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 East Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 11,190 at the 2020 census. The town has five villages: Broad Brook, Melrose, Scantic, Warehouse Point and Windsorville. History In 1633, Settlers laid cl ...

and made his stage debut in 1831 at

Chatham Garden Theatre The Chatham Garden Theatre or Chatham Theatre was a playhouse in the Chatham Gardens of New York City. It was located on the north side of Chatham Street on Park Row between Pearl and Duane streets in lower Manhattan. The grounds ran through ...

in New York, playing the role of Rollin Roughhead in ''Fortune's Frolic'' by

John Till Allingham John Till Allingham ( – 28 February 1812)John Till Allingham in the ''England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970'' was an English dramatist. Life Allingham was the son of a wine merchant in the City of London. He w ...

. Marble had great success playing the role of famous daredevil jumper

Sam Patch Sam Patch (1799Johnson, Paul. ''Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper'' (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003) . – November 13, 1829), known as "The Jersey Jumper", "The Daring Yankee", or the "Yankee Leaper" became the first famous American daredevil after su ...

starting in 1836. He first played the role at the Eighth Street Theatre in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, where Patch's successful jump at nearby

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

in 1829 made him a local legend. Marble went on to star in a number of "Sam Patch" plays throughout the United States. He also went to England to perform in September 1844, returning to America in 1845. Marble died of cholera in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

on May 13, 1849.Berg, Albert Ellery
The drama, painting, poetry, and song
p. 292 (1884) Humorist

Jonathan Falconbridge Kelly Jonathan Falconbridge Kelley (August 14, 1817 - July 21, 1855?) was an American journalist and humorist. He published under a number of pseudonyms, including "Falconbridge", "Jack Humphries", "O.K.", "Cerro Gordo", and "J.F.K." Kelley was born i ...

wrote a biography of Marble which was published in 1851. Marble married Anna Warren (1815–72) of Philadelphia, an actress and daughter of actor William Warren (1767-1832), on November 13, 1836.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.(17 December 1897)
Edward Marble - Some Account of a Popular Song-Writer, Actor and Playwright
''

Boston Evening Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. Beginnings ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of D ...

''(21 September 1900)
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 McVicker's Theater (1857–1984) was a playhouse in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built for actor James Hubert McVicker, the theater was the leading stage for comedic plays in Chicago's early years. It often hosted performances by Edwin Boot ...

in that city.Robert L. Sherman, ''The Chicago Stage, its records and achievements'', Chicago: Robert L. Sherman, 1947.
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Selected performances

*''Sam Patch the Yankee Jumper''(1836, New York debut in 1837) *''Sam Patch at Home'' *''Sam Patch in France'' *''Sam Patch the Jumper'' (1844) *''Vermont Wool Dealer'' (1838) (play by Cornelius Ambrosius Logan) (Marble played the Yankee role of "Deuteronomy Dutiful") *''Yankee Land'' (1842) (play by Logan) *''The Game Cock of the Wilderness'' (1845) (by

William Leman Rede William Leman Rede (31 January 1802 – 3 April 1847), often referred to as simply Leman Rede, was one of the many prolific and successful playwrights who composed farces, melodramas, burlettas (light musical and comedies) and travesties, primar ...

) *''Family Ties'' (1846) (play by Joseph M. Field, debuted at the Park Theatre in New York on June 19, 1846)(July 1879)
The American on the Stage
''

Scribner's Monthly ''Scribner's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People'' was an illustrated American literary periodical published from 1870 until 1881. Following a change in ownership in 1881 of the company that had produced it, the magazine was relaunch ...

'', pp. 324-35.Scharnhorst, Gary
Kate Field: The Many Lives of a Nineteenth-century American Journalist
p. 8 (2008) *''The Stage Struck Yankee'' (1849) (by O.E. Durivage)Jortner, Maura L
Playing "American" On Nineteenth-Century Stages; Or, Jonathan in England and Jonathan at Home
(2005 Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pittsburgh) (Chapter 5 of thesis includes great detail about Marble's career with reference to additional sources for research)

References

External links

* * Kelly, Jonathan Falconbridge
Dan. Marble: A Biographical Sketch of that Famous and Diverting Humorist, with Reminiscences, Comicalities, Anecdotes, Etc., Etc.
(Dewitt & Davenport, 1851) (235 pgs.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Marble, Dan American male stage actors 1810 births 1849 deaths People from East Windsor, Connecticut Deaths from cholera 19th-century American male actors