This epigram sums up what people saw in Will Rogers — honesty, plain-spokenness, and decency. Rogers’ shy grin and aw-shucks manner were the heart of his charm, propelling him from a vaudeville cowboy act to stardom in the Ziegfeld Follies, movies, newspapers, and radio where he would gently lampoon everything. “All I know is what I read in the newspapers,” he said.