St. John Terrell, The Man Who Began The Annual Crossing of The Delaware River at Washington's Crossing

This is from a Newspaper in the United Kingdom:
ST JOHN Terrell was a master showman who, every Christmas Day for
25 years, donned a tricorn and cape to re-enact George Washington's
famous 1776 crossing of the Delaware river, and who made it his
business to clear Richard III's blackened name.
Over the course of his career Terrell left his mark on American
culture, establishing a playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania,
in 1939 and, in 1949, a music circus in Lambertville, New Jersey,
a summer theatre-in-the-round under a striped tent that became
a model for similar summertime festivities across the United States
and which continued to operate until 1970.
It was to attract attention to his music circus that Terrell
conceived his Delaware crossing stunt in 1953. It proved so popular
and effective that he sustained the routine for 25 years, long after
the circus had closed. In 1978, he passed the role to a longtime
crewman, Jack Kelly (Grace Kelly's brother), and it eventually
became such a tradition that a historical society, the Washington
Crossing Foundation, has continued it.
It is more likely to be myth than fact that Washington actually stood
at the prow of the canoe, as Terrell did in his re-enactment. However,
he was well versed in the creation of fantasy. Aged 16, he ran away
to join the circus where he performed a fire-eating routine, and soon
afterwards became the first voice for the hero of Jack Armstrong,
the All-American Boy, a popular radio show of the 1930s.
His taste for a flamboyant life- style caused him to abandon studying
for a degree at Columbia University in order to pursue a career
in the theatre and he became a familiar figure in off-Broadway
productions.
But it was his campaign to discredit Shakespeare's portrayal of
Richard III as a hunchbacked murderous villain that gained him
greater fame. Shakespeare names Sir James Tyrrell, acting on the
orders of the King, as the murderer of the young princes in the
Tower of London. Tyrrell was one of Terrell's ancestors, and so,
taking the matter personally, he undertook a campaign to clear
the king's name. Whatever the truth, Terrell used his expertise
as a carnival showman to attract attention to the case. In 1983,
on the 500th anniversary of Richard's accession, he arranged for
a memorial Mass to be held in the king's honour at St Patrick's
Cathedral in Manhattan. Afterwards,he held a medieval lunch at
a gentlemen's club. Two years later, on the 500th anniversary of
Richard's death on Bosworth Field, Terrell repeated the gesture,
this time moving the feast to a famous Manhattan delicatessen,
Sardi's, for a medieval lunch featuring wooden spoons, pewter
dishes and a menu of quail,suckling pig, ale and mead.
St John Terrell, actor: born Chicago, Illinois 1917; twice married
(one son, two daughters); died October 1998.

There is a cool website for his Lambertville Musical Circus I
have added to my blog list:)