Lucy Hale

[Sally]

(10-15-2015 09:04 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Great points, Sally. It sounds like you know quite a bit about the Hales and Lucy's ties to Booth.

Your last point about having permission to get on the Montauk is well-taken. Some time ago, John Elliott posted about the steps taken to get Alexander Gardner on board for photographs. If I had been Sen. & Mrs. Hale, I would have locked Lucy in her room and let her cry her heart out (or throw a screaming tantrum) before I would allow her anywhere near that body. Frankly, I would have already been disgusted with her if the stories are true that she "traveled" with Booth. Liberated daughters were not tolerated in the 1860s.

Yes, Laurie, I have done quite a lot of amateur research on Lucy and her family. I’m strongly drawn to the Hales, although I’m not sure why. It’s not because Lucy seemed like a particularly kindly or sweet-natured woman. (There are indications she was pretty hard-edged, at least later in her life.) But neither do I believe she exhibited the lax morals so often attributed to her by 21st century authors. In most cases, I don’t think the portrayals of her as “Loose Lucy” are intentionally malicious—the writers are just applying the standards of modern society to her situation. For example, in “American Brutus”, Michael Kauffman cites a quote from Booth’s actor friend, John McCullough, wherein McCullough claims Lucy and her sister, Lizzie, would meet up with him and Booth in Baltimore for trysts. I’m wondering if his quote was taken out of context or, perhaps, misinterpreted? It’s certainly possible that Lucy and Lizzie took the train to Baltimore once or twice during the winter of 1865 to meet up with the two actors. But does that necessarily mean they had a foursome in a suite in Barnum’s Hotel? I’ve no doubt Booth and McCullough met up with many other willing pairs of “sisters” during their careers, but I sincerely doubt that two young ladies, raised in a temperate, Unitarian household, would get up to that sort of thing in 1865. In any case, McCullough may not be the most reliable source in this instance. He was eventually institutionalized with general paresis—a psychotic disorder caused by syphilis.

I also share Laurie’s doubts that Lucy was Booth’s “and lady” at the Aquidneck House Hotel in Newport on April 3. It’s seems more likely she was one of his actress acquaintances. Didn’t he go directly from Newport to Boston, where he stopped at a theater to see Edwin? Maybe his “lady” was part of that theater company and he escorted her back? It’s just a thought.

It’s my (useless) opinion that Lucy Hale was a typical young lady of her class and time, but one who possessed (in the words of John Hay) an “indefinable fascination” for men. Her worst fault may have been vanity—she was aware of her effect on males and, like so many other belles and coquettes of her day, she used it to her advantage. She was neither saint nor sinner. Unfortunately, she just happened to capture the wrong man in her net. And now her name (and, in many cases, her reputation) live on in infamy.

Sorry to run on like this. As I said at the beginning of this post, I have a keen interest in the Hale family history. I get carried away.