Origin
It is now considered established the original target of the call was James Bryce Gordon Rinehart (Harvard 1900). A contemporary piece in the Harvard Crimson adds details:
| “ | Rinehart, who is an earnest student, has been in great demand as a tutor to other men in his courses. As he lives at the top of Grays hall his friends have sought to find out whether he was in or not by directing plaintive cries of "Rinehart, O Rinehart" at his windows. This made the studiously inclined who swell in the neighboring dormitories very tired and they determined to quell Rinehart, so promptly at dark for the past three nights the college yard has resounded with the cries of "Rinehart, O Rinehart." First one end of the yard and then other would send up the plaintive cry, and then all the buildings would swell as if in chorus with the same old plaint. Last night the college police tried to stop the racket, but the boys by a little teamwork kept them running from one dormitory to the other. One man with a megaphone was particularly offensive, but despite the police vigil of three hours the megaphonist was still summoning Rinehart in tearful tones. | ” |
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 in a prize-winning undergraduate essay. 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.
Read more about this topic: Rinehart (Harvard)
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