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Dan Rice (January 23, 1823 – February 22, 1900), was an American entertainer of many talents, most famously as a clown, who was pre-eminent before the Civil War. During the height of his career Rice was more of a household name than Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain. Coining the terms "One Horse Show" and "Greatest Show", he was a leading personality in the new American "pop culture", brought on by the technological changes of the Industrial Revolution and resultant mass culture. Rice became so popular he ran for President of the United States in 1868. With changes in circus venues and popular culture after the Civil War, his legendary talents under the big top have gradually slipped into almost total historical obscurity such that in 2001, biographer David Carlyon called him "the most famous man you've never heard of". Image File history File links Size of this preview: 448 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (780 × 1044 pixel, file size: 203 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Portrait of Dan Rice circa 1840s. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 448 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (780 × 1044 pixel, file size: 203 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Portrait of Dan Rice circa 1840s. ...
L’Atelier de lartiste. ...
January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1823 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
February 22 is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Biography
Born Daniel McLaren in New York City, Rice gained 19th century fame with many talents, most of which involved him gallivanting around as a clown figure in circuses. In addition to his 'clowning' talents, he was an animal trainer, song writer, commentator, political humorist, strong man, actor, director, producer, dancer, and politician. He ran for Senate, Congress, and President of the United States - dropping out of each race. Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area...
Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The presidential seal was first used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ...
He changed the circus into what it is today by mixing animals, acrobats and clowns. His first break came in 1841 when he got a job of presenting a pig named Sybil who could do many tricks including the ability to tell time. From there he moved on to singing and dancing and got caught up in the popularity of the 'negro song', singing in blackface. He was said to sometimes go too far and make the song coarse. Gaining fame and popularity he changed styles once again he starred in various parodies of works by William Shakespeare, including that of "Dan Rice's Version of Othello" and "Dan Rice's Multifarious Account of Shakespeare's Hamlet" He would perform these with various songs and dialects showing just how versatile he was. "Rice was not simply funnier than other clowns; he was different, mingling jokes, solemn thoughts, civic observations, and songs." (Carlyon, 125). 1841 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co. ...
Parody of Back to the Future In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ...
Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...
Title page of the first quarto edition of Othello, published in 1622 The Tragœdy of Othello, The Moore of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare written around 1603. ...
Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, and is one of his best-known and most-quoted plays. ...
Expanding his horizons he went into producing his own shows and often had more than one tour going on at the same time. He wanted to move on from his frivolous clowning and reinvented himself into a gentleman. He started to take up politics and would often have Democratic undertones in his shows. He was then regarded as not only a multi-talented performer, but a smart and noble man who was to be looked up to. He won the affection of many newspapers and publicists including that of a then unknown Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. Mark Twain paid him homage in his description of a circus in Huckleberry Finn, and it is likely a boyhood Twain actually saw Rice perform when his circus came to Hannibal for a show. The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States; the other being the Republican Party. ...
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer. ...
Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ...
Huckleberry Finn is the protagonist of Mark Twains famous book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. ...
His shows became more famous than any of the other shows touring at the time including that of rival, Phineas Taylor Barnum. During the 19th century, his name was synonymous with theater. At a time, Dan Rice was more of a household name than Abraham Lincoln. He reinvented the theater into a vaudevillian style before there was vaudeville. He was a very patriotic person later influencing the likes of George M. Cohan. He was also one of the main models for "Uncle Sam". Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891), American showman who is best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the circus that eventually became Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. ...
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809—April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States (March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865). ...
Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ...
George M. Cohan George Michael Cohan (July 3 or July 4, 1878 – November 5, 1942) was a United States entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, director, and producer of Irish descent. ...
J. M. Flaggs 1917 , based on the original British Lord Kitchener poster of three years earlier, was used to recruit soldiers for both World War I and World War II. Flagg used a modified version of his own face for Uncle Sam, and veteran Walter Botts provided the pose. ...
Expressions A number of popular expressions came into being around Dan Rice. - He campaigned for Zachary Taylor as president, inviting him to campaign on the circus bandwagon, whence the expression "to jump on the bandwagon."
- Early in his career he was down on his luck and only had one horse (in early circuses the core show was a horse show) - his competitors mocked him saying it was a "one horse show" as a derogatory - he was able to turn the expression around by putting on a good show, and it became famously attached to him for the rest of his life.
- The rallying cry of "Hey, Rube!" - later transformed into a noun - originated in New Orleans in 1848 when a member of Rice's troupe was attacked by a mob and he yelled to his friend Reuben "Hey, Rube!" - it is most commonly known today in the circus world as a "Hey, Rube" meaning "come help in this fight".
- Decades before other circuses used the phrase, an Arkansas paper praised Rice's as "The Greatest Show on Earth."
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States. ...
Bandwagon may refer to: any of several observable copycat behaviours, as used in the phrase to jump on the bandwagon; see bandwagon effect and bandwagon fallacy. ...
Hey, Rube! is a circus slang term most commonly used in the United States with origins in the middle 19th century. ...
The greatest show on earth may refer to: Dan Rices circus (1830s-1860s) was first described by an Arkansas paper as the greatest show on earth. ...
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