Extra Credit Questions

[RJNorton]

The Lincolns stayed in the Astor House in NYC during the inaugural journey. So I shall guess the Astor House.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hotel is correct, Roger, but not the Astor.

[RJNorton]

How about the Fifth Avenue Hotel where Mary Lincoln stayed?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Mary is hot, but still not the correct place.

[RJNorton]

Perhaps the Metropolitan?

[L Verge]

What about the hotel where she stayed during the clothing sale "scandal?" Was it the St. Denis?

[Steve]

There are current plans to demolish what remains of the St. Denis

[Eva Elisabeth]

Kudos, Laurie, that is correct. I found the image here - the article is entertaining and well worth reading:
http://americanpast.blogspot.com/2013/04...3.html?m=1
This is a nowadays photo of the hotel:
   
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2...k-in-1867/
Laurie, you win a trip to the original St. Denis, which actually means a trip to Paris:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Saint-Denis

[L Verge]

Kudos, Laurie, that is correct. I found the image here - the article is entertaining and well worth reading:
http://americanpast.blogspot.com/2013/04...3.html?m=1
This is a nowadays photo of the hotel:

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2...k-in-1867/
Laurie, you win a trip to the original St. Denis, which actually means a trip to Paris:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Saint-Denis

That works for me. My last trip to Paris was in 1971.

The history of the Basilica is amazing!

[Eva Elisabeth]

As is the list of VIP burials!

[L Verge]

Let's try this one without Googling: What film was the highest grossing of the silent film era? What book was it based on? Who authored the book?

[J. Beckert]

I'll guess "Birth of a Nation", but I can't say what book it was based on.

Yankee - .5
Laurie - 0

[Steve]

Birth of a Nation was based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon.

[RJNorton]

I agree with Joe and Steve...Birth of a Nation seems like the logical answer. But maybe Laurie asked this because the answer is not the logical one; so I will say Ben-Hur based on the book by Lew Wallace who was on the 1865 military commission that tried the Lincoln conspirators.

[L Verge]

The New Jersey Yankee gets .5 for correctly answering "Birth of a Nation" as the highest grossing film. Southern me is outnumbered, because a Pennsylvania Yankee earned the other .5 for completing the question with "The Clansman" and Thomas Dixon.

Dixon wrote a number of things that are probably totally banned today. He put the capital letters in "racism" during a time when American society was more than ready to read his work in order to reinforce their attitudes on the situation.