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Lincoln Bicentennial      

Laboring to look lots like Lincoln

Impersonators perfect their transformations for the two-year Abrahamarama

By Jim Warren

JWARREN@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Abraham Lincoln showed up at Wilmore Elementary School last Friday, accompanied, no less, by first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.

They looked their parts perfectly -- Mr. Lincoln with his frock coat, top hat and famous beard; Mrs. Lincoln stylish but somewhat somber in a black bonnet and long dress. At the Wilmore school, and during a stop earlier Friday at the Rosenwald Dunbar Elementary School in Nicholasville, the famous couple regaled youngsters with stories of their trials and triumphs.

Larry and Mary Elliot of Louisville have been bringing the Lincolns to life in schools, churches and historic re-enactments since becoming Lincoln "presenters" about four years ago. What started out as a hobby is soon to become a full-time obsession for Larry Elliott, 56, who plans to devote his life to portraying Abraham Lincoln when he retires from the insurance business.

The Elliotts and other Lincoln presenters expect to be plenty busy over the next two years as America pulls out all the stops to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The observance kicks off Tuesday with special ceremonies at the Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in Hodgenville. First lady Laura Bush will be the keynote speaker.

There will be speeches, dinners, exhibitions, musical tributes, re-enactments and all manner of other official events over the next two years, as well as numerous club meetings, luncheons and school functions to remember Kentucky's most famous son. Already, the demand for Lincoln and Mary Todd impersonators to appear at such events is growing.

Lawrenceburg's Jim Sayre, a Lincoln presenter since the 1980s, normally does about 60 appearances as Lincoln each year. He says he already has 70 bookings for 2008, and it's only February.

"It's pretty exciting," Sayre said, "because we're helping to preserve the legacy of Lincoln, and keep that legacy alive."

There's also some demand for appearances by another notable Kentuckian from the Civil War.

Almost forgotten in all the Lincoln excitement is the upcoming bicentennial of Jefferson Davis, born at Fairview, in modern-day Todd County, near Hopkinsville, on June 3, 1808. Davis, as president of the Confederacy, was Lincoln's opposite number during the Civil War. And though Davis is not as beloved as Lincoln, many organizers no doubt will want him around for Lincoln bicentennial events.

That could mean lots of work for Frankfort's Cliff Howard, a Lincoln presenter who also portrays Davis. Howard, who says he always tries to make his presentations educational, finds the Confederate president a fascinating character to portray.

"I think Davis has a message that the country and the world need to hear," Howard said.

Actually, Lincoln impersonators are not a new development. People began doing public Lincoln impersonations shortly after his assassination in 1865. In recent years, however, Lincoln impersonators have become more organized. Now, they even have their own national organization, the Association of Lincoln Presenters, which boasts nearly 300 men and women who portray the Lincolns (and sometimes Jeff Davis). The association was launched in 1990, and held its first national convention in Lexington in 1995. And with Lincoln in the national limelight for the next two years, association officials think more people will want to become presenters.

But association treasurer Larry Elliott says that portraying Lincoln is not to be undertaken lightly.

Elliott made that mistake himself in 2003 when his wife, on a lark, persuaded him to enter a Lincoln lookalike contest at Hodgenville.

"I thought it would be something rinky-dink with three or four guys in silly hats trying to act like Lincoln," Elliott said. "But instead there were 3,000 spectators and about 15 highly professional Lincoln lookalikes competing."

Chastened, but determined to do better, Elliott acquired a nicer Lincoln costume, devoted himself to studying Lincoln's life, and joined the Lincoln Presenters Association. He became so obsessed with Lincoln that his wife, Mary, soon decided to join him as Mary Todd Lincoln. Now, they do gigs all around Kentucky and neighboring states.

"It takes a commitment," Elliott said. "You just about have to grow the beard, because it's very difficult to put on a fake one and make it work. I just bought a new, historically correct outfit that cost $2,200; I own probably over 100 books on Lincoln and read something about him every day.

"You have to devote a lot of time to learning the material to where you can give a real performance -- you can't just read it. You have to practice Lincoln's mannerisms; you've got to be first person, to where you can speak, act and move the way he did. I'm improving, but I still have a long way to go."

Sayre, 72, followed a similar route. He entered a Lincoln lookalike contest in the 1980s, not giving it much thought, but soon found himself becoming immersed in the character. Since then, he has portrayed Lincoln in all kinds of venues, from California to New York. He also does Lincoln on the Kentucky Chautauqua circuit.

Like Elliott, Sayre says that portraying Lincoln made him much better informed about the Great Emancipator and the history of America in the 1800s.

"It was kind of embarrassing, because I had thought I was pretty well informed," Sayre said. "But I wasn't. Really, I just knew some bits and pieces and what I remembered from school. But after digging into the life of Lincoln, the situations he had to endure, I discovered a person entirely different from the basics I'd been taught in school. He was a much bigger man that I'd thought."

Some years ago, Sayre began doing appearances with his friend, Cliff Howard, acting as Jeff Davis. The two frequently staged fictional Lincoln-Davis debates (Lincoln and Davis never met in real life). Howard has become so involved in the role that he sometimes slips into using the first-person "I" when describing Davis.

"He was not a popular figure after the war," Howard said. "He was hanged in effigy in many places. In Muncie, Ind., in 1880, a man in a crowd at a public event shouted 'Hurrah for Jeff Davis,' and a soldier turned and shot him dead right on the spot."

But Howard finds Davis a sympathetic figure. The Confederate president was charged with treason and imprisoned for two years after the Civil War, then lived as a publicly hated man until his death in 1889. Though bitter over the treatment, Davis eventually forgave those who imprisoned him, Howard said.

"The biggest problem this globe has is hatred," Howard said, "and Davis had an answer for that."

Elliott is equally passionate about portraying Abraham Lincoln. "He single-handedly kept the Union together ... even when some members of his own cabinet wanted to let the southerners go," Elliott said. "I really enjoy passing on who he was, and what he did for our country."

Want a Lincoln of your own?

Want to know more about Abraham Lincoln impersonators, or find one for your club or organization meeting?

The Association of Lincoln Presenters -- www. lincolnpresenters.org -- offers lists of both Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln presenters from all across the country.