Harvard Theatre Collection viaWikimedia// Public Domain
Lately , if you mention clowns , people think ofcreepy merry andrew sightingsor perhaps various political cause . But in the mid-1800s , if you articulate buffoon and politics in the same time , everyone who see you would think of Dan Rice .
Rice was arguably themost noted entertainerin America in the latter one-half of the 19th century . Born in New York in 1823 , he became a buffoon , a comedian , an acrobat , a strongman , an animal trainer , a singer , a professional dancer , an promoter , a political observer , and an episodic political candidate during his lifespan . He was so far-famed that some cogitate his trademark look — goatee , striped pant or formal lawsuit with a top hat — may have beenone of the model for Uncle Sam’simage ( although some evidence also exists to show that Uncle Sam foredate Rice ) .
In Rice ’s day , the American circus was in its infancy . In the early 1800s the circus was frequently an animal show , usually pore on equestrian number . When Rice started in show business sector in the 1840s , he salute trained brute acts , include " Sybil , the Learned Pig ” ( also recognize asLord Byron ) and later his trained sawhorse Excelsior . At one point , he even presented a trained rhinoceros and an elephant who could walk across a tightrope . But Rice also elaborate from the canonic brute show to impart more acrobats and the clowns that we expect in a circus today , helping to give the carnival something of its innovative form .
As Rice ’s circuses became famous , they toured all over the country , by wagon in the East and by sauceboat in the South . When winter came , he move his show into cities and indoors into theaters , sometimes drawing 1000 . The genus Circus of the 1800s was not for kids , and Rice ’s show were wild and woolly-headed affairs . Performances featured lots of ladies in taut , lean dress and double entendres ( or even all - out dirty jokes ) flying around the band . If a competitiveness did n’t fall apart out during a public presentation or exterior of the tent , it was notable . According to legend , the ecphonesis “ Hey , Rube!”—a cry used for decades by genus Circus roustabout and carnies to call for assist whenever a fight erupt out — was ground on the sentence a member of Dan Rice ’s troupe was catch up with in a fighting in New Orleans and yelled for helper to his friend Reuben .
But it was his clowning and commentary that made Rice most illustrious ; to a modern audience , Rice ’s act would resemble a abide - up comedy show . He stood in the nerve center closed chain — at first with one of his animals and subsequently by himself — and emitted a unremitting stream of comical line of gab . ( Think Robin Williams at his fastest and Jon Stewart at his most political . ) He would remark on anything and everything , and exchanged speedy - flak quips with audience members .
As America ’s halfway class grew and set out looking for respectability , Rice bit by bit start out billing his productions more often as shows instead of Circus ( by then , circuses were seen as lowbrow amusement ) . He also begin to call himself “ the Great American Humorist . ” One of his key signature acts was to perform witty parodies of Shakespeare ’s plays .
Rice was call for in politics during most of this biography , mostly as a reviewer , but also sometimes as a campaigner . As the Civil War come on , Rice ’s political leanings — and his commentary — move toward the Democrats and off from abolition and the raw Republican Party . This was a position that he continued to hold during the warfare . He ran for the state senate in Pennsylvania as a Democrat in 1864 , but lost the election . In 1868 , he made a serious runnel for president , but withdrew from the crusade when he realized that he was unlikely to win . After the Civil War , there were stories that Rice had run short to the White House during the fight to severalize jokes and jolly along up Lincoln — but these are believably tales Rice himself circulate around .
Rice ’s personal fortune take a variety of twists and twist . He got rich , then lost his money several prison term over . after in life sentence , he became an lush and died broke in 1900 in Long Branch , New Jersey . But his memory live on : The town of Girard , Pennsylvania , where Rice made his home and wintertime headquarters for many years , still holds Dan Rice Days every summertime to observe his bequest .
