William Lawrence Slout

William Lawrence Slout (July 17, 1923 – February 4, 2017) was an American professor of theater at California State University, San Bernardino. He wrote Olympians of the Sawdust Circle and other reference books on circus history.

Biography Slout was born on July 17, 1923, in Charlotte, Michigan. He served in World War II and received a B.A. from Michigan State University in 1947 and an M.A. from Utah State University in 1953. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Slout died in Redlands, California, on February 4, 2017, at the age of 93.

Publications Author Theatre in a Tent: The Development of a Provincial Entertainment (1972) Olympians of the Sawdust Circle (1998)

Editor Life upon the Wicked Stage: A Visit to the American Theatre of the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s As Seen in the Pages of the New York Clipper (Clipper Studies in the Theatre, No. 14, 1996) Old Gotham Theatricals Popular Amusements in Horse and Buggy America Broadway Below the Sidewalk The Theatrical Rambles of Mr. And Mrs. John Greene Clowns and Cannons Amphitheatres and Circuses Ink From a Circus Press Agent A Royal Coupling A Clown's Log Grand Entrée (with Stuart Thayer) Chilly Billy