(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

An Afternoon to Remember

During the years when the country was peaceful, many celebrities made the lecture and concert circuits for a reasonable fee. One of the unforgettable visits to town was that of the great American humorist, Will Rogers. His appearance and lecture in the auditorium of the local high school was sponsored by the Parkersburg Women’s Club. His fee was to be five-hundred dollars, and the audience was a sell-out.

The editor of the Parkersburg Morning News, Edward McGrail, offered us on the reportorial staff, a salary raise for the exclusive interview with the master of one-liners, the one who is supposed to have said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.”

The reporters were three young men and myself, a very young staff and good friends. It has been a long time ago, but one can still remember the loyalty we shared with our editor and among ourselves.

The morning Mr. Rogers was expected to arrive, the three men began their look-out for him at the railroad station, the bus station and the Chancellor Hotel parking lot. Walking alone on Market Street, I saw him. No ten-gallon hat; no western clothes; no riding boots. He was wearing a well-tailored suit and felt hat.

When Mr. Rogers reached the hotel he went in and headed for the first floor restaurant, myself close behind. He sat down on a stool before the fast food counter. I sat down next to him. We were the only two persons in the Tap Room and it was early for luncheon.

Mr. Rogers gave me a side-ways glance and asked, “What paper you with?” Then he said he would pay for my lunch, which I never could remember what it was, being so thrilled at my good luck!

Instead of my interviewing him, Mr. Rogers interviewed me. He asked many questions about our town, why a certain senator had thrown his hat into the Presidential race. I said my editor says it is to split the Republican Party.

Then Mr. Rogers wanted to know why a great Italian rayon mill had chosen Parkersburg for a large industrial plant called the American Viscose Company. I answered that my editor says it was because of our pure river water which they required. When he queried me what historic or picturesque attractions we had to offer tourists, I mentioned Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio River near Parkersburg. But, I added, it is just a wilderness where it was once a paradise with a mansion and extensive gardens on the upper end of the island. It has a sad story connected with it involving a wealthy couple who had fled from their own country and people because their marriage was incestuous; their involvement with a questionable land-prospector, Aaron Burr.

That evening during his lecture, Mr. Rogers used most of the stories I had told him about Parkersburg’s colorful past. People wondered how he could know so much about the river-town’s history, noble and some not so noble, such as the Ohio River island. Standing alone on the large stage, the great story-teller of the Old West, used his lariat with skillful designs, making wide circles or standing it straight with the air. He had us wide-eyed.

When news came over the radio [on August 15, 1935] that Mr. Rogers plane had crashed in the far frozen north [Alaska] and he and his pilot had been killed, I felt the loss of a good friend. After all, I had spent an afternoon with him. I received a salary increase of two dollars and fifty cents a week for my interview. I had been receiving twenty dollars a week. The other reporters congratulated me. There was never any jealousy.

Excerpt from an undated story by a reporter for The Parkersburg Morning News. Mr. Rogers was probably in Parkersburg in the mid-1920s.

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.