Circus clown of George M. Cohan. He was also one of the main models for "Uncle Sam". With changes in circus and popular culture after the Civil War, his legendary talents under the big top have gradually slipped into almost total historical obscurity; biographer David Carlyon (2001) called him "the most famous man you've never heard of". While Dan Rice's talking and singing clown was taking America by storm, a new type of clown was emerging on the British pantomime stage, one that would have a more lasting influence on contemporary American circus clowning. George Lafayette Fox was America's first great "whiteface"
The Big Circus the show on the road. Hank conceives a bold scheme. He will scrap the route he had laid out, do one show in Buffalo, New York, and then slip into New York City three weeks before the Borman Brothers Circus, from whom the Whirling show had broken away, and steal the audience from their rival. But to make his plan work, Whirling needs a major publicity splash. Helen proposes a stunt last performed in the 19th century: walking across the gorge at Niagara Falls. Hank goads Zach into making the wire-walk by calling him a coward. Colino swears that first