SOURCE: "David Crockett Goes to Washington, Will Rogers Stays Home," in Satiric Impersonations: From Aristophanes to the Guerrilla Girls, Southern Illinois University Press, 1994, pp. 34-45.

In the following excerpt, Schechter examines Rogers's use of satire in his writings and performance.

Long before a former Hollywood actor entered the White House, theater was inextricably linked to American politics by Congressman David Crockett. Crockett's collusion with his impersonators in the 1830s initially advanced his career and then harmed it. At the same time professional actor James Hackett popularized Crockett's persona in a stage play promoted by the Whig Party, the Congressman performed a lesser role assigned by the Whigs, as party celebrity. He was miscast in a road show that took him to New England dinners and to a Fourth of July celebration in Philadelphia, far from the electorate in Tennessee. The role cost Crockett his seat in Congress, which...