Assassination Trivia

[Anita]

Roger, is it John Deery?

[PaigeBooth]

Thank you, Mr. Norton! I do not have Twenty Days, but on your recommendation, perhaps it's something I should read. Do you feel it's worth buying?

Here's one more guess: Dwight Hess?

[Gene C]

Twenty Days is well worth getting. It is one of the "classics" in Lincoln Assassination history, the photographs alone make it worth it.
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Days-Bruce-...1555219756

[PaigeBooth]

Thanks for the information about Twenty Days, Gene. I appreciate your help.

[LincolnToddFan]

If my house was on fire and I could save only one of my many Lincoln books, it would be Kunhardt's "Twenty Days". Some of the archival photographs in it make the hair stand up on my neck.

I agree with Gene, it's a classic.

[J. Beckert]

I agree, Toia. It really is the first factual account of the assassination. I still find things in there that other writers have missed.

[RJNorton]

Brilliant, Anita!! There is a little information about John Deery's ability in billiards here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Fox

From Leonard Grover, "Lincoln's Interest in the Theater," Century Magazine 77, (April 1909):

"Within the last three years, I have learned this additional fact from John Deery, the then billiard champion of America, who kept a large billiard saloon directly over the front entrance to Grover's Theatre. Deery has told me that during that fatal Friday, Wilkes Booth came to his office, and pleading that he did not want to put himself under obligations to Mr. Hess, who was my associate in the management, by accepting a complimentary box, which of course would be tendered him should he offer to pay at the box office, asked Deery to go down and buy a box as though for himself, and handed him the money to pay for it. Deery said he did as he was requested, and if Mr. Lincoln had visited my theater that night, Wilkes Booth would have had the adjoining box. But some time during the day, Mrs. Lincoln learned that Laura Keene was to have a benefit and a last appearance at Ford's, and she requested Mr. Lincoln to change his destination."

I need to apologize for a couple of things regarding this question. I thought I had read Booth's request of Deery to get him tickets for the performance at Grover's came on April 13th, but Grover indicates it came on the 14th. Also, Grover is a poor source and often embellished/created stories, so I am "trusting" him on this one.

Anita, you win two free hours of playing time in John Deery's Billiards Saloon! Paige and Bill win one free hour because of their excellent guesses on a question that may possibly be apocryphal.

[Anita]

Thanks for the two free hours of playing time in John Deery's Billiards Saloon. Maybe Paige and Bill can join me.

1865: Abraham Lincoln is a self-confessed "billiards addict."
Lincoln calls the game "health-inspiring" and "scientific," lending "recreation to an otherwise fatigued mind."
According to Henry C. Whitney: "Billiards, I may say, was the only non-utilitarian thing that I know of Lincoln indulging in."

http://www.thehypertexts.com/History%20o...nology.htm

[Hess1865]

US Grant also loved billiards and was the first president to have a pool table in the White House

[RJNorton]

John Wilkes Booth stayed in this hotel while performing in a certain city. What is the name of the hotel?

[KateH.]

The Russell House Hotel.

[RJNorton]

Kudos, Kate! Good job! When I read Bill Nash's post here I decided to try to find a photo of it.

You win one free week at the hotel!

[RJNorton]

John Wilkes Booth performed at this theater. What is its name?

[Wild Bill]

St Charles Theater in New Orleans

[RJNorton]

Excellent try, Bill, but that's not it.

Hint #1: Ned Spangler didn't only work at Ford's Theatre during his life. He also spent time working at this theater.