AN HONEST LIVING; LINCOLN ENTHUSIASTS LINK UP IN BURBANK.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

Illinois may be the Land of Lincoln, but the spirit of the nation's 16th president was alive and well Saturday in Burbank, where the Association of Lincoln Presenters held its annual convention.

They were quite a sight as they traveled around the city in a yellow school bus, 33 grown men dressed in stovepipe hats and black tails, and sporting scraggly beards but no moustache.

``These guys don't just dress like Lincoln, they think they are Lincoln,'' said H.M. Wammack, a Glendale man who was thrilled to be acting as the local host for the fifth annual event.

The convention included a banquet at the Burbank Hilton on Friday night, a Mary Todd Lincoln morning tea for the Lincoln wives on Saturday and a visit to the Court of Liberty at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills.

The Lincolns come from all over the nation and from all walks of life. Among the group there is a Christmas tree farmer, a life insurance salesman, a dentist, a trucker, an English teacher, a social worker and an appliance dealer. What they all have in common is a genuine love of Lincoln and of getting together with other Lincoln presenters.

``It's about admiration for Lincoln and a recognition that he is America's finest person,'' said the group's president, Dan Bassuk, of White House, N.J. Bassuk founded the group in 1991 and is credited with first ``linking up the Lincolns.'' The group has a national membership of 113 Lincolns and 30 Mary Todd Lincolns.

The Lincolns at the convention were all complete hams, each jockeying to show off his Lincoln skills and aggressively handing out business cards. While some perform as Lincoln for free, most charge an appearance fee ranging from as low as $50 to $600 and up.

Although the convention is not cutthroat like an annual Lincoln look-alike contest in Kentucky, there was definitely an undercurrent of competitiveness among the ranks.

``I'm the real one,'' insisted Jim Rubin of Prosperity, W.Va.

In an attempt to prove his authenticity, Rubin took off his top hat and claimed that a mark behind his left ear is actually a bullet wound that has completely healed.

``No one else can show you the hole in the head,'' Rubin said. ``I was shot, but I'm OK. Don't worry about me.''

Abe Clymer of Vandalia, Ill., has been portraying Lincoln since he was recruited to play the 16th president in a high school play because he looked so much like him. His real first name is Louis, but ever since then he's been ``Abe.''

``I haven't gone by Louis for 50 years,'' Clymer said.

Rubin has visited about 23 schools since Feb. 1 of this year. The high season for Lincoln presenters surrounds the Presidents Day holiday, although many work throughout the year at Civil War re-enactments and for history groups.

``School these days is too much about computers. As Lincoln, you bring history alive, and the schoolchildren learn from you,'' said Rubin, 67. ``If you keep a second-grader's attention for 20 minutes, somebody has got to give you a pat on the back.''

Like many of the other Lincolns, Rubin said he got started because so many people remarked to him that he resembled the president. Rubin, who came in third place in a 1998 look-alike contest, said he comes to the convention to pick up tips from the other Lincolns and to spend time with friends.

``We learn from each other,'' Rubin said.

New Jersey resident Gordon Vincent taught dentistry for 47 years before retiring and becoming a Lincoln presenter. He is in high demand not only at schools, but among women's clubs, historical societies, civic groups and Republican organizations.

``At one extreme, there's the women's clubs who just want to be entertained. They don't care if you're Lincoln or Gypsy Rose Lee,'' Vincent said. ``Then there are the history groups that are really into Lincoln.''

To him it makes perfect sense to get together each year in a different location across the nation.

``If you think about it, the reason all these men are good people is because Lincoln was a good person,'' Vincent said.

Wammack, the Glendale resident, is a life insurance salesman who each year around Presidents Day spends his time presenting Lincoln to local schoolchildren at the Court of Liberty at Forest Lawn's cemetery in the Hollywood Hills above Burbank. After Forest Lawn officials heard Wammack had given a reading of a Lincoln speech at a Kiwanis Club meeting, they recruited him to portray Lincoln at their Court of Liberty events.

``I got there, and they told me the head of cosmetology at Forest Lawn was going to make me up, but unlike most people I was still standing up rather than lying down,'' Wammack said.

At the Mary Todd Lincoln Tea at the Wammack home on Saturday, Donna McCreary-Bowen of Charlestown, Ind. started her talk about the first lady's fashions by showing elaborate undergarments worn in those times. She slowly dressed herself while she described the art of transforming oneself into Mrs. Lincoln. She's a full-time Mary presenter, and a staunch defender of the first lady who she maintains has been unfairly maligned and was terribly misunderstood.

``I can't see how he could have been all that great if she was so bad,'' McCreary-Bowen said.

In part, she comes goes to the convention every year to be around others who love the Lincolns and their history.

``My 13-year-old son is always saying `Mom, your job is so weird,' and he's right,'' McCreary-Bowen said. ``But this convention makes you realize that you're not insane . . . that there is normalcy in your life.''

Colleen Vincent of Santa Rosa came to the convention as the plainclothes companion of her husband, a Lincoln presenter named Roger Vincent. Regardless of whether you dress like Mary Todd Lincoln or not, February is quite a month for a Lincoln presenter's wife because of all the work surrounding Presidents Day, she said.

``In February, we are all married to a different man,'' Vincent said. ``In February, it's hard to tell Roger Vincent from the Roger Vincent playing Lincoln.''

Nancy Peck of San Diego was a plainclothes Lincoln presenter's wife for years before she finally relented and started presenting the first lady alongside her husband, William.

``He wanted to go to period ball, and of course I wasn't going to let him go with any of those other hussies,'' Peck said, partly in character.

Now she's a true believer.

``My husband is the original Lincoln,'' Peck said. ``The others are just impostors.''

The Association of Lincoln Presenters Web site is located at www.abraham-lincoln.net.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

PHOTO (1--2) Abraham Lincoln impersonator Chris Christman, left, snaps a photo Saturday at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills. Above, a group of latter-day Lincolns disembarks at the American history-themed cemetery.

(3) A faux George Washington delivers a speech Saturday surrounded by a group of Abraham Lincoln impersonators at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills.

(4) Dressed as Mary Todd Lincoln, Donna McCreary- Bowen, left, gets assistance in imitating the former first lady from Colleen Vincent in Glendale.

Eric Grigorian/Special to the Daily News