Rinehart

For other uses see Rinehart (disambiguation)

The cry of Rinehart! (more fully Oh, R-i-i-i-n-e-HART!) was a part of Harvard University student and alumni culture in the early decades of the 20th Century. The cry references an unknown undergraduate's call, from ground to dormitory window, for James Rinehart (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 and echoed from the open windows of dormitories surrounding the quadrangle. For the next forty years or so, cries of "Oh, R-i-i-i-n-e-HART!" could be heard at random times wherever Harvard men traveled or congregated, reportedly being heard at locations as far from Harvard as Cairo. The call was included by journalist George Frazier in his 1932 song "Harvard Blues" (music by Tab Smith), recorded in 1941 by Count Basie and included on the compilation The Count Basie Story, Disc 3 - Harvard Blues (2001, Proper Records).

External links

• Harvard Magazine article referencing the phenomenon
• "Gordon Allport and the legend of Rinehart", Journal of Personality Volume 64 Number 1 (March 1996) (PDF)
• Rinehart Language Log article on the history and evolution of the Rinehart legend.