Lincoln and the theater, and theater in Lincoln's days

[RJNorton]

(01-22-2014 09:37 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Wilson also recalled that Mr. Lincoln "sat in the rear of the box leaning his head against the partition

Eva, I hope you don't mind, but when I read your post I have an additional question. I have read that Lincoln often also sat "back in the box" at Ford's. But we have the following story from Katherine Helm's book:

When the Lincolns saw John Wilkes Booth in "The Marble Heart" at Ford's Theatre on November 9, 1863, they were accompanied by several people. Among these people was Mary B. Clay, a daughter of Cassius Clay, U.S. minister to Russia. Mary Clay reminisced about the evening as follows: "In the theater President and Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Sallie Clay and I, Mr. Nicolay and Mr. Hay, occupied the same box which the year after saw Mr. Lincoln slain by Booth. I do not recall the play, but Wilkes Booth played the part of villain. The box was right on the stage, with a railing around it. Mr. Lincoln sat next to the rail, I next to Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Sallie Clay and the other gentlemen farther around. Twice Booth in uttering disagreeable threats in the play came very near and put his finger close to Mr. Lincoln's face; when he came a third time I was impressed by it, and said, 'Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you.' 'Well,' he said, 'he does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?' At the same theater, the next April, Wilkes Booth shot our dear President. Mr. Lincoln looked to me the personification of honesty, and when animated was much better looking than his pictures represent him." (Mary Clay, in her reminiscence, was off by a year when she said the president was shot "the next April.)

SOURCE: p. 243 of Mary, Wife of Lincoln by her niece Katherine Helm (New York, Harper and Brothers, 1928).

My question is - could this story be apocryphal? It would seem to me that if the railing is 11-12 feet higher than the stage, and especially if Lincoln tended not to sit too close to the railing, then there is no way Booth could put his finger close to Lincoln's face.