Something about John Wilkes Booth you may not know...

[LincolnMan]

According to author Gordon Samples-who wrote Lust for Fame: The Stage Career of John Wilkes Booth, JWB "was probably the first to initiate the "intimate theater" or theater-in-the-round as we know it today. His recitations in the private rooms of the National Hotel were popular social functions, where the fashionable eagerly sought an invitation to see "his almost glittering face and trim powerful figure, in classical or melodramatic characters...He was the poetical character of that crowded house." The part about JWB probably being the first to do the "intimate theater" is amazing. How many artists over the years have performed that way? For example, Elvis Presley did that very thing for the taping of his television special in 1968. His stage was set up like a boxing ring right down with the audience-very "intimate." Countless other performers have done similarly. I will now think of JWB whenever I see an artist perform in that format. It probably started with him-and that I didn't know. Did you all?