Dan Rice The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of
Description:... "So what happened? Why have so few people heard of Dan Rice? Rice rose to prominence because he was supremely adept at engaging audiences in what was then a bubbling public stew of participation. Circus, theater, minstrelsy, and lectures overlapped with politics, and crowds roared out with their boisterous opinions. Rice took that energy and tossed it back, dazzling audiences. But polite society, propelled by a vague urge of "refinement," increasingly deemed robust amusements inappropriate. The raucous antebellum blend of performers and audiences and forms began to split along a new performance hierarchy of high and low. Though Rice had pitched refinement too, circus was soon seen as essentially lowbrow, good only for children, simple jokes, and nostalgia.
Show description