Edwin Booth Cigarette Cards

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Carolyn. Your comment reminded me that there is also confusion regarding a "death" mask of Abraham Lincoln. Clark Mills made a life mask of President Lincoln early in 1865, but some sources I have seen have referred to it as a death mask. That is incorrect as there are no death masks of Lincoln.

[LincolnMan]

And speaking of Edwin Booth- I was watching an episode of the old TV series BRANDED last night starring Chuck Connors. McCord (Connors) became the personal bodyguard of Booth- who was having lots of public animosity towards himself because of his brother killing Lincoln. In the storyline also is Edwin Booth trying to find John Parker- to kill him for "allowing" John Wilkes to kill Lincoln by not being at his post. I have this episode on DVD. I fell asleep half way through. I will probably finish it tonight. Always neat to see TV shows build an episode around our favorite history. I wonder if Edwin Booth really did have a bodyguard? Edwin Booth is played by actor Martin Landau, by the way.

[historybuff22]

In my continuing research into the Bakers, Lafayette and Luther, I discovered that in 1849 Lafayette left Lansing, Michigan to head to California for the gold rush. Not finding any, he stayed in San Francisco and joined the Vigilantes. Guess who was a member of the same ward as Lafayette? None other than Junius Booth - the son, not the father. Junius the younger did not follow in the family business of acting. Perhaps this photo is of Junius' home rather than Edwin's.

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

[Anita]

I'm pretty sure the house belongs to Junius, Jr. who had his own theater company in San Francisco. Edwin accompanied his father to California in July 1852, where they acted in San Francisco and Sacramento under the Management of Junius Brutus Booth Jr. The elder J.B. Booth started to return to Maryland, but died on the way. Edwin Booth stayed in the west and toured the mining towns and acted in his brother's company in San Francisco. He left CA in 1856.

This is from PRINCE OF PLAYERS by Eleanor Bogles

"At first, after his father left, he lingered on with Junius and Har-
riet in their house on Telegraph Hill, an exasperating guest.
Having no work, he spent his time drinking in saloons where
the bars were still warm from his father's instep. His nineteenth
birthday came and went. Junius was mightily relieved when
Willmarth Waller, an actor-manager organizing a company to
play the mining towns, engaged Ted for the tour. "The name
will help me anyway," said Waller. "

Junius, Jr. was an actor but he was overshadowed by his father and brothers. He did play King John and Cassius in Julius Caesar, with Edwin as Brutus and John Wilkes as Mark Antony in 1864.

[Hess1865]

Soon-to-be General WT Sherman was a banker in California in the 1850's.
He had no use for the vigilantes.