I received the latest issue of the Booth History Spotlight, the newsletter for the Junius B. Booth Society and Tudor Hall, this weekend, and there are two, interesting articles in it. One is on the experiences of Edwin Booth in the California gold fields.
However, the one that I enjoyed most was a sampling of letters written by Junius, Sr.'s first wife, Mary Christine Adelaide Delannoy Booth. Looking beyond the great talent of this patriarch of a theater dynasty, I have often thought that, if I had been Mary Ann Holmes, I would have packed up my brood and headed back to England! His shenanigans would have done me in.
While I knew the story of the first Mrs. Booth, I used to shrug her off as somewhat of a shrew to pull the tricks she did upon arriving in Baltimore. I now look at her with a bit more respect for having been deserted and left to raise a child in the days where women received little help.
Junius Brutus Booth, Sr. may well have been a theatrical genius, but in my mind, he was also totally self-absorbed and did not care one iota for either wife or the numerous progeny he produced. Do we classify him as a Mad Genius or Drunken Skunk?
If I could post an anonymous reply - I would say , very clever!. Since I can not, then I would say a Drunken Genius
According to a writer from a previous age (WS), "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Assuming I remember the quote correctly. I think she got her pound of flesh justly. She must have been seething for years wondering where he was.
(06-06-2016 06:03 PM)Dennis Urban Wrote: [ -> ]According to a writer from a previous age (WS), "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Assuming I remember the quote correctly. I think she got her pound of flesh justly. She must have been seething for years wondering where he was.
Ooops, before I get blasted, quote was from William Congreve not WS.
The worst thing to me is that Junius traveled to England and made no attempt to see his child. It is one thing to dump the wife, but quite another to ignore the son. Just sending money occasionally does not cut it.
The newsletter of the Junius Booth Society is put together by Tom Fink, who is the editor, writer, graphic design expert, chef and pet groomer for the newsletter. He is a veritable one man band running the Society and the newsletter. He always have interesting info about Tudor Hall and the Booths. If you are not yet a member of the Junius B. Booth Society, it is a very worthwhile organization to belong to.
(06-07-2016 08:54 AM)Jim Garrett Wrote: [ -> ]The newsletter of the Junius Booth Society is put together by Tom Fink, who is the editor, writer, graphic design expert, chef and pet groomer for the newsletter. He is a veritable one man band running the Society and the newsletter. He always have interesting info about Tudor Hall and the Booths. If you are not yet a member of the Junius B. Booth Society, it is a very worthwhile organization to belong to.
I second that Jim. A great guy and very knowledgeable. I have been volunteering for Tudor Hall (all the way from San Diego) for many years. I assist him with posting the tour dates on various online calendars. I also manage their Facebook and Twitter pages which includes helping promote all the current tours/special talk as well as discusssing stories about Booth family. I finally met Tom and his wife Fran in person at Tudor Hall's first symposium as well as finally visiting Tudor Hall. So happy to be part of this great organization. I just wished I lived much closer so I can help out Tudor Hall and Tom much more.
Laurie:
We know he was drunken. We also know he was a skunk because he abandoned a wife and child in Europe to start a new and bigamous life in America with a young beauty and because, as you pointed out, he returned to Europe but made no effort to see his son. We also know he was at least partially mad inasmuch as he threatened, in an 1835 letter, to assassinate President Jackson. That leaves only "genius". We can all agree that he was a superb actor, but being a superb actor does not, to me, qualify as "genius". Accordingly, the answer to your question is: He was not a mad genius; he was just mad, and he was a drunken skunk. Not much to recommend him. That he died young shouldn't surprise anyone.
John