Monmouth County, the Final Resting
Place for a World-Renowned Clown
52 OCTOBER 2020 | TheJournalNJ.com
BY LORI DRAZ
Regardless of whatever side you’re on in this election year, everyone can
agree they love a good story, and you are about to hear a doozy! This
is the saga of Dan Rice, the most famous performer and presidential
candidate you’ve probably never heard of.
Every generation has its iconic performers – Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley,
the Beatles, Madonna – and in his day, that was Rice. He lived from 1823 to
1900, is the most famous person you’ve probably never heard of. He was
born in New York City. At 13, he delivered a horse to Pittsburgh. The diminu-
and began performing with a trained pig as a clown.
-
cus world's most popular act. The New York Times wrote that by the
multi-millionaire by today’s standards.
Rice did tricks with his trained animals and performed feats of
strength while dressed to the nines in spectacular costumes. He used
his snappy wit to exchange one-liners and political humor with his fans.
He sang, danced and dazzled audiences everywhere.
Rice was also fond of the fast life and lost his fortunes several times
to gambling and drink. He once lost everything but a single horse in
cash in the lion’s cage to avoid getting robbed. It was Rice who inspired
It is also said that Rice’s piercing gaze, signature goatee and his patriotic
star-spangled, red and white striped costumes and top hat were the
-
enced James Montgomery Flagg's Uncle Sam posters.
This toast of society also used his caravan for political campaigns.
In 1848, Rice led Zachary Taylor to victory when he invited him to literal-
launched his own presidential campaign for the Democrat party.
In 1853, he decided to settle in the small town of Girard, Pennsylvania.
The tight-knit townsfolk considered circus people riff raff, so Rice built
-
site English gardens. He hosted lavish balls and made big donations to
local charities. In his showy style, Dan Rice's Great Show arrived in Girard
via canal boats every October. Zebras,
giraffes, monkeys and polar bears paraded
down Main Street, followed by a
special performance exclusively for the
people of Girard before the animals
were settled in for the winter.
Rice and his crew used the
winter months to perfect the most
astounding training feats ever seen in
America: teaching an elephant to walk
and perhaps only, trained rhinoceros
in the United States.
Rice performed throughout the Civil
War, choosing not to pick sides because entertainment
is for everyone. Following the
war, the enormously generous Rice supported
widows from the North and South,
rebuilt churches and funded the nation's
So where does the story of such a
spectacular persona end? In West Long
Branch. After several lost fortunes, marriages
and deaths of some children, the
remaining family fractured. Dan Rice Jr. moved west. The senior Rice divorced
his third wife and his fortunes, as his health declined.
He ultimately moved in with a niece on Wall Street in West Long
Branch and lived out his days there, invisible from the world. The niece
was angry that a book she had published about Rice was not a bestseller,
so she refused to give Rice a headstone when he died in 1900. For 75
of royalty to regular people the world over, rested in complete obscurity.
The story goes that the long dead showman made one more performance
when Bell Telephone created a bill stuffer campaign honoring patriotic
Americans as part of a bicentennial celebration. One featured Rice,
suggesting again that he had been the inspiration for Uncle Sam. Those Bell
Telephone inserts started a fundraising drive, spearheaded by Rice's descen-
monument he gifted to Girard. It is a small stone, in the front right corner of
a family plot, deep in the heart of the Old First Methodist Cemetery. It reads:
Dan Rice
1823-1900
There are no other words to indicate
the incredible life the man laying
just feet below had lived.
While many in New Jersey don’t recall Rice’s name, the small town
of
Girard remembers. Each year they hold a multi-day festival in his honor,
complete with food, activities and, of course, a parade down Main
Street. The next Dan Rice Days festival is scheduled for Aug. 5 to 7, 2021,
but you can visit him any time you like at Old First Methodist Church.
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