Follies Star John Davidson visits Memorial

August 2004 Event CLAREMORE - It was de’ ja vu when John Davidson stepped inside the doors of Will Rogers Museum Sunday night.      “Don’t I remember you?” he asked Jim O’Donnell, retired Oologah teacher and museum greeter and guide.      Davidson was the honored guest at a Theatre Arts Production Company introduction of cast and crew of Tony-winning “The Will Rogers Follies A Life in Revue” opening Friday, Aug. 23, 2004 at Tulsa Community College Van Trease Performing Arts Center.      Davidson stars as Will in the Tulsa production. With the exception of Will and Cindy Baker as Mary Rogers, the cast of singers and dancers are local performers who auditioned for the opportunity to work with nationally recognized directors and celebrities.      Few people knew Davidson had been in Claremore seven years ago . Back then, O’Donnell didn’t know who he was until he was leaving with his gift shop purchases.      It was by accident or rather fate that he came to Claremore. Enroute from Branson to California to do Will Rogers, his car overheated on the turnpike. His car was towed to a mechanic.      “They said it would be about two hours before it was ready and offered me a loaner. When I asked what there was in the area to see, the Will Rogers Musuem was recommended,” said Davidson.      Jim O’Donnell was the first person he saw when he entered the museum and later in the gift shop.      “I bought opening night gifts for the whole cast,” he said, pleased with himself. “I bought the narrated video by Bob Hope and ‘Roping Fool.’ That’s how I learned to do the character.”      This will be Davidson’s third time to do Will Rogers. He did the original stage show in California and Phoenix.      The silver-haired star, perhaps best known as a game and variety show host, said he brings a different approach to the “Follies.”      Rather than starting out as a young man going through the ages, “I’m playing closer to when he died and looking back on his life,” he said.      “I like that. The last seven years of his life were the biggest in his career.”      The life and career of Oklahoma’s native son is set on the stage of the legendary “Ziegfeld Follies,” where Will appeared for many years.      Between rope tricks and costume changes, Will saunters around the stage doling out his old-fashioned common sense and songs “Never Man a Man I Didn’t Like: and “Give a Man Enough Rope.”      Dancing girls and wrangles were will wearing the elaborate costumes from the original Broadway production.      Will introduces the audience to his friends and family, his aviator friend Wiley Post and especially to Betty Blake, who became his wife.      The musical version of the death of Will and Wiley in Alaska, is an upbeat celebration of the folk hero and set to “Let’s Go Flying.”      The Broadway musical won six Tony Awards when it opened in 1991 at the Palace Theatre in New York. It played 982 performances on Broadway and was on national tour several times and now plays in many academic and community theaters.

Jim O'Donnell, Will Rogers Museum guide, greeted John Davidson when he visited the museum in 1997 — and Sunday night when the cast and crew of "Will Rogers Follies A Life in Revue" were here for a cast party to promote opening of the play at Tulsa Community College. Davidson plays in the leading role.

Hoytanna Benigar (from left) and Judy and Linda Eagleton are longtime John Davidson fans and attended the "Follies" cast party at Will Rogers Museum.

 

Coke Meyer, Will Rogers' great-niece, and Joe Carter, Will Rogers biographer and retired Will Rogers Memorial Commission executive director, join "Follies" star John Davidson as guests crowd around at a Will Rogers Museum cast party.

 

Joe Carter,Will Rogers biographer and retired Will Rogers Memorial Commission executive director; Coke Meyer, Will Rogers' great-niece; welcome John Davidson and Cindy Baker to the Will Rogers Museum. Davidson and Baker play the leading roles of Will and Betty Rogers in the Tulsa Theatre Arts Production of "Will Rogers Follies A Life in Revue."

 

It was a treat for a budding young Claremore musician Miranda McKool to meet "Follies" star John Davidson with her mother, Kim.

 

"Follies" star John Davidson and Jim Myer, whose mother Coke is Will Rogers' great-niece, share a story at a "Follies" cast and crew party.

 

John Davidson, "Follies" star, and Steve Gregert, who is working on the Will Rogers Papers, meet at a cast and crew party at the Will Rogers Museum.