Extra Credit Questions

[Rick Smith]

Laurie & Joe,

Thanks very much for your most generous comments.

Keep it up Laurie and I will be getting misty and decide that it is time to return.

Rick

[Dawn E Foster]

Thank you, kind sir.

P.S. Are you regretting retiring from the guide force at Surratt House yet? We still have three Booth Tours to do if you are really missing them... For the benefit of others, Rick retired about ten days ago after serving over 15 years as a volunteer guide at the museum. He could always be counted on to get to the museum early in order to meet our tour buses that were chasing JWB. He is also the one who drove about 200 miles round trip several times a year to clear the path to and the site of the Garrett farm house. This is one old broad who seldom cries, but the tears welled up when he tendered his resignation.

Nooo ... before I've had a chance to make it there?!

[Laurie Verge]

Give me advanced notice as to when you are coming Dawn, and I will drag Mr. Smith here in full regalia. When he is dressed in his period outfit, he is definitely a photo op - not to mention that wonderful history he'll give you.

[Eva Elisabeth]

For one particular scene of his "Lincoln"-movie Spielberg recorded one sound from an original source so that it is the same sound Lincoln had heard (also on his last day, but this is not the respective scene).

1. What was the source?
2. Where is it now?

[RJNorton]

I will guess it was the ticking of a watch Lincoln once owned, and it's now at the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, Kentucky?

[J. Beckert]

Could be, if he had his watch that night. My guess is a sure thing. The sound of his carriage springs squeaking. It now is in the Studebaker Museum.

Please tell me I've won and have redeemed myself after suffering another public beating from the politest man on the internet on my last trivia question.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I'm afraid, J.Beckert, I can't release you from suffering. Congratulations, Roger, with distinctions on the first attempt. Well, I'll send the prize as a message in a bottle.

[J. Beckert]

What? Wait a minute! They did record the sound of the carriage springs! This a TIE!!

[Eva Elisabeth]

I'll send two bottles and take suffering. I've no further information on the source of the sound of the carriage springs, but you are probably right, too.

[J. Beckert]

Thank you, Eva. Back at ya, Roger!

[L Verge]

See what happens when you try to prove a Yankee wrong?!

I saw the same show or read the same article as Eva. I remember the segment about the watch and also that they replicated the sound of the church bell at St. John's Lafayette Square that Lincoln would have heard. I believe they also taped the floorboards creaking in one of the churches he attended - either St. John's or New York Avenue Presbyterian.

[RJNorton]

There is lots of information on the various recorded sounds here.

[J. Beckert]

See what happens when you try to prove a Yankee wrong?!

Ahem. From the Washington Post:

At the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Ind., they found the elegant barouche carriage that Lincoln took to Ford’s Theater on the night of his assassination.“We recorded the door opening and closing,” Burtt said. “We recorded the squeaky suspension.”

How's that for a little "Northern Aggression" for ya?

[Eva Elisabeth]

See what happens when you try to prove a Yankee wrong?!

Ahem. From the Washington Post:

At the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Ind., they found the elegant barouche carriage that Lincoln took to Ford’s Theater on the night of his assassination.“We recorded the door opening and closing,” Burtt said. “We recorded the squeaky suspension.”

How's that for a little "Northern Aggression" for ya?

Joe, I admit you were better informed. Shame on me for posting another deficient question. (For now I'm cured from retrying, especially as the aftermath seem quite unpredictable).

[L Verge]

My humble apologies, Joseph. I'll let you win this battle, but the war is still on. Seriously, I gave up reading the Washington Post years ago 'cause they done got on my last nerve...!