As a comparison, I remember Kennedy used to tell a joke back in 1960 about the three major Democratic candidates. One was Kennedy himself, one was Lyndon Johnson, and the third was Stuart Symington.
In 1960, these three men were considered to be of equal stature. Two of them went on to become President and are still household names fifty years later. But go out and ask ten people if they know who Symington was.
It puts him in a special class of only about 7 million.
The patent was an interesting tidbit. The almanac thing would have been his claim to fame.
A veep is famous enough a few months after office to merit a candidacy for prez. The Alger Hiss case brought Dick to national prominence.
When I think of it, it might be where I heard of the civil war for the first time too. I was reading them when I was 8 or so (and still occasionally read them 40 years later)
From an outside point of view, rather than considering US Presidents and wondering if they would be famous without the presidency, I tried from the other aspect of which Americans are famous today who weren’t Presidents.
The ones I would think of have all done something outstanding- which may have come as a great contribution from many other people- such as Neil Armstrong, their own capacity for promotion and distribution of inventions and products (say Edison and Ford) or folks such as the Wright Brothers.
And in using such criteria, I am afraid I could not come up with any whose contributions outside of the Presidency would be enough to guarantee them a place in history.
I would add that I exclude Eisenhower as he is in my field of interest (military), but even Grant would only be one more General in a field which is replete with victorious generals.
Possibly Reagan as a B Grade actor.
And I acknowledge my views will be different to those in the USA who are far more familiar with what the people did within their country.
Possibly the prime example of "Famous Americans Who Weren’t Presidents is Benjamin Franklin – statesman, representative. diplomat, but never president*. He was also a publisher, humorist, noted for aphorisms, and world-famous scientist and inventor.
*although there’s an Alternate History story about him as president in the Mike Resnick anthology Alternate Presidents.
In my estimation, I’d agree with Washington and Jefferson being probably the most famous had they never been president. A number of founding fathers who weren’t president are still remembered and those two had significant roles as founding fathers. Right now I’d say it Washington is the most famous with Jefferson more or less on par with Franklin. If you remove their presidencies, Franklin is probably the most famous with Jefferson behind him and Washington a bit behind. Madison and Adams would fall in behind around Hamilton and the likes. Really, consider the other things Jefferson did, like penning the Declaration of Independence, being an inventor and statesman like Franklin, governor of Virginia, founded the University of Virginia.
I think Washington would lose more though, since his biggest claim to fame would be as a general, which would put him on level with the likes of Grant, Lee, Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur. The Revolution, Civil War, and WW2 are much better known wars than stuff like the war of 1812 which would make a president like Jackson famous, so I think most of the rest of the general presidents would only be known to historians.
All the rest, I don’t think anyone would really know them, as generally random senators, representatives, and congressmen aren’t really remembered unless they did something really significant. Taft would get a bit more as a former Chief Justice, but he’s not remarkable for that other than having been a former president, even the one that does get mentioned, John Marshall, isn’t really all that well known to the general public.
Eisenhower would be well-known as a historical figure for his WWII leadership. Kennedy might well be famous as the playboy son of a wealthy businessman and ambassador. Johnson probably would be fairly well known as a powerful Senate leader. Reagan, while not an A-list actor, was a minor-league celebrity. Bush junior might have been commissioner of baseball.
Doesn’t count: if Bill weren’t president, Hillary would still be sleeping with Vince Foster.
Just joking. Maybe.
You just made up that name, didn’t you?
Is this a way of indirectly making some point? Profiles in Courage was most definitely non-fiction. Kennedy may or may not have written it, but it was serious non-fiction. Historians may debate some of its accuracy, but nobody says it was fiction.
Truman might have become a name in men’s fashion.
I found the joke: I dreamed about 1960 myself the other night and I told Stuart Symington and Lyndon Johnson about it in the cloakroom yesterday. I told them how the Lord came into my bedroom, annointed my head and said, “John Kennedy, I hereby appoint you President of the United States.” Stuart Symington said, “That’s strange, Jack, because I too had a similar dream last night in which the Lord annointed me and declared me, Stuart Symington, President of the United States and Outer-Space.” Lyndon Johnson said, “That’s very interesting, gentlemen, because I too had a similar dream last night and I don’t remember annointing either of you.”
George W. Bush, of course; who else on this list was famous enough to be a Simpsons character before he was president?
Okay, I give up. What episode are you talking about? I even looked on the Simpsons Wikia and they don’t list any appearances by George W. Bush.
In the episode where George H W Bush appears, Homer leaves out two cardboard cutouts yelling, “these are your sons Jeb and George Jr”. Apparently no one in the Simpsons production crew had heard of George W Bush at the time.
Joke
But for his daddy the president, no one would have ever heard of Junior, he’d never have been included in the group that owned the Texas Rangers baseball club, and he’d never have been considered for Commish.
True, but the OP is about President’s who would be famous otherwise, not whose parents made them famous.