Movies show daily

Tired of television talk shows and gloom and doom reruns amid temperatures soaring toward the triple digits? Get out of the house and spend a pleasant hour or so at the movies — old Will Rogers movies. Some of the more than 60 movies Will made before his Aug. 15, 1935 death in an Alaskan plane crash show every day in the cool comfort of the mini-theatre near the entrance of the Claremore Will Rogers useum. Movies in the mini-theatre change every day. “The Roping Fool” plays continuously in the smaller theatre closest to the rotunda and massive Jo Davidson bronze statue. Tour groups enjoy movies in the big theatre. “A number of Claremore and area residents as well as travelers come for the afternoon to revisit the museum and revisit old movie favorites,” said Michelle Lefebvre-Carter, Will Rogers Memorial Commission director. The museum is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Listed below are Will Rogers movies showing regularly: “They Had to See Paris,” with Will as Pike Peters, is about a garage owner in Claremore whose overnight oil wealth leads him to seek a life in Paris. “A Connecticut Yankee,” is a fantasy story with Will, a Connecticut radioman, called out to repair a faulty set. Knocked unconscious by a falling suit of armor, the master of the house thinks he is listening in on King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. “Ambassador Bill,” finds Will as Bill Harper, an Oklahoman, named ambassador to Sylvania, a country ruled by a boy king Will teaches to rope and play baseball. Joel McCrea, who made many visits to the Will Rogers Museum, played in “Business and Pleasure.” Again Will is cast as an Oklahoman, Earl Tinker, on his way to Syria to buy the secret of Damascus steel. McCrea was Lawrence Ogle, a playwright, who falls for the Tinker’s daughter, Olivia. Boris Karloff was the Sheik. “Down to Earth,” a sequel to “They Had to See Paris,” sees Pike cracking down on the spending of his social climber wife and spendthrift son as he brings his family “down to earth.” “Too Busy to Work,” is the story of a man searching for his wife and daughter who leave while Jubilo (Will) is away at war. His wife dies and his daughter is left with her foster father. ª“State Fair,” one of Will’s most popular movies, was set on the Iowa State Fairgrounds where the farmer and hog raiser is showing his prize Hampshire boar “Blue Boy” and his wife her pickles. Their son and daughter and Blue Boy find romance at the fair “Dr. Bull” was a physician in small town Connecticut dispensing medicine and advice — occasionally to ailing cows. It is mixed with romance and criminal allegations. “Mr. Skitch” starts on an auto tour with his family of six finally ending up in Hollywood. Will is a shrewd upstate New York banker in “David Harum.” After hours, he is a shrewd horsetrader feuding with the man who sold him a blind horse. Tables turn when he finds a balky horse has great powers as a trotter when sung to. Evelyn Venable Mohr, who visited the Will Rogers Museusm in the 70s, co-starred as romance developed between here and his teller. Will was cast as Andrew Yates, owner of a small town pharmacy in “Handy Andy.” He is lost after giving in to his social climbing wife and selling to a large chain — and spends his time in activities that create a stir in their life. In “Judge Priest,” Judge William “Billy” Priest fights for his professional life and the budding romance of his nephew. Director John Ford, in a book by Bryan and Frances Sterling, said Will never quit talking about Claremore and Ponca City and never kept to his script. As lawyer Jim Hackler in “The County Chairman,” he planned the campaign of his young law partner for county prosecutor against a crooked politician. Evelyn Venable Mohr (she later married this movie’s camerman) co starred as the daughter of the crooked politician and his nephew’s sweetheart. She visited Claremore and was a guest lecturer at Claremore Junior College about Will Rogers’ movie career. As “Doubting Thomas” Brown, Will was the manufacturer of Brown’s Breakfast Sausage and husband of Billie Burke, an aspiring actress. In “Steamboat Round the Bend,” as Dr, John Pearly, he had the cure-all of remedies (mostly pure alcohol) and traveled on the lower Mississippi. He had a collection of waxwork figures he planned to display aboard the riverboat Claremore Queen.He is involved in a steamboat race and powered by almost pure alcohol, the Claremore Queen wins and arrived in time to clear Will’s crew pilot in a murder case. As Steve Tapley “in Old Kentucky,” Will trains racehorses for a millionaires stable. He gets involved in a feud between his friend and bosses neighbor, who also raises horses, and in the middle of a romance between his friend’s daughter and a young veterinarian.