Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard of

Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard of

Carlyon, David

Paperback

Entertainment & Performing Arts19th Century United States HistoryGeneral Drama

ISBN10: 1586482394
ISBN13: 9781586482398
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: May 1 2004
Pages: 528
Weight: 1.72
Height: 1.25 Width: 6.40 Depth: 8.96
Language: English
Dan Rice had many lives. He was a pig presenter, a strongman, a lecturer, and a comic singer, all before joining the dazzling world of the circus. In 1855, he created Dan Rice's Great Show. Labeling himself the Great American Humorist, he toured the country and spoke out on issues of the day before large crowds. Swept up in a new cult of celebrity, he rose to become one of the most famous-and infamous-men in America. He even ran for president. So why have so few people ever heard of Dan Rice? Propelled by an urge toward refinement, American amusements began to stratify in the mid-19th century. The raucous antebellum jumble of performers, audiences, and forms split along a new performance hierarchy of high and low. Circus, though still vastly popular, became seen as lowbrow. In that changed world, Rice's aggressive humor and robust connection with a noisy, participatory audience became seen as crude-and worse-a civic threat. David Carlyon weaves a remarkably rich portrait of turbulent times that raised one ambitious, creative man to glorious heights and then, embarrassed by its enthusiasm, buried him in sentimentality and finally oblivion.

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