Grant and Lincoln's invitation

[loetar44]

(10-15-2014 12:03 PM)loetar44 Wrote:  In another account (can’t remember where) I once read: 600 seats in the the orchestra and parquet, 420 seats in the Dress Circle and 600 to 700 (on benches) in the Family Circle. Thus aside from the 4 boxes there were 1,620 to 1,720 seats in the theatre and this is in accordance with the given seating capacity of the theatre as 1,700.

Found!!

From Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Assassination. Eastern National, 2003:

The theater was divided into three seating levels. The gradually sloping ground level held approximately 600 movable wooden chairs with cane seats. The chairs were not attached to the floor so that the entire area could be made even with the stage for dances. There were half-circular niches on the aisles to the rear of the parquet, perhaps to accommodate heating stoves or busts of theater personalities. The second floor balcony, or dress circle, accommodated 420 people in wooden chairs similar to those on the level below. Finally, the upper tier, or family circle balcony, seated 600 to 700 people on high wooden benches. Gas lighting fixtures ran the entire length of the ornate railing along this upper balcony, and on special occasions, birdcages hung from the fixtures…

Four private boxes, arranged in two tiers, flanked either side of the stage. The more elaborate and desirable boxes provided an excellent view of the stage and the audience. When the two upper boxes on stage left, boxes seven and eight, were combined, they were known collectively as the State Box, which was reserved for use by high government officials. This is also known as the Presidential Box.

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(10-15-2014 06:20 AM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  

(10-15-2014 05:16 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Perhaps the only box occupied that night - the Presidential box - was "telling?" Or was this done purposely by management (the other 6 boxes were vacant) so as not to detract from the presidential party? Would Ford's have sold tickets to the other 6 boxes if the demand was there?

I'm sure I read somewhere that Ford's puposefully did not sell tickets to the other boxes on the nights that the President was in attendance - as you said, so not to detract from the Presidential party (and also I think to give the party a little more privacy from people looking in). I will see if I can find where I read that. Although, if it came down to it, and if money and was in issue, I'm sure they would have softened that stance to some degree.

“Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard says on page 160: “Out of respect for the office, none of the other boxes are for sale when the Lincolns occupy the state box”.