Wilkes Booth Came To Washington

[Eva Elisabeth]

(03-14-2015 06:24 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Way in the back of my mind I seem to recall it might have been William Withers who may have made this claim. Did Withers ever say he was in Taltavul's at the same time Booth was drinking in there?

Page 111 in Tom Bogar's "Backstage" reads: "Leaving the bar, Booth had turned to Brink: "Go in and make up. Ted, old fellow, I'm going to have my name hung in a place where my father's never was." The source is an interview with Kittie Brink of Feb.12, 1929.

I couldn't find the wording you posted in "American Brutus" (but am sure I saw this wording in at least one of my books). In this one (which I don't have) it is footnoted, but I cannot open the respectivel page. Maybe someone has the book and could check: https://books.google.de/books?id=-8KZAj6...CBsQ6AEwBg

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In "We saw Lincoln Shot - 100 Eyewitness Accounts" is an interview with Kittie Brink of Feb.12, 1935 (perhaps the same and one is wrong about the year? See p.187) reading: "I recall something my husband told me during rehearsal that morning that puzzled me. He had been talking to Booth and said, 'Something will take place tonight that will make the name of Booth live forever.'"

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Roger, you were right about Withers. Please see p.79 in W. E. Reck's "Last 24 Hours": William Withers...claimed that he had a drink with Booth about 7.30 and heard the actor make a startling prediction. 'During the conversation...I laughingly remarked that Booth would never be as great as his father...he replied, 'When I leave the stage I will be the most talked about man in America.'" Source: Wither's statement for the government, American Press Association article by J. W. Lawrence, 1912, Lewis Warren Lincoln Library.