Correcting History

[Laurie Verge]

The nudge worked! Tom responded back to my question about the gas lights at Ford's:

I uncovered no hard evidence to corroborate Withers' increasingly melodramatic accounts of Spangler's being near the gas valves (8" diameter valves, not "levers" or "knobs" as some have written), either for the abduction or the assassination. Booth's claim that "someone from the theatre would help by putting out the lights" may have been braggadocio on his part, or if there were someone, that person did not get near the valves.

The house lights would have remained at half during the entire performance, due to ever-present threat of fire. House lights were not extingusihed completely until the 1880s, when electric lights came into theatrical usage. As well, Gorman, the gas man, was by all indications alert by his station. He did bring the house lights up to full and extinguish the stage lights and footlights as soon as the audience began clambering up onto the stage. The stage lighting itself would have consisted of gas-jet "tormentors" (the hottest) lights from behind the left and right sides of the proscenium arch, and "teaser" lights above it. The most dependence for scenic illumination would have been on footlights, although they were known to cast garish shadows. Hope this helps some

BTW: Tom's book on the effects that the Lincoln assassination had on the players at Ford's is due out this fall. Tom will be speaking on it at the March conference, however, and promises us a lot of information that has never been seen in other books. His publisher has also changed the title of the book to Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination.