delanceyplace.com 2/12/08 - lincoln impersonators

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In today's excerpt observations from the annual national convention of the Association of Lincoln Presenters - and the view it brings into the strange varieties of American life:

"The Association of Lincoln Presenters ... was founded in 1990 by a trio of Abes and ... within its first five years, the ALP grew to nearly one hundred members—seventy-six Abes and twenty-two Marys. ... [By 2006] ALP membership stood well over 250, with members from nearly forty states. ... Presenters resist the tag 'impersonators', because the word sounds showbizzy. ... The organization's latest motto, 'Would I Might Rouse the Lincoln in You All,' is its third. The first was 'Now He Belongs to the Stages,' which some members thought overly cute, while the second—'Ready, Willing and Abe L'—proved to be typographically unsettling.

"This is how [becoming an Abe] almost always happens. A fellow minding his own business decides to grow a beard. Soon people are telling him that he bears a striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln. ... Pretty soon someone gives him a stovepipe hat as a gag or asks him to appear at a child's birthday or a Memorial Day parade. And then he gets it in his head to make a living at it.

"More than a third of the Abes in the ALP are full-timers. Others moonlight, snatching a gig here and there to supplement other income with the hope of becoming full-time eventually. ... Whatever their station in life, they share an outlook peculiar to themselves. In a coffee shop, an Abe might take his seat and say, 'Normally I wouldn't sit here. I'm not real fond of Booths.'

"Working as an Abe is ... solitary work usually, and not lucrative. Abes ... often spend weeks on the road at a single stretch, away from home and their own beloved Marys and Tads and Willies. They work out of their cars or vans, and will sleep in them too, depending on how many expenses the client has agreed to pick up. ... Schools, it's generally agreed, present the best profit potential for the entrepreneurial Abe. But how best to generate business? 'Get into a car and drive', says a no-nonsense Abe from Georgia. He says he often travels to new parts of the country. 'There is simply no substitute for it. Sometimes I hit twenty schools in a day. I might get four or five bookings.'...

"This leads to the dicey question of money: How much, [asks] one of the younger Abes, should we charge? ... Several Abes consider 'two C-notes' (as one Abe referred to the magic $200), a huge windfall. 'Some of us are lucky to get fifty dollars, because we don't talk much or we don't like to give speeches. ... If you just show up to cut a ribbon or walk in a parade, it's hard to ask for more.' ...

"Sometimes, not surprisingly, circumstances push an Abe to do something he's not proud of. 'I did a wedding once', one Abe said privately shaking his head at the memory. 'I did it and maybe I'd do it again. But please don't tell the other Abes. They'll think it was undignified."