Junius Brutus Booth: Theatrical Prometheus

Introduction

Introduction a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. -Macbeth, V, v, 24-26 J unius Brutlls Booth flourished in America for more than a generation, from 1821 to 1852, as a distinguished Shakespearean tragedian. His public image, that of a drunken, even dangerous lunatic, obscured a private life that, although frequently traumatic, stressed an undeviating respect for all life-forms. An emerging America , not yet shattered by civil war, still defining its own unique characteristics, embraced this eccentric performer. Indeed, theatregoers forgave him his trespasses time and time again. No other expatriate actor won favor so grand or affected the American theatre so deeply as the wandering Londoner, Booth. Others have told parts of Booth's chronicle. Shortly after he died, nvo of his children set out to to write a biography of their beloved fatller. Encouraged by family friends, they hoped to correct the many lies and exaggerations circulating about the actor. As the young John Wilkes Booth complained, "I cannot see why sensible people will trouble themselves to concoct ridiculous stories oftheir great actors. We know that nvo-thirds ofthe funny anecdotes about our own father are disgraceful falsehoods."l So John Wilkes and his older sister, Asia Booth, asked their mother for their father's papers. Booth's widow dragged some old trunks to the front 1'00111, and, ers the children wept and pleaded, burned the Xlll XIV Introduction contents in the fireplace. Diaries, jomnals, notebooks, playbills, packets ofletters to and from Booth, all she fed into the flames, while her son protested, "Supposing someone should write father's life-you are leaving nothing to refer to-such a lot ofincorrect dates and false statements will be made.. Give us the proofs, and everydIing that can be of service." Mary Ann Booth kept feeding the flames, pausing occasionally to tear off some celebrity's signature and toss it to her children. Private people, those Booths. Not without reason. But the elder Booth, an actor and a star, perforce himselfleft a few footprints behind. His theatre advertisements, publicity puffs, and reviews lie buried in newspaper and magazine files. Hundreds ofplaybills , the dead husks offorgotten performances, came to rest in theatrical archives. A few hundred of his letters smvive, scattered around the world in public and private collections. Several contemporariesmanagers , actors, audience members - recorded their opinions of Booth, although they often fell into prejudice, exaggeration, or misinformation. And somedocuments lay beyondMary Ann's hearth: land records, contracts, court transcripts, birth and death records, even a few of Booth's own diaries and journals. From them his story begins to emerge. Thus the trail, dim and cold, still meanders across the years, full of snares for the unwary. Asia Booth cleared away some of the underbrush in two biographies of her father, but she edited severely, selecting only that whicll flattered his memory. No one should blame her, any more than they should fault Mary Ann for clinging to her privacy and her dignity. The Booths would later ache for solitude, in 1865 when the family name achieved a fame other than theatrical. So ifMaryAnn frowns down from someotherwhere, her husband, the actor, still speaks to us across dIe generations. Filled with imperfect virtues, he fought his demons till the end, and like the great actors ofevery age, he was all ofus. JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH ...