Booth @ Ford's Theatre Playbill

[Dave Taylor]

Well, this item on eBay has gone way past my maximum bid of $120 so I guess I can share it here without worrying about one of you sniping it from me at the last possible second.



It's a Ford's Theatre playbill from November 2nd, 1863 when John Wilkes Booth was playing there. It was part of the Richard and Kellie Gutman's collection. The bidding is up to $6,200 at the time of this posting. Any takers?

[GARY POPOLO]

What a great piece to have in one's collection Bill. Just a bit above my budget! Thanks for sharing Bill.

[L Verge]

Terry Alford and I were discussing this this afternoon - going much higher than the usual $2-3000. We had not seen whose collection it was from, but the Gutmans' was one of our guesses. Everyone associates them with Booth photos, but they had a great collection of other paper ephemera also. Several of us visited with them back in the 1970s, and the collection was good then. I can only imagine what else they added over the years.

How many of you knew that Richard is also an expert on the history of the great American diners? Remember the Blue Plate Specials?

[Gene C]

This could be time to sell my typed trancribed pages of the missing pages of Booth's diary.

It goes something like this -
"Dear Diary, what a boring Friday evening. Surratt is up in NY, Davey is in southern Md squirell hunting, Sam and Mike are in Baltimore, and George is just drunk. Who knows where Lewis is, he's always getting lost. There's just nothing to do. Maybe I'll drop by Ford's tonite and catch a play. No wait it's that lame comedy "Our American Cousin", I've seen that so many times. I'd stop by at Mary's and flirt some with Anna, put the pesky Weichmann will be there. He's such a (illegible) and always wanting to tag along. Maybe I'll just go over to Ella's for some stimulating conversation. Ha! I saw the strangest thing this afternoon. I was wearing a disguise so all my adoring fans wouldn't recognize me and mob me, and I saw this guy who looked just like me. It was really weird. If it weren't for his limp, and his freckles, I'd have thought it was me. I'm going to go and have a few drinks, ......

[RJNorton]

Gene, it sounds like you have been digging on Elizabeth Quesenberry's property. Keep digging and you'll also find the real murder weapon....the jeweled dagger used to kill the president.

[Rsmyth]

That's pretty funny Gene!