From Olathe to the Oscars: The story of Buddy Rogers, Johnson County’s first movie star
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Hollywood star Charles "Buddy" Rogers grew up in Olathe delivering newspapers. During his childhood, Rogers got his entertainment start in D.R. Ott’s Boy Band as a baritone.
Long before he became a Hollywood star, Charles “Buddy” Rogers was an Olathe hometown boy who delivered newspapers and performed as a youngster in a community band.
He frequently went to the movies at the downtown Gem Theatre, which opened in 1926. Rogers often got in for free because he would deliver movie posters on his paper route.
Buddy Rogers had no visions about becoming an actor. He wanted a career as a band leader. He did both.
It has been 40 years since Charles Edward Rogers was honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He received the award for his philanthropic work and his contributions to the film industry during the 58th Academy Awards. He never received an acting Oscar in his 31-year career on the silver screen, but it didn’t seem to matter back home where the local star was born.
Raised in Olathe, Rogers delivered the daily Kansas City Star and the weekly Olathe Mirror on Wednesdays. His father, Bert, was editor of the weekly newspaper for 20 years before being elected probate judge and becoming known as the marrying judge in the 1930s.
His sister gave Rogers the nickname “Buddy” in childhood, which became his professional moniker.
According to Johnson County Museum’s collections, Rogers was one of the early members of D.R. Ott’s Boy Band in 1913 as a baritone. He credited the band for giving him a start in the entertainment field.
After graduating from Olathe High School, he attended the University of Kansas, planning to be a band leader.
Although Rogers had no early interest in acting while at KU, his father persuaded him to enter a Paramount Pictures contest seeking 10 young men and 10 young women to train as actors.
“I did it for Dad. I didn't have any talent. I had no feeling for it. But I did make the test, and a couple of weeks later I received a telegram to come to New York,” he told the Los Angeles Times in his interview.
Rogers takes off in Hollywood with “Wings”
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Rogers (left) starred in "Wings" along with Clara Bow (bottom right), Richard Arlen and Gary Cooper. The film was a box office success and received the first Academy Award for Best Picture.
After initial training in New York, Rogers moved to Hollywood. His first acting role was in 1926. Buddy Rogers went on to appear in more than 40 movies, both silent and “talkies,” but none was as memorable in his leading role in “Wings” in 1927.
“Wings” is a 2 1/2-hour World War I-based film starring Rogers, Clara Bow and Richard Arlen and introduced an acting novice named Gary Cooper.
In a 1987 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Buddy Rogers said he had to learn to fly a biplane in the making of “Wings.” All the aerial sequences in the movie were shot without faking, resulting in groundbreaking war action scenes for its time.
Rogers was taught flying skills by a young Army pilot named Hoyt “Van” Vandenberg, later to be a four-star general in World War II. Vandenberg would climb into the biplane, with an open cockpit and two seats, and get the plane aloft. Then “Van” would duck down in the rear seat so filming could begin.
“Before I learned to fly solo, they would strap a camera on the front of the engine cowling. A second lieutenant called Van would take me up and then get down in his back seat so he couldn't be seen and I'd take the stick – now I was the actor, the director and the cameraman,” Rogers explained in the interview.
“Wings” was a box office success. It earned approximately $3.8 million in rentals in the U.S. and Canada. That’s about $71 million in 2026 dollars. For his leading role in “Wings,” Buddy Rogers was paid $65-$75 (about $1,200-$1,400 in 2026 dollars) per week by Paramount Pictures. After release of the film, Rogers said he was inundated with fan mail – reportedly 20,000 letters a month.
The film also was awarded the first Academy Award for Best Picture, at that time known as the “Academy Award for Outstanding Picture,” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award ceremony in 1929. “Wings” is the only fully silent film to ever receive the award.
“Wings” also received the academy’s first award for Engineering Effects, which became the Best Visual Effects Oscar in 1939.
“America’s Boyfriend” goes down in history
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After "Wings," Rogers starred in "My Best Girl" in 1927 with Mary Pickford (top left), and the two would marry in 1937. Rogers' legacy live on at the Buddy Rogers Family Playhouse, home of the Olathe Civic Theatre Association.
“Wings” also introduced Rogers to screen legend Mary Pickford, who asked Rogers to screen test for her next silent film, “My Best Girl,” also in 1927. He won a leading male role in the movie, resulting in a relationship during filming and afterward. At the time, Pickford was still married to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and involved in a prolonged divorce process.
By their popular nicknames, it was a good match. Pickford was known as “America’s Sweetheart.” During the peak of his popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Buddy Rogers was dubbed “America’s Boyfriend” because he was so well liked and considered handsome.
They were married in 1937 and remained married for 42 years until Pickford’s death in 1979 at age 86.
Buddy Rogers devoted most of the 1930s to music. According to Johnson County Museum, Buddy Rogers had a bandshell built in 1939 to honor D.R. Ott, his early musical mentor. The bandshell was demolished in 1950 for construction of a new courthouse that opened in 1952. The courthouse was razed in 2021 after opening of the current courthouse.
During World War II, Rogers served in the U.S. Navy as a flight training instructor. During the Korean War, he entertained the troops with his band.
Buddy Rogers retired from acting in 1957. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 141 Hollywood Blvd. in 1960.
The Buddy Rogers Family Playhouse, 500 E. Loula, is home to the Olathe Civic Theatre Association. It was named for Buddy Rogers in 1977 after he helped the organization acquire the building, a former 1870s church. Buddy Awards are presented during OCTA’s annual award ceremony.
Over the years, Rogers returned to his hometown for occasional visits, including Olathe’s centennial in 1957 and Old Settlers celebration in 1983. His wife often accompanied him.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1985, he talked about receiving “a shiny key to the city” and being honored “as a local lad made good.” Buddy Rogers called it a thrill, marveling at how Olathe has changed since his days at performing with the Ott’s Band and delivering his father’s weekly newspapers.
“What differences!” he explained. “Three thousand population when I was a boy, 80,000 now. Kansas City has reached right out to it and made it a suburb."
Charles “Buddy” Rogers died on April 21, 1999, in his home at Rancho Mirage, California. He was 94.