Description: They were America's greatest theatrical family, and their story is one of triumph and tragedy. The patriarch, Junius Brutus Booth, immigrated to America from England in 1821 and amazed audiences with his brilliant portrayals. His son Edwin became America's finest Shakespearean actor and greatest Hamlet. His son John Wilkes, perhaps equally promising, assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865. A rare large original March 1880 broadside for Junius Brutus Booth II and Marie Prescott in The Galley Slave at Smith's Opera House. Dimensions an impressive twenty seven and a half by ten inches. Light wear, small tears. light folds and tape repairs to reverse otherwise good. See the Booth family and Marie Prescott's extraordinary biographies below. Shipping discounts for multiple purchases. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay items for more early theatre, opera, film, magic, and historical autographs, photographs, programs and broadsides and great actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. From Wikipedia: The Booth family was an English-American theatrical family of the 19th century. Its most famous and well known members were Edwin Booth, one of the leading actors of his day, and John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. The patriarch was Junius Brutus Booth, a London-born lawyer's son who eventually became an actor after he attended a production of Othello at the Covent Garden theatre. The prospects of fame, fortune and freedom were very appealing to young Booth, and he displayed remarkable talent from an early age, deciding on a career in the theatre by the age of seventeen. He performed roles in several small theaters throughout England, and joined a tour of the Low Countries in 1814, returning the following year to make his London debut. Booth abandoned his wife and their young son in 1821 and ran off to the United States with Mary Ann Holmes, a London flower girl. They settled in Harford County near Baltimore, and built a house named "Tudor Hall" in 1847, which still survives. There they started a family; they had ten children, six of whom survived to adulthood.[1][2] Junius Sr. and Edwin toured the Western United States during the Gold Rush, performing plays by Shakespeare for illiterate miners, who nevertheless had no tolerance for bad acting. Edwin Booth bought an interest in the Winter Garden Theatre at 667 Broadway in New York City together with his brother-in-law John Sleeper Clarke. The brothers John Wilkes, Edwin, and Junius Brutus, Jr. performed there in the play Julius Caesar at a benefit in 1864, the only time they were seen together on a stage, playing Mark Antony, Brutus and Cassius, respectively. Edwin Thomas Booth (November 13, 1833 – June 7, 1893) was a famous 19th-century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time.[2] Some theatrical historians consider him the greatest American actor, and the greatest Hamlet, of the 19th century.[3] However, his achievements are often overshadowed by his relationship with his brother, John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. A highly recommended book:Marie Prescott: A STAR OF SOME BRILLIANCY by Kevin Lane Dearinger This book documents the life and career of Marie Prescott (1850–93), an actress of great beauty and wit, who directed and starred in Oscar Wilde's first play, Vera, or the Nihilists. Like Wilde, Prescott struggled to reconcile her artistic aspirations with her financial goals and to assert her independence from the social restraints of her day; she also had a complicated love life. Her compelling story is marked by the sensational elements of opening nights, vengeful critics, bitter feuds, insanity, missing persons, lawsuits, divorces, and sexual obsession. In all of this, Marie Prescott remained a figure of impressive intellect and will. Her lively correspondence with Wilde, her erudite lectures, and the dramatic transcripts of a libel trial in which she was involved recorded her singular voice and forceful intelligence. Her story is tied not only to Wilde, but also to many of the major New York theatrical figures of her time, as well as to the social, journalistic, and political worlds of New York and Kentucky. Her ancestors were influential in the organization of the American Constitution and the founding of the state of Texas.
Price: 191.24 USD
Location: New York, New York
End Time: 2023-11-16T01:04:31.000Z
Shipping Cost: 11.95 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Modified Item: No
