassador Bill” played on Fox Movie Theatre cable channel on Nov. 4, the anniversary of Will Rogers' birth.

Filmed at Lake Tahoe in Nevada, Will as Bill Jones was nicknamed “Lightnin’” because of his lack of speed when asked to perform physical labor. McCrea played lawyer John Marvin, who became involved when Mrs. Jones was about to be the victim of a scam involving sale of her hotel on the state line, half in California, and half in Nevada.

It was the first time for Will and McCrea to meet and a friendship started that lasted a lifetime and into a third generation. Joel McCrea and his wife, Frances Dee, visited the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore many times. His sons said all his life he talked about Will Rogers. Their fondest memories are of the movie “Lightnin.’”

After several years of non-operation, Circle Cinema reopened in 2004 as a
non-profit movie theatre and film arts organization with a mission of
creating community consciousness through film. It shows documentaries,
independent, foreign-language and locally produced films as well as classics and educational programs for school children. Circle Cinema also offers
public education programming.

The second phase of work on the original Circle Cinema is in process,
LaFevers said.