The cry of Rinehart! (more fully Oh, R-i-i-i-n-e-HART!) was a part of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

student and alumni culture in the early decades of the 20th century. The cry refers to an unknown undergraduate's call, from ground to dormitory window, for John Bryce Gordon Rinehart (1875–1954; Harvard class of 1900). His cry of "Oh, R-i-i-i-n-e-HART!" drifting across Harvard Yard was inexplicably and spontaneously taken up by hundreds of students in the Yard and at open windows of surrounding dormitories. This phenomenon first occurred on June 11, 1900, and for the next forty years cries of "Oh, R-i-i-i-n-e-HART!" (described as "Harvard's rebel yell") could be heard at random times and around the world, wherever Harvard men traveled or congregated, sometimes signalling the start of merry revelry.

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Barrymore family, Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage ...

mentioned the "Rinehart!" cry in the 1939 film ''

The Great Man Votes ''The Great Man Votes'' is a 1939 American drama film starring John Barrymore as a widowed professor turned drunkard who has the deciding vote in an election for mayor. It was based on the short story of the same name by Gordon Malherbe Hillman pu ...

''. The call was included by journalist

George Frazier George Francis Frazier Jr. (June 10, 1911 – June 13, 1974) was an American journalist. Frazier was raised in South Boston, attended the Boston Latin School, and was graduated from Harvard College (where he won the Boylston Prize for Rhetoric) in ...

in his 1932 song "Harvard Blues" (music by Tab Smith), recorded in 1941 by

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and th ...

and included on the compilation ''The Count Basie Story, Disc 3 - Harvard Blues'' (2001, Proper Records).

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), them ...

describes the cry in ''

Against the Day ''Against the Day'' is an epic historical novel by Thomas Pynchon, published in 2006. The narrative takes place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time immediately following World War I and features more than a hundred characters spre ...

'': Various legends grew up around the call; for instance, a Harvard man in Africa who was about to be kidnapped by some Arabs supposedly screamed "Rinehart!" and was rescued because there happened to be another Harvard man nearby in the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army ...

Origin

It is now considered established that the original target of the call was James Bryce Gordon Rinehart (Harvard 1900). A contemporary piece in the ''

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at ...

'' adds details: As this origin faded from memory, while the cry itself remained current, various false origin stories were circulated. One had Mr Rinehart hiring other students to call his name, to make him appear more popular. These origin stories were collected, and a new one suggested, by

Gordon Allport Gordon Willard Allport (November 11, 1897 – October 9, 1967) was an American psychologist. Allport was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality, and is often referred to as one of the founding figures of persona ...

in a prize-winning undergraduate essay.

References

{{Reflist 1900 in Massachusetts 1900s fads and trends Harvard University Traditions by university or college in the United States 1900s neologisms Catchphrases

Origin

Further reading

References