Dan Marble

{{short description|American actor}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}

File:Portrait of Dan Marble (02).png

Danforth Marble (April 27, 1810 – May 13, 1849) was an American comedic actor who gained great popularity playing "Yankee" roles in the 1830s and 1840s.

Marble was born in East Windsor, Connecticut and made his stage debut in 1831 at Chatham Garden Theatre in New York, playing the role of Rollin Roughhead in Fortune's Frolic by John Till Allingham.

Dan Marble was famous for his portrayal of the character "Sam Patch",{{Cite news|last=Clapp |first=J. B. |date=December 17, 1897 |title=Edward Marble - Some Account of a Popular Song-Writer, Actor and Playwright |newspaper=Boston Evening Transcript |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2249&dat=18971217&id=MIs-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=5FkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3224,5253191 }} the famous daredevil jumper. He developed the role starting in 1836, and first played Sam Patch at the Eighth Street Theatre in Buffalo, New York, where Patch's successful jump at nearby Niagara Falls in 1829 had made him a local legend.{{Cite news|last=Dorson |first=Richard M. |date=August 4, 1968 |title=The Wonderful Leaps of Sam Patch |newspaper=The Shreeveport Times |page=6F |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times/69589005/ }} Marble went on to star in a number of "Sam Patch" plays throughout the United States. In his role as Sam Patch he would leap forty feet over a simulated Niagara Falls into a mock raging river.{{Cite news|last=Mappen |first=Marc |date=August 9, 1992 |title=Jerseyana |newspaper=The New York Times |page=section 13NJ, page 13 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/09/nyregion/jerseyana.html }} In 1845, he went to England, where he performed on the Strand as the classic Yankee 'Deuteronomy Dutiful'.{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Marble, Danforth |year=1872 |editor-last=Drake |editor-first=Francis Samuel |encyclopedia=Dictionary of American Biography, Including Men of the Time |page=596 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCzVObgYt_cC&pg=PA596 }}{{Cite journal|last=Flanagan |first=John T. |year=1963 |title=The Folk Hero in Modern American Drama |journal=Modern Drama |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=402–416 |doi=10.1353/mdr.1963.0030 }} He returned to America in 1845.

Marble died of cholera in Louisville, Kentucky on May 13, 1849.{{Cite book|last=Berg |first=Albert Ellery |year=1884 |title=The drama, painting, poetry, and song |location=New York |publisher=P. F. Collier |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5tNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA292 292] |oclc=1160365247 }} Humorist Jonathan Falconbridge Kelly wrote a biography of Marble which was published in 1851.{{Cite book|last=Kelly |first=Jonathan Falconbridge |year=1851 |title=Dan. Marble : a biographical sketch of that famous and diverting humorist ; with reminiscences, comicalities, anecdotes |location=New York |publisher=Dewitt & Davenport |oclc=191320928 }}

File:Graves of Danforth Marble (1810–1849) and Anna Warren Marble (1815–1872) at Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.jpg

Marble married Anna Warren (1815–1872) of Philadelphia, an actress and daughter of actor William Warren (1767-1832), on November 13, 1836.[https://books.google.com/books?id=5A4EHRa1dfcC&pg=PA76 A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800: W. West to Zwingman...], p. 76 (1993) Their son Edward Marble was an actor and songwriter.(September 21, 1900). [https://books.google.com/books?id=1CATAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA8 Edward Marble (obituary)], The Lafayette, Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 8 Their daughter, Mary Marble, married the actor Samuel Meyers in Chicago in 1855, and acted for many years at McVicker's Theater in that city.Louisville (KY) Daily Democrat, May 21, 1855, p. 4.[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t8hd80d82&view=1up&seq=407 Sherman, Robert L. (1947) The Chicago Stage, its records and achievements, Chicago: Robert L. Sherman, page 391.]

Dan and Anna are buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.