The Show Business

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Related Books:


The Showman and the Slave: Race, Death, and Memory in Barnum's America
(Benjamin Reiss)

The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top
(Janet M. Davis)

Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of
(David Carlyon)
The Circus Age
07.06.2003
 (was 06.02.2002)

Have you ever heard of Dan Rice?  Probably not.  But if you were alive around the middle of the nineteenth century chances are you would know his name.  That’s when Dan Rice made his mark in “the show business.”  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the life and times of Dan Rice.  And the controversy over the use of animals in circuses.

  1. Todd Robbins on Sideshow Tricks

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    Todd Robbins, “The Coney Island Wonder Worker,” talks with Anne Strainchamps about how he learned how to safely swallow swords and walk on hot coals.

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  2. Benjamin Reiss on P.T. Barnum

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    Benjamin Reiss tells Steve Paulson how P.T. Barnum got his start: exhibiting an elderly Black woman who claimed to be 161 years old and George Washington’s nanny.

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  3. Janet Davis on Animals in the Circus

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    Janet Davis tells Steve Paulson that controversy has surrounded the use of animals in the American circus since the 1890s.

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  4. David Carlyon on Dan Rice

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    David Carlyon tells Jim Fleming that Rice was once considered America’s greatest humorist. He was a talking clown, doing satiric commentary on current events.

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