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- Title
The Face on the Barroom Floor.
- Authors
Phillips, Louis
- Abstract
This article analyzes the poem The Face Upon the Floor, by Huge Antoine D'Arcy, which became part of the Prohibition Movement. In spite of sentimental mediocrity, or perhaps because of it, D'Arcy did earn a brief moment of poetic immortality. He earned his place in the Popular Culture Hall of Fame with the poem. The story behind the poem, however, is as lively as the ballad itself, for it illustrates how history has a way of turning around the ambitious and hopes of artists. Ideas and movements often evolve into something entirely different from what they started out to be. The poem itself was based upon a true incident. Patrick J. White, an actor who claimed to be the first man to recite D'Arcy's ballad in public, frequently recounted the legend surrounding D'Arcy's stab at immortality. White was allegedly so taken with D'Arcy's work of genius, that he asked and received permission to recite the poem as part of his Broadway Vaudeville act. White went on to recite the poem many times upon the Vaudeville and Broadway stage. Nor was Patrick White the only actor to be attracted by the dramatic qualities of D'Arcy's poem. The poem was allegedly printed in the August 7, 1887 issue of the New York Dispatch.
- Subjects
POETRY (Literary form); FACE Upon the Floor, The (Poem); LITERATURE; D'ARCY, Huge Antoine; PROHIBITIONISTS; WHITE, Patrick, 1912-1990; TEMPERANCE movement; POPULAR culture; PROHIBITION of alcohol; POETS; MEDIOCRITY
- Publication
Journal of Popular Culture, 1991, Vol 24, Issue 4, p39
- ISSN
1540-5931
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.0022-3840.1991.2404_39.x