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The Assassination of
Abraham Lincoln
Ford's Theatre, 1861-1990
Excerpts from newspapers and other sources
From the files of the
Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
71 ioo«) o?:r OJZ.73
Ford's Theatre National Historic Site http://www.nps.gov/foth/faqs.htm
What happened to the Ford's Theatre building after the assassination?
The building was saved from destruction when Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, ordered a 24-hour guard be placed around the brick building to protect it from an angry crowd wanting to bum it down because of the assassination. In July of 1865, theatre owner John T. Ford was ready to resume performances but emotions ran high against the reopening; the theatrical operations did not resume. At the same time, Washington's YMCA announced in the newspapers its intention to purchase the building and to open Ford's Theatre in its decor of April 14, 1865; it would be renamed "The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Temple". Within a few weeks this plan faded away due to lack of financial support.
The federal government managed to negotiate a deal with Ford to rent the building with an option to buy. In the fall of 1865, a Brooklyn firm removed the entire interior of the building and converted it into a federal office building for $28,000. No alterations were made to the fa9ade but three floors of the office space were created inside. The option to buy was exercised in 1867 and the government purchased the structure for $100,000.
The building operated as an office until June 9, 1893 when the interior of the historic building collapsed. Twenty-two clerks died in the tragedy and sixty-eight others were seriously injured. Within a year the damage was repaired and the former theatre was remodeled into a government warehouse; again the original was altered.
The building remained in this form until 193 1 when workers returned to modify the first floor. It was converted into a museum dedicated to displaying artifacts of the life of our sixteenth president. Many of the museums artifacts were from the Osbom Oldroyd collection which had been purchased for $50,000 in 1927 including dozens of unique items associated with the assassination.
During the 1950's a bill was introduced in Congress to fund the restoration of Ford's
Theatre to its 1865 appearance. In 1968, the fully restored Ford's Theatre reopened as a working theatre, 103 years after the assassination of President Lincoln. Also in 1968, the Ford's Theatre Society became a partner with the national park service.
In October 2008, Ford's Theatre became an independent unit of the National Park Service system managed by a park superintendent with a staff consisting of park interpreters,
maintenance and curatorial support along with volunteers who help tell the story of the
theatre and the National Park Service mission. Ford's Theatre National Historic Site is co-managed by the National Park Service and the Ford's Theatre Society.
.'•, 1«61, Is the In The Star of December of tlie following brief announcement project which resulted In the of the theater ±Oras-, j)o construction .jj j^j^^ j.^,.gg, in, which Theater, president Lincoln wae shot a later: few years we have^,„,,- •A number of gentlemen, .Tohn T Ford of learned, united with Mr. Baltimore to HoUiday Street Theater in elegant temple of the build a modern and location will be in our city. The drama b> the place now occupied fhP site of street Chrisfy's mins-rels. on 10th George situated The which is very centrally proposed building will in ^ze elegance "an^d^wm '4riJ fcatt'''in'NcrYo;:K and ^'r^'audltoV; It will be completed ZSbs tr? ^r^t fnT^everyY^'^ .
Christy minstrels.
JTOBD's THBATBB. "Malakoft/' the well. Jknown Paris correepondent of the New York Times, makes the following suggesUons as to the diapoeitlon of the building In which the President was assassinated: In 1820, when the Duke de Berry, brother of King, the was assassinated in Parte at the door of opera the House, It was at once decided to tear down «ae house, and leave the ground forever afterward free lYom anv habitable structure. And in effect the Place Louvolfl. In the Kue Richelieu, with its beauti- ftU garden and fountain, mark the spot where the Opera House stood. Why does not the federal gov- emment In like manner seize and demolish Ford's Theatre, and erect on its site either a monument, a statue, a fountain, or a chapel? Not a timber of that f heatre ought to be allowed to stand in its place if there be money enough in the treasury to indemniJV its owner. •'
UUSEUU
LINCOLN MUSEUM XXHCOX.W MTJSETTM DT WASHXHOTOM IN WASHINGTON (Continued from Page One) used as Bill In Congress Provides for Tlii« ai fire proof building and is now com- Well as for Headquarters for a storehouse, which surely is not a. A. s. patible with its historic associations, the United as It was acquired by again be Harding Camp No. 5, Washington, States so that it might never other D. C, tlirougli its legislative commit- used as a theatre or for any tee, Brothers Phelps, Walker and Wil- commercial purposes. liams, is busily engaged in pushing Camps which have not yet endorsed the bill before Congress providing for so at this legislation are urged to do the use of the Ford Theatre building resolutions once. Send copies of your as a Lincoln Museum aud Headquar- Representatives to your Senators and ters for the Grand Army of the Re- All and help us to put this bill over. public. Brothers will remember that Lin- three of the Washington Camps, this project was started by Harding are active- <;oln. Gushing and Harding, Camp last spring, through its Com- movement. Broth- ly assisting in this mander, Lt. Col. U. S. Grant, 3rd, and assist- ers Harding Camp needs your a bill, H. R. 16G5G, was introduced by IT NOW! ance in this matter. . DO Hon. H. R. Rathbone, Representative in Congress from Illinois, which fail- ed of passage, due to the pressure of other business in the short session of the 69th Congress. Camps and Divisions were urged. In the "Call to Arms," Issued May 4, 1927, to adopt resolutions, to be presented to their Senators and Representatives!, urging the passage of this legislation. Quite a large number of Camps have complied with this request. Harding Camp is very grateful to them for their assistance. Dept. Sec.-Treas. Ev- erett P. Warner has also been untir- ing In his efforts to bring this matter to the attention of the Camps through- out the United States and the Camp appreciates his valuable assistance. The bill has been introduced by Mr. Rathbone In the present, 70th Con- gress, and Is now known as H. R. 7206. A favorable report thereon "was made by*the Committee on the District of Columbia, to which it was committed, and it Is now before the House of Rep- resentatives, awaiting an opportunity to secure its passage. The report of the District Commit- tee calls attention to the (act that the building In which the collection of Lincoln relics, gathered by Comrade Oldroyd of the G. A. R., and which has recently been purchased by the United States, Is now housed. Is not fire proof, and Is also becoming unsafe tor large crowds of visitors. Further, It Is not large enough for the present collec- tion of Lincoln relics, to say nothing like coll'ctlons, which are of further The Banner, February, 1928. p. 1 promised to be added thereto, if suit- able provision Is made for their pres- ervation. Brothers will doubtless remember that Ford's Theatre la where Presi- dent Lincoln was shot in ISC'), it Is a
rented-j occupying a - small and BOon! space JP» building that' Is to be torn down. ^' „ ., ,A la FORDTHEftTER I The Ford theater '^uHding thej Iq the*•- heart of practicallypraciiciiiiy »v ^ mld^_sji Washington of today, almost and Way between the White House TO BE MUSEUM few blocks the- Capitol and only a gasoline off pennsylvania-av. A Remodeling of Place Where station adjolne it now. Lincoln Was Shot To Start Soon
1S«! New York Aveune. San Wa»hlngton Bureau. WASHINGTON—The old Ford Tenth- theater, which Is down on shot st where Pres. Lincoln was by John Wilkes Booth in April, for use 1865, Is to be remodeled and as k national war museum national headquferters of the G. A. R. The old building, acquired by the the government shortly after might tragedy in order that it never again be used as a theater put to commercial use, ha& or ware- been used as a government house for more than a generation. inside. Visitors are not permitted TOURISTS VISIT HOUSE Across the street is the house where Lincoln died, then a board- the fa- ing house, which contains mous Oldroyd collection of Lin- recently by coln relics, purchased ot the government. Thousands every tourists visit this building Lincoln The little room where breathed his last Is the same to- The same day as it was then. stands in the corner, the same bed same bedclothes are on It and the naoer Is on the walls. G. A. R. OFFICE PLANNED Under the plan now before con- $100,000 will be appropri- gress Ford 'to remodel the old ated and Ford theater Into a museum Lincoln the Oldroyd collection of there. relics will be transferred na- section will be set aside for A now' tional G. A. R, headquarters,
(From The Po«l, J«ine )0, IMQa.)|
BUBIEOJHTHEfiUINS^ y A GoveKot Office Collapses
Wiiloiit WarDim .
FORD'S THEATER FAILS
Twenty-two Killed and Six- ty-Eight Injured,
mi LIST OF THE yiCTIMS
Nearly Five Hundred Meaintha Fated Building;.
eral contractor; Richard Q. Fletcher, foreman THE BT0BIE3 OF for the subcontractor for ce- SURVIVOBS ment and mason work; John L. Mc- Donald, subcontractor for the steel in the roof; Thomas L. Costlgan. englnear In the ofBoe of the building Inspector^ Cempl«t« LUt of the X>«ad aa4 Weuadad- at the time the building was erected. Mlr»calona XceapM or Maar Xnploj and John R. Dbwnman. assistant build- from Insuat Dekth-PathtUa Scodm ing Inspector at that time. They were held In tbo Mom* and at tho Hoipltal-Prawdanl $6,000 kpntt oo charges of homi- cide. ^ ^ Claroland Coqtrlbat** to a- Fund for tb^ The grand Jury subsequently indicted TaUiarlMa-A MMtinc of Oa'nsroua Cttl- five of tl»eB«~-Oeare, Ford, Downman, xeoa-Tb* Datutoroo* Condittoa tt th«| Fletcher and Wallace; but, on July 24, BatidiD* JOaa. thelndletmenta _ Was lUportod to Concresa Nib were thrown out, of Yaara A 11 1 ' ruins were explored and the mangled. dead and living, were taken out. There was a rising tide of anger ' against those responsible. The Post had 'J^O Killed, 213 Injured protested against the continued use of dangerous buildings by the Govern- ment service, and now demanded a inCollapse of 2 Theater policy of safety. On June 10, In dls* cussing the disaster editorially. It said: "Whether The Post says It or not. every one who knows the wicked and humiliating truth will understand that Friday's tragedy was a direct, logical, and long-foreseen result of the mean 'Ford Catastrophe in 1893 demagogy that parades a spurious ecoiKimy at the cost of Justice, decency Took Lives of 22 U. S. and humanity. For years the clerks and other Federal employes have b«en Glerks at Work in the huddled In Innumerable death-traps, to lose their health by slow degrees, or die Structure; Post Put En- outright by sudden accidents. In order that a few selfish Impostors might tire Staff on. Story. flaunt themselves before a crowd pf gulls." Coroner Conducts Inquest. On Prtclay morning. June 9. 1893. ut 25 minutes to 10 o'clock, there occur- The Inquest was held, beginning red one ol the most terrible tragedlc« June 12, In WUlard's Hall, by Coroner In the history of Washington, when the Patterson, where friends of the dead old Ford's theater, on Tenth street, organized an Indignation meeting. Vio- scene or that other tragedy, the lence was narrowly averted, as the peo- assassination oX I Abraham Lincoln, col-' ple denounced those whom they lapsed, killing more than a score of thought responsible as "murderers." B, Government clerks, and Injuring a H. Warner, a member of the Jury, ad- great many The Post put Its entire dressed the crowd and quieted It at a staff at work,' and Its report of the moment when It was about to be disaster and the subsequent Inquiries transformed Into a mob constituted another of Us Journalistic triumphs. On June 20 the coroner's Jury ren- dered a verdict as follows: In Its edition of June 10, it not only "We find that Frederick C. Alns- carried a complete story of the accl- wo(:tb, William O. Covert, Francis dent, but announced that it had Sarse and George W Dant were, and started a relief fund, and had already, each of them was, guilty of criminal the first day, received nearly 93,000' negligence, and we finrther find that President Cleveland sending the flrst they are responsible for the killing ot •100. Woodward 6t Lothrop contribut- Frederick B. Loftus." ed $1,000, and the response of the city Feeling was runnltig particularly was generous, for it was shocked and strong against Col. Alnsworth, then stricken by the frightful horror. chief record and pension \ the of the By the second day The Post's fund division of the War Department. The amounted to more than 99,000. It did Jury heaped censure upon the War De- not wait for the slow process of partment. The four men were released organizing a committee, but took the under bonds of 910.000 to answer to liberty of designating certain men ini the charge of manslaughter, but no the various Government departments arrests were made. to receive subscriptions, and so the money poured In. Indictments Are Quashed. July 2^ the grand Jury returned Death List Was Correct. On Indictments for manslaughter against The Post had at first reported that the fpur men. After long legal pro- 22 had been killed and this was thai ceedings the Court of Appeals quashed correct death list. There were 80 the Indictments. Another effort to maimed. punish somelKidy was made and, Ford's Theater was used at that finally, almost a yeai later, on April 2, time by about 600 clerks of the record 1894, the grand Jury returned one in- and pension division of the War De- dictment against Col. Fred C. Alns- partment. It was unsafe, and Its use worth, fixing responsibility on him. by the Government was a reproach Col. Alnsworth was arraigned Iq The Post said that It had been Criminal Court No. 2 before Justice "patched, bolstered, remodeled, braced Cole on April 19, and pleaded not guilty. and propped until nothing of the On May 31 Justice McComas siutalned original was left." It was five storieb the demurrer to the Indictment. Dis- high, was without flre escapee, was trict Attorney Blrney appealed to the known to be a death trap, but still i Court of Appeals, which on June 8 dis- the Government used It. One stair- missed the appeal, and thus the caae way stood between Its occupants andi ended. death. In the cepter of the rattle- On June 14, 1893, The Post an- trap a square court pierced the build-' nounced that a toUl fund of 925,738.83 Ing to the roof, and on the galleries' had been raised for the Ford's theatex around this the clerks were packed victims, of which The Washington At the front of the first floor • Post's fund amounted to 916,598.37. 30-foot space had been roped off lor The total was later Increased to 930,- two weeks prior to the accident, and 000. placards announced "Danger I" Be- In 1895 Congress paid 9106,000 to the neath this space an excavation, 12 feet 21 heir* of those who lost their lives deep, was being dug for the installation in the disaster. On May 11; 1806. of an alectrlc dynamo. Senator Faulkner presented to the Sen^A the final report of the Joint "laMiQ^jriltarStarU Collapite. commissldn on the Ford Theater dis- At 25 mlnutea' to~TO'TniI«A.k ' fTWtlgiK aster, accompanied by a bill appropri- on the southwest corner of the spot ' atlng 9144.800 In full settlement of all marked "Dangerous" Qialms for Injuries by the lOS clrrks began slowly to , •Ink. The clerks jumped for their who were injured in the accident. Tb«, lives, but they knew not which way I amount* to be paid to each range ' HOUSE. Miss Hsirrls' betrovbed. After receiv- grappled with I ^ and wounded ^4 niSTORlC ing the Lincoln party the audience quite severely. llhen going into; of ^ turned iUi attention to the stage and Seward's rooa le hacked at thei tH FQRO'S'^'HEATER. WHERE l.iN< became engaged wholly with the man and at tb jnurse, caubing a CS COLN WAS SHOT. play. Suddenly the report of a pis- ,b5o")d.shed, tho. gh no death, l«w fled. tol was heard and the bevrlldercd au- finally / f.%» Beecnt *Collap«e of the lU-Starred dience saw a man wrapped in a dark Atzrott fo jnd' BoildloK Beoallt the Horrible Crime of cloak leap from the President's box 4. WUkes Booth—Sou'.e Details of the to the stage, a distance of nine feet. tlou. Hi." spurred boot caught in a fold of the flag, wLich was used as a drapery, A Page froui Hbtory. however, and he fell heavily, break- Ford's theater, the scene of the ing his leg. He stalked theatrically disaster recent terrible at WashinK- across the stage, and, in the middle, toD, in which so many were killed waving a bloody knife, cried out: "Sic and injured, was, as Is well known, semper tyrannis. The South is ibe scene of Lincoln's assassination, avenged." The bewildered audience did hot gain an understanding of the facts until ho had disappeared and then wild and tumultuous cries broke out, "Stop him, he has shot the 1 resi- dent." Some leaped upon the stage, while many rushed to the President's box. There Lincoln was found, the blood pouring from his death wound, while Major Rathbone was discovered to have been wounded in the side by the assassin's knife. Tenderly was Lincoln lifted and borne to a house across the way, where he died at 7:22 the following morning. Llncolii'ii Assasitnatlon. The a.ssassi nation of Lincoln was the sudden result of a plot in which several desperate men were engaged. They conspired to abduct President Lincoln, but the closing of the war rendered this impracticable. Then HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN Dig those who were most Influential ABBAHAM LINCOLN. abandoned the matter, but theie Grant impossible of accompllsl Iroi were still some who resolved on Grant was surrounded all da fact the most tragic as well as the most bloody and violent measures. Chief by friends, and the would-be tun pathetic incident In all our national of these were John Wilkes Booth, sin could get no chance at him. edti history. The superstitious may see Atzrott, and Payne. These men re- Surratt, a boarding-house k^thi In It divine interference, and it is at •ny rate a queer concidence that at the very hour when words if prayer and benelliction were being spoken over the lifeless clay of Edwin Booth, the brother of Lincoln's murderer, the building, which had witnessed John Wilkes Booth's awful crime, should crumble into dust. Early April, ]86"), marked a tlma of Joy which this country had not felt for many years. The black and heavy storm clouds of war were pass- ing away and the fair sun of peace was shining forth and fertilizing the seeds of hope Jn every heart. The Confederate government hid evac- nated Richmond on the 2d, Lee and Johnson had surrender- ed and those under the con- solved to as('assin;ttc Lincoln, Grant, where Bootli, Atzrott, and Payne J mand of Gen. Klrby Smith had lain and Seward. Booth was chosen to lived, knew of the plot to abduct I ,4own their arms. April 11 Piesident assassinate the President, Atzrott was Lincoln, though probably not of the' Lincoln had delivered an address in to murder Grant, while Payne was one to kill him. Her •son was also] which, as if awed unconsciously by to make aw;iy with Secretary Seward. thought at the time to le concerned Pooth.ionthe fatal eveu'ny, knowing in the murder. Other copsplrators that the President was in the the- wore McLoughlin and Harold, the ater, went to the 1:x).\ oftlee and, pro- lost of whon: was a somewhat weak- ducing a card, told tho attendant minded young man, who helped by that Lincoln had sent fur him. He having a horse in readiness for Booth's was allowed access to the cor- escape from the theater. These all ridor on which Lincoln's box were brought to punishment. Atz- opcn»>d without question. He rott, Payne, Harold, and Mrs. Surratt quietly bored a gimlet hole in were hanged; Dr Mudd, Ned^ tho b; X door, and so oblained a view Spanglor and McLoughlin were sent! of his victim. Then he pulled a pis- to the Dry Tortugas. Mrs. Surratt'sl tol and tired. As the President sank son escaped to Canada. Eventually! back unconscious liooib dashed into he was discovered serving in thM the box, and drawing u long knife I'apal Zouates. Ho was tried, but! stabbed MaJ. Ratht>one, who had was found |o have been innoceni «>f> grappled with bim. Suddenly he let any attempts at murder, and was ac •' quitted. ' *" f -' 1 I ^ r — liooth had laid his plana well; rush- ing to the rear of the theatre, he FORD'S whom were hung, while Dr. Mudd, OF mounted nis horse and aecompauic^d Michael O'lvaughlin and Samuel Arn- by llerc^M, made his escape aci'oss old were sentenced for life. They Navy Yard bridge to "Snrrat's Tav- THEATRE used to meet at the home of Mrs. ern." where they got some carbines Surrat, 604 H street. Northwest, which and whiskey. Then they went to Dr. is still an interesting place for sight- AliKld's where Rooth had his leg dress- Doll Sumner Writes Entertalngly of seers. ed and shaved off his mustache. Some say the real cause of Lincoln's Tragedy of '65. At the theatre everything Avas in a assassination will never be solved, panic. Women fainted, doctors rush- while others claim that Booth was e.i to the assistance of the president. hypnotized. But this is certain, that Some Bits of History Not Known by With great presence of mind Laura Booth was very pojjular in Washing- Kecne enlererl the box and supported Public Before. ton, with a good reputation and the the head of Lincoln, while the pliysi- last man on earth one would have cians made a nasty examination. The thought callable of committing such ;i House Where Lincoln Died is Mem* president was then carried to the crime. Only a short time before he ' house of Mr. Peterson, just across the had played in Ford's theatre in orial Building. way. The theatre was taken charge "Pescara, the Apostate," while only a Ol by United States troops, and at 7:23 week before ho jihiycnl in "Romeo and VVasliiiiKlnii, Ffl). lil.— (Special Cor- a. m.; April Ifi, 18(i.'), the country Juliet" at the National. He was quite icspondt lice) — Perhaps iL will be ol' mourned the loss of the greatest man well off and had an income of about inleresl to tlie readers of tlio Daily since Washington. $i:i),()0O a year and came very near Conner to know soniethinK aliout This house in which Lincoln '.lied is niarrying the daushtcr of a i)rom!nen* Ford's theatre, whicli Ktill alaiulH bo- now a memorial building. In tlie New England senator. room in which he died is tliLaura Keene was playing tenant Dougherty and command. in "Our American Cousin," and Pres- Booth and Herold fried to protec I ident Lincoln, Avilh his wife, Major themselves anfl (inally Herold gave Rat ii bone and IVIiss Harris, was pres- himself up. Booth remained in the ent to witness it. It was some time, barn, which was Siet on fire, and as rEJJIIUAl?V 'J 2, 1902. however, before Lincoln ;, TRAGIC liANDMARK. I A / I Old Ford's Theater, Where lilncoln: Wus Shot, to be Torn Down. One of the most Interesting relics In the national capital is to be torn down. For weal or wo*. Old Ftord's Theater In Washington was the canvas on which i our nation, paralysed and mute, wit-! nesaed the evolution of Its history 1 undergt) a change In the twinkling of; an eye. The bullet that pierced the brain of President Llnooln on that un- fortunate Good Friday in 1865 carried.- with It not only thoi death of a martyr hut the fompk'tc frustration of the hu- mane policies which the godlike "rall- splitter" had shadowed forth and upon which he relied to heal the sore wound made by the civil war. As it was,. It took over 30 years to effect a penria- rH>nt reconciliation. But it is safe to hii-<<»rd that-, had Ijncolu been \tc\- niillod by Providence to servo out hia/ second term as President the drpji.rahlci mlstalqcs of the "reconstruction," the caLloua and unconscionable tyranny of the "carpet I baggers," would not have been added to the already sufficient humlliaUon of the military defeat of a proud i«eopl€. THE SCENE OF AN EVFAMOUS A few days before his de-ath Lincoln CRIME. J."outlined his plan of reconstructing the rono'S TIIEATEB, WU^tl! LINCOLN WAS SDOT, TO BE TORN DOWN. governments of the southern States,' genei-ously and loyally upheld by his suc(;essor. President Johnson, -but S,(/CUcc^£«^, Gtoi-.>- 1 The dominating figure in this wretched conspiracy was a woman and she was hanged legally. Her son. also Involved in the plot, escaped to Europe and sub- sequently had the temerity to return, and end his days peacefully in America.! In recent years this famous theater,, the scene of an itifanious crime, has'' b^en utilized for a Lincoln museum. It ha.s, however, been dt'clared unsafe and., another memory of the turbulent tlmea: of our republic piust disappear. It is! not neces.sary though that It should bei preserved. /V material wltmcsa to a' great soul can he dispensed with. Kn-j Bhrlned in the hearts of the American] pe a , 'H£^\V^^^k\^^^\ \\,\u\^ ^o.\U '^V^W^ V-( InddenU of JLdncoIn's which (th* apMnter) was found on t Editor National Tribune: The theo- ledge of the lower box pediment. Ai ry universally accepted In regard to 'one of the Fords* did not know the Booth'^nnjury to his Jeg after shoot- President was to visit the -theater ing the President and vaulting to the until he sent for the box on Friday nt Is the he could havo Etage that his spur caught in [ 12 m., it Is not probable Flag that draped the box and turned borrowed the.Fla^a a day previous for tore easUxi. liio course, causing him to fall. A far I the purpose. The Flag more satisfactory en>lanatlon is given the picinre-rrfis not so j; the frahie of In a letter from Mr. John T. Ford to easily broken; hence the spur, catch- ' ' resulted Mr. Joseph Sessf ord, ticket agent of ing In It, caused a twist that Ford's Theater at the time of the as in John Wilkes Booth breaking a bone struck the stage aassination, while examination of the ; in hia ankle when he Washington picture from a photo- when you saw him Jump. Yours aa jgrraph ta.l{eQ th^ day fifter the assas- ever—J. T. Ford. - . ,.* sination glvea corroborative evidence "L,a,ura Keene acted every night ol in Its broken corner. The letter Is as the week. Reference to the flies will follows: . i show that." "Baltlmare, April 22, 1866. The splinter was In possession or - about 10 . 'Dear Sesafprd : Mr. Stidham Is en- Mr. Sessford until his death, tirely. in error as to the time of the years ago. The picture la In poasea- ball Ajid consequently about the pic- sion of Mra J. T. Ford, now living in ture. The ball took place time aome ^Baltimore. ^\ .-, previously. The Flags were used th«n ^^ ^,^ and borrowed again for Good Friday by J. R. F. from the Treasury Depart- ment. . The picture was placed bjl Uari^ In front of the box and FlagaV draper) on Its side. The spur caught and tore one Flag and then cut \ flBllntT ^Mom. thfl . Plfitora tramfei LINCoiN'S BOX AT FORD'S THEA- • ' ' TER. , Note. — "The framed picture of Washington, referred to is shown be- tween the Flas» i ' ' CLEVER MANEUVERING SAVED FORD THEATER FOR U. S. USES \ ; Lincoln's Secretary of War Leased Build- ing and After Wrecking It Forced Govt t Purchase. lorce ot clerks colleges 01 uxioru university in ting- a bit of "putrlotle pitals, and to tne smau Oijly by luck and sent from land, and this statement Is made In iWn.eiy'** in Baltimore December 13, 1865, Just wealth of material illustrating the life . The Ford Theater building, Dr. 17 days before the writer died. Is as of the Civil War period which cannot Moore believes, could also be made follows: be exhibited for lack of room. the depository of a Civil War library , , In the "I have a matter to take up with custody of the War Depart- and become a headquarters for Civil ment, unknown to » he general public, veterans. you In which I have some personal In- War are Lincoln's diary, the pistol with The building was originally terest. I was Ford's counsel to settle a Bap- which he tist church, affairs about the theater with Stanton. ^-as shot by John Wilkes which was remodeled Into Booth and some of his official papers a theater in 1861. Mr. Stanton was to purchase It for dealing with military fUfalrs during 100, 000, as authorized by Congress, the Civil War. ind in the meantime t^ pay rent to be deducted from the purchase price. CoUeotton In Mussujb. He has torn it almost to pieces and In the National Museum are ths the cost to restore it would equal the following anlcles which belonged to price asked. He has fitted it up for Lincoln: His black broadcloth coat, a deposit for the rebel archives. block edlk cravat, black cloth waist- "Ford was reluctant to sell and coat, black broadcloth trousers, his would have preferred to continue his black silk hat, an iron wedge marked business In the theater, but found the "A. L.," which he used when he was Ciovernment would not give Us assent. splitting rails at New Salem, 111.; the It was at my earnest representation model of an Inventlnr. for uplifting that he offered to sell under duress. vesaels over nhoals patented by Lin- Now, please see if Stanton has called coln In 1849 and plaster and bronse the attention of Congress to the mat- casts of his face and hands. ter and see If the appropriation Is Besides, the National Museum has made. I ought to say that I have part an enormous amount of material deal- of my fee unpaid." ing with the Civil War period, which it 'must keep stored away and exhibit, Tragic Has History. If at all, only for short periods, be- The building has remained In the cause there Is no space for It on the possession o( the War Department exhibition floors. ever since, due to Stanton's foresight. Some of the most precious of Lln> It has had a tragic history, even since coin relics have disappeared complete- the assassination of Lincoln. ly. Among them Is the celebrated "Mrs, Blxby" letter regarding the For years after Its purchase It was death of used for files of the Medical Depart- her Mn in the Union Army, ment of the Union Army. Records which Is one of the claaslcs of Amer- were kept there of the men who had ican literature. The popular Itiipres- slon, according to Dr. Moor*. Is that I been oarad for In Wsshlngton bos- this iMler Is hanglnir In one of the LliNCOLN SHRINE PLANNED ,:'\Mir-.: Ford's Theater Where President Was Shot Will Be Restored as Memorial to Martyr WASHINGTON, Jan. 15. (Exclusive) —Another Lli.colu .shriiic is lo be pi'ipfUiiiicU lu Wiishlnt'toii. Old Ford'a Thciiti.r. wlieie on the nighl, of Api'll 14, 1866, John Wilkes, Booth flrecl the shot iluiL Itiilc.l Aljiahani Lincohi, is lo be ruaioied by the govcinniont ;it ii'cost of $100,000 luid niude a Lincoln and v.ar nitibeiim and national headciiiartci-6 for the Uiand Army of the Republic. + Hence Mr. Uathl:ono'.-> bill providts that the rlruelure shall houae doc- The threc-biory iirucline in Tenth ument.-;, books and relies illuminat- jbtreet long h^s been owned by the ing Lincoln's iniulu; and private llfp; Ptderal govennnent. It now Is n.^d shall be a repository tor disrmgulshed I relics of the Civil shall by the War Depurtnieut lor the btor- War, and I forever ' be dedicated as a national at;o of blank forms and not halt u Lincoln shilno and national head- ' dozen persons work lu it. quarter.-^ for the of the As a con.seciuencc of intense feel- Grand Army Republic and other veterans' Int; througliout the nation it wfts de- ori;aiii- teriniiied t.oon after the a^sasblnatlon zatiolis. I !of Mr. Lincoln that tlie building, The work of restoration will be tar- ried then one of tlie most eelehrated and on by the Federal goverunicnt's richly appointed theaters in America, director ol builrtinn;> and grounds. Col. never atjaln should be used as a Ulysses Grant, gr.mdson- of Gen. pluyhoube. Purchase by the govcrn- Ulysses S. Grant, who was to have UK.'iit and obliteration of the interior gone to the theater with Mr. and aspect of Ford's followed. Since then Mr3. Lincoln on tlie niuht of April the biuIUing has been a mute and 14 and whom also Booth had hoped inutile remlncler of the supreme in- lo slay; aiiotiier cointuinice is that dividual tragedy in the annals of the the bill creating the nev/ memorinl republic. was iiitrociiieed by the son of the That Jt shall no longer be Inutile Maj. Rathbone who. with his atlianced, is the puri)o.-,e ot Representative liuth- was that niglit vith the Ijincolns, uoiie's bill whieii the District of Co- not, however, a>j bocly:iUard—as some lumbia Couiliiitlee of the House of ;:upi,ose— but as guest. j Repre.seiilativi.s has rt-ported not only Outv.ardly the old playhouso l^ favorably but al.so with no dissc ut- about the same as it was .slxly-lhr4 Ina voice. Secretary of War Davli years ago and tlie conligiiration/^ also is 111 favor of having the War the court.3 and alley.s ihrough w)^"" Department reliiiquit-h the bullduiiT Booth made his escape Ironi the / to u.ses more m keepuii; with its atcr is unchanged. Cijt.iin \y.\U / au.stere hisiorieal .signihcance than way.s ouuvide tlio building wh>*- is Its present use as a storage house, as.sasni used will be restored." l*re proof building and is now used as LINCOLN MUSEUM |» storehouse, which surely is not com- fpatible with its historic associations, IN WASHINGTON United as it -was acquire crowds of visitors. Further, it is not large enough for the present collec- tion of Lincoln relics, to say nothing of further like collections, which are promised to be added thereto, if suit- able provision Is made for their pres- ervation. Brothers will doubtless remember The Banner that Ford's Theatre is where , Presi- 1928, dent Linroln was shot in 1866. It is 4 lebruary. HINDS ASe :} TO SAVE OLD FORD THEATER Scene of Lincoln's Death Is Now Used for U. S. Offices. . , WASHINGTON, D. C, AprU 14—Ever since the United State* purchased the ojd Ford thegtei;, where Abraham IviQCoIn was «&• sas^inated in 1865, it has served as office apace for overcrowded, departmenta of the government. Now congresa is asked to ap- propriate funds to preserve its fast decaying walls and interior ftpa to provide (or t))« houaipi; tn tb* theater of the v9J\i%t>>e Oldroyd coL> leotlon of Lincoln Aouvenin», now 1d> stalled across the 4tr««t Iq the houat wherf Lincoln died. The author of Xhp measure |« Beprescotatlve Henry !{. lUthbpat of IlUpoU, a gr«pd«on of MaJ. lUth* bone, who was in th^ box with tb* President aq4 Mr«. I4ocolh oq th« nlsrht the' president waf shot pjii wiio carried the wounded man (^croas the street. ' The war department, which ha« used the Ford theater since It waa bought by the governmant, has ln< dicated that It wUl be ready to va» cats the buUdinf by June 30. The records and patents bureaus also has been qsinE: the theater for (ts offices. If the Rathbon« bill does not pass, th« theater will be turned over again to the bulldinff commission, for a»^ signment to any other federal de* partmcnt or bureau which needs of« flee space. Q. 7. ConclcUn, special assistant to the public buildings commissioner says that neither tha war department nor the commission has money enough to pu^ the hlstorlo structure into sultabl* condition. Representative Rathbone's grand* father was seated juat l>ehlnd thq president on the night of April 14, isci. as Lincoln f id bU party watched the play 'K>ur American Cousin," from a box at the left of the prescenlum. As soon as he heard the shot, he Jumi>e 1 lie sentiment against the showing I Daily Doings In " was '80 intense that the promoters! were forced to cancel the engage- L^ NaUon's Capital ment. Subsequently congress pur- chaaied the building. ,..',' \ . Later another tragedy w2is en->. (By Associated PreM) vj acted within th^ old waUB, Used aa a-fiii^r department office, the. In- ^ WASHINGTON, July 31 I— The terior wall collapsed June 9, 1893, Old Ford theatre on Tenth Street in the Twenty-two me^ were killed, and capital—* structure which is 108 injured. . \ M melancholy In appearance as its During the World war period, the history is tragic—may be facing building housed over- itM ultimate destiny. govemm«nt flow. There was 'an army recruit- r On the^ calendar of the house of ing office there \mtil two years ago. x^pre4«atativ«sV U«ted as unfinished But It Is desolate now. ^The only jhusina^a.^ia i bill which would life within its dim-columned In- ^make-of -thi» historic building a terior is the government watchman. J-JpCQla museum. Under the meas- One is on duty at all hours of the "Uf* |Ji8^lt*lNW(| I be appropriated day and night. ; for the work of reconstruction. : Witness Living i^ It- is -planned to reconstruct the Perhaps the most keenly Inter- ^^tejlor to some semblance of the ested person in this latest move rway^ It looked when John Wilkes to establish the statue of the thea- pQoitx kiU«d the aWl war presi- tre is Charles S. Wilson, 83 years • ' dent. . old resident capital. I and a of the Wilson claims, and as yet he has ^:??^?>«*f^.Wlsiyft cpliectloh of Un- not been challenged, to be the only eohi relics, now housed in the Old- living eye witness in Washington royd resfdeace on the same street of the tragedy within the walls of -wh^e ' Lincoln died, after being the theatre on Good Friday night, "Ijroughi-acWss the street from the April 14, 1865. theatre, would be moved to the old He was 18 years old at the time, playhouse. Oincta for patriotic ao- and rei^em^ers the Incident vividly. Mtafe There was the report of a revolver, cletiea also would bafcroyl^ad.bi he said, and in the great confusion/ The- proposed nArQ^ lUe of th* he was forced to the street. theatre would cllmafc a hlstpcy of ji "I was dazed," said Wilson, de- century. The bulling wad erected ^riblng the events "As I waited for in 1832 as a Baptist church, and trahsportatioii' homie to ^where 1 remodeled during the C|vU war lived on capitol hill, I remember period a* a theatre. / , hearing rumors that Grant and Se- ' , Later CoUapsed^ ward» tooj had beei^ killed." There never was a play given In the theatre after Lincoln's death. ^The Octoroon" was biUed, but* pub-| always a danger. A quarter's ad-* mission will be charged at first Iq OLD FORD THEATER the old theater because Congress has not appropriated any money to BE MUSEUM OF operate it as a museum TO ; Three years ago the government bought the Oldroyd collection for $50,000 It contains about 3000 items RELICS OF LINCOLN Oldroyd, who died recently, was a BY RODNEY DUTCHER Civil War veteran and Lincoln ad- 'mlrer who devoted his life and Washington.—The old Portl Thea- money to the collection He refused Lincoln was ter, where Abraham several private offers for It. •hot, is being painted and prettied The prizes of the collection are store- considered to be the last thing up. . Its days as a catch-all which Lincoln wrote a brief mes- house for the government are over. — sage advising a couple of applicants By fall it will have become a fed- for a pass that they needed none eral museum, receiving the remarlc-l to leave the District of Columbia able Oldroyd collection of relics because the war was over, the Bible from the old firetrap across the which Lincoln read as a boy and{ fttreet in which Lincoln died. which affected his literary style Im- The building hasn't resembled a j portantly and various pieces of fur-j theater for many years. Things nlture from the Lincoln home in were done to it when the govern- Springfield, 111. ment acquired it shortly after the The assortment also contains assassination and about 40 years piece of the fringe ago, while it was being used by the such Items as a Lincoln's head In adjutant general's office, its floors that hung over night, a small caved in, killing a score of em- the theater that the death- ployes and Injuring scores more^ .piece of a towel used at dried rose taken from the After reconstruction it was used to bed, a he lay in store and issue the War Depart- dead man's bosom as devoted to ment's publications and printed death, sheet music about 90 dif- matter until about three years ago Lincoln — including funeral marches, a roll of when it came to be used lor gen- ferent after decoration eral temporary storage by various white ribbon left bureaus and departments. of the catafalque, about 600 pic- Include a hundred Museum on Ground Floor tures which photographs of the presi- Nothing more is heard of the original pages from many proposal to restore the theater so dent, front carrying news of the that it would look as it did on thQ newspapers scores of mourning evening of April 14, 1865. Preju- assassination, all mem- dice against rebuilding and per- badges, autographs of military commission petuating the setting of an assas- bers of the convicted the con- sination killed that. which tried and library of hundreds The ground floor, to be used as spirators, a books of Llnoolnlana, the old the museum, is now only one big of cooldng stove from the Lin- bare room, its celling supported wood a wheel from the by many equally spaced iron pil- coln home apd carriage, Lincoln's lars. The former front entrances Lincoln family books, letters written by Lin- are now large windows except for own coln, many political cartoons of one. Over in a corner at the rear the period, many small personal is a small door corresponding belongings and both life and death somewhat to the exit John Wilkes masks. Booth took as he fled into what is Various additions to the collec- now an alley to mount the horse tion have been donated since the held for him by "Peanuts" Bur- government bought it and Colonel rows. The whole place Is approxi- Grant says there will be many mately fireproof and the work on good things that the government It- it has been confined to general self can add. repairs and plenty of painting The house where Lincoln died, Inside and out. The old dirty; now housing the collection, prob- gray paint outside was sand- ably will be preserved and re- blasted and the bricks painted so stored as nearly as possible to Its that they look like new. appearance 65 years ago. U. S. Grant III In Charge (Copyright, 1931, NEA Service, Inc. Present operations are being car- Printed in U.S.A.) ried out through the initiative of Clonel U. S. Grant III, director of public buildings and grounds. Grant was worried about the fire hazard which has always tlireatened the Oldroyd collection and points out that it can now be successfully shown to only eight or nine people at a time. You can't watch niore thaji that many In the present quarters and souvenir hunters are nHB Ute nuLsk and the deatb ^2_ mask are also In the museum, the shavlner mug be used and 'one of the shawls he wore as Presf- Jaat am ala» to be seen. . Bound volumes of all the sermons preached on Lincoln V>n the Sundays imme- diately following the assassination, about 2,000 pictures in which Lin- coln appears alone or as one of a •group, the original order relieving General George B. McClellan of the command of the Army of the Po- tomac, are just a few of the hun- dreds of other exhibits which are to be shown tn the new Ford'» Theatre Museum. OHB WAR DEPARTMENT THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE iNREPUY-^^ 095 Terry, Howard K. RErERT0{ll_£3-31) MiSCl. WASHINGTON December 16, 1931, Mr. Howard K. Terry, 9528 Y/isteria Street, Bus tie ton, Philadelphia, Pa. Bear Sir: Reference is made to your letter of November 15, 1931, ad- dressed to Col. U. S. Grant, Director, Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, which has been referred to this office for reply, requesting information with reference to the old Ford theatre in this city, with particular reference to certain pillars which are said to have been taken from the building and placed in the Hotel Central, Panama City. There appears to be no history or chronological account of events connected with the Ford theatre building available in compiled form and no reference can be found in the records to the pillars to which you refer in your letter. The building was converted into an office building following the Civil War and in 1893 part of the building collapsed, necessitating elaborate repairs. The work on both occasions was doubtless done under contract and it is possible that certain parts of the building not needed in reconstruction were removed and disposed of. It is regretted that additional infomiation on the subject is not readily available. Very truly yours, Major General, The Adjutant Genef Two-cent postage stamp returned. No. 146 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA January 25, 1932 coln he could obtain by contribution District of Columbia invited Mr. Old- LINCOLN LORE or purchase. royd to bring his famous collection to In all parts of the country he unre- Washington, D. C. mittingly prosecuted his search and The association had rented for the bullktim of Endowbd By unique purpose Thb Lincoln The Lincoln today the result stands among of housing the collection the all Lincolniana. It ranges from the old Peterson house where Lincoln Hktoi ical National Life died. Rbikabch Inrdbancb books the boy Lincoln studied in the It is located just across the street from rude log cabin of his youth, to the Ford's Theatre, the Foundation C O M P A N T scene of the f famous gray woolen shawl which the assassination. Dr. Louis A. Warren Editor President wore. In 1897 by act of Congress and spon- There are in the collection several sored by a Congressman from a south- MOVING A NATIONAL pieces of furniture used by Lincoln in ern state, the historic old home was the White House and when he was acquired by the government for the MUSEUM practicing law in Springfield. In one sum of $30,000. Here over a period of One of the most impressive Lincoln cabinet are three well-thumbed books more than thirty years, with a small fee birthday celebrations this year will be which were the beloved companions of of admission as his only reim- the formal opening of the Lincoln Lincoln's youth. They are the Bible, in bursement, Mr. Oldroyd continued to display Room in Ford's Theatre, Washington, which he scrawled his name. Bunyan's his remarkable collection. Pilgrim's D. C, where Lincoln was assassinated. Progress and Weems's Life The state of Illinois, realizing that a The building will shelter the collection of Washington. To a later period be- grave mistake had been made in al- longs black of Lincoln relics displayed for many a locust rail split by "Abe" lowing the famous collection to leave years in the old house where Lincoln and taken from the fence around his Springfield, bestirred itself, and pro- died just across the street from the father's home near Decatur, Illinois. posals for its return were made to Mr. new quarters. Among the most interesting relics Oldroyd. It is encouraging to know that the in the collection is the flag which While the collection was still in the priceless mementos of the martyred draped the theater box, and in which possession of Mr. Oldroyd, Henry Ford president are already being trans- the assassin's spur caught as he made an offer for the material assem- ferred to the new room, which will, to jumped, tearing the flag and causing bled by the veteran collector, but pub- a large extent, remove the serious fire him to fall on the stage in such a man- lic opinion which decreed that a collec- hazard which has ever been present ner as to break his leg. The rent made tion of so national a character should during the years the collection has by the spur is plainly seen, and the not pass into private hands, was highly been housed in the building at 516 spur which made it is hung on the wall influential in bringing about its pur- Tenth St. N. W., where many thous- near the flag. Here also are oil chase by the government. ands have viewed it. paintings of Mr. Lincoln, made in 1842 Mr. Oldroyd had always cherished in and 1846; several groups in which he The change location will bring the idea that the government might into their former environment many appears, including the President and finally become the purchaser of his items in the collection which had their his cabinet; Lincoln studying at night collection so that there would be no origin in Ford's Theatre. While there by the firelight in his father's cabin. danger of his work of a life time being may be some objection to emphasizing A corrected draft of the immortal wasted by the scattering of this rare Gettysburg speech; the assassination of Lincoln by mak- different recep- Lincolniana. ing a shrine of the building, it will tions at the White House, including his It was not until 1925, however, that create a proper atmosphere in which last one; scenes in Springfield, por- there was any assurance that to display the many mementos of traying Oak Ridge Cemetery and the this hope would be realized. America's greatest tragedy. Lincoln Monument; the Globe tavern, A bill was presented to Congrress authorizing the Osborne H. Oldroyd was largely re- where Lincoln boarded when he was a purchase of the collection by the United States sponsible for the gathering of this brilliant and popular lawyer, and at a price of $50,000. Loyal support valuable collection—it was, in fact, where his son Robert was born; the was given to this project the result of his life's work. proclamation of freedom, dated Janu- by Congress- man Rathburn of Chicago, At the age of eighteen, the future ary 1, 1863; scenes on the night of the whose father and mother were in the relic-hunter opened a news stand in assassination, and photographs of box with the Lincolns the night Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where he was born. places connected with the history of of the tragedy. It was in 1860, the year Lincoln and the capture of Booth are in the collec- The appropriation was made by the Hannibal Hamlin were the standard tion. A large photograph of the log government for the purchase of the bearers of the newly-formed Repub- cabin near Farmington, Illinois, and collection and Mr. Oldroyd was made lican party. Out of the bundle of new one of an interior of this cabin, with curator emeritus with a salary which publications which came from a Pitts- the remains of an old spinning wheel was sufficient to care for him the rest burg distributor one day there fell the used by Lincoln's step-mother may be of his days. book about "Abram" Lincoln. The seen. It was in this cabin that Lin- Possibly one of the most cherished young merchant read and re-read the coln's father died in 1851, and in which mementos secured by Mr. Oldroyd engrossing tale of the Republican can- his step-mother enjoyed the realization during his whole life was the pen with didate's rise from obscurity to fame. of her hopes of greatness for her which President Coolidge signed the There formed within him the convic- foster son, as she lived here until after measure authorizing the purchase of tion that any man who in the face of his election as President of the United the Lincoln collection. seemingly insuperable States. obstacles could While Mr. Oldroyd remained as accomplish all that Lincoln had, not The collection originally was housed curator emeritus of the museum up to only would make a good President but in the Lincoln home in Springfield, the time of his death the oversight of also would be worthy of a lifetime's Illinois, which property Oldroyd was the valuable collection was largely study. This conviction gave rise to a instrumental in having presented to given over to Mr. Lewis G. Reynolds, determination by young Oldroyd to the state by Robert T. Lincoln. Here the present efficient curator. Under collect every scrap of printed material the collection remained for ten years his direction the removal of the relics and every memento concerning Lin- until the Memorial Association of the to their new location is taking place. i THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, tlons, the remaining floors will be taken over. In the meantime. It is FORD'S THEATRE NOW A MUSEUM probable those floors will be used by patriotic societies to whom the government will issue temporary The Building, Restored by the Government, permits. Just across the street and almost Will House Thousands of Lincoln Relics directly opposite the main entrance to Ford's Theatre stands the old By L. C. aPBERa yw -the reoouftrucUon oT the 1n- boarding bouse, in a hallroom of WASHmoTON. ' 1 terior for museum purposes It which Lincoln died seven hours af- FORD'S THCATRB where, aI-< wma necessary to alter the build- ter Booth shot him. It also is most sixty-seven years at;o, i^g oom'pletely. What was the dress owned by the government and ftVO. Abraham Lincoln was as-; circle in Lincoln's time is now a be preserved. For many years it sasslnated, will be opened to single great room where is being housed the Oldroyd collection, but tlie public as a national museum i^t tn i^ace the famous Oldroyd was too small for the proper dis- T>n Friday, the 123d anniversary of eoUaetion purchased by tlis gov- play of the relics. Lincoln's birth. In it will be shown «nunent for 950,000 in 1926. Strange to say, the cataloguing a great collection of relics connect- Henry Ford had offered Colonel of the Oldroyd collection has the end nearest E Street. -| w * * * .ttMiyB March XO, 1937 Mr, Harrall L. Oarrett ford^sThoatro »ua«UB Wathii^ton, D. C. My d«ar Mr* Oarrettt While raoently on an Itlneraxy throu^ th« Xattom StatAs I vat tch«dxil«d for aa addreM a,tOOettyfi>xuqj^ 'bsfore the Boiary OlvSb, at idiieh tima I vat adrltad that you had basn inad^ Cutttodiancf the LinoolB Shrine In '^Ashlnt^ton* It occurred to me that pottlMy you nl^t like to hart for your fllat a tuXletin liiich we pablitii hare called Lincoln Lore, end I take pleaeure In enclotii^ a few tangle copies. If fon thlniz you w:)uld like to have it tent to your addrete will you .:iudly advise ue to what point It should he forwarded and we will be very hapffy to send it. and there it no expense) sbataver attached to lt« ?9ry truly yourt. LlLWt a Director UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Lee Mansion, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Lincoln Museum Arlington, 7a. Washington House vThere Lincoln Died OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDEITr 511 Tenth Street, N.W. March 17, 1937 Dr. Louis A, Warren, Director, Lincoln National Life Foundation, Fort Wayne, Indiana, My dear Dr. Warren: I have received your letter of March 12, containing your offer of copies of Lincoln Lore for my file. I wish to express my sincere appreciation of this offer, but, in- asmuch as the copies viiich you have been sending to Cap- tain Clemens are placed in our files, I do not believe that It would be necessary to send additional ones. I would also like to add that Captain Clemens still remains the Custodian of the ?:useum. I am very sorry that I missed seeing you 77hile you were in Washington. Captain Clemens told me of your visit. Also, we both wish to express our regrets at not being able to at- tend your lecture. We received instructions to keep the Museum open until ten o'clock that night and it was neces- sary for us to remain on duty. Sincerely yours, ji^ J. £_cV- Harper L. Garrett, Acting Superintendent, fo<'^ -Cuui-W-C The Tragedy at Ford's Theater By HARLOWE R. HOYT promised to keep it there. With previous install menl Mr. lloyt Theater, which is the structure that In a considerable difficulty, he finally no less than a round stands in Washington today. poiitlid out that induced Congress to pay him $100,- luith the was a product of dozen of persons connected John T. Ford government intimate 000 indemnities. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln met Baltimore, He was an family and retained the theate,r. •violent deaths, committed suicide or friend of the Booth com- he Again a Ford's theater was This is the last of t'ujo sponsored John Wilkes when luent insane. pletely remodeled and used as a made his first stage appearances. articles. part of the surgeon general's office He owned two theaters in Baltimore Church of the War Depurlmcnt. It was The Old in addition to his Washington house given over to the display of peculiar Ford's Theater was originally a and was recognized as one of the wounds and diseases which had de- church. It was built in 1833 by leading managers of his time. When veloped on tiie field and in hos- Washington's First Baptist Congre- the new theater opened, it was pitals during the war. Among the gation on the east side of Tenth patronized by the opposition—that specimens, it might be noted, were Street, between E and F. It passed clique of politicians who opposed three of the cervical vertebrae of through many vicissitudes, as do all Lincoln's policies—and for that rea- Booth, showing the wound made by congregations, with different pas- son, the president preferred to at- the bullet that killed him. What is tors and varying fortunes. But in tend Grover's Theater, where his left of this relic is now in the army 1861, a new site was chosen and son, Tad, -had the run of the stage. museum and can still be seen. the trustees sold the property to The fatal April 14 marked his first ran along smoothly for a John T. Ford. vi-sit of the season to Ford's and he Things time. Then came June 9, 1893. The building was opened for con- went then only because he desired Cousin," Whether the building was poorly certs and minstrel shows since no to see "Our American Chi- constructed or whether materials alterations were required for this which Laura Keane played in conven- had been defective was never ascer- simple form of entertainment. Then cago when the Republican him to the presi- tained. By this time, 500 govern- it was rebuilt and became a bona tion nominated ment clerks were housed there. fide theater. Sharing fortunes with dency the first time. authorities There were numerous heavy files, Grover's Theater, its only opposi- Following the murder, closed for classification had become part tion, the new place enjoyed marked seized the theater. It was Ford; of the work, and desks and office success until Dec. 30. 1862, when and kept under guard. John Buckingham, paraphernalia adced their weight fire broke out during the afternoon his brother. Clay; J. E. Spangler, when the place was deserted. The the door tender; Ned Disaster part building burned to the ground. stage hand, and the company, and parcel, were arrested during Suddenly, with no hint or warn- the John T. Ford Secretary Stanton's first general ing, the lower three floors of Burning of a structure in those sweep and each was placed in structure collapsed. The 300 em- days meant much to the manage- prison. All but Spangler were re- ployes unfortunate enough to be in in ment. The stock system was em- leased after a bit but he went to dangerous territory went down ployed, where the actors supported the Dry Tortugas on the supposition a mass of mortar, timbers, splin- Po- only the visiting star and one or that he played a small part in the tered flooring and iron work. itself, were two others. Standard plays were death plot. lice, firemen, the army given- and the visitors stepped in to call(!d upon to effect a rescue. One Transfer head the cast. The fire meant the by one, wounded and dead were ex- practically destruction of all scenery, properties Ford felt himself tiacted. Some escaped with minor and costumes, which were the back- ruined. But after 40 days' in- injuries. Some went to the hospital exonerated. ground of the system. But Ford carceration he was for months. Many were left crippled started without delay and the fol- His theater was still in the hands for life. Twenty-eight were dead lowing August opened a new Ford's of the government and red-tapfe when their bodies were recovered. For the greater part, they were em- ployes on the first floor, buried un- der the greatest portion of the debris. Again the building was rebuilt. But this time, it was made into a national museum and such it re- mains to the present day. Capt. O. H. Oldroyd, Lincoln enthusiast and Civil War veteran, commenced a collection of Lincoln relics in Springfield, 111., in the old home- stead. Later, he moved his collec- tion to Washington and housed it in the Peterson lodging house where Lincoln died, across from the the- ater. Still later, this was moved to the Lincoln Museum. But many changes have been made and most of it today is in the army museum. So ends the story of Ford's The- ater; and in the wake of the murder of a president, so ends the list of 40 deaths th.nt might be said to be con- nected with that tragedy. 'USE 4155 In order to try to carry on that building as a museum, so that it will not be an expense to the Federal Government in times like this. I believe Lincoln would approve it if he were here, and I hope there will be no reduction in any fees that are now charged those who visit these shrines, whether it be Lincoln's shrine or any other shrine, because the solvency of the country certainly requires that these admission fees be retained. I hope the amendment will be voted down. Mr. WHITE. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. I yield to the gentleman from Idaho. Mr. WHITE. I wonder if the gentle- man from Pennsylvania Is in favor of charging an admission to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial? We could get a big revenue there. Mr. RICH. I would so recommend at this time of such great need for funds to keep this country from going into bankruptcy, we are on the very verge of it—the enormous deficits of the past 10 years have created the greatest debt our Nation has ever experienced; it is twice as great as it was after the World War at the highest point. I Here the gavel fell.] Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that all debate on this amendment and all amendments thereto close in 6 minutes. The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Johnson] ? There was no objection. ' Mr. DONDERO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Dirk- sen], Mr. Chairman, the amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois seeks to strike from this bill the charge of 10 cents to visit the old Ford Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated, and the house In which Lincoln died, at No. 516 Tenth Street, In this Capital City. I do not know by what authority the Department of the Interior ever levied that charge to visit those two places. The chairman of the committee has raised the question that protests and ob- jections have come to him because of the charge to visit the home and the shrine of the Father of Our Country. This property does not belong to the Federal Government. It belongs to an associa- tion. That is not true of the house in which Lincoln died or of Ford's Theater, where he was assassinated. Both of these places belong to the Federal Gov- ernment. It seems to me that at a time like this, and under conditions in which we find our country today, this Congress could do much to preserve for the American people and the children of the rising generation the great characters of our Nation by making it just as easy as pos- sible to visit these shrines without charge. I know that many thousands of peo- ple come to the city of Washington, and they do not even know that Ford's Thea- ter is open to the public until they are told. Invariably, when they find It out. . ' ^•''^> '-^ C^,;M Capital Visitors Find Ford Theater. Lincoln Shooting Site^ Is Neglected BV DICK CULL JR. Gone from its interior are the ."econstruct the setting of a joyous Tb« Dmll.r New* BurMia original equipment and furnish- April night that was to end in one 6U AlbM BMg. ings. there is nothing on the of the great tragedies of American WaahlnctoB. D. C. And inside to convince you of being in history. WASHINGTON, July 25. — Not • theater. Because he, too, was disap- long ago a Dayton-area woman pointed by his visit to Ford's expressed the universal disappoint- Only a painted line across the theater—which is now known a* ment of visitors here who look in- floor outlines the stage upon which the Lincoln Museum—Sen. Young »ide nearly-neglected Ford's the comedy, "Our American decided to do something about It. 'theater, the place where President Cousin," was being given when Along with Republican Rep. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated John Wilkes Booth's fatal shot rang George A. Dondero of Michigan the night of April 14, 1865. out. he introduced a resolution to re- ''^ Only painted footprints indicate "It's a shame to leave the place store the theater to Its appear- the path pf Booth's flight., After Ifo to ruin," the woman wrote to ance on the night of the shooting. jostling Laura Keene, star of the '^{Republican Sen. Milton R. Young The letter from the Dayton-area show, in The* wings, he fled out a «f North Dakota, who is co-sponsor woman is only one of those re- rear door. That door is ,'of a resolution in p)ngress to re- now a window. ceived by Sen. Young in which >store the theater's interior as it ' disappointment is expressed. ]was on that fateful night. Others have come from all over ALL THAT remains of the presi- > Not many historical landmarks the country. dential party's box is the door in Hn this nationed capital are as dis- A grandniece of a Lincoln body- which Booth cut a peephole to fiappointing to the thousands who guard, who had helped carry the watch Lincoln. icome here every summer as this wounded President across the -hallowed site on Tenth st.,*,north- In short, It's only by drawing on street to the house where he died, • we»t. the imagination JhcLj; visitors can said she also was "disappointed . . . to find it an office building." Additional evidence that Ford's theater does not rank with other tourist attractions here is the fact hat last year 1,793,000 persons visited the Lincoln memorial 1,056,000 were at Mount Vernon, 985,000 at the Washington monu- ment, but only 146,000 visited Ford's theater. * * * •AFTER SEN. YOUNG offered his resolution, a descendant of John T. Ford, who owned the theater at the time of the shooting, offered to help track down its fur- nishings. That will be difficult, to say the least. Records and plans have vaa> j ished—even if they ever existed. ' The box office was in the build- ing's south front but there Is no known record of Its size or ap- - pearanre. A stairway to the upper bal- conies was in the north front cor- ner, but thei'e is no evidence as to whether it was angular or circular, wide or narrow. Fortunately, pictures of the stage and the box Lincoln occupied are available. Taken for trial evidence purposes, they would enable ac-^ ' curate reproduction of the histori- cally important parts of the in- terior. , Nevertheless, enthusiasts for the restoration are hopeful that, as ' the stage looks today to visitors at the Lincoln museum, which the theater . . . This is how tame word sprpadSt n long-fprgptteo lef-i^ has become • .- -- k.—. y^ / \ John WUkes Booth crossing WASHINGTON, July 25.—The sketch above, by A. Berghaus, shows 1865. Booth, who had just assassinated the stage o« the Ford', theater here the night ol AprU 14, . Stewart, member ol the audience . . President Lincoln, Is being pursued by Maj. Joseph B. a vesiiDUle of the jsox, the actor ler or picture or set of plans will barred the door from within. After turn up. observing the President's position Restoring the theater would not through a small hole in the inner be necessary had a fund drive door, Booth, familiar with the play, shortly after the assassination suc- entered the box about 10:15 p. m., ceeded. The attempted to YMCA when only one actor was on the laise money to buy the building to stage. preserve it as a Lincoln memorial. Lincoln sat with his back to the The drive fell short. door, engrossed in the play. Sud- MAYBE THE OIJ) building has denly the fatal shot was fired and been jinxed from the start. the ' mortally wounded President The original structure on the slumped in his chair. site was the First Baptist church. As Maj, Rathbone sprang at the When the congregation moved in assassin, Bobth dropped iiis single- 1859, the building was sold to Ford. shot derringer and, with his dag- He remodeled it into a theater, ger, stabbed Rathbone in the left P'ord's Athenaeum. In 1863 it was arm, forcing him to relinquish his wrecked by fire. hold. • After Lincoln was shot in 1865, As Booth leaped 1rpm the bo]C« public indignation prevented Ford the spur of his right boot became . from reopening the theater. entangled In the colors of the Consequently, th^ government U. S. Treasury Guards, decorat- rented it from him for a time be- ing the center of the box. Thrown fore buying it outright for $100,000 off balance, he landed awkwardly in 1866. It was remodeled into a on the stage, at least ll'/j feet warehouse and offices and that is below, fracturing the large bone when the theatrical furnishings In his left leg above the ankle. vanished. Booth Tragedy again struck in 1893 instantly regained his feet and, when the floors collapsed, killing brandishing his dagger, is 22 persons and injuring 68 others. asserted to have shouted "Sic The interior again was rebuilt semper tyrannis" (Ever thus to tyrants), the motto of the and it was used for governmental common- purposes until the present mu- wealth of Virginia, before dating the seum was set up in 1933. from stage. The play presented at Ford's Maj. Joseph B. Stewart, who was Pictured above is the Lincoln museum from the street. I heater on the night of April 14, in the audience, crossed the foot- 1865, was Tom Taylor's celebrated lights in pursuit. Escaping by the comedy, "Our American Cousin," rear door, the murderer mounted with Laura Koene, a distinguished his horse, held by Joseph "Pea- actress, in the leading role. nuts" Burroughs, the stage door- The importance of the occasion keeper, and rode out of the alley was heightened by the presence of to F St. TH E DAYTON DAILY NEWS President and Mrs. Lincoln, who Booth fled into Maryland, and, ' " 26, 1953 had as their guests Maj. Henry R. aided by Southern sympathizers, SUNDAY, JULY Ralhbone and his fiancee, Miss leached Garrett's farm, near Port 31a ra Harris. Royal, Va., wl^ere he was shot and J The third act of tiie play was killed on April 26. Irawing to a close when John Wilkes Booth, prominent actor, en- lered the building and made his ivay leisurely from the dress circle lo the presidential box, located on he right of the audience. * « « GAINING an entrance to the l«asliiii(;toii IViily :Jcv;s 7asliin'',toi\, I). C. 'lav 28' PERMviNENT REPERTORY Groups Want Ford Theater Made Theater NRT, said some changes Ford's Tliealer. at 511 lOUi^ of would be required in the nw, currently being restored to may theater's design — permanent lis Civil War era condition, lines for pulling come alive theatrically again if stage lighting, Theater scenery up and down, dressing the American National — before it could be Academy and the National room space full-scale production. Repertory Theater ha\'e their used for an opportunity to do way. "This is plays of tremendous historical groups have proposed The two and cultural importance," he year-round repertory troupe to a said. in put on plays produced Dewell said the project could Lincoln's time or contemiwrary be financed either by the works about tlie assassinated National Park Service or the President and the Civil War. Health. Education and Welfare would be "She Stoops Examples The Interior British farce Department. to Conquei-," a Depai-tment said it was "quite performed at the theater a week and interested in tlie project." before Linxx)ln's death, to the latest "John Brown's Body." "TMie According and estimates. tlie $2 miUion Last Days of Lincoln," of the theater is to "Abe Lincoln in Illinois." refurbishing be finished in about 10 montlis. Miqhael Dewell, co-producer ^ may 28, Washington daily n-ews, s.\turd.\y, Restoration of Ford's Theater Is Plann^ WASlllNUTON. Feb. ' 6 (AP)— Iwhcre he rtlcd l« in the Chic.goChicago jusl a museummuseum," Tructt said -We'-Wei )ne thing vlsltora to hlitorlc His'"""' Society Museum. Ithink a lot more people would "<-" .course we Ford's Theater want—and at last L would like to .come lo see It if the stage and •— '^ ."..... uBm, 'It Possible.)jv33iuic. Wenc boxesuuxcs andana methe wholewnoie dramatic may^mj get—»ci j3is realUmictfiisui. H""* "l^'"^"':''. have already beenh<»<>n communicat-rnmmnn <<•». L/^^n^scene of«r the»k« assassination... i_-.i f...V,ineyhe'v e«n,.,-V lo'T— ih. »i.. !?„'„" ?.K ??^ were c^i^ci.expect tolu seesec theine Flag-iingriag-iing withwitn the DearbornLlearbom museum |reslored" draped balcony box ''bout the chair, but where John the outlook Attendance Figures Given Wilkes Booth, a ^r'ght. I'm afraid." deranged actor ''!ll!...'°° Figures show Truett hopes, too, that some that 152,228 per- with flashing black eyea and sons, Including long sought pieces of stage 17,070 school chll- murder In dren, his heart, asaaaalnated equipment may be found visited the theater muse- um in 1953. By contrast, the Lin- Abraham Lincoln. "It is strange how a little pub- coln Memorial drew nearly 1,- And they expect to see the licity will bring things out of 750,000, the Washington stage where Booth fell and broke storerooms and attics," he said Menu-, his leg after still ment more than l.OUO.OOO catching a spur in "We hope somebody win | the colors of the Treasury find something. Aside from a smallscale repli- Guards ca thai night when the Civil Floor Plan Lacking of the theater stage, flanked War President was viewing a by the box where Lincoln re- "For instance, we have never farewell performance of the cele- ceived the fatal bullet, the chief been able lo And the floor brated comedy. "Our American plan attractions in the mu.scum are Cousin," of Ford's Theater. We have news- starring Laura Keene. paper L The stubby 6-inch derrin- "People drawings and photographs are terribly disappoint- ger, a sinslc-shot muzzle loader, |ed made immedately after the as- when they don't find the stage which Booth fired into the sa.ssinalion, but not the floor back Just as it was on the night of of Lincoln's head. April plan." 14, 1865, when Lincoln wai 2. Booth's diary, written dur- shol, • .say.s Handle B. Truett .*.?''''"•"}' P"^"^"' '" inghis'flight Through* I Jin.^II. Soulirer'n long lime chief Maryland, custodUn at tbt wun in which the assas' iS Lincoln Museum, i-UhMeine TSnistoncJric"Vve'^'"event, havehi'i I wrote "I can never rrnpni "'it "When they find that all the 'hey though we ha"ed'o kill"'""' theatrical thoughtl'hoT.h Te''re''"r"^*''"were genuine trappings have disap- copies," 3. The riding boot which > peared—the stages, boxes, orig-' doctor cut ' chalra iTaT NewTo?k"H"r.'iJ,"'* off "booth's .sha' te ed and so on— they want to know * account leg before he was tracked what of hrshoo^fng down happened. hy Federal troops and blood- "Thev innk* ....K . ,, Uaed for OfNce* ""•'"""''•* a"" 'hot to death in a right ' he «?rt "h,?, I 1^-. What they don't """?'""'""« harn near Port Royal, realize is that bothertoloJk'.t^hf^r.'* ' 'he front page. ° Va . on April while the theater I ..,™ .K 26, 1865 building itself o^ef,""* 'ook still stands, .'"'** at Booth's body is now buried in Ihe inside was ripped thlJiJ. I ^o^'h family out a few months after the find fh^ burial ground assas- an ad^e'^Ht^,^•n,"^'^"'"^''"'" a pa'- "• sination to make room •n. „«w? "'^rS"' in Baltimore. His grave- it- un-- for Gov- ent medicine with letters of en- ernment offices." marked dorsement from satisfied users Truett and others interested "The letters," he sighed, "are In preserving historic sites are dated 1895—some 40 years after hoping thai the 84th Congress the shooting " will provide funds to restore Truett explained that a patent Ford s Theater, so far as possible medicine manufacturer sent to duplicate out the exact scene of thousands of these that replicas by fateful night almost M years way of advertising ago his wares Although people come from all By joint resolution of the last S.u".'h*.c<»"'tT to see Ford's Congress, the Interior Depart- Theater, It ranks far below other ment has been instructed to capital landmarks as a tourist draw up plans i and esUmates for attraction. , the restoration and present them "We thiak U)|if< _ because it U I to Congress this year. Truett estimates the job would cost about $800,000. Other olli- cial.i think $1,000,000 would scarcely do the job. It would cost about $5,000, for example, just to restore the tat- tered and age-yiJJepw'ed flag of the Treasury aifjirds regiment which drang*T,incoln's box on the niRly^jpPthe assassination. ;e Trappings Gone —.ui.icr difficulty is that most the stage trappings have long -ince vanished and are believed] lo have been destroyed. "But we know that the red damask rocking chair Lincoln sat in when he was shot is now in the Ford Musium in Dear- born, Michigan," Truclt said in an interview. "And the bedj Theater Where Lincoln Was Assassinated May Be Restored to Original Setting By ROGER D. GREENE WASHINGTON i* — One thing visitors to historic Ford's Theater want—and at last may get—Is realbm. They expect to see the flag- draped balcony box where John Wilkes Booth, a deranged actor with flashing black eyes and mur- der In hla heart, assassinated Lincoln. And ihcy expect to see the stage where Booth fell and broke his leg after catching a spur In the colors of the Treasury Guards that night when the ClvU War Presi- dent was viewing a farewell per- formance of the celebrated com- edy, "Our American Cousin." star^ ring Laura Keene. People Disappointed "People are terribly disappoint- ed when they don't find the stage Just a» it was on the night of April 14. 1B65. when Lincoln was shot," says Handle B. Truelt, long time chief rustodlan of the Lincoln Museum. "When they find that all the I theatrical trappings have disap- CHANGED SET—Ford's Theater In Washington, where peared — the stages, boxes, chairs Abraham Lincoln was shot almost 90 years ago, as It ap- and so on they to — want know pears today. In the center background Qalldlne Harsch, 9, what happened. from San Antonio, Tex., originally and now living In Wash- "What they don't realize Is that ington; stands on what was once the stage directly below while the theater building Itself the spot where Lincoln &at In a balcony box at the time still stands, the Inside was ripped of the assassination. (AP Newsfeatures) out a few months after the assas- sination to make room for govern- It would eost about $5,500. for them back. U possible. We liav« ment offices." example. Just to restore the tat- already been communicating with Play Duplication tered and age-yellowed flag of the the Deartwrn museum about the Truett and others Interested In Treasury Guards regiment which chair, but the outlook isn't -too preserving historic sites are hop- draped Lincoln's box on the night bright. I'm afraid." ing that the 64th Congress will of the assassination. Truett hopes too that some long- provide funds to restore Ford's Trappings Vanished sought pieces of stage equipment Theater, so far as possible, to dup- Another difficulty is that most may be found. licate the exact scene of that fate- of the stage trappings have long "It is strange how a little pub- ful night almost 90 years ago. since vanished and are believed to licity will bring things out of store- By Joint resolution of the last have been destroyed. rooms and attics," he said. "We congress, the Interior Department know that the "But we red dam- slill hope somebody will find has been Instructed to draw up ask rocking chair Lincoln sat in something. Iplans and estimates for the restor- whea he was shot is now In the "For instance, we have never ation and present them to Coo- Ford Museum In Dearborn, Mich- been able to find the floor plan of "•^M this year. igan," Truett said In an interview. ** Ford's Theater. We have newspa- estimates the Job would "And the bed where he died Is in per drawings and photographs '"'^isHI^. Other •tflclals the Chicago Historical Society mu- -4oUan would seum. made Inupediately after the assas* "Of cottTf w would Ilka to havo ilnatlnii^ut not the floor pUii.7 Ififtft HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES SIGNIFICANT IN THE RESTORATION OR PARTIAL RESTORATION OF FORD'S THEATER m UNITED STATES DEPARTIIEOT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL CAPITAL PARKS • JANUARY, 19^6. , ^ - ' ' ' yv^FqJ ;^?^p^ lV5 ' 'g*j» i aip *- ' .^iirJi,«.N.iMi,Y rr^ ? ^? JWT i yf yiT?P ??'??tMV Pf^?^ y^'w. CONTa^TS Page BiraODUCTION , 1 EKTERIOR FEA.TURES OF K)RD'S THSiTER 2 West ]?tont of Jord' s Theater 2 North Wall of Ford' s Theater South Wall of Ford' s Theater 6 Sast Ivall of Ford' s Theater 6 Brick Building South of Ford' s Theater p, INTERIOR F:^A.TUR:i3 OF FORD ' 3 THEATER 10 The Main Lobby and Entrance 10 The Floors of Ford' s Theater 13 Seating in Ford' s Theater 16 The Boxes of Ford' s Theater 18 The Stage and Scenic Setting of Ford's Theater . 30 Dressing Room Annex , 33 REFERSTICES -liO 5 — >, The Librarij, of Congress Washington .26, D.C. ^.,tj>,.a^«.-*_^v^ Vol. 19, No. if Zff-^^'^ October 2k, i960 Table of Contents Acquisition Notes 603 Events in the Offing 6oh- Library of Congress Publications 6o4-605 Personnel 605-607 Staff Activities 607-609 Library of Congress Footnotes 609-612 Nevs in the Library World 612-617 Notes on Publications , 617-618 Acquisition Notes Addition to the John Rodgers Papers . Louisa Rodgers Alger of Cambridge, Mass., has given the Library of Congress thirteen letters (1809-1870) written by Mrs. John Rodgers, her- daughter, Mrs. Montgomery C. Meigs, and others. Their letters add materially to knowledge of the life of the Commodore RodgerS family at Sion Hill, Havre de Grace, Md. Also reflected throughout their letters are glimpses of the important part the Rodgers-Meigs family played in the affairs of their times. In anticipation of a visit home by the Commodore, Mrs. Rodgers wrote him on March I7, I8IO: At the first perusal of your last letter I flattered myself with the expectation of seeing you in a week or two, but on reflection I am afraid that I am too sanguine, and that the Torpedo system will not prove of sufficient inportance to call you to Washington Altho I neither know or care anything about Pulton or his experi- ments I shall be very much rejoiced if his visionary Scheme should prove the means of seeing you earlier than I expected, and I should trouble myself but very little concerning the sums ^Ich the nation might think proper to throw away on the subject. [Elizabeth G. McPherson] . r-o' 6ok LC Information Bulletin Events in the Offing !Ehe Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation in the Library of Congress will continue its anniversary season with two chamber music concerts featuring the Budapest String Quartet and Mitchell Lurie, eminent clarinetist, on Thursday and Friday evenings, November 5 and k. The program for both evenings will include Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major, K 58I, Beethoven's String Quartet in F major, op. I8, no. 1, and Brahms' Clarinet Quintet in B minor, op. 115- Both concerts will begin promptly at 8:30 p.m. in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library . The Friday evening concert will be broad- cast in its entirety by Station WGMS of Washington and will be made available to radio stations in other cities. Tickets will be distributed by the Hayes Concert Bureau, IIO8 G Street, N. W., beginning at 8:50 a.m. on Monday, October 31- A service charge of 25 cents is placed on each ticket, and only two tickets will be distributed to an individual. Telephone reservations may be made on Monday morning by calling District 7-^38? • Mail orders are not accepted. Assembly of State Librarians . The Librarian of Congress has invited the State librarians, law librarians, and directors of legislative reference services of the States and territories to convene at the Li- brary of Congress Noveiriber 16-I8 for the Second Assembly of State Librar- ians. The agenda for the assembly will include discussions of the public documents of the States, the reference and research services and compi- lations of State libraries, the Library Services Act and the States, and State agencies and the development of public libraries, as well as reports on the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and on the 3cL edition of the Union List of Serials . The meetings will be held in the Whittall Pavilion and in the Wilson Room. The members of the Agenda Committee are Ralph Hudson, State Librar- ian of Oklahoma, Chairman; Louise Nixon, Executive Secretary, State Public Library Committee, Lincoln, Nebr.; Robert C. Sale, State Librarian of Connecticut; Loleta D. Fyan, President of the American Association of State Libraries; and Jennings Wood, Chief of LC's Exchange and Gift Division. Library of Congress Publications Digest of Public General Bills and Selected Resolutions with Index . 86th Congress, 2d Session Final issue, I96O. ^For sale by the Superin- tendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington 25^ D. C, at $2 for this issue or $10 a session ($2.50 additional for foreign mailing) Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions . Vol. Y[, no. h, August i960, (pp. 221-326.) For sale by the GovernnKnt Printing Office at $1 for this issue or $2 a year, domestic, and $2-50 a year, foreign. " ; Vol. 19, No. k^, October 2k, I96O 609 The WRA Travel Club will meet at 1 pom. on Wednesday, November 2, in the Page School Library. Jacques McKenzie will show slides of his recent European trip. Library of Congress Footnotes Proofsheets of Civil Service Revisions of I887 . Four years after the passage of the Civil Service Act and the appointment of the first Civil Service Commission, President Cleveland received from the United States Civil Service Commission the "Proposed Revision of the Amended Civil-Service Rules and Regulations, Proposed June 50, l887»" These "proposed revisions," in the form of 57 unbound proofsheets, were presented to the Librarian on Wednesday, October I9, by King V. Hostick, collector of Chicago and Springfield, 111. Mr. Hostick secured the proofsheets from the estate of Alfred P. Edgerton, who was once a Civil Service Commissioner. The importance and interest of the gift rest in the fact that this copy of the "proposed revisions" is the copy "vdiich was submitted to Grover Celveland for his study and recommendations. The document is heavily annotated throughout in the careful and meticulous fashion for which Cleveland was known. His pencilled notations indicate his thorough knowledge and his deep interest in the civil service and the legal implementation of its provisions. On page ^, for example, Cleveland has written this marginal note T^ich may well prove to be the origin of veterans' preference; "... persons in the classified service who were honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States and the widows and orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors shall be exempt from such examinations . Grover Cleveland, more than any other President of the United States, was obsessed by the problems of civil service reform. At one time he wrote to a friend: "I have fallen into the habit, lately, of wrestling with this cursed office -filling even in my dreams" (Biography of aii Ideal , Washington, U. S. Civil Service Commission, 1959 [p. 61]). President Cleveland, as Governor of New York, had signed the first State civil service law to be enacted (which, incidentally, resulted from a bill introduced into the State legislature by young Theodore Roosevelt, -v^o at that time was beginning his career) . Civil service reform was- an important issue in the l88^ election, when Grover Cleveland was elected to the Presidency. He struggled valiantly to support the new Civil Service Act of I885; at the close of his first term of office, he made vrtiat was, until his second administration, the largest single extension of the classified service . During his second term of office (l895-97) by a single executive order, he increased the classified service by more than a third—proof of his support and praise of the merit system. The document presented to the Library by Mr. Hostick is testimony to President Cleveland's interest in the civil service system and the care he gave to his official "homework." It will be in the custody of the Rare Book Division of the Library of Congress. = ^ 610 LC Information Bulletin An unusually artistic, reconnaissance topographic map of Mfc. McKinley , Alaska , presented to Delegates to the International Geographical Congress at Stockholm^ has been received in the Map Division. The map, which covers some of the most interesting and roughest terrain in North America, is the result of many years of field work by Bradford Washburn, Director of Boston's Museum of Science. Its printing results from collaboration between the Museum, the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, Wild-Heerbrugg,Ltd., the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Topography, which printed the map at Berne » Scaled at Is 50,000, it shows the glaciers and perennial snow areas in blue and the grass or moss areas in green. The rugged mountain slopes are emphasized by brown hachuring. A copy will be included as an enclosure with the I96O-61 edition of The Mew Mountain World [ Berge der Welt ] to be published in Zurich, London, and New York. It will also be included in the April I961 edition of The Geographical Review, New York. [Catherine I. Balm] Ford's Theatre. John J. dePorry of the Manuscript Division has receritly~ealled attention to the presence, in the papers of Thomas Ewing, Jr. (1829=1896), of a plan of Ford's Theatre, as it stood on the evening of April 1^1-, I865, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. [See illustration accompanying this article.] Exe- cuted in watercolor, by a skilled draftsman, it bears the statement: "This Plan is drawn from memory Jno. T. Ford." It is endorsed: "Theatre plat," in the General Swing's hand. The plan is imdated and bears pencilled annotations, written by John T. Ford. It appears to be a formalized and more professional rendering of a rough sketch in the possession, as recently as 19^5^ of Col. John T. Ford III (ret.), R. F. D. No. 1, Bel Air, Md. This euidous document raises several questions. When and for what purpose was it executed? Why, if actually conteniporaneous , was it necessary to draw it from memory? Could not access to the theatre have been gained in order to make it completely reliable and correctly proportioned? How did it come into the possession of General Ewing? John Thompson Ford, the proprietor of the theatre, was not in Washington on the night of Mr. Lincoln's murder. "I was," he later testified, "in Richmond. Hearing of the partial destruction of that city by fire, I went there, anxious to ascertain the condition of an uncle, a very aged man, and my mother-iii-law. I did not hear of the assassination until Sunday night, and then I heard that Edwin Booth was charged with it. On Monday morning I started for Washington by the 6 o'clock boat." By the end of the week he was arrested and clapped into the Old Capitol Prison, where he languished for 59 days . This could explain why he would have had to depend upon his memory. As for General Ewing, he represented Samuel B. Arnold, Dr. Samuel A . Mudd, and Edward Spangler in the trial of the conspirators . In the case of Spangler, Mr, Ford took a special interest and, from records in Ewing 's letterbooks (August 9 and September 1, I865, and January 12, 1865), clearly guaranteed payment of counsel's fees. He even testified in Spangler 's behalf Vol. 19, No. k^, October 2k, I960 611 >^^ Of SAc Jhtssage* Jf •, j^-^/^r^r/w- join* fhe 2)r^s*t/fQ -rcom^ , afrt/ea aire a.6 ntgA^. He^fanranf ^f .ji J%u Plan is cirtnrn Jrom tnenory Jno T. Jbrd ••rii'Ty'-- — -:r: ] . 6l2 LC Information Bulletin On Friday, May I9, I865, Jaiaes J. Gifford was on the witness stand. He described himself as "the builder" of Ford's Theatre "vrtio had con- tinued in its service as a carpenter. Upon cross-examination. General Ewing exhibited to him "a plan of the theatre" and asked if it was "approximately correct." Gifford objected to the lines in the orches- tra. Whereupon General Ewing immediately introduced another plat. This, although not faultless in the opinion of the witness was finally "offered in evidence without objection." It survives in the National Archives Presumably, then, the plan in the Ewing papers is the one T^ich was first produced and hastily withdrawn. But it is not wholly without value. The late Congress voted $250,000 for appropriate research, engineering studies, and architect's drawings looking to the restoration of the building. Col. Bandle Bond Truett, National Parks historian in charge of the undertaking, has been reported as saying that the Ford- Ewing plat supplies "the first clear detail of the lobby end of the theatre-" Mr. Gifford had not taken exception to that. [David C. Msarns News in the Library World Recent announcements from the American Library Association include news that ground will be broken this fa3JL for a 5- story, $1 mill ion- office building to house the national headquarters in Chicago. The present headquarters building will be dismantled to make way for the new ^5^000-square foot building, \rtiich will be erected in a reverse "L" shape in two stages as the old building is torn down, thus enabling the staff to work without interruption. The first stage of the building, the construction of a 5-stoi'y structure located in what is now the ALA's parking lot, is expected to be completed by fall of I96I. The second phase of the building will be completed by the spring of I962. An annual grant of $25,000 has been given to the ALA by the pub- lishers of the World Book Encyclopedia to support association programs in public and school library service. The grant equals an endowment of $600,000 in terras of annual income to the Association. This first award will be earmarked for the ciirrent $1 million-fund drive for the new headquarters building, but in future years the money will be presented as the "World Book Encyclopedia—ALA Goals Award" to support an outstand- ing Association project each year. Under the sponsorship of the Committee on Intellectual Freedom of the ALA, the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, a roundup of editorial ne-^ and comment on the freedom of information controversy, will resume publication under the editorship of Everett T. Moore, head of the refer- ence department. University of California Library, aided by funds from the Freedom of Information Center, School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., and subscriptions to the Newsletter . A sub- scription to the Newsletter is $2 a year, and persons interested in subscribing may write to Subscriptions Department, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago 11, 111. The Times Louisville, april 14, 1964 Shot 99 Years Ago Ended Ford Theatre By J. W. DAVIS ^'^ ^^^"^ finality, That was the niehf it h!!.? I? infamousJtheateJ'?n Ame4T ''' °^°^' famous-ir most Th?h„nT'^'" ^^^y^^ down. ' The shot theater hy be seum ^a^r since 1932 'We're Ready To Go' But now, there is a strong Col. Handle B. Truett, Na- tional Park Service historian a dedicated and enthusiastic supporter of the restoration dream, says, "We're ready go, once to Congress gives us the I '^^^^«^"^--" TeTow^'h^f ^^""^ ^ "o^t detailed historicalSorf.T, report on the the- "The restoration will be in a complete theater, not jus? he presidential box. but all he seats, in the orchestra, in the dress circles, everyth'^^^'^'"S-ng Even the box office " There is some difference of Sm"" f ^"^ whether the Coliunbus Citizen Journal Coluiabus, Jliio Fobruar)' 11, 11)66 f ITIV/I\lii i>«W Famous Ford's Theater Renovafed \^ By MOHAMMED A. RAUT From descendants of John Ford, the the- Scrippt-Howtrd Stiff Writtr ater's old owner, Olszewski has acquired the WASHINGTON—Forji's Theater here is clock which was in the original lobby. undergoing a $2-million renovation to make A curious fact discovered by Olszewski it look it did century ago when it ; as a w^ is that there were no public toilets in the ' the scene of Lincoln's assassination. old theater. He has gone through dozens of The building since 1932 has been the plans and has come across no space so Lincoln Museum, owned by the Federal Gav- marked. : (Brnment. "However," he says, "in the nearby Star '^ George Olszewski, a Department of In- Saloon, which was a part of the theater, terior historian, is in charge of the restora- there was a second-floor lounge, and we can tion. Through pictures made by the noted assume it had a lavatory. It was at this, Civil War photographer, Matthew Brady, and saloon that John Wilkes Booth had a drink from designs preserved in the files of the before he entered the theater to kill Lin-' assassination trial, Olszewski has blueprinted coin." : the theater's interior and exterior as they were on that fateful April 14, 1865. THE NYLON FLAGS in the present mu-, seum will be removed because there was no AMONG OTHER THINGS, he found the nylon in those days. Cotton flags, with 36 . design of the theater's 1024 original chairs. stars, are being made and they will be dis- He is having the same number of chairs played according to their arrangement on made, in the old pattern. the assassination day. The original chairs were distributed The renovated theater will be used for throughout the government departments occasional performances of historical plays when the theater became federal property but only on a non-commercial basis. Formal 100 years ago. Not one can be found today, opening is set for April 14, 1967, the 102nd but the design is clearly distinguishable in anniversary of the assassination. Brady's photographs. Another picture also reveals the design of the original wallpaper, and Washington newspapers of the time show pattern colors. So Olszewski can even restore wallpaper. mm iRLo THE COACH IN which Lincoln rode to the theater is now the property of the Stude- baker Corp. Olszewski hopes it will be do- nated to the Lincoln Museum, which will now be moved to the theater basement. Columbus 50 Years Ago Feb. 11, 1916—Dr. Washington Gladden, pajstor emeritus of First Congregational Church, came home between lectures to attend his 80th birthday party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Jeffrey, 581 E. Town-st. Among the 250 persons there was Mic3 Marie Hertenstein who was baptised as a child by Dr. Gladden. She played sev- eral piano selections. Cal C. Lyon, Citizen reporter, spent nine days as an Ohio Penitentiary prisoner, using the alias of Frank Mullin, then wrote of his experiences. Lyon looked too pleasant when getting his mug shot. The photographer, • IHtki I who was a prisoner, advised him to look '"What't lh§ world coming (o? Wt ochiete a iptctaculor ipact lucctu and y>e glum for the camera so Parole Board don't »vtn gtt btlligtrtnt mim- about it!" bers would feel sorrow for faim. - REALLY REBUILDING Restoring Ford's Proves a Big Jobj By JOHN SHERWOOD star snail Writer restoration of Ford's The historian in charge of the a bombed-out nun and Theater stood in what looked like together all these wondered how they ever held the place months," said ^^^"you know, they buUt the theater in six NaUonal Park Service. "And Dr George J. Olszewski of the 1863." It when it opened on Aug. 27, It was still unfinished 1865. closed in .^ • » • January 1965, the mtenor Shut down for restoration since foundation excavat- has been completely demolished and the to house the Lmcoln Museum ed to a new depth of 40 fee^ that will go in the basement. feet deep," Olszewski "The old foundation was just three out. pointed . lu • « girders to the iron "Instead of bolting the iron support them on top hke they columns," he added, "they just laid were assembling a toy set of Lincohi logs. do<^"me"ted histmc The historian, in a thoroughly notes that the unfin- structures report" on the restoration, poor brickwork, there was an ished bSlding had rather facade, and the front waU otervable bow in the 10th Street was out of plumb at the center. collapsed m June A partial section of the interior IfSf government employes. Because of^ killing 22 and injuring 65 be rebuilt. rear wall had to , this, the . . , „ three original walls During the current restoration the bags of cement have be^n strengthened by grouting 1 000 outer walls. under pressure between the inner and seriously defective and The roof of the theater, which was four mches of snow feU, forced thTclosing of the museum if has been completely replaced. i = u » . • reinforced with steel tie The original timbers are now also were placed between the rods In additioiv steel trusses supporting beams. wooden . ,• of the res oration One of the major accomplishments 'been the compl^mn of piling, duriSg the past 14 months has , The last pUe was, underpinning, and bracing of aU walls. in January. I driven , . _„ „^^„»o {"'nishings plan to n^reate Olszewski is now preparing a For^s^e^^^^^^^^^^^ _«.r P..r...... B. %:-ils^^A;'.^^y^^^^ to be completed next year. ^^^P-U.ons ^a^^^^^^^^^ The interior is cleared for restoration, ^ possible to dedicate the '^Olszewski hopes it will be the 102nd anniversary of stored theater by AprU 14. 1967, assassination. /6J.JH(i.i\ ce_t7>^" v*^ "«j ler !!^ ^.^ ^lind {lew reinforced roof is part of the Ford's Theater restoration. '.te]ii]rjtoii I'ost Excavation Turns Up Reason Iteiiiiiatoii, J).c. Pcbruar)' 12, 1966 For Ford's Theater Collapse Excavations at Ford's Theater have turned up what may be new evidence about the cause of a disas- ter that killed 22 govern- ment workers and injured 65 others when the build- ing's floors collapsed in 1893. Ford's, the historic site of President Lincoln's assassi- nation is undergoing a $2 / million restoration to the exact condition it was in on the night of the President's death. G. J. Olszewski, National Park Service historian of Ford's Theater, said yester- day that the tragedy, which prompted a lengthy con- gressional investigation at the time, could have been caused by inadequate con- struction methods when the theater was converted to a three-story government of- fice building in 1865 after Lincoln's death. While the building was being worked on during the past year, Olszewski noticed that iron girders supporting all three floors were neither bolted nor otherwise fixed into place. "They were just propped across a bfearing beam," he said. "It was a shoddy job." Thus, when basement pil- ings gave way on June 9, 1893, under the weight of file cases, desks and 400 government clerks, the un- fastened girders were not strong enough to keep the floors from caving in. The Washington Post the A 40-foot section of NOW — This is how Ford's Theater looks today from front of the building plum- F Street nw. just beyond it on 10th Street is the modern meted downward, hurling building of the Potomac Electric Power Co. men, desks and heavy file cases into the cellar. The congressional investigation spent piling, underpinning Steps are already under way pointed to George W. Dant, and bracing all the walls of toward manufacture of fac- a building contractor who the theater, and driving similies of the original wall- was then reinforcing pillars piles that will support the paper, carpeting, chairs, in the cellar, for inadequate- balconies. Steel reinforcing draperies, and the stage set- ly shoring the pilings sup- bars are now being installed ting for Act HI, Scene 2 of porting the floors. and welded between each "Our American Cousin," Another factor was over- piling. The entire area will just as it was when John loading of the upper floors. be tied together with rein- Wilkes Booth leaped to the But Olszewski theorizes, forced concrete. stage from the President's with the support of a local About 40 per cent of the box. civil engineer who has stud- restoration is complete, Ols- Although various prob- ied the Ford building, that zewski estimates, including lems have put the restora- if the floor girders had been strengthening of the roof, tion behind schedule. Ols- bolted to the walls or fixed which was in a seriously zewski is still hopeful the to additional supporting weakened state, and restora- theater can reopen on April beams, the floors would tion of the 10th Street fa- 14, 1967, the 102d anniversa- have sagged, but not col- cade, which involved recast- ry of the Great Emancipa- lapsed. ing molds of the original tor's death. Restoration workmen are 1863 cast iron lintels and Meanwhile, the city pre- making certain that the purchase of handmade co- pared to celebrate the 157th of tragedies ttiat haunted lonial brick, weatherproofcd anniversary Lincoln's Ford's throughout its histo- and tested for durability. huth today. Sen. John J. ry will not recur when the Next comes pouring of Sparkman (D-Ala.) will give building reopens to the pub- the reinforced concrete, in- the Gettysburg Address, In lines noon ceremonies at the Lin- lic sometime in 1967. stallation of plumbing The past year has been and building the first floor. coln Memorial. Lincoln Assassination Scene Restored In Washington Center of a lot of attention these days is Ford's Theatre, scene of the assassination erf U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Comparatively neglected for years, the theater is being restored. At right is the Star Saloon, also being reconstructed. Rebuilding history, a workman stands on the stage of Ford's Theatre. The orchestra floor is just visible in the background beyond the pit. Above are the dress circle and family circle. At left, above stage, is the Presidential Box. '^di^r^ ^i *«rv J James R. Stevens HI, who is supervising the project, sits in the presidential box. The hand in the photo is positioned in the area where John Wilkes Booth is believed to have fired the shot. JULY 22, 1M7 ^ J A workman has the stage to hims^ during reconstruction. Stage, balconies, entrances and the Presidential Box are being rebuilt. The past six years have been a kind of restoration period for Ford's Theatre. During the last two, the National Park Service has been reconstructing the interior, trying also to furnish it as dosrfy as pos- sible to the way it was on the night oi the assassi- nation. Remodeling through the years has almost elim- inated almost every vestige of the old theater. Stage, balconies, entrances and the presidential box are being rebuilt. Plans call for a museum in the basement. Original furnishings are hard to come by. Many are in museums and some were lost to souvaiir hunters soon after the cissassination. Furnishings are being carefully reproduced. Stage scenery is being fashioned to look as the scfenery did on the A BAPTIST CHURCH built in 1833, in Washington, tragic night. D.C. was abandoned scMnetime after 1859. In 1861, "ITie project also includes restoration of the Star a theater entrepreneur leased it for five years with Saloon, next door. The White House guard, who an option to buy. One member of the church board was supposed to be on duty outside the presidential predicted a "dire fate" for anyone who turned the box, was drinking there when John Wilkes Booth former church into a theater. fired the fatal shot. That prediction seemed to come true in 1862. Plans also call for presentation of plays that were Renovated earlier in the year, the building burned performed in the theater in the 1860's. There is talk down. The theater man rebuilt. From Aug. 27, 1863, of a resident company of players for the 600-seat to April 14, 1865, he presented some of the best of theater. the theatrical and musical talent available on the It is hoped that Ford's Theatre, a kind of shrine American stage. to one of America's greatest men, will re(^)en again The theater man was John T. Ford and on that some time next year. (UPI Photos) April 14 his theater entered history as scene of one These United Press International pictures by of the most important events, one of the greatest Darryl Heikes jw-esent a view of Ford's Tlieatre as tragedies in U.S. history. it is today, during its "restoration period." "Our American Cousin," a comedy, was being performed for an audience that included President Abraham Lincoln. Laughter turned to hushed still- ness, horror—and later, the tears of a nati Work has been goitig on for six years. Interior construction began two years ago. "ITiis is a view of the orchestra floor, the dress circle (center) and the family circle (top). Curtain Soon Will Co Up at Ford Theater H^^Ju^^iiwrispla^rnnF By MOHAMMED KAUK JR. basein.-n;. Apparc'iuly there weieiil any WALLS LP wasliiunitis in Ford's Theater a south and east hiuidred years ago. Al least Only the north, theater researchers haven't found any. walls of the original has taken 1000 National Park Service rema.n. and it bags of cement to repair them. .J. Olszewski, liisiorian G'jDrye in I The tourlh wall collapsed charge of a $2 million who's in 18'J3, killing 22 people.) iheuler. r;'Sl3raii;)ii uf the preserves .\ Brady plioto-raph concludes patrons had to go to the design of the original wall Star Salo.in next Ami. ill'.- paper. The desiyi is being Acr duplicated— altho the tulur might same. The theater, by act of not be precisely the fixed up Congress, is to be Ford's theater Mas originally as it vnhs on the day exactly a Baptist Church, built in 1833. Lincoln was thea- President It was later turned into a assassinated, and Dr. Olszewski .lohn ter, and in February. 18(.3. to ha\'e the work done by hopes Ford bought 11, redecorated it, 102d .\pril ol next year, the Ford's and opened it as the New of the anniversary Theatei-. assassination. .\fler the as^asslliali^ln. the his research in 1901. lie began theater was padlocked by u\er old newspapers pouring Federal order. When the for pictures and and books assassination trials were over. of New desc-i ipli^ns of what the place are living. Frank Ford Ford tried to reopen it, but he Yirk, and George Ford of San looked like in liJlw. recei\ed so many Ihrialeiiing Francisco. Both are in their tlie idea \nmiy^: c:tlr.'r things, he IuiiirI letters that he gave up 80's. They contributed llie the design of the chairs in the Federal A year later the family Bible to Dr. Olszewski, Ihem. The tlicater — all 1024 ol bou;;lu the tlieaier government and he used it to verify dates chairs are now being made in into for $100,000. and turned it in the history of the building. pattern. exactly the same oliice building for a Ihree-story Another branch of the family which Mr. storage of Civil War The coach in the has donated the clock that was Lincoln to the theater on records. In lil32. the Lincoln rode in the lobby. there. fatal night is now the museum was opened the The restored theater will be property of the Studebakei- Co. RELATIVES used for the occasional trying to have Dr. Olszewski is I'lvs. Fjrd's crandsnns 1 riorm.ince of historica' to the theater. Two of ,bhn so are Ih.^ rm.olas. them donate Ihe theater: the farade is new. an<) ( Excavation Turns Up Reason For Ford's Theater Collapse Excavations at Ford's .•-y^::':-'-^';^' . /.. :;., Theater have turned up what may be new evidence about the cause of a disas- ter that killed 22 govem- ment workers and injured 65 others when the build- ing's floors collapsed in 1893. Ford's, the historic site of President Lincoln's assassi- nation is undergoing a $2 million restoration to the exact condition it was in on the night of the President's death. G. J. Olszewski, National Park Service historian of Ford's Theater, said yester- day that the tragedy, which prompted a lengthy con- gressional investigation at o the time, could have been H caused by inadequate con- O struction methods when the tiieater was converted to a I— a three-story government of- fice building in 1865 after Lincoln's death. While the building was being worked on during the past year, Olszewski noticed that iron girders supporting all three floors were neither bolted nor otherwise fixed into place. "They were just propped across a bearing beam," he said. "It was a shoddy job." Thus, when basement pil- ings gave way on June 9, 1893, under the weight of file cases, desks and 400 government clerks, the un- fastened girders were not strong enough to keep the floors from caving in. The Washlneton Post A 40-foot section of the NOW — This is how Ford's Theater looks today from front of the building plum- F Street nw. just beyond it on 10th Street is the modern meted downward, hurling building: of the Potomac Electric Power Co. men, desks and heavy file cases into the cellar. The congressional investigation spent piling, underpinning Steps are already under way pointed to George W. Dant, and bracing all the walls of toward manufacture of fac- a building conti-actor who the theater, and driving similies of the original wall- was then reinforcing pillars piles that will support the paper, carpeting, chairs, in the cellar, for inadequate- balconies. Steel reinforcing draperies, and the stage set- ly shoring the pilings sup- bars are now being installed ting for Act III, Scene 2 of porting the floors. and welded between each "Our American Cousin," Another factor was over- piling. The entire area will just as it was when John loading of the upper floors. be tied together with rein- Wilkes Booth leaped to the But Olszewski theorizes, forced concrete. stage from the President's with the support of a local About 40 per cent of the box. civil engineer who has stud- restoration is complete, Ols- .Alliiough various prob- ied the Ford building, that zewski estimates, including lems have put the restora- if the floor girders had been strengthening of the roof, tion behind schedule. Ols- bolted to the walls or fixed which was in a seriously zewski is still hopeful the to additional supporting weakened state, and restora- theater can reopen on April beams, the floors would tion of the 10th Street fa- 14, 1967, the 102d anniversa- have sagged, but not col- cade, which invohecl recast- ry of the Great Emancipa- lapsed. ing molds of the original tor's death. Restoration workmen are 1863 cast iron lintels and Meanwhile, the city pre- making certain that the purchase of handmade co- pared to celebrate the 157th tragedies that haunted lonial brick, weatherproofed anniversary of Lincoln's Ford's throughout its histo- and tested for durability. birth today. Sen. John J. ry will not recur when the Next comes pouring of Sparkman (D-.\la.) will give building reopens to the pub the reinforced concrete, in- the Gettysburg Address, in lie sometime in 1967. stallation of plumbing lines noon ceremonies at the Lin- The past year has been and building the first floor. coln Memorial. THEATER were of Nottingham lace, and many of the chairs were spindle-back Windsor. Olszewski has sohcited, and has been receiving, contributions of the original materials—two pieces of maroon drapery from the daughter of a man employed in the theater at the time, the tufted silk sofa from Lincoln's box from de- scendants of the Ford family, who also supplied the engraving of George Wash- ington that was nicked by Booth's spur as he leaped to the stage. 01szew.ski is unflagging in his regard for detail. "Every other person in the country con- siders himself a Lincoln expert," he says. "We can't make a mistake." Actors' Equity: As restoration plans proceeded, several bizarre proposals were made. One was to re-enact the assassination, shot, jump and all. An- other was to restore the saloon where Booth took a nip just before he did his assassination Brady's photograph of Ford's Theater after the deed. Then Actors' Equity brought for- ward the suggestion to put on real live theater at Fords. Theater groups all over the country took up this idea and offered their services. The Washington Shakespeare Summer Festival, the Helen Hayes Repertory Company, a group of Texas high-school students, and even a German bund sing- ing society (founded during the Civil War) have volunteered to play there. Last week representatives of Actors Eq- uity, ANTA and the National Repertory Theatre met in Washington to discuss a joint proposal to be submitted to Secre- tary of the Interior Stewart Iklall (who last year gave general approv al to a pro- gram of live theater). Under the pro- posal NRT would present an "appro- priate" repertory, consisting of period productions of plays that were once I'ictorlal rarada performed there, such as Shakespeare Booth's leaj) to the stage Lincoln's box (Lincoln saw several Shakespeare plays at Ford's, including one starring John modern plays of Where Lincoln Was Shot permanent, year-round repertory com- Wilkes Booth) and pany in residence. special relevance, such as Mark Van The night Lincohi was shot was the The original plan, for which Congress Doren's "The Last Days of Lincoln." last niglit of Ford's Tlieater in Washing- appropriated $2,076,300 last year, was Authentic: But even if the proposal ton. Secretary of War Stanton immedi- merely to restore the red-brick building is accepted, many technical problems ately ordered the building seized and into a theater-museum, with the stage will remain. Room must be found for held under armed guard. When the set, as it was at the time of the assassina- modern theatrical equipment and ade- owner, John T. Ford, tried to reopen it tion, for Act III, Scene 2 of Tom Ta\ lor's quate backstage and rehearsal space, forthcoming from three months later, threatening letters play "Our American Cousins. " For the and monev' must be foundations and the government. and a hostile crowd outside the theater past six years historian George J. Ol- the forced him to reconsider. Subsequently szewski has been tracking down clues to But just as George Olszewski is commit- the government i^ought the theater for the design and decor of Ford's Theater, ted to a revival of the building, NRT is $10(),()()(), gutted the magnificent white- no easy task considering that souvenir committed to a revival of theater in it. and-gold interior, turned it into an office collectors had long since stripped the Last week, with Ford s new roof alreadv' building, and it sank slowly into decrep- theater bare. Olszewski has had to rely in place, Michael Devvell, founder of itude, hi 1893, a section of it collapsed, mostly on memories, which can be NR"!, saitl: "We would be creating killing 22 government workers. Finally faulty, and records, which are sometimes something that has never existed before in 1932 it was converted into a Lincoln contradictory. His best .source was the —living nniseum theater. It is terribly, museum, a dark, dust\ repositorv' for great Civil War photographer Matthew terriblv exciting . . . The theater will be the detail of musty artifacts, liut b\ the end of 1967, BracK , who soon after the assassination absolutely authentic from Ford's Theater will reopen, and even spent two (lavs photographing the in- the moldings to the scale of the gas the gaslights will reHicker. Not only will terior. I'rom microscopic examination ol lamps. And when the curtain goes up on it be a nearly exact duplicate of the the Hrady photographs, Olszewski was a production done exactlv as it was original structure, but plans are under- able to confirm that the bo.xes were then, the person in the audiencv will lit- vva\' to make it a living theater, with a draped in heavy brocade, the curtains erallv- be a theatergoer of 1865." 86 Newswerk. Julv 4. 1966 sor GeoflFrey Shurlock. In New York Valenti saw the picture and upheld Shurlock's decision. But the ruling was reversed by the MPAA's Production Code Review Board. Last week the duly initiated Valenti left his Washington office and headed West for his first official visit to Holly- wood, which he called "this seedbed of creativity." First on the agenda was a ritual press conference at the Beverly Hnis Hotel. He wanted, Valenti said, to develop young talent. He also wanted to construct a new code of conduct that would "enlarge the creative dimensions of the film" without encroaching on so- ciety's rights; in other words, allow the producers to be adults, but nice adults. An elderly British reporter asked if he had "any idea when and why the Ten Commandments went out of fashion." If Valenti knew, he wasn't telling. Dreams: His first mass encounter with the industry panjandrimis was at a lunch- eon given in his honor by the MPAA, a tight little band of Hollywood's major distributors which also honors him with a $125,000-a-year salary and an extra $50,000 each year for popcorn money. At the luncheon, where grown men called each other "sweetheart," the new president spoke of his dreams and ideals before an assemblage of studio chiefs, union leaders, theater owners and actors. He discussed quahty and excellence for the benefit of producers who find those words more offensive than any gutter oath in "Virginia Woolf. " He praised the virtues of art to men who collect it but do not practice it. He quoted Socrates to the effect it is 'Tjetter to be than to seem," an unseemly thing to tell people who make their livings at illusion. "I think he's going to do a hell of a job," said independent producer Joseph E. Levine. "At least, if I were an MPAA member I'd let him," Levine added, pointing up the absurdity of an industry association that fails to give full repre- sentation to the powerful independent producers who now accoimt for most of Hollywood's feature productions. Mouth: "I'm very impressed with him," said Twentieth Century-Fox pro- duction chief Richard Zanuck. "I think he's tough and fair. We need a strong hand there and we haven't had one; there's no real unification within our business. I think Valenti's first and tough- est job is going to be getting us all speaking out of the same mouth." "I'm not going to be a puppet, a marionette, a front man," Valenti told Newsw^ek's Joseph Morgenstem. But he cannot move further than the indus- try can see, and despite his Great So- ciety rhetoric, it remains to be seen if he will be more than a front man, a You pay more for Benson & Hedges Deluxe. resplendent chief usher to the world. case, The biggest guns in the West didn't And, from recessed mouthpiece to personal saddle him up to be a Trojan Horse. you get more. July 4, 1966 85 ;\cw York Times September 26, 1966 Washi.gton at SCENE AS LINCOLN WAS SHOT: Representation of Ford's Theater In restored, wdl be dedicated m spring. the moment President Lincoln was shot. Theater, Restored Ford Theater to Be Dedicated April 14 By SAM ^OLOTOW D(Ue Is 102i Annivenary of Photographs 1 „ A RradV '^''' The restored Ford's Theater me photographs Assassination in "He gavevf ^^.. cele- In Washington is expected to Lincoln's Civ ^ar's Itaken W l^e JV ^^^^^ be dedicated next April 14, the P^otograpl^er Washington House '^ brated the^ ^^^ 102d anniversary of Lincoln's ^howvng helped Brady, i« assassination there. of Foras. ^^^ exterior Part^^o^^.^ Sixteen plays, many that C^n deslgnmg be- ' were performed at Ford's Saw Booth In Play scenery ol V^ presidenUal fore it ceased to be a theater,, Lin 1882 and 1865. will be presented in the 600- Between seat house. Among them will 'STarbli Rivals." "She Stoops -^ ^l^aetl. be "The to ara aoouv , SeS?-rwhichJohnWllKes^ signed ^^^ dures.s, b to Conquer" and "The Imagin-i *^f under -ve^^^ inmy ^wyer 1 ary Invalid." In addition, ex- Soo"i: »^i',^--i^cord^s%ho:i tieari^Sn^^e The ^eco _, rfj;-, isting or original plays dealing leading actor. J- a end^tw^,,P^^ was George •[• De- father ^'^'"'^^^t^.lf^ by at 0\Sor i Lincoln era will be I Li'^coln the. thai with the that historian on ^\^ , ^^ ^^^.^^ put on. formances of «"^ ^laff^ the / partments , In uve\ I W nights. ^,it. clerk is being col- consecutive American^ousuv to The program ••our suggestion g^,^ ^,^, co- ^^^ lated by Michael Dewell, •^^ " ^V^^Jur'TmeS ' „H a oerformances *VnuUv in 19^4 producer with Frances Ann rwa?U«Blna^ Dougherty of the National &Sn7. Repertory Thater, in conjunc- Lortel of the of tion with Lucille production i„tu gyr- Theater and ^ American National being de»lgned^^*>yj^^jg„ing the company Academy. A resident Jala. He w •" __^ contract will be (irgaiiixed ^v N-**^' suge r'f of his sougin. from S^'f^^tXtloninstA»^'o° Funds will be calls for the j^i^ States Of- foundations. United by the work M"^Jl,f • for Education and the Ma- er fice of ^^ " as well as Council on the Arts. -'"."'televTSi^nd tional st-^ge «;_5^'Vustrial film"'- of the the-1 The restoration t d'^^^^t"'! onobtained the .state wa,-> how he ater to Its original Aski-'d ^he j^^ as an historic hcrl-1 comml.s.slon from ^^^^ authorized a>'J Congres.^ at a co.st oi Department, Mr. lace bv a It will conUm S273O.6O0. yesterday: i ^^ere a wa.shlngton Llncolnia museum, documentary on the signlfl- will be rance of the theater "" ',hown. From "31 """^ was used as a mu- the house work Iseum Reconstruction laUrted last J^ 5...ik^.«-M*i. Mi^'7 FORD'S TBBATRE THE HOUSE WHERE IiIMCOLlV DIED E«*K,»' ,- •• Lincoln spent 6 important years in New Salem. Defeated for office, he turned to storekeeping, then was p®^p^l appointed postmaster, became a sur- veyor, and plunged into law studies. In 1834 he was elected to the legisla- ture as a Whig, where he denounced slavery as "founded on both injustice a and bad policy" but opposed the spread of abolition societies. Three years later Lincoln moved to The Slaiehouse at SpHnell. Springfield, the State "It is great folly to attempt to make anything out of me or my t new capital. Licensed an attorney the year befor ;, he formed a partner- life," wrote the candidate to a supporter. "It can all be condensed ship with the able John T. Stuart and soon dipped into local politics. After marrying Mary a single sentence; and that sentence you will find in Gray's Elegy Todd, a Kentucky belle, in 1842, he settled down in earnest to the law. 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' That's my life and that'; From 1847-19 Lincoln served in Congress. He worked hard in office, but his opposition to the all you or anyone else can make out of it." Mexican War proved notably unpopular back home, and he was passed over for renomination. Sadly he returned to Springfield, resumed his Abraham Lincoln, elected 16th President of the United States and law practice. Honest, shrewd, and effective ose to the first rank of the lUir soon after penning these lines, aptly summed up Lincoln devoted much time to studying the his humble beginnings. He was born on Febi-uary 12, Amerit 1 past and the loom- ing issue of 1809, in a log cabin on the Kentucky frontier. slavery. Roused by His parents—Thomas Lincoln, a carpenter and backwoods the repeal of the farmer, and Nancy Hanks, a shadowy figure of obscure Missouri Compro- mise, he emerged lineage—were hardworking and religious but without from P'^"^''^'^' i-etirement to schooling. When Abe was 2, his father took fll'Fii SR^^^'l^jfii "^ '' ^* grapple with Stephen his family to another, more fertile farm 10 miles ^ A. Douglas, who advo- north. This was the Knob Creek place, and cated in Congress doc- the boy long remembered his years here. He swam trines that would allow in the creek with companions, attended A. B.C. the introduction of slav- schools with his sister Sarah for a few ery into the western months, and accompanied his father on chores. territories. Their first In Abe's 7th year, title troubles again skirmish came in 1854. drove his father off his farm. Seeking Arguing that slavery secure land and—his son said later—free should be restrained to soil, Thomas carried his family into the its present domain, Lin- Indiana wilderness and settled near coln marshaled history Little Pigeon Creek. Two years later, and logic to counter in 1818, Abe's mother died, a victim of Douglas' theory of and the "popular A. '^K til® terrible "milk sickness." sovereignty." I family sank into a rough existence from It was the first great which it did not emerge until Thomas speech of his career. remarried. Two years later, an- Sriphen A. Ooi other address, this time His new wife was Sarah Bush Johnston, to a State Convention of the new Republican a widow with three children. Cheerful party, again brought him wide attention. wa and energetic, she brought a new tone He enough of a national figure to be seriously to the Lincoln cabin and raised the boy dered for the Republican vice-presidential and his sister as her own. nation. In 1858 Lincoln challenged Doug- las for his Senate seat. For 3 months they ranged Illinois debating the issue of freedom in the territories. Lincoln stencies Dougia disavowing abolitionism himself, but the contest lifted the tall prairie rhe home in Spring Held, jnto national prominence. Early in 1860 Lincoln journeyed east to lecture in New York City. He called for the exclusion of slavery from the Abraham grew up in Indiana. A lanky, good-humored teri-itories, deplored efforts to destroy the Union, and youth, liked by all, he helped his father with the farming, urged friendship toward the South. The speech was a hacked away at the forest with his ax, attended the occa- triumph, and the number of his supporters grew. When sional schools in the community, and read incessantly. Un- Is proved weak in the national convention, Lincoln interested in labor, he passed long hours in talk. At 16 he was nominated for the Presidency on the third ballot. worked for a few months on a farm along the Ohio. Three years later he rode a flatboat down the Mississippi to New Orleans and first glimpsed a wider world. In 1830 the Lincoins moved once more. Lured by reports '"' "y* of rich black soil, they piled all their goods into wagons and set out for Illinois. Soon they reached a spot on the banks of Sangamon River, a few miles from Decatur. Abi-aham was now 21, free to come and go as he chose, ii III till I. but he stayed with his family for a year, breaking ground, Mr splitting rails, and planting corn. After another trip di the Mississippi, he drifted into New Salem, a thriving '1. IS doorstep in Springfield Lincoln ran a quiet For a while he clerked in Offutt's store. When it failed, he paign, receiving delegations and political leaders while grasped at a new oppoitunity. Encouraged by his friends avoiding speeches and stumping. In November 1860 the he ran for the State legislature, advocating a variety of Nation voted. Lincoln won a large electoral majority (180 public improvements. Though he lost the election, he votes to 123 for his three opponents), but he polled 1 carried his own neighborhood by 277 votes to 7, a source of than half of the popular vote. The South voted almost great pride for many years after. solidly against him. 'The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down^ to honor or dishonor, to the last generation." second annual message to congress The summer of 1864 was one of Lincoln's most difficult. Peace negotiations were begun, but fell through. There was discord in the Cabinet, and in August Lincoln broke with the Radicals in Congress. He soon came to believe that he had no chance of winning reelection. Yet the tide was slowly turning. Two days after the Democrats nominated McClellan for the Presidency, Atlanta fell to W. T. citadel of Vicksburg, splitting Sherman and Northern morale soared. Lin- the Confederacy, When he coln won the November election easily, broke the siege of Chatta- carrying 22 of the 25 participating States. nooga 2 months later, a grate- The war was fast drawing to a close as ful Lincoln brought him east to Lincoln began his second term. Lee was nd all the Union armies. bottled up at Petersburg; Sherman's swath bright spot. But s In May 1864, while another of destruction had bad- Fredericksburg ir Union force set out across ly crippled the South; late 1862 and at Georgia, Grant advanced slavery was dead. Lin- Chancellorsville in southward, bent on destroying Lee's army. coln's concern now was the spring of 1863 Lee fought desperately in the Wilderness the reconciliation of the the North again suf- and at Spotsylvania. Casualties mounted, two sections. In his in- The asiossin'a wenpt fered large-scale and and quick victory seemed as far away as ever. augural address he de- critical defeats. scribed the war as a visitation from God and—mellowed and deepened by the ordeal """ darkest hour. After —he pleaded for peace without malice. Antietam, he had is- "The whole phy On April 9 Lee surrendered to Grant at Two nights later torchlight Lincoln took office on March sued the Emancipation Proclamation, de- Appomattox. a anywhere in the Itnglh When secession slaves in rebel territory, procession called at the White House. In- 4, 1861, was an accom- claring free all brcadlh of the Sla ei; ul withal. stead of a victory speech, Lincoln gave plished fact. The lower South but words could not substitute for victories. il ii rtdcemed, illu ted. .ofl- views reconstruction. had withdrawn from the Union Now Lee was marching northward again. entd, and bnghlen ed by a kindly them his moderate on though itnoui loo of hi. public address compas- and set up a rival government. The In July the armies clashed at Gettysburg, It was the last of a guns rye,, and an txpre of homely. sionate man. On April 14 he and Mrs. roared first at Fort Sumter, turning back and Lee retreated with bloody losses. As lagacily. that ,eem shied with the theater. the Lincoln's relief expedition. Both sides called the North rejoiced, more good news came rich retulli of villa se e xpetientr. Lincoln went to During great deal na assassin slipped Lin- for troops, more Southern States from the West. Stubby, quiet-spoken A of third act an into the bookiih eulliyalion refinement: the S. Grant captured the strategic coln's box, shot the President in the head, seceded, and Nation plunged Ulysses honest at heart, an i Ih yroughly leaped onto the stage before a startled audi- headlong into civil war. rl. ily— at Uait. endowed ith ence, and fled into the darkness. Soldiers The fighting went i carried the slumped figure across the street craft, and would ir\np«J him, I badly at first for the North. to a boardinghouse and laid him across a think, to take an a jfiril in Plagued by poor generalship, worked Lincoln all flank, ralhtr than kt < bull. bed. Surgeons over the Federal army in the run at him tight in fro nl." night, but he never regained consciousness. East was roundly —Nalkani The next morning death came to the man trounced in 1861 and through most of 1862. 'I^IIE. whom power had ennobled. George B. McClellan's repulse of Robert E. Uii' Lee at Antietam Creek was the solitary FORD'S THEATRE Jr For^s Theatre oTid The Hoiisc Where Lincoln Died, ^ THE HOUSE WHERE in the heart of downtown Washington, commemorate IiinrcOLM DIED tJir trngir death of Abraham Lincoln In 1859, the congregation merged with an- April14,18CS other church, and the building was aban- doned. Two years later John T. Ford, a was a day of celebration and thanksgiv- Baltimore and Philadelphia theatrical pro- ing in the Northern States. After four ducer, bought the property and converted it had long years of war, Gen. Robert E. Lee into a theatre—only to see it burn down on surrendered and the capitulation of the December 30, 1862. Confederate Army of Gen. J. E. Johnston Ford's new theatre was much more elab- was expected soon. At Ford's Theatre on orate than the earlier converted church. 10th Street the celebrated comedy "Our Built of the best designs American Cousin" had opened a 1-night brick, it followed of the day and was regarded as one of the stand. The play featured Laura Keene, a finest theatres in the country. distinguished actress, in the leading role. After Lincoln's assassination, the War About 10:30 a.m., a White House mes- Department stationed guards outside Ford's senger came to the theatre to make arrange- Theatre and canceled all scheduled per- ments for President and Mrs. Lincoln to formances. In June 1865 the building was attend the evening performance. Gen, and restored to Ford, who planned to reopen it. Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant were to accompany But since public opinion was aroused, the them, but in the afternoon other plans Government again took charge of the build- forced them to cancel the engagement. In ing and prohibited its use as a theatre. their place the Lincolns invited Maj. Henry R. Rathbone and his fiancee, Clara Harris. Soon the Government began remodeling The theatre managers made elaborate prep- the theatre into a fireproof building for the arations for the Presidential visit. The par- storage of Government records. All wood- tition between the two upper boxes on the work was removed, and the building was right of the stage was removed. A sofa and divided into three stories. In 1866 the Gov- some chairs, including an upholstered rock- ernment purchased the building, and, for ing chair which Lincoln had used on pre- many years after, it was occupied by agen- vious visits, were brought into the box. They cies of the War Department. placed American flags on staffs beside the On June 9, 1893, a second tragedy oc- box and draped others on the railing. The curred when the three floors collapsed, kill- blue regimental flag of the U.S. Treasury ing 22 clerks and injuring 68 others. The Guards hung from a staff against the cen- building was repaired the following year. ter pillar. Directly below was an engraving of George Washington. Since 1932, Ford's Theatre has housed the Osborn H. Oldroyd collection of Lincolniana. At 8:30 p.m, the President's carriage Oldroyd gathered his collection for more drew up in front of the theatre. His body- than 60 years. It was first displayed in the guard met the party and escorted them up Lincoln home in Springfield, 111. In 1893 it the stairs and on to the Presidential box. was brought to Washington and placed in The play was in progress, but on the ar- the Petersen House. The Government pur- rival of the President the orchestra struck chased it in 1926. The collection includes up "Hail to the Chief." The audience rose books from Lincoln's library, the playbill and cheered as they caaght sight of the for the night of the tragedy, and letters, President, and Lincoln moved to the front documents, and other objects relating to of the box and bowed. After the party was Lincoln. Items later added include Booth's seated, the play resumed. Deringer, his diary, the Treasury Guards About an hour later, John Wilkes Booth, flag, the sofa, and the engraving of Wash- a prominent actor of the day, rode up to ington from the Presidential box. the back door of the theatre and called for In 1964, Ford's Theatre was closed for a stagehand to hold his horse. Crossing un- restoration to its appearance on the night der the stage, he made his way to the Star of the assassination. The interior was re- Saloon next door and ordered whiskey. moved, then rebuilt according to the find- Shortly after 10, Booth returned to the the- ings of extensive research. The furnishings atre and climbed the stairs to the dress and accessories are either authentic period circle where he watched the play for a few pieces or faithful reproductions. minutes. Then he quickly entered the pas- sageway to the Presidential box. Barring the door, he stepped into the box carrying a single-shot Derringer and a dagger. He The House VIThere was now directly behind Lincoln, who sat with his head slightly turned toward the Iiincoln Died about 10:15 the audience. It was when The house in which Lincoln died, now muffled shot sounded. The President slumped 516 10th Street NW., was built by William forward in his chair, then sank backward. Petersen in 1849. Because the house had Major Rathbone leaped to his feet and grap- more rooms than they needed, the family pled with the assassin. Booth stabbed him kept roomers. William T. Clark, employed in the arm and vaulted from the box onto by the Quartermaster General's office, oc- the stage, brandishing his knife. As he cupied the room to which Lincoln was jumped, his spur caught in the Treasury taken. In 1878, heirs of the family sold the Guards flag and hit the Washington pic- house to Louis Schade, who published The ture. Thrown off balance, he landed awk- Washington Sentinel in the basement front- wardly on the stage, breaking his leg. left ing on 10th Street for many years. The Even so, he was able to escape through the Government purchased the house from the back door, slashing the orchestra leader on family in 1896 for $30,000. Though substan- the way. He hurriedly mounted his horse tially unchanged since 1865, the house has and pounded down the alley to F Street. been renovated by the National Park The audience was momentarily stunned Service. by Booth's act, then confused mad and ter- In the front parlor are a horsehair sofa rified. Three doctors from the audience and a high-back rocking chair from the examined the stricken President. The bullet Lincoln home in Springleld, and corner had entered just above the left ear and whatnots and center table similar in ap- lodged behind the right eye. Lincoln lay pearance to those in the room on the night unconscious and barely breathing. Recog- of the assassination. The back parlor has nizing his condition as serious, the doctors a sofa also from the Lincoln home in knew that a ride over the rough cobble- Springfield, The center table resembles the stones to the White House might cause a one used by Cpl. James Tanner while tak- fata] hemorrhage. ing notes from witnesses of the tragedy. Across the street William Petersen, a The small bedroom where President Lin- tailor, lived in a modest three-story row coln was taken is furnished much as it was house. The noise in the street awakened a on the night he died, A copy of the "Village roomer, one Henry Safford. Told that the Blacksmith" replaces the one on the wall, President had been shot, he called for the while above the bed is a copy of Rosa men carrying the unconscious body out of Bonheur's "Horse Fair." The wallpaper is the theatre to bring him inside. They similar to the original pattern, and the bed carried the President into a small first-floor and chairs closely resemble those in the bedroom and laid him diagonally across the room at the time of Lincoln's death. bed. Throughout the night the doctors kept watch, as a continuous parade of Cabinet ADMINISTRATION heads, Congressmen, Army officers, and Ford's Theatre and House Where Lincoln friends came to the bedside. Mrs, Lincoln, Died are administered by the National Park overcome with grief, occasionally left the Service, U. S. Department of the Interior. front parlor to go to her husband. In the The National Park System, of which back parlor Secretary of War Edwin M. these buildings are units, is dedicated to Stanton began his investigation of the conserving the great historical, natural, assassination. He interviewed several wit- and recreational places of the United States nesses and gave the orders that enabled the for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Government to function throughout the A superintendent, whose address is Cen- night of crisis. tral National Capital Parks, 900 Ohio Nothing could be done to help the dying Drive SW., Washington, D.C. 20240, is in President, and at 7:22 the next morning the charge of both units. struggle ended. Six days after Lee sur- THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTE- rendered at Appomattox, President Lincoln RIOR—the Nation's principal natural re- was dead. source agency^has a special obligation to assure that our expendable resources are conserved, that our renewable resources are Ford's Theatre managed to produce optimum benefits, and that all resources contribute to the progress and the The cornerstone of the present building prosperity of United States, now and in future. was laid on February 28, 1863, and a few the months later Ford's Theatre was finished. U. S. Department of the Interior It replaced an earlier building, the First Baptist Church, which dated back to 1834. National Park Service For Siile by tlio Superlotoodent o[ Documents, Abraham Lincoln*! bldod.go.kcd bed, phoiasraphcd by > boarder U.S. Oovernmcnt Printing Ofllce, up to bt carritd back to the Executive Maniion. From the book on WMhIngton. D.C. 30402 - Price lOcenls \ r nd PhiHp B. Kunhirdl, Jr. Abraham Lincoln, April 10, 1863 Laura Keene The chair in which Lincoln was sitting. > GPO : 1967 O— 455-909 ['resident's body was lifted For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, >orothy Meserve Kunhardt U.S. Qovernmcnt Printing OflBce, Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 10 cents SOCIETY HOME %\\z ^tjjening Features WASHINGTON, D. C, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1968 VnlU'd Preis International Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey greets first nighters —mainly high government officiols. Rood, ry the vice president coln i.* recorded in more than Houseman called Carmen de took place between the first borne Pell were in the group and Mrs. Allen Steere, vice a million published works," Lavallade the "greatest danc- and second shows was held in hcn. Harry walk group of last eveij and Michael, cofounder and 8 and it was 8:05 when Helen The buffet reception that Byrd and Sen. and Mrs. Clai- should listen to it. Hayes, with that enormous coproducer of the National | Repertory Theater to \)C presence of hers, walked on housed in the stage, head erert, smiling Fords henceforth, were married two months ago — the first member of the and have leased the house at acting profession to si>t fool 2J.'H Tracy Place. there in 103 years. Andy Williams had to Udall had said in his greet- miss lx)th parties and catch a ing: "From this moment on, plane out right after his second sing- let this place be known more ing of the for histrionics than history." Civil War song, "Tenting Tonight" and But last night's performance "Home Sweet Home." But Harry by 12 stars was both. As eacli Bel-I read or sang or spoke or .nfonte, Richard Crennn, di-l rector John Houseman, Ken- played or danced, Lincoln's [ ncth Crosby, cochairman of life and character unfolded. | the opening, and his wife THE VICE PRESIDENT Crifket, and others dropped by had said that the "life of Lin- during the evening. K f -Star Photographer Rooemary MariuD George Ford, son of the manager of Ford's Theater in Lincoln's time, arrives for the reopening of the theater with Dorothi Bock Pierre. EXCLUSIVELY YOURS A Brilliant Opening At Ford's Theater By BETTY BEALE Justice and Mrs. Abe Fortas, Frankie Hewitt, president of Star SiafI Writer Sen. Allen EUender, Sen. and the Ford's Theater Society, The fact that there was dis- Mrs. Edmund Muskie and Sen. was striking in a long white turbing news from the U. S. and Mrs. Hickcnlooper also crepe with narrowed neck ef- military- front shortly before were in the audience. fect pinned with a diamond the curtain went up on Ford's Three Senate doves, Mike brooch. Theater for the first time Mansfield, Bill Fulbright and MOST STUNNING GOWN since Lincoln was fatally shot Mark Hatfield and their wives seen all evening was worn by there — made the rt'Oponing seemed to gravitate toward Ha.ssima Al-Ghousscin who. each during recep- grimly realistic. other the \silh her hiisb;ind. the Kuwaiti tion that be- When people talked of the was sandwiched aml)a.ssador, went to the . EXCLUSIVELY YOURS A Brilliant Opening At Ford's Theater By BETTY DEALE Justice and Mrs. Abe Forlas, Frankie Hewitl, president of Sen. Allen EUender, Sen, and the Ford's Theater Society, The tact Lhat there was dis- Mrs. Edmund Muskle and Sen. was striking in a long white turbing news from the U, S. and Mrs, Hickenlooper also crepe with narrowed neck ef- Tiilitar>' front shortly before were in Iho audience. fect pinned with a diamond f the curtain went up on Ford's Three Senate doves, Mike brooch. I Theater for the first time Mansfield, Bill Fulbright and I MOST STUNNING GOWN I e Lincoln was fatally shot Mark Hatfield and their wives scin all evening was worn by I there — made ihe rtKipening seemed to gravitate toward j Rassima Al-Ghousscin who, grimly rcalislic. cauh other during the recep- I with licr hu.'iband. the Kuwaiti i When people talked of Ihe tion (hat was sandwiched be- ambassador, went to the sec- Vicl Cong (orccs occupying the tween the first and repeat per- ond show after dropping in on first floor of Ihe American em- formances. the reception She wore a bassy In Saigon, it gave more Antoinette Hatfield, in a long black Larry Aldrich gown with I meaning to the empty, flag- white evening dress with hori- a deep turtle neck of rttine- I draped box where the Civil zontal silver stripes, observed sinncs, War president had sought res- cheerily that with all her jog- Geori^c Ford, the 87-ycar-old I pile from his war cares. ging and other exercising she son of the manager of the The analogy must have has added an inch lo her theater in Lincoln's time, I crossed the mind \ waistline. ol icc linked the historic closing and President Hubert Humphrey, Spanish .\mbassador and century-delayed opening by I who opened the brilliant show, Marquesa dj Morry del Val hi^ attendance. He came with | as it surely crossed the minds swept in shortly before the .Mrs, Dorothi Bock Pierre. of a somewhat subdued audi- show began—she in a beaded The private Lodestar of the J long pink crepe gown. Lincoln National Life Insur- I As Humphrey left the thea- Most of the women were in ance Co, had brought a whole I I ter around 10 p.m. he heard a floor-length dresses to mark planeload from Fort Wayne, ' | cry that Lincoln must the importance of the historic, hav? Ind It included the president I heard many times, A chantin,; invitational affair. of the company and Mrs. Hen- group on the opposite sidewalk yelled out absurdly, as ,=oon as they caught sight of him; "End the wart" It was absurd, because no- body wants more to see it end than Johnson and Humphriy. "SOME THINK I DO WRONG to go to the opera and the theater; but it rests me. . . I A hearty laugh relieves me; and I seem better able after it | to t)ear my cross," . The words of Lincoln uttered by Henry Fonda from the stage of Uie beautifully re- stored theater further pointed up the similarity between Washington a hundred years I ago and today. It was a brilliant if not hilar- iously gay opening. It was not an event that called for hilari- ty — with that empty box so perfectly duplicated that even . the blue Treasury flag like the one John Wilkes Booth caught his foot in was in its right place. J The humor was the subtle, soft, wise humor of Lincoln. I He said of the Souths song "Dixie" which he, too, liked: J "It's as American as my And of his attitude toward I work: "My father taught mo lo work, I but not to love it," And to the fat woman who sat on his taU silk hat: "I I could have told you it wouldn't I fit before you sat down." I The orchestra and first bal- I cony of the Uttle theater that I seats only 750 in oil were fdled I with Washington officials who I were enchanted with the show 1 IN THE FIRST ROW with the Humphreys I were Alice 1 Longworfh, Chief Justice and I Mrs, Warren and Mrs, Dean 1 Rusk, whoso husband was I ker* away by the new crisis. I Mrs. Walt Rostow, whose hus- I band Is foreign affairs assist- lant to the President, brou^t I her daughter while Walt I stayed at his White House I desk. _ Receiving Inside the center I door of the theater were Secre- tary of the Interior and Mrs. 1 Udall who gave an afler- I theater party for the cast at 1 the Federal City Club with an I orchestra, gay dancing, clc, I The National Park Service, I which restored the theater, is I under the aegis of the Interior Department. The original cost I of the theater, by the way was $75,000; the cost of restoring I it, $1.9 million. Sen. and Mrs. Charles Percy were there, but they bad been given seats in different rows. Sen. and Mn. Gale McGee, sen. and Mrs. Gordon Allott, TnP«3pTsli5(So3ao^aqj no drmjg SuiiuBqo sauiii Xubui pjBaq -09H 'SJW pnB i^uBduioo aqi jo •JIBJJB TBUOnBITAUt V iABq isnui uioouiq isqj Xjd luaprsajd aif) papnioui ^i pui 'ouoiRiq aq^ jo aDUB^Jodtui aqi B pjBaq uid punooB aai 'atL'CBM l-io^^ uiojj peoiaueid jjjBiu 01 sassaap q}§u9i-Joou aq oi sy aioqM B ^qgnojq peq 03 soue ui ajOM U3UI0M aqi jo isok -Baqi aqi ijai XajqdamH 'aaua -jnsui aj!T [BuopEM ujoouri uMoS adajD yjuid guoy b sq? JO jreisopoq aicAud aqx papBaq b ui aqs—UBgaq Moqs -tpne panpqns iBqMacaos jo passojo Xpjns ;i sb ajjaij jjoog iqiojOG sjjy aqi ajojoq X[iJoqs ut idaMS spuiiu aqi 'Moqs lueqiuq aqi pauado oqM q:)TM auiBD an aauKpua^iH siq |6A pp XjiojAi ep BsanbJBj^ Xq Suiuado poXe|ap-Xjn]ua.:) puB jopessBquiv qsiUBds 'AajqdiunH IJaqnH ^uapisajj passojo puB Smsop nijoisiq aqi pa>iu'[ •aUTllSTBM oDiA JO putui aqi aABq isnui XSoibub aqj, 'auii; s.ujoaun u? jaieaqj jaq 01 qoui ub pappe SBq sq) }0 jagBUBui aqi jo iios aqs Suisiajaxa jaqio pun SuiS •S0JC3 JBM siq inojj ajid 'pjoj oKjoa'j -saj psq luapisajd iB^ PIO-JB3X-A8 sqi -8o[ jaq 118 qi'M iBqj Xiuaaqa iq3nos sauois pa/vjasqo 'saduis jaAiis ibiuoz pAio aqi ajaqM xoq padBjp 'iCiduia 01 guioBaui -dmqj JO jjDou aipn] daap b -uoq xfiiAi ssajp SuinaAa aiiq.w -3bij aqi aAcg 'uogiBs iCsssq xfim vuAO$ qaupTV XJJBq JjoBiq guoi B lii 'piaijiBH aiiauioiuv ajoui 1? ui B aaoM aqs uoijdaaaa aqi •saouBuiJOj -uia UBouaiuy ^m Jo JOOU ISJIJ no m gtnddojp jaiiB^Moqs puo •^ -^5! .^T-W. ««:«»l(iW{iK»raeiTJB*EW~#KJrrai^^ V-'V-enr'S"**-*^ •*»V"'»>'^-Sr« k-i<_"v.CLA .Cv. \:siOM THE ARTS WASHINGTON, D. Ford's Is a Museum By BENJAMIN FORGEY star SUff Writer Ford's Theater, in its pristine-pure reincarnation, has an identity prob- lem. Ford's Theater is a memorial. Ford's Theater is a museum. Across 10th Street from the House Where Lincoln Died, Ford's Theater is the Place Where Lincoln Was Shot. Is, then, Ford's Theater a theater? It was a theater — one of Washing- ton's finest — for a little less than two years prior to the night of April 14. 1865, when, in the words of Stephen Vincent Benet, Lincoln and his wife Went to the theater in their flag- draped boi. The play was a good play, he liked the play, Laughed at the jokes, laughed at the funny 7nan With the long, weeping whiskers. The time passed. The shot rang out. The crazy murderer Leaped ^'om the box, mouthed out his Latin phrase. Brandished his foolish pistol and was gone. After the awful event, some months after, John T. Ford tried to stage another play in his theater. The public temper would not allow it. The federal government look over the property, and for almost a hundred years the building languished, successively, as a center for medical research, a store- ^^^^^^^^^^Ri '^'^^Kfi^E house for Civil War records, a ware- house for Army publications, and a 10-*f^: dusty repository for Lincolniana. In 1964, however, Congress appro- priated money to restore Ford's to its original state. Lacking detailed archi- tectural plans, but armed with Mat- f Hm «— '^"^•^ thew Brady's photographs of the inte- *Jw«^ rior yj.^^^^^^ and a fanaticul devotion to accu- idBMBM luiatiiir r -Star Photographer Rosemary Martufi George Ford, son of the manager of Ford's Theater in Lincoln's time, arrives for the reopening of the theater with Dorothi Bock Pierre. EXCLUSIVELY YOURS A Brilliant ening At Ford's Theater By BETTY BEALE Justice and Mrs. Abe Fortas, Frankie Hewitt, president of SUir Staff Writer Sen. Allen EUender, Sen. and the Ford's Theater Society, The fact that there was dis- Mrs. Edmund Muskie and Sen. was striking in a long white turbing pews from the U. S. and Mrs. Hickenlooper also crepe with narrowed neck ef- military front shortly before were in tlie audience. fect pinned with a diamond the curtain went up on Ford's Three Senate doves, Mike brooch. Theater for the first time Mansfield, Bill Fulbright and IMOST STUNNING GOWN since Lincoln was fatally shot Mark Hatfield and their wives seen ail evening was worn by there — made the reopening seemed to gravitate toward Bassima Al-Ghousscin who, grimly realistic. each other during the recep- with iior husbiind, the Kuwaiti tion that was be- When people talked of the sandwiched ambassador, went to the sec- 1 ) Amusements—Books—Art—Music—Records 1^ THE ARTS ^l)e ^undau ^ht Hobbies—Scliools— Radio—Gardens "^ WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 11, 1968 Ford's Is a Museum but It's Also a Theater By BENJAMIN FORGEY and stirring words, a verbalization of a kind of necessary national myth. It is not. really, a play but a series of Ford's Theater, in its pristinc-pure vignettes, which, in the words of direc- rcincarnalion, has an identity prob- tor Jack Sydow. "put a poem on the stage." Ford's Thealer is a memorial. First published in 1928, It was first adapted for the Ford's Theater is a museum. stage in 1952 by Charles Laughton, in a three-actor Across 10th Street from the House production which toured the country to Where Lincoln Died. Ford's Theater is the sotmd of almost continuous ap- the Place Where Lincoln Was Shot, plause. (The players? Tyrone Power, Is. then, Ford's Theater a theater? Raymond Massey, Judith Anderson. It theater — one of Washing- was a Sydow, using Laugbton's cutting as a ton's finest — for a little less than two basis, adapted the play for NRT. years prior to tiie night of April TTie playas seem to bave adjusted 14. 1865, when, in the words of Stephen fairly quickly to playing at Ford's. Vincent Benel, Lincoln and liis wife The troupe arrived in town on Jan. 22, and Sydow says, "for the first Went to the theater in Iheir flag- couple of days, tbe actors draped boi. were terribly awed by the tlieater. The atmosphere The play was a good play, hs liked was so strange, almost eerie. T^ere Ihe ploy, was al- ways that flag-draped box. I finally LoMghcd at the jokes, laughed at just had to tell them not to be spooked, (he /imni/mai. that the box and practically the With the long, loecping whiskers. whole theater are reconstructions." The lime passed. The stage at Ford's The shot rang out. The cra^H is a typical Restoration stage of the period, a kind Leaped i'om the box, moulhed out of modified thrust with an apron extending 15 feet in his l.alin phrase. front of the pro- scenium arch. Brandished his /oolish pistol and From the proscenium was gone. to the rear wall is 23 feet. It (the proscenium) is draped with an old After the awful event, some months fashioned "roll" curtain painted with after. John T. Ford tried to stage a "perspeclive"—in this case s park- another play in his theater. The pubUc like vista of river, tree and mountain, temper not allow it. lederal would The with a bust of Shakespeare on a government look over the property, pedestal in dead center—as authentic and (or almost a hundred years the and as American as com. building languished, successively, as a center for medical research, a store- Some Adjustments house for Civil War records, a ware- house for Army publications, and a How does a contemporary company dusiy repository for Lincolniana. adjust to performing on the restored In 19M, however, Congress appro- stage? Tlie word last week was: Easy. priated money to restore Ford's to its Lighting was a problem, but it original state. Lacking detailed archi- seems to bave been solved to the lectural plans, but armed with Mat- satisfaction of all. thew of inte- Brady's photographs the It is crowded backstage—the big rior and a fanatical devotion to accu- air-conditioning units there are part historians racy, of the National Park of an unauthentic restoration hidden Si-rvicc supervised the project. from public view—and storage is a A Fond Hope But problems? Such problems, most Midway through the reconstruction, theaters should have. il was decided — Interior Secretary On the other hand, there are the Stewart Udai! decided — to make the advantages of the apron stage. Direc- building more than a museum. Ford's tor Sydow: "There are some adjust- was to be equipped for dramatic prod- ments one has to make. The small- uctions again, to be dedicated as a ness of the backstage area forces "living mcmoi'ial" to the president | everything downstage, and changes who, pcrh.ips more than any other PhoUitTtvhT GIM iMrk [ the patterns of movement. Entrances president, made living thenter a part j Players of the National Repertory Theatre rehearse a scene frcm ''John [^roTii's Bad/" or Ford's Theater. ,inil esits are made upstage, and yoi of his life. have to plan for that. Tomorrow night the National Reper- tory Theatre will begin a three-play "But when you want to get greater I contact with the audience, when I repertory season with a performance theater ultimately produced there, is raised to subsidize a full-time, t^irce- ance will Ix' sold at reduced rates lo repertory has ranged from SchlTIer's you're striving tor intimacy, I of an adaptation of Benet's long narra- whether player and playgoer alike can year schedule at Pord's for tlie Nation- student groups. "Mary Stuart," and Moliere's "The greater Although It Is too early Ima:^inary Invalid," youn can move onto the apron. In tive poem, "John Brown's Body." (To- overcome the tendency to be overly al Repertory Theatre. U toll, the lo Anouilh's [ 'Ring John Brown's Body,' for example. morrow's performance will not be the sentimental, overly reverent, about Why so much? Preliminary esti- fund-raising effort got off lo a good Around the Moon" and Miller's start Lincoln "The Crucible." I used the apron mainly tor Indi- first on Ford's stage (or the troupe, the death of a great president. mates. Crosby says, show that it will when the National Life vidual scenes. It makes for the kind each Insurance Co. provisionally gave In addition to "John Brown's | which gave five invitation-only pre- But a more cnicial issue, in the cost about $5,000 more week of Bodv," can be taken in hy S2:j0.f)U0, At any rate, NRT will have the series for Ihe Ford's season this of intimacy and emphasis you view-benefit performances last week.) short run, is n^ether enough money production than box into to know whether the money is forth- year includes Shakespeare's get on a proscenium stage." The hope is to make NRT a permanent can be raised to lure NRT back lo office returns. The theater, which "The or not and if that hope during Lincoln's day apparently 1,700 cominfi sometime during the Comedy of Errors" (opens Feb. 26) Standing on the stage, looking out home at Ford's, Washington next fall for a full season | persons could be jammed, now has a ne\t three months in order to begin and Goldsmith's "She to over the empty house, with its enmes true, to Rivc "John Brown'.s at Ford's. The Ford's Thcjter Society Sloops Con- | in accordance preparations straight-back black rail Rody" a permanent place in the reper- — a nationwide group of high-powered capacity of 742 persons, for the fall season. quer" (opens March 26). The plays chairs an District tire regulations will be presented in alternating reper- its sparkling cleanness, one can fe< lory, lu make it sort of the play for individuals created especially for the with If live theater can survive at Ford's, tory until the brief, the intimacy of the playhouse. It i I'oid's Theater. purpose — is working on that. The Lop ticket price wiU be S5, And the National Uepertory Tfieatcr stiould trial season closes 18, a small, lovingly detailed theater, , The 14-wcek stand should go a long According to Kenneth Crosby, head because NRT, in order to fit its own he able to do the job. Created in 1961. May bo perfect period piece perfect I way toward proving, or disproving, of the -Merrill. Lynch, Pierce, Fenner idea of what theater should be and the company (which varies in size "John Brown's Body" Is a filling —more the thesis that Ford's can become a and Smith branch here and treasurer attract foundation money, operates a from 20 lo .10 actors and actresses) has production with which to reopen now than in its original version, when I annually tniirud fumes from unique theater-museum. The crucial of Ford's Theater Society, about SI. large educational program, a substan- the country playing a Ford's as a theater. Historically rele- the gas lighting repertory of "classical" plays. vant, it is full turned the walls dirt-gray. question, in terms of the (lualily of ihe million in private donations mu.st he tial numtwr of scats for each perform- The of sweep and panorama have ': * jT-JiiSi'. .J;.»»itii«rrt;sa:,^5juVi;jiSS^;BS * , I :S3^- :jp ' / Amusements—Books—Art—Music—Records Hobbies—Schools—Radio—Gardens D ., FEBRUARY 11, 1968 ut Ifs Also a Theater and stirring words, a verbalization of a kind of necessary national mytih. It is not, really, a play but a series of vignettes, which, in the words of direc- tor Jack Sydow, "put a poem on the stage." First published in 1928, it first "*!' 's!*:**«)W«W-i»ii*; <:i»~> was adapted for the stage in 1952 by Charles Laughton, in a three-acto^* production which toured the country to the sound of almost continuous ap- ,„»»**'^****' plause. (The players? Tyrone Power, Raymond Massey, Judith Anderson.) Sydow, u^Jig Laugihton's cutting as a basis, adapted the play for NUT. .1 The playa^ seem to have adjusted .._^._ __i,ui„ »^ •io«l«» at Ford's. qaea bad joj s-jeas jo Jaqtunu leri oq }snm siioiiBuop ajBAi-id ui uoniiiu aqj jo X^qenb aqi jo suija] ui 'uonsanb fans B 'uiBoSoad jBUoi^BDnpa 8SaB[ inoqB 'Apioog XT$ Ja^eaqj, s.paoji jo IBpnjD aqj, uinasnui-ao^eaq} anbiun jDdo 'y{3uom uonepunoj pBa:):)B jajnsBaj^ pire sjaq qouBjq q^iuig puB B auioaaq ubo s.pjo^ iq iBq] sisaqi aq; pinoqs ja^Baqi) :iBqAi jo Bopi aauuaj 'aoj3i XjB]ajoas Jouajuj — papioap sB.ii ]i 'uot]ana]suooaj aqj qSnojqj Xbmp!i\[ ado/v puoj Y •]oaCojd oqi pjsiAjodns aoiAj.x; New York Times, March J, IVbO .>, As soon as you settle into the pro- Now York Times March ^,1968 portions of this playhouse, though, you see why the walls can afford to If Lincoln insist upon themselves. We aren't looking at the stage through a tuimel of darkness. We are In it, nearly on it, joined in the same friendly space. The Had Lived actors* walls are our walls, more or less; we are more nearly in the ball- By WALTER KERR room of a mansion than in a corridor with a distant door, and it is proper theater has just won a small, ward off evil. With superstition on the that we should share the same gas THEbelated, but I think decisive vic- one hand and a kind of corrupt nostal- lamps. Proper, even, that lace curtains tory. Ever since the night of gia on the other, what good could should be draped here and there. Lace Lincoln's assassination in April possibly come of the battle or the curtains are used in homes, and we of 1865, Ford's Theater in Washington bother? I am told that even now the have not gone all that far from home has lingered like an untreated sore in Government department that has so tonight This is a meeting, not a magic- the American consciousness. The build- lovingly put every last bit of lace cur- lantern show, all intensely there tain ing was there, too in place — are you surprised to I should say at this point that the for what had happened in it. It could hear that the playhouse has lace cur- ' National Repertory Company, which is be used, if anyone could think how it tains in its boxes?—is faintly uneasy presently installed in the theater and should be used. An attempt was made about permitting continuing perfor- has begun its three-play season with to reopen it in the very year of the mances. What do people think and feel a new staging of Stephen Vincent President's death—as soon as the con- as they come ostensibly to be enter- Ben6t's "John Brown's Body," is by victed conspirators were hanged, in tained? no means taking full advantage of the fact. Two hundred people bQught tick- I can tell you what I felt, and it most striking characteristics of the ets for an announced performance of surprised me. Although the President's theater. Con- (Continued on Page 3) "The Octoroon." They were met at the |}0x, with its flags draped out of sym- doors by a possibly dangerous crowd, metry just as they were when Booth's by a group of soldiers, and by an order spur caught in one of them, asserts from the Secretary of War closing the itself plainly and prominently at the bui|ding. Someone had threatened to right side of the auditorium, I spent burn the place down if an actor dared no time at all thinking a man had been set 'foot on the stage. killed there. The only thing that en- ' Once it had been abandoned as a tered my head was how much he had playhouse and later reduced to a shell, liked to come there. the battle of morbidities continued. * There was constant agitation to re- The house makes the difference. It's store it; after all, Matthew Brady had an enveloping house, a rippling house, photographed it so thoroughly that an easy embrace that makes a casual even its ceiling designs could be flaw- but unmistakable gesture of commu- lessly copied. But weren't the restorers' nity. This is where to come not simply motives morbid? Why would anyone to see a play but to see neighborSi want to go into such a reconstruction The stage is a graceful scallop, curving except to feel that titillating little so far forward that it passes and ab- shiver of regret and distaste that the sorbs the four boxes on either side, prying like to get in the presence of moves into the area where the audi- remembered catastrophes? ence is. The two balcoQies ujidulate in response to thfe apron, overhanging impulse; they There is always something particu- and echoing its outgoing larly garish about catastrophe in the begin not at the rear or even halfway theater, an obvious mismatching of through the house, but at the very intended gaiety and actual disaster, point where stage and boxes leave off, plat- blcMjd on the clown's face. The senti- seeming to link arms with the maitalists who wanted the playhouse form on which actors walk. To sit in back again were suspect. Necrophilia In the balconies is to hover over the directly down into the the wings, as it were. And of course stage, peering those who so bitterly opposed the players' faces looking up. It is as notion of brightly lighting what they though we had all gathered at first- preferred to think of as a tomb were and second-story windows to lean out the courtyard. plainly morbid, too. A place was and over a busy event in converge, but you damned by a deed; it could scarcely Heads don't quite be passed without making a sign to feel that they might. The walls and ceiling are white, or a very lively near-white, infrequently broken by exceedingly simple line dec- orations. This is, at first glance, as- tonishing. White walls, or even light walls, are thought taboo In our own ' playhouses, for most definite reasons. They pick up too much reflected glow pulling our eyes away i from the stage, * from what is going on under the proscenium, diffusing our attention as they attract needless notice to them- selves. While a show is going on. who wants to be conscious of the audito- rium proper? _ , . ^ ^^ _ — THE NEW YORK TIMES. SUNDA Y.MARCH 3. J968 •ew If Lincoln Had Lived K Continued from Page 1 sponsively audiences sit up such felicitous simultaneity. ^^ temporary acting and ^tag- on the cane - bottom chairs Neither does the director • '^ Ing habits are not that when they feel they are at ever escort one of his ac- last being approached?) r^ easily broken, particularly . tresses to the wave-like lap of the ?|^;. by a company not overly , This is a house, and a fore- apron and encourage •Hi»>;-imaginative to begin with. stage, built for asides, for her to follow its inviting •^••'Director Jack Sydow is still full-throated confidences. It swell, brushing eyes with us ^;_ in love with the vast deeps is the sort of place in which the long and supple way risV.under and inside the prosce- one actor can converse with across. I^^.Ljiium; for the most part he one side of the auditorium, * C^: huddles his actors there as another with the opposite Not until the second half ffs ^though backstage were iiome side, while all of us together of the entertainment does he j^,:base, letting them advance hear and relish the cross- use the one real virtue of ; > : only occasionally — one or hatched intimacies of both. combining backstage with 'V'titwo at a time—to explore At no time does Mr. Sydow forestage: that of propelling ^•'othe resources of the court- attempt to explore the pos- an actor out of the dark and ^yyard we've really come to. sibility, though the fragment- distant reaches on a strong V :; (Hasn't he noticed how the ed and impressionistic par- trajectory that seems to can- ' vjplayers' voices suddenly ac- allels of the Ben6t poem nonball him in our direction. «*-!quire timbre as they get past readily lend themselves to (And when he does, the actor 4"the curtain line, or how re- even seem to call out for hesitates just shy of us, wary of our presence instead of We have the d^cor; let us welcoming it.) The Brady also have the experience. photographs, by the way, * Ford's is fine laboratory, show that the scenic walls a research but for and doors for "Our American not just for intimating change for mak- Cousin" were stationed flat — ing our awareness of change at the curtain line, shutting real. We have no other house off the area that is being (nor do need one, this most used now and making we will do) capable of suggest- no bones about the fact that ing to us the subtle social the play is to be played differences between an expe- ' where the audience is. As rience of theater at one ear- soon as possible a produc- lier point in our history and tion should be mounted in our customary experience of this manner, not because theater today. We are much there is any virtue in being interested in altering our piously antiquarian about own overfamiliar and rather 19th - century practices but tired experience; if we because now that we have weren't we wouldn't be the building we should dis- spending so much time on cover what it was built for. arenas, on thrust stages, on pattern-cracking happenings. And though snuggling inside I a sensation earlier than our ; own certainty isn't going to tell us what to do the day after tomorrow, it can help alert us to the fact that there are no theatrical absolutes and that some theatrical rela- tives may be cosier or more direct, or even more binding than others. The strongest sensation I had on coming away from Ford's was that if Lincoln had lived he'd have been back next week. The sense of his pleasure is stronger, much stronger, than the sense of his death. • That is why I've called the reconstruction a victory for the theater: In effect, the stage's purpose has won out over Booth's. The house smiles. It is gregarious. It has a character and reflects a character. Going into it is ahnost like meeting a person, more like meeting one than losing one. THE EVENING STAR Washington, D. C, Friday, May 15, 1970 BENEFIT OPERA AT FORD'S Mrs. Lincoln Comes to Lifei By BARBARA KOBER husband was detained in court well but you are not going to ly worried about reaction from star Staff Writer too late for him to make the convince anybody by antago- Mary Todd's descendants who The Mary Todd Lincoln few trip here, said Judge Mac nizing them." watched the scene of her in- Swinford delivered "a lecture sanity trial. Robert Todd Lin- have ever known came to life on law and order I wish every- coln, instigator of the trial last night on the stage of the Composer There body in the country could against his mother, was de- theater vvhere her husband hear." Among the many Kentucki- picted as more villainous than was murdered. ans attending the reception The university president's Mrs. Lincoln was insane. Under the patronage of Mrs. was the composer of the The benefit was sponsored Richard Nixon and Mrs. Spiro wife insisted that only "about opera, Dr. Kenneth Wright, by the Kentucky Society of Agnew, the Mary Todd Lincoln two or three hundred of the head of the music department Washington, the University of Opera Committee presented at 16,000 students enrolled at the at the University of Kentucky, school Kentucky, the Lincoln Group Ford's Theater the premiere caused the trouble." who conducted the orchestra. During the of the District of Columbia, of "Wing of Expectation " an protests, Mrs. "I'm not going to answer my Singletary said, the National Park Service and opera depicting the troubled she had visit- telephone tomorrow," he said. ed the dormitories talked the Interior Department. life of the wife of Abraham and "We treat the Lincolns very to the students. Cochairmen of the Lincoln. personally in the love story program "They are torn were Ralph Becker, Mrs. The performance, which is and mixed between the President and up," she said. told Stuart Charlesworth and being repeated tonight, is for "I them Mary Todd." the benefit of the house across demonstrations are all very Wright said he was especial- Lewis Moss. the street where Mrs. Lincoln kept a night-long vigil until her husband died in the early morning hours. Proceeds will be used to help refurbish the Peterson House, "The House Where Lin- cob Died," one of America's historic shrines. Mrs. Agnew made her en- trance last night into the thea- ter just before the program was scheduled to begin but was forced to leave a short time later because of a shght ilbiess. She said she had taken med- ication to "help me get through the evening," but was unable to stick it out. "I got up this morning feel- ing this way," the vice presi- dent's wife said. Violence Discussed At a reception in the Nation- al Portrait Gallery before the opera, the wife of the Presi- dent of the University of Ken- tucky discussed last week's vi- olence on the campus at Lex- ington. She praised the judge who just hours earlier had dis- missed a case brought by the Association of University Pro- fessors asking the court to re- move National Guard troops from the campus. Mrs. Otis Singletary, whose / Opera about Mary Lincoln too episodic The musical drama, "Wing of Expectation," by Kenneth Wright, member of Kentucky University's music faculty, had its first presentation out- side of Kentucky at Ford's Theater last night under the patronage of Mrs. Richard M. Nixon and Mrs. Spiro T. Ag- new. Mrs. Nixon did not attend, and the Vice President's wife was forced, by a severe head- ache, to leave before the cur- tain went up. \9'W \5. The opera is a long (three •NVaV and iriVolved vloti. with YtVdaV.^"":^^^^'- acts) {5e^.S' a creditable score but with no ^^^ line. '^^i;*^-^"^ sustained dramatic Ifjas For reasons not quite clear, the composer, who also au- ^^^^ thored the libretto, has told his story of the unstable Mary Todd Lincoln in episodes that skip about in time. Opening scene, for example is a saloon in the 1880's where Billy H e r n d o n , Lin- coln's old law partner, sings about how he spent 30 years making Mary Lincoln's insanity trial r?sult the opera makes no Kc?..v :ky University's fine notes for a biography of Lin- in dramatic impact the some of arts schools, furnished strong coln, and he wonders out loud, ; .ncivicual scenes are ef- .upp:.., under Dr. Wright's 1875 in Chicago sing their tes- "How do you capture great- fective, largely due ' to the baton. timony about their troubles ness?" ...... y me.odic scare. •.'ormance, which will with her. To which she replies Next comes an interlude — , nhn Stewart made a sym- benefit restoration of the Pe- at length. Herndon in his study — that pathetic Lincoln, and the rest 33 where Lincoln takes place in 1867, and then Acts 2 and 3 are similarly . . : 2 cast, as well as chorus died, will be repeated tonight scene 2, in which witnesses a: jumbled in chronology. As a and orchestra, all members of :.. 8:.-;.. M.B. — 3. THE NEW YORK TIMES. WEDNESDAY, JULY 22. 1970 Lincoln's Death Portrayed at Scene By RICHARIVHALLORAN SpeclAl to Th« New York Timet WASHINGTON, July 21 — A shot like the one that killed President Abraham Lincoln echoed again tonight in Ford's Theater here. The historic crack of a pistol was heard in the premiere of Charles Gugsenheim's "Sound and Light at Ford's Theater," a 35-minute recreation of the time of the Civil War, the ob- session of John Wilkes Booth with the cause of the Confeder- acy, and the events surround inp the death of President Lin coin. Werner Schuman, the event's executive producer, said: "We are not simply dramatiz- ing a Presidential assassination but exploring the meaning of the events leading up to the assassination. The entire pro- Th« New York Times (6/ Mite Lien) gram is not so much entertain- Werner Schumann, executive producer, and William Eggle- ment as an interpretation of ton, technician, at the control panel in Ford's Theater. American history. We utilize this to the theater help recreate in the bar next door to Ford's ists flood into Washington. time, the place, the events. and Theater and scampering, his "Light and Sound at Ford's Notables Are Present leg broken in his jump from Theater" was commissioned by the Presidential box, across and the National Park Service of Secretary of the Interior out the back of the stage the Department of the Interior. Waller C. Hickel was host to first part of the produc- The admission fee for adults an opening night audience of The tion focuses on Ford's Theater, will be 50 cents. Children under more than 700 cabinet officers, 16 will be admitted free. Senators and Representatives, which was built during the Civil and enjoyed brilliant sea- justices of the Supreme Court, War sons despite the war. Washington notables and pa- trons of the arts. The second looks at the char- They packed Ford's Theater, acter of Booth, the egotistic but which was restored in 1968. To much admired actor. He is por- their right, at the second level, trayed alternately as a South was the Presidential box lined em patriot who says that "My with patterned red wall-cloth soul, my life, and my posessions and draped with flags and are for the South," and as the bunting. Hanging on the front fanatic perpetrator of "a trag- edge of the box was the original edy conceived in madness." picture of George Washington, The third portion is focused on which Booth caught his spur on Lincoln himself, and the as he leaped to the stage after legacy that he left for the na shooting the President. tion. The three main voices are The sound and light tech those of Lee J. Cobb, nique of the presentation was who starred in "Death of a Sales- modeled on the "Son et Lu man," as Lincoln: Stacy Keach, miere" originated in France at who played Buffalo Bill in "In- Chambord Castle in 1952. It has dians" on Broadway, as Booth; been used to depict historical and James Earl Jones, who events at Versailles, the Acrop- played in "The Great White olis, the Pyramids, and the Hope" on Broadway, as the Tower of London. "Sound and Narrator. Light at Fords Theater" is the Music from the Period first use of the technique in- doors. Mr. Guggenheim, winner of two Academy Awards for docu- The emphasis is on sound mentary films, and Harry the crash of guns in the Battle Mu heim, a freelance writer, wrote of Gettysburg and the siege of the script after a year and a Richmond, the rattle of car- half of research. Robert Wykes, riages in the streets of Wash- professor of music at Washing- ington, the conversation of ton University in St. Louis, Booth and his fellow conspira- composed the music, weaving tors who plotted to kidnap in music of the Civil Lincoln, the voice of Lincoln War pe- has during the Gettysburg and Sec- riod. C. Robert Fine, who a recording studio in ond Inaugural addresses, the New York, and Michael Ritter, a film edi- footsteps of Booth in the empty tor with Guggenheim Produc- theater on Good Friday after- tions, recorded the authentic noon as he prepared to murder of period. Lincoln, the music of "Hail to sounds the entire production, the Chief" as President and The which cost $300,000 was put Mrs. Lincoln arrived in their tape that is geared box, the shot itself, the gallop onto a of Booth's horse as he escapea. to a computer controlling 26 high-fidelity speakers, 153 Lighting EffecU Sntble lights, and four remote control The lighting effects are most- motors to run the curtains with ly subdued and subtle, intended split-second timing. The produc- to stimulate the viewer's imag- tion is started by the push of a ination to see for himself the single button on the computer. peopip and the action in the The production is scheduled dram*—Lincoln in the window to be shown to the public four of the White House, fireworks times a day beginning tomor- and celebration in Washington row. More .showings may be with 'the news of the fall of scheduled In the spring and fall Kichi&bnd, . — CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 1970 Historic Rerun at Ford's Theater your life. Changed the life of person, ttie great man was ." people who sat a century ago dead. . . Then comes the where you sit now. ..." voice of Lincoln, "To his care' Thirty-four minutes later commending you as I hope in Ihe narrator is saying, "It your prayers you will com- had been done, and liiere was mend me, I bid you an no way to recall it, the great affectionate farewell." . WASHINGTON — In Paris Napoleon's voice echoes across the Court of Honor of the lovalides. Outside Cairo the commands of the phar- aohs float across the sands as lights play on the pyramids and the Sphinx. In Washington in the thea- ter where Lincoln was shot, the drama of tiie assassina- tion is recreated in sound and in light. It is a dazzling performance and one of the cheapest (heater tickets in the country: 50 cents for adults and free for children. • • • Ford's Theater, which was restored and reopened in 1968, has evening perform- ances of anything from Shakespeare to musical comedy. By day, under the auspices of the National Parks Service, It is both an historical site and a museum. The state box Is decorated exactly as it was on the night Thii is the state box at Ford's Theater in -Waihlngton is it of the assassination, with looks today. A sound and light spectacle dramatizing' the flags and bunting and a picture of Washington. night Presldant Lincoln was assassinated is shown several During the day. Ford's times a day/ Theater presents perform- ances of sound and light at the times and of the assas- 10 a. m., noon, 2 and 4 p. ro., sinated President. the only spectacle of ILs kind balcony sits , Up in the a played indoors. It unfolds its silent computer which com- own drama In the very mands the entire spectacle setting in which the event all the sound effects, the took place. One hears the voices, the music and the whisper of the plotters who, BEHEFITIi maze of light cues. At the before tihe surrender at Ap- touc^ of a button it begins, pomattox, had planned to A'LAST.JICHT and ttie voice of James Earl kidnap Lincoln and hold him I, ] Jones says, "Be very still. for ransom for the release of Perhaps if you listen with 30,000 Confederate prisoners. your memory you can hear As they scheme In Mr. the sounds of history. A place Tallavul's tavern next door, a where events changed the life light plays on the wall of the Jtant ST0T7 MB. . , of all humanity. Changed theater. Sitting in the audi- ence, one seems to be hearing ...„ the whispering thru the wall. -j • • • Washington was a fortress *. city and the booming of the . OUR AMERICAN- " ; cannon could be heard across the Potomac. Only in Ford's Theater, newly refurniihed by Mr. Ford, is there any COUSIN cheer. On George Washing- ton's birthday there was a grand ball and promenade with two troupes of acrobats and a hundred singing ca- naries. Sitting in the darkdeas of the theater today, visitors are transported back more '.nnnTifMia jDitiMiniui than a hundred years. Soft . . til acrokooM music plays and glittering lights flash thni the theater. ! BDWIN ADAJMS When Lee finally surren- ders, one heara John Wilkes Booth exclaim, "My God! I have no country left." On *ft'. .'.'rT'-'----'~'==v;., l Good Friday, April 14, 1B65, Potter for "Our American the day Lincoln was to attend Couiin" which was plajrinK at Ford's Theater, one hears the Pord'i Theater the nilht that footsteps of John WUkes Lincoln was shot. Booth in the back of Die theater, ke is going thru a rehearsal of l^e act he Broadwiy appearance In expects to commit that night. "The Great White Hope." As Lincoln Is late, and the the archconspii'ator and as- curtain Is not held. On stage sassin, Guggenheim signed one can see the setting for Stacy Keach. a young new "An American Cousin" and talent who manages to hear the actors performing trinsmlt In \As voice Just the their parts. As the Presi- right pitch of high, tense, dential party arrives, the mad frustration that seemed play Is stopped and strains of to drive Booth. "Hall to the Chief" resound • • • thru the hall as It did that For the sound and light fateful night. \ performancea at the theater, • • • the audience sits in the This entire performance, orchestra as did Hie ticket which makes history live holders who saw "Our again. Is a creation of American Cousin" on the (Varies Guggenheim, a young night of the assassination. and highly succeasful fUm The only concession to strict maker who has won several restoration are the cashlons Academy Awards for his that have been added to the documentaries. He produced cane chain that were In us* the project for the National at the time. Altho Itie sound Parks Service and coauthored and light ahow only runs for the scenario with Harry 34 minutes, Uia regular Muhelm To play Lincoln, the eveninf theater perform- producer chose Lee J. Cobb, ancea are two hours long, and perhaps moat famoas for his the Spartan seats were stage role as Willy Loman in turning away customers. "Death of a Salesman" In the theater's baaement Narrator li James Earl Jones the National Park Service who won ttie Tony Award as has created a Lincoln Mu- Best Actor of the Year for hlf seum which Includes relics of TORONTO DAILY STAR February 9, W/i A new life for theatre where Lincoln was shot - Ford our emphasis is on WASHINGTON (UPD .^merioan plays. After all. historic The restorers of ihis is the only theatre the were so in- Ford's Theatre r.S, go\cininenl owns and auheiiticily they for tent on jt should be a showcase squirm made their patrons the works of the American — Literally. playwri;?ht." back to life In bringing The current play, .lohn the theatre in which Abra- and .Nb.gii.l. i-^ an example. shot, they ham i.incoln was William Gihvon put ihe play it with the same furnished to;:ctlie.r solely from lines kind of canP-b<)ttom chairs Lhn.son Irom 1 e 1 1 e r s ex- that were used in 186.i. changed by .John Adams. I F'ortunatelv for the pa- Ihe tne second president of I (• somoone ' trons' m f r I. Initod State<. and his re- an ancient pho- came across markahlo wile. Abigail. tosrapli which levealed that A |nl of people \>erf the audiences of Lincoln's ii>ing to got the play and day interposed cushions be- LINCOl-N ABRAHAM we were fortunate," Libin tween themselves and the Shot on April 14, iSG5 said. He said the tact they scratchy cane of the chairs. could produce the play at vSimilar cushions are now was a factor that at- that all plays pre- Ford's In place and audience quirement tracted Gibson to them. .squirming has ceased in sented in Ford's must be .lohn and Abigail—which the handsomely-refurbished related to America somehow to New York after North- will move building on 10th St. 21-is or its history. it finishes here Feb. west in Washington where Despite these limitations. the first strictly historical John Wilkes Booth fired a Mann and Libin feel that drama presented at Ford's fatal bullet into Lincoln's their two-and-a-half year ef- by Circle in the Square. brain as the civil war presi- fort to restore live entertain- dent watched a performance MORE GLAMOROUS I ment to the museum-theatre of Our American Cousin has been an artistic and eco- Another thng Mann and on April 14, 1865. nomic success. Libin like about Ford's is OVERCOME took over theatre PROBLEMS Man and Libin that it gives "our now-defunct Na- an opportunity modern audi- after the organization Protecting nation- tional Repertory Theatre to be exposed to a ences from overly-spartan presented three plays in wide audience," Libin said. arrangements is had sealing theatre with- surroundings here problems en- the reopened "The only one of the enthu- out generating much are even more glamorous countered and overcome siasm from critics or pa- than an opening night in a group called Circle in by York, because there which produces trons. New the Square, important people Circle in the Square, which are more plays for Ford's Theatre un- on Bleock- here. You're playing to the direction of Theo- had operated der the people in in New York's Green- nio. 1 THEA1'I AT.mn :., i *a mi r T "« tl^ • gi-:^ r . ' y $1.00 at f@id*s fh@ati@ Is pf@s@it@i li D©paita@it of M@il©f aid tl@ iati@ial Faik Sifil©§« mil admlilslais lh@ lilldlig as a fall llsl@fl@al sit©. *TV.v'.: Rogers C B. Morton George B. Hartzog, Jr. Parlt Service Secretary of Interior Director National I fIMf11 miTl I llSfOEY "Some think I do wrong to go to the opera and the theater; but it rests me. " Abraham Lincoln once confessed. "I love to be alone, and yet to be with the people. A hearty laugh relieves me; and I seem better able after it to bear my cross." At Ford's Theatre — perhaps the most famous theatre in the nation — Abraham Lincoln found that solitude among people, a respite from the pressures of the Presidency, and the hearty laugh that allowed him to forge ahead afterwards in his task of preserving ^Jl^ti^^^.'^^^KSS^v^^^B ^^^^^^^H a war torn nation. B^2^^M^«Q£^]^^^j^^^fl^BKH|^^^^^^| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 1^^^^^^^1 Lincoln attended Ford's Theatre ten times during his Presidency. The tenth, April 14, ^^^^^^^^^^^^1 i^S^^^^^?PBHHpKS8^^ ^^^^^^H ^^^^^^H 1865, while he was watching "Our American Cousin," Tom Taylor's comedy about social -.^^j~~^^^^LLi^-. ' ^^^^^^^^^^^H . » ^- r '^^^v^il^S^^s. ^^^^^^^^^^1 eccentrics, he was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth. Almost immediately. Ford's ^^^^^S^^i^^ta^^^9^^H ^^^^H Theatre was closed by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and for over a century it remained shuttered, a silent testimony to a nation's legacy of hate. ^H That fateful night was a tragic one for the country; it was also tragic for the elegant ^H^^^^ theatre, which scarcely 18 months before had opened to the chirping of canaries sus- ^3 pended in cages from the gas fixtures and the carefree chatter of Washington theater- ,' / • goers. Originally a Baptist church, the building was purchased in 1861 by John T. Ford, a Sv^1 theatrical entrepreneur from Baltimore, who converted it into a theatre over the strong objections of several church trustees. A year later, fire leveled it to the ground. Un- ^^Hjl niT daunted, the Baltimore showman rebuilt a "New Ford's Theatre" on the site and booked — ...]^^^K:$i(^^ l\; in the finest entertainment on the East Coast minstrel shows, the ever-popular melo- dramas, and Shakesperian revivals, which Lincoln especially appreciated. For a brief period. Ford's reigned as one of the Capital's most festive gathering places. Then came '^1 Booth... HI H. I After the assassination. Ford tried to reopen the theatre, but public sentiment was ffl H" II t against him. Reluctantly, he sold the theatre to the for over years it V nn "I, government and 100 It nil served ignominiously as an office building, a medical museum, even a warehouse. II The rebirth of Ford's as a living showplace was sparked in 1954, when President Eisen- hower signed a Congressional act allocating funds for the restoration of the building. Ten years later, the National Park Service began the actual reconstruction, working largely from detailed photographs taken of the theatre after the assassination by famed Civil War photographer, Mathew Brady. The painstaking task required three years and close to three million dollars, but on February 12, 1968 — the 158th anniversary of Lincoln's birth — the stage at Ford rever- berated with the excitement of actors meeting audiences. Once again. Ford's had become a working theatre. What had been a grim reminder of violence was now a living tribute to the spirit of a man who had found within its walls joy, laughter, and courage. Ok- BENEFIT! LBSt"ji!1.!;HT or* I- izsBf-i MR. lOTiN DTiorr AM. ..IR. HARRY HAWK TOM T^YLORS CELI PRATED ECCtNTRIC COMF.OY 01 K \\ii:i(i(\\ GODSIR The sassy^ snappy rhythms of ragtime made "Max Morath Pamela Simpson and Cynthia Latham are the two sisters who at the Turn of the Century" a two-time winner. wean lonely men away from the tribulations of this life with their home-made Elderberry wine in "Arsenic and Old Lace." Two disgruntled fathers and a mute (who also serves as wall) Mitchell in Eugentij are part of the lasting delight of the musical comedy, "The Salome ]ens comforts a tormented Ryan Fantastics." O'Neill's stark "Moon for the Misbegotten." (RIGHT) . 1 111IT11 FOE 111 IMllIOU iEiH . . Because it is so intimately bound into the history of the country. Brown." the musical that brought the Peanuts comic strip to the Ford's Theatre is dedicated to the presentation of American theatre stage. works, both classical and modern. Such productions as these -- plus "Moon for the Misbegotten." Over the past four seasons, it has offered a wide range of theatre "Arsenic and Old Lace," "John Brown's Body." and "Max Morath fare -- from the gentle nostalgia of "Ah, Wilderness!," Eugene at the Turn of the Century" - illustrate the flexible theatre policy O'Neiirscomedy about small-town Connecticut, to the folksy patter at Ford's, which aims solely at providing meaningful American of the great Oklahoma humorist. Will Rogers, reincarnated by entertainment for all ages. actor James Whitmore in a one-man show, "Will Rogers" U.S.A." Financial i?ssistance has been advanced by a Board of Governors, Playwright William Gibson's "John and Abigail" premiered at made up of representatives of national corporations, each of which sub.scribed to a is Ford's , perhaps the most fitting home for this dramatization of the has generously production fund. The fund used letters between John Adams and his wife, Abigail, when he was to mount significant American works, book in appropriate attrac- away in Philadelphia, thrashing out the Declaration of Independ- tions, as well as commission new plays on timely American themes. ence. Enthusiasm also ran high for "Trumpets of the Lord," a The many theatre personalities who have worked at Ford's have rousing evening of Negro spirituals and folk sermons by James unanimously applauded its graceful stage, its intimate auditorium, Weldon Johnson that literally rocked the venerable theatre with joy. and its 19th century elegance, all of which make for a special rela- In keeping with the belief that Ford's Theatre is above all a tionship between audience and performer. Although over a century family theatre, "The Fantasticks," America's favorite pocket musi- old, John T. Ford's building has proved highly adaptable to the cal, played for a full summer, as did "You're a Good Man, Charlie present day, Fords hums with activity around the clock. r*t' fc 'A ». «i X. vk: ^\ "All I know is what I read in manager, Michael Higgins, as John Adams, peruses a the newspapers," drawls actor Baseball's most unsuccessful Charlie (Trip Plymale, right) and his letter from his wife Abigail in William James Whitmore, as the Amer- Brown comic strip friends romped for a summer at Gibson's "]ohn and Abigail." ican humorist, Will Rogers, in Ford's. "Will Rogers' U.S.A." . I fHIT11 f01 111 IlflOi . , Hundreds of thousands of Americans visit Ford's Theatre yearly and attend performances there. But millions more have come to icnow this vita! part of their national heritage through the medium of television, which has thrown open the doors at Ford's to viewers from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bangor, Maine. The first live performance at Ford's since its restoration, in fact, This 1971-72 season's "Festival at Ford's", again under the spon- was telecast as a national news special on CBS, January 30, 1968. sorship of the American Gas Association, is slated for viewing Sponsored by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company , the November 15 on NBC. It will honor those performers who have con- hour-long program saluted Lincoln and his unflagging love of the tributed 'special moments' to the world of American entertainment, arts, and featured a galaxy of performers — Helen Hayes, Harry and bring the excitement of Ford's into living-rooms across the Belafonte, Henry Fonda, Andy Williams, Odetta, Robert Ryan, country. Richard Crenna, Fredric March, and Carmen de Lavallade, among others. That initial telecast met with unprecedented success and in turn gave birth to the idea of a yearly "Festival at Ford's," which would allow some of America's best-loved entertainers to appear before the nation on the historic stage. The first "Festival" paid tribute to the wealth of American music — from folk-rock to Broadway musi- cal comedy to soul. Sponsored by the American Gas Association and shown as an NBC special on Thanksgiving Day, 1970, the much- applauded program spotlighted the talents of Andy Williams, James Stewart, Pearl Bailey, Henry Mancini, Bobbie Gentry, The Supremes, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Dionne Warwick. Washington E\ening Star Photo On stage before the nation: Dionne Warwick, Henry Mancini, Bobbie Gentry, James Stewart, Pearl Bailey, Andy Williams, Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes and Tennessee Ernie Ford, take a curtain call after the first annual "Festival at Ford's" on NBC-TV. (See page 7). Below: The First Lady of the American Theatre, Helen Hayes, pays homage to Lincoln in "An Inaugural Evening at Ford's" on CBS-TV. Below right: Pearl Bailey and Dionne Warwick take a break from "Festival" rehearsals. Right: The driving beat of Motown echoes from the stage as Andy Williams joins The Supremes for a medley of songs. 1 Below: Hobbic Gentry prepares to sing her popular folk ballad, "Ode to Billy Joe." Helow center Pictured here with his wife is Senator IVIilton I R. Young, whose persistant efforts in Congress iinally won approval of needed appropriations lor the restoration of Ford's. Right: Emmy-winning producer Bob Henry (Festi- val at Ford's), "The Flip Wilson Show" irons out a few production details with Mrs. Frankie Hewitt, President of Ford's Theatre Society, and singer-host, Andy Williams. iBelow far right Actor James Stewart as narrator for "Festival at Ford's." I fHIT11 101 ijl^ija iwii a a a Audiences at Ford's come from every state in the Union, as well as numerous foreign countries. ..from every age group. ..from every walk of life. Senators, secretaries, grand- parents, grandchildren, housewives, socialites, plumbers, politicians, tourists, and students (who benefit from privately-subsidized low- cost tickets) — all testify to the broad-based, nation-wide interest in Ford's Theatre as a living playhouse. Far left: Mayor Walter Washington greets an old friend at the post—"Festi- val" party: Pearl Bailey. Top: Theatre-goers celebrate the opening of Ford's Third season. Right: A glittering audience for "Festival at Ford's": (first row, left to right) Secretary of State William Rogers; Mrs. Rogers; Mrs. Frankie Hewitt, Presi- dent of Ford's Theatre Society; CBS Producer Don Hewitt ("Sixty Minutes"); Mrs. Walter Hickel; former Secretary of Interior Walter Hickel; First Lady, Mrs. Richard M. Nixon; former First Lady, Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower; Julie Nixon Eisenhower; Mr. and Mrs. George A. Horkan, Jr.; (second row) Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird; Mrs. Laird; Massachusetts Senator Ed- ward Kennedy; Mrs. Kennedy; NBC Newscaster David Brinkley; Mrs. Ethel Kennedy; Mrs. Benita Washington; Mayor of Washington, D.C., Walter Washington; Mrs. August Hiebert; Rev. Gilbert Y. Hartke. Facing page Top left: Leonard Garment, Special Consultant to President Nixon visits with James Stewart at the gala party in the Lincoln Gallery, National Collection of Fine Arts following the Festival at Ford's. Middle right: Senator Jacob Javits of New York chats with "Festival" stars, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Andy WUIiams and Henry Mancini, on Capitol HUl. Tennessee Ernie Ford chats with Secretary of the Interior and Mrs. Rogers C. B. Morton (far right) at the "Festival" Celebration at the National Portrait Gallery. Above: Will Rogers, Jr., son of the Oklahoma humorist, reminisces with Oklahoma Congressman Carl Albert who is Speaker of the House of Representatives and his son, David, after the opening of "Will Rogers' U.S.A." . I Tlllfll ITOY III III IlilT. . Responsible for the exacting task of reconstructing Ford's Theatre, the National Park Service, under the direction of George B. Hartzog, Jr., provides a variety of services for the daytime visitor, in addition to managing the building as an historical landmark. In the theatre basement, a contemporary museum displays memorabilia of President Lincoln -- the cradle, chair, and wooden bench from his Springfield, Illinois home; his law books and campaign materials; pieces of the Lincoln's White House china; even the shawl he wore on cold night walks between the Executive Mansion and the War Department. The items are part of the rotating Oldroyd collection, containing over 3,000 pieces of Lincolniana. Taped com- mentary explains the exhibits in detail, while acoustical booths permit the visitor to Hsten to excerpts from Lincoln's most celebrated speeches. Historical tours of both the museum and the theatre are conducted daily by Park Service guides. During the spring and summer months, visitors may attend "Sound and Light at Ford's Theatre," a computerized presentation utilizing music, projections, tape voices, sound and light effects to relate the drama that unfurled in and about Ford's Theatre a century ago. The Sound and Light format has brought to life such monuments as the Pyramids, Ver- sailles, and the Acropolis. To date, Ford's Theatre is the home of the only indoor spectacle of this nature. Under the banner of its "Parks for All Seasons" Program, the Park Service sponsors a spring musical for schoolchildren in the metropolitan Washington area. In the past two years, over 34,000 youngsters have seen either "Young Abe Lincoln" or "Young Mark Twain," light-hearted shows relating the boy- hoods of those two American heroes before they found their way to greatness. The red-brick town house to which Lincoln was carried the night of the assassination (across the street from Ford's) is also open to the public, under the jurisdiction of the Park Service. With performances during the evenings and a steady flow of sightseers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the day. Ford's hums with activity around the clock. Top right Objects from the boyhood of Lincoln are on display in the modern museum in the basement of Ford's. Bottom right: The stage at Ford's with a replica of the set for "Our American Cousin" and the flag-draped Presidential box as seen from the dress circle. Below: Park Service guides give frequent talks about the theatre and its history to visitors and school groups. R .2 vJt ¥ "Young Abe Lincoln" tells the story of the President's boyhood in Illinois and his romance with Anne Rutledge. A youthful cast sings about life along the IMississippi in "Young Mark Twain," a musical presented under the auspices of the National Park Service for Washington school children. foil's iiiiTii mum Ford's Theatre Society, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, was founded in 1967 with the aim of relighting the stage at Ford's. It operates under a ten-year mandate from the Department of Interior and serves as producing agent for the theatre — raising the money, booking the attractions, and commissioning new works. Theatrical performances at Ford's have been the long-time goal of Frankie Hewitt, who founded the Society and who was instrumental in working out the original proposals that brought Ford's to life. For the past four years, she has used her dynamic personality and unstinting energies to enlist the cooperation and sup- port of government officials, businessmen, and entertainers throughout the country. The mother of four children, as well as a successful career woman, Mrs. Hewitt is married to Don Hewitt, producer of the CBS television series, "Sixty Minutes." i@aid @f i@iii @f i@fiiMii C. William Verity, Jr., Chairman President, Armco Steel Corporation, Middletown, Ohio Ralph G. Newman E. E. Trefethen, Jr. Chairman President, Kaiser Industries Corporation, Oakland, California Mrs. Don Hewitt Reverend Gilbert Hartke, O.P. V. D. R. McKay Executive Producer Vice Chairman Vice President, IBM, Armonk, New York Ed Yoe Thomas E. Wilshire, Jr. Mrs. Hewitt General Manager/Company Don Executive Vice President, Manager President Western Pennsylvania National Bank, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Jan Du Plain Walter I. Pozen David P. Reynolds Public Relations Director Secretary Executive Vice President, Jil Carlson Reynolds Aluminum, Richmond, Virginia Dr. Sanford Greenberg Group Sales Director Dr. Armand Hammer Chairman of the Board, Linda Lachowicz The Honorable Julia Butler Hansen Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Bookkeeper and Educational Los Angeles, California Services Mrs. Samuel Rudofker O. P. Thomas Maury Sutter Chairman Executive Committee, Honorable Fred Schwengal Office Manager The Atlantic Richfield Corporation, New York, New York Tom Sands C. William Verity, Jr. Charles A. Dana, Jr., New York City House Manager Gregory S. DeVine Edward Bennett Williams Chanteuse Brown President, Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company Box Office Assistant Cleveland, Ohio Mrs. Milton R. Young Mary Anne Goeke Willard F. Rockwell, Jr. Rockwell Corporation, Box Office Assistant President, North American Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Tom Berra Charles T. Campbell Production Electrician TRW, Incorporated, Cleveland, Ohio George Berra Dan Seymour Master Electrician President, J. Walter Thompson, New York, New York Elizabeth Carlson Sanford D. Greenberg Theatre Assistant Chairman, EDP Technology, Incorporated Washington, D.C. FOR THE FIRST TIME 1971-72 Ford's Theatre will bring "showcase" attractions featuring the work of America's most talented directors and producers. Ford's Theatre will bring variety in pure entertainment -capturing the essence of what Mr. Ford had in mind when he opened his theater in 1863 as the showcase of Washington. major attractions for the 1971-72 season will be selected from these exciting possibilities: !•••• •••••••••>*••«>>< DoNTBOTrieR ME, i GaKT cOPL FORDS PREMIFRE PRODUCmON ViniKitte Carroll's mini-musical, Taliuitod -.•«6?S*?> starring an ail-gifted cast, which prompted r(!vi(!vv(!r I-idith Olivcsr of the New Yorker to write more a "love lett(!r" than a revicnv. Direct from Broadway, the award-winning ijentle folk-rock musical. j BobANdRAy ThE Two ANd ONly East Coast Premiere of Mother Earth carries the message of the 70's of a IHIEFTMII Two familiar figures of radio and TV for musical excursion into nearly ^0 years r(;p(!at llu-ir Ecology and Modern Blight — Featuring the songs of Jacques Brel. Broadway smash. comhin(!d with fresh Gilbert Becaud. Charles Aznavour, satire, dance, and soft-rock Michel LeCrande, brilliantly interpreted sounds. Do your conscience in English by America's foremost lyricists a favor Don't miss this including Rod McKuen. rare theatrical experience! WITH H.L MENCKEN" THE RIVALRY Norman Corwin's moving dramatization debate; certain to Th(! World Premiere of Paul Shyre's of the Lincoln-Douglas adaptation of Baltimore's noted be pertinent and thought-provoking in humorisl-wril(!r provides an evening of election vear 1972. satirical wif and lively entertainment. ,!•••••••••••••••••< GROUP RATES (call Jil Carson) 638-2941 BOX OFFICE TICKETRGN (Open daily 10 a.m.; (Sear's, Woodies, AAA Sun. - noon) & 1101 17th St.) 347-6260 FORD'S THEATRE 659-2601 511 10th STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON, D. C. 20004 ni^EaS CIJ^.CLE SEATING hr,'.io2' iQj,«pf;^^i»«|*'^l«»'or'/yj»7j ^ AT ' rt JS- OftCHCSIKA. -^-il p c Ig^^^^^^gji, A OJiCHFlSrPA GPAI^OUET CmCLEL SEATING . /^ 7 "Jingles"—emerged. He was attending an event where several clowns were performing. "I decided When flight plans change^ I could do a better job, so I began to develop the red-nosed, baggy pants don't panic. Curl up with character." "Jingles" soon was in demand for agoodbook. performances around the country. He has performed in such farflung places as Latin America, Hong Kong Ours. and Taipei. Future bookings will take him to children's hospitals in Spain, Portugal, Canada, Mexico, South • When you finish your business early and you want an America, New Zealand and Argentina. earlier flight ... • When a meeting takes longer than you expect and you "This year is the 100th anniversary miss your scheduled flight ... of the Shrine and the 50th anniversary • When you miss a connection ... of the first Shriners Hospital," • When your flight is delayed or scrubbed . . Tischler said, "so 'Jingles' is especially busy. That's when you need accurate authoritative airline schedule "I look forward to performing and information. And you get it it is personally rewarding. I remember fast with the Official Airline one boy who was paralyzed and Guide's handy, pocket-size could move nothing but his eyes. edition. The Pocket Fligh.t contains the last I knocked myself out for him but Guide seemed to get no response. Then word on over 16,000 of the most-used flights in the suddenly I noticed a tear in the corner U.S. and Canada, and it's of his eye. Another boy was in a revised monthly, so you trauma and hadn't spoken a word know it is the last word. since he'd entered the hospital. I Thousands of veteran pretended to check his knee reflexes business travelers won't with a doctor's hammer and when he make a move without it. kicked I rebounded, fell down, rolled There's a special intro under the bed, got tangled in the ductory offer described below, so act now! sheets—the whole bit. When I got Curl with our untangled, he was laughing. The up book. And then you hospital said it was a 'hear miracle'." can straighten up, Besides "Jingles," airlines and United and fly right. figure regularly in the Shrine's efforts to help children. Young burn victims are frequently flown to Shrine burn treatment centers. The annual Shrine East-West football game, which has raised $5 million for the hospitals, Special Intrdducfory Offer brings thousands of fans to San Francisco. The squads themselves, Official Airline Guide, Box 6710, Chicago, 111. 60680 which fly on United, have logged A Reuben H. Donnelley Publication more than a million passenger miles. I Enclosed is $1. Rush my special introductory copy of the And the Imperial Potentate travels '—I— ' Pocket Flight Guide to me. 250,000 miles a year. I Sign me up for a one year subscription ( 12 issues @ $20) I— — and send a free bonus copy giving me 13 issues in all. "Jingles" himself recently gave a Payment enclosed Bill me later 'performance' aboard a United jet. Q Scheduled to do a show for children at a Shrine Hospital in Chicago, he Name Title didn't have time to get into costume and makeup after he arrived. So he invited the children aboard the flight Company Business Phone Area Code/number to watch the process. Before their delighted eyes he the made Address transformation from William Tischler, veteran airline captain, to "Jingles," City State Zip the Shrine clown who has brought 370 joy to thousands of the world's less Charge my D American Express D Diners Club fortunate children. O (Charge card option applies to one year subscription only.) Card No. 13 The dark-haired young actor, only 26, drinking a last whiskey in the Star Saloon, tossed his head and said, "When I leave the stage, I'll be the most famous man in America." Instead history has only a harsh memory of John Wilkes Booth. But the stage he left darkened by death that April night in 1865 has become, by his deed, the most famous in the nation. Silent for more than a century since Booth's assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Ford's Theatre in Washington has reopened to echo today with the word and tread of actors as a living memorial to the man who died there. It is one of the most impressive, most moving monuments in the nation's capital, yet it is also one of the least visited. Behind the red brick facade of the building, tucked on aside street about seven blocks from the White House hides a theatre elegant in its red-carpeted, ivory interior and alive with its performances. In the four years since the footlights of the theatre came up again in January of 1968 before an audience of millions on nationwide television, the restored Ford's Theatre has already had a much longer modern run than the short original period before tragedy closed it a century ago. At first the idea behind revitalizing Ford's was to bring back plays which would portray the life and times of Lincoln. But the tastes of modern playgoers have brought change. Broadway hits, rock musicals and original shows all have moved across the stage in recent months. Recent playbills have ranged from "Mother Earth," a caustic rock protest against all forms of pollution, to "Bob and Ray—The Two and Only," and actor James Whitmore's one-man reminiscence, "Will Rogers U.S.A." Coming up in Marchand April of 1972 are "An Unpleasant Evening with H. L. Mencken" and a new religious rock musical, "Godspell." Unfortunately live theatre has been limited to the winter months, not the summer season when Washington throbs with thousands of tourists from throughout the country. But the National Park Service, which researched and restored the old theatre, has created a computerized sound-and-light show which dramatizes that night at Ford's. Four times a day, an audience can sit with the stage set as it was that same night a century ago, hear Booth's solitary footsteps in the deserted theatre as he rehearsed his crime earlier in the day, hear the words of the play, the crowd's laughter, the sudden muffled shot. Actor Lee J. Cobb is the voice of Lincoln talking about the Civil War The tastes of modern playgoers for the presentation, and James Earl have changed. Today, Broadway Jones is narrator. hits, rock musicals and original shows play on Ford's stage. Flag- Playgoers can reserve their seats draped box where the President sat is now open to visitors, A small at the theatre box office located next museum downstairs displays door in the former Star Saloon. Lincoln memorabilia. In 1 865 tickets cost half a dollar. Now prices range up to $7.50 for the winter season plays. Your seat will actually be a cane-bottom chair, a careful replica of the originals at Ford's— except for being a bit bigger to hold today's larger people. No matter what is being performed Photos by James E. McWayne 16 on stage, eyes often stray to the President's Box to the right of the stage in the intimate little theatre. Two flags of the United States (with only 34 stars) guard these windows, while two more are draped over the railing. A purple Treasury flag hangs between the windows of Boxes 7 and 8. The original of this Treasury flag, now on display in the downstairs museum, caught the spur of Booth's boot after he shot the President and leaped to the stage, breaking his leg. Booth, his escape crippled, was caught and killed in a burning barn in Virginia a dozen days later. The theatre, in an effort that took years of painstaking research, has been restored to its exact appearance as Lincoln last saw it. Photographs by Matthew Brady, who became famous in that new profession in the Civil War, were uncovered among the evidence used at the trial of Booth's fellow conspirators and were invaluable in reproducing the draperies, chairs, even the decorative detail on the wallpaper. "The new appearance of the building is deceiving," said Jim Lissimore, historian for the Park Service at Ford's, "but it is virtually the same as it would have been in April 1 865." Lincoln had attended Ford's Theatre, opened only two years earlier, eight times previously and once had even applauded Booth's performance in "The Marble Heart" there. With the President's Box opened at last to the public, visitors can now take the same route as both Lincoln, and later Booth, took up a curved stairway to what was then called the Dress Circle (now the balcony). Here the President waved to the audience and the orchestra interrupted the play —a second-rate comedy titled "Our American Cousin" to strike up "Hail to the Chief." Lincoln's high-backed rocker sits in the box, facing the stage, empty. Downstairs, beneath the theatre, a small museum exhibits a limited collection of highly interesting Lincoln memorabilia with a creative mixture of sound and lighting display techniques. Eight individual sound booths invite the museum visitor to hear short recordings that retell 17 famous Lincoln speeches, jokes and Ford's Theatre on the night of early the morning after. The wounded personal writings. One can also hear April 14, 1865. President was carried to a small a recording of Carl Sandburg reading back bedroom and laid crosswise In a small alcove, crammed with his tribute to "a man of steel and on a bed obviously too short for his history but almost hidden from the velvet" before Congress on the 150th 6' 4" height. public, a single spotlight stabs down anniversary of Lincoln's birth. on the ornate, one-shot brass Because the theatre itself was an A colorful recorded narrative reviews derringer that Booth used. Pages "exhibit" that figured in the Lincoln's life as spotlights point out from Booth's personal diary outlining conspirators' trial, no further public various personal items souvenirs and his plot, along with the riding boot performances were allowed there. —the lanky youth's first law books, slit by a doctor to treat his broken Later, owner John Ford was given contemporary political cartoons, an leg, contrast the demented fantasy permission to resume his theatrical enlargement of the letter from the and cruel reality of his fateful deed. season. But threats to burn the little girl who urged him to grow his building if public entertainment was famous beard, and the tall top hat Across the street from Ford's the offered in the place where Lincoln and long frock coat. The narrative Park Service has also preserved the had been martyred closed the theatre ends as the Lincolns plan to attend Petersen House in which Lincoln died permanently. A company of cavalry stood on the outskirts of Washington in case of riot. Passing the next decades as a place The Friendly for government offices and even used as a warehouse, the building was NIT-PICKER'S KNITS finally turned into a traditional Lincoln museum in the 1930s. But by that time there was little left of the original theatre except its name. Succeeding superbly in the historical restoration of the theatre, the Park Service now has a problem preserving historical integrity while giving freedom to the live plays that again brighten the stage. The sets for several plays have partly hidden the Presidential Box. And the portrait of George Washington, which John Ford had hung in front of the box especially to decorate it for Lincoln's attendance, has to be removed frequently. DEFI-KN[IS^ However, it is the live theatre which Cross-town or cross-country, there's only one way to go. In Defi-Knits" . . . the choice of nit-picking knit pickers everywhere in shameless patterns, styles and colors. Made for the fellow who knows the makes Ford's so much more than just difference and is willing to pay the price. Male oil the way . . . Defi-Knits" will defy even SEVEN SEAS* & another restored building. Because your most octive fun. In better stores from coast MINinUINTANITU^IVIV lOA FORT WAYNE NEWS^ENTINEL Tuw . Oct. 1». im By JOAN ZYDA across the stage Chicago and out the back Tribune door. He had broken his leg in the WASHINGTON - More than a cen- jump. tury after Abe Lincoln's assassination, What happened last April 14. the an- the sounds of heavy footsteps and niversary of the assassination, other was an- ghostlike happenings stUl other Ford's scare in a series of strange the living daylights out of those who occurrences. work at the Ford's Theater. Actor Billy Dee Williams was They said play- the ghost of John WUkes ing the late Martin Booth Luther King Jr stalks the old building, that night the in the narrative tribute scene of his crime, Theater which was restored called "I Have a Dream." In as a theater museum the first In 1968. act, Williams as King was No one intoning his has seen Booth's ghost, but reverence for Lincoln as a civil rights some say his presence can be heard leader when it sounded as if and felt. someone There are several confirmed were noisily running across the stage stories of actors forgetting Haunted? their lines and out the back door. while standing on the stage along Everyone in the audience heard Booth's escape route. After it Booth fa- mcluding those in the last tally rows. Thea- shot Lincoln, he jumped 12 ter feet officials were peiplexed because from the presidential box and limped there was no one backstage. Only after the final curtain did they solve comes and goes, mostly as a burst of "Presidents the riddle: Sonaeone had dragged a Johnson and Nixon, for sunlight from where he sat. An actress live example, received four invitations microphone across the stage, out in a black a gospel musical walked off year from the back door, and into the us. They accepted all the alley. the stage at intermission complaining invitations but "No one working at Ford's did she was at the last minute, distracted by a light flashing they'd that," said Frankie Hewitt, executive cancel, saying something had on and off in the President's box. Im- come director of the up." sai^ Alma Viator, publicist theater. possible, the actress was told, because tor the playhouse. Actor Hal Holbrook was spooked the President's box is permanently Last year, finally, President when he played at Ford's in his one- closed to the Ford public. went there man show called "Mark to see James Whitmore in Twain To- In his book "Ghosts." author John Give 'Em Hell, night." Holbrook's lines and timing oc- Alexander Harry." Nothmg said Lincoln's ghost actual- weird casionally went amiss. happened, though. ly -seems to prefer the White House, "Although it was almost impercepti- where there are dozens of stories Theater officials inadvertently ble to the audience, I noticed that Hal about his presence being felt or seen. scheduled would sometimes President Ford's evemng on falter in the middle He is said to pace the floors just be- the annlversarj' of Lincoln's '. oae assassi- of his monologs. After one fore a national emergency. nation. Later, when they realized i.liow, he explained he felt a presence what For years, U.S. Presidents after they Lin- had done and Ford had accepted — a nameless something coming from coln wouldn't go to the Ford's Theater the invitation, they ihe Lincoln box," Hewitt talked to the White said. because they were superstitious about House personnel about moviiig At Ford's Theater, Lincoln's ghost the it up place. two days. THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1982 A LINCOLN JOURNEY Continued From Preceding Page close to him and Major Rathbone and Miss tHarris were staring rapturously at Hawk. ^who was now by himself on stage. "Don't Witnow the manner of good society, eh?" the IBactor called out. "Wal, I guess I know enough ^0 turn you inside out. old gal — you sockdolo- ^izing old mantrap." iS At exactly that moment, Booth entered the ISbox and fired his derringer point-blank at Lhi- iSoln's head. Had we been back in the audl- we would have heard a muffled report the President's box and seen a scuffle arm with ___ ., as Booth slashed Rathbone's dagger. Then he leaped from the box, only to tch his spur in the Treasury flag and crash the stage, breaking his left shhibone just ibove the ankle. The audience was aston- ihed. Why, It was the actor John Wilkes ,00th. Was this part of the play? An Impro- -.ised scene? Crying "Sic semper tyrannusl" S"Thus be It ever to tyrantsl "), Booth lunged St Harry Hawk, then limped out the back door ^d galloped away Into the night. iBfislde was pandemonium. We can almost m hear Miss Harris screaming, "The Mary Lincoln 9 President Is shotl" and from the box In terror. "Help! I n shrieking Help!" People were yelling, shov- 1 Helpl rushing ing one another Into the aisles, and [ doc- for the exits. In all the commotion, two ono tors fought their way to the State Box and j ' resuscitated Lincoln with mouth-to-mouth respiration. But he never regained consclous- bullet had destroyed his I ness, for Booth's brain and lodged behind his right eye. out of > A throng o( 21 men carried Lincoln we can retrace their path 1 the theater, and across 10th Street to a boardlnghouse owned 1 ' Like by William Petersen, a German tailor. 'lord's Theater, the interior of the Petersen eno- |',house has been historically renovated, final hours of ' %ing us to relive the shatterhig night of the assassination. called "0 Moody. Tear- interior of the theater has been restored to its appearance on the ^hat Walt Whitman The been atone- ful Night." As If civil war had not ment enough, for the first time In the history been assassi- of the Republic a President had forever nated, a calamity that demolished "assas- William H. Seward's contention that Act practice or habit, Final is not an American Fords Theater: the sination be and one so vicious and desperate cannot brilliant regimental and Intoourpolitical system," theater on that night of Washington, and engrafted like to be outside the house, the (lags. On stage, Harry Hawk, the male candlelight in the Petersen nights, awaiting the arrival of the Presiden- Union By By STEPHEN B.OATES of a a narrow lead, ad-libbed a line, "This remhids me ''group of men bore Lincoln down tial party as other bystanders were doing. would say." ' room of a War Department and gaslights on the story, as Mr. Lincohi 'liQllwny to the today is It was a foggy evening, i pproaching Ford's Theater Mary, wearing a ' T, Clark, Here they laid drift- As the play progressed, 'clerk named William back Into street comers glimmered eerily in the like stepping abruptly a bonnet to match, reeled President diagonally across a short four- last-minute visitors, the gray silk dress and the Washington 117 years ago ing mist. Because of coverlet. another on Lincoln's knee and called his at- " poster bed, on' a red, white and blue Lincolns did not leave the White House until her hand Situated on 10th between E and F he ' On the way { tention to the situation on stage, and- ' %U.h fierce eagles at each comer. 8,15, and the play had already begun by the 5 N.W., the old red brick ' brain matter, _ laughed heartily from time to time. At one "oVer, Lhicohi had lost blood and time the Presidential carriage came churning has been so thoroughly restored that him, he * swoUen now and theater point, as if a cold wind had blown over 'and his right eye was badly up muddy 10th Street and stopped at a box on the interior — the lobby, ' lit a gaslamp both the front and long enough to put on his overcoat. ^'discolored,' Another boarder where the ladles could climb down to got up furnishings and nag. even the state box the curb gone room In a stage, Had we left during the third act and *'fiiat hissed and cast the little the sidewalk without soiling their shoes. look now just as they did that Good Friday a man we stand in the — out to the lobby, we would have noticed ghastly green Illumination. As Although in high spirits that morning (the when the Uncohis came here with ' doctors labor- of 1865. talking with the doorkeeper, a nervoud man in 'dbor^vay, we can almost see the Henry last major Confederate force was expected to Clara Harris and her fiance. Major high boots with spurs. It side, see Senator Charies at any time), a black felt hat and :^'lhg at Lincoln's of the Eng- surrender in North Carolina Rathbone, to enjoy a performance Shake- ' radical Republican and John Wilkes Booth, a prominent I Sumner — a so-called Lincoln looked tired now, worn down by the was American Cousin." ' taking his lish comedy "Our spearean actor with militant Confederate Lincoln's warm personal friend — awesome task of reconstructing his war-torn find meticulously restored three- ' tears. We can Visitors a sympathies. Booth seriously believed ^at 'Itand and bowing his head in a land. Contrary to what the myth-makers have story building that is both a museum and so adamantly ' Edwin M. Stanton tak- restore the most Americans hated Lincoln tear Secretary of War 1865 claimed, Lincoln was not going to functioning theater. Reproductions of the assassin as a national '' from witnesses in the second of heart. In that they would hall his testimony floor and the two South with a tender and forgiving %s wicker chairs fill the main not want a ticket from me," '' i'yvopariors at the front, it has been fervently seriously considering an army of hero. "You'll theater; the flag-draped fact, he was the accomplice in balconies of the Booth told the doorkeeper and then asked rgued that Stanton was an for Dixie and was prepared to en- which is viewed through a occupation conspired with presidential box. The doorkeeper pointed to a clock in the ooth's plot, that he had franchise the freedmen there — things his time. f'' at rear, contains the original sofa, remove Lincoln and window the 10 past 10, 1' IVengeful "radicals" to certain to despise and resist. lobby. It was of Lincoln's rocker. Plays rebel toes were Reconstruc- as well as a replica {''{fibs clear the way for a harsher said over and over that Reconstruction are still given at the He planned. Modem and other entertainments can reconstruct almost ex- tion program Uian Lincoln going to be a painful ordeal for his coun- •'The Orphan's Revenge." described was next. this as speculative theater; what happened 1 scholarship has exposed of his sec- actly opened last try and the most difficult problem close as a new musical melodrama, Booth opened the door to the Jipnsense. for Stanton was Lincoln's ond administration. f and is to run through March 28. Visi- We theater and advisor, and he strongly Friday floor of the trusted off Recon- main friend and during In truth, it was to get his mind approach tors are not admitted to the theater surveyed the audience and the 'Supported the President's military the struction and "have a laugh over the country performances or rehearsals, although could see Lincoln's face when Vq Reconstruction. to the theater. State Box. He which features an 20- cousin" that Lincoln had come ' the Petersen downstairs museum, he leaned forward and glanced around at the As Stanton came and went In We follow the two couples — Mary on Lin- minute taped presentation on Lincoln. re- had recognized some- putting Washington under martial law Clara on Rath bone's audience, as though he 'Bouse, coln's arm, pretty young round up Booth body Booth watched the play with more than ynd organizing dragnets to — up a winding stairway and across the dress Last year 665,000 people visited the theater, He knew every line other suspects, Mary Lincoln wept balcony, We gaze professional curiosity: "I'hd all a million circle at the back of the first outside which reopened In 196S after S2.7 scene by memory and had calculated the in the front parlor, v/hlle over rows of wooden chairs at a deep stage and tsterically refurbishing. Ford's theater is open from 9 to when the two actresses and women, black people and white,' other balco- best moment to strike, ;n fronted by an orchestra pit. Two President died. At 5, seven days a week. was on stage alone. lited in the rain as the gas lamps bathe the had exited and Hawk basement of the build- nies loom overhead, and the Surgeon Gen- The museum In the Booth turned and climbed the stairs hum- ¥st. at 7;22 A.M.. April 15, memorabilia auditorium in a golden Ught. face, and ing not only features Lincoln crossed the dress circle, and en- eral' pulled a sheet over Lincoln's people packed the theater that ming a tune, and derringer of John A thousand that he now belonged to the and the diary, dagger tered the narrow hall to the State Box. closing Stanton muttered excel- night — among them, Army brass and as- and Wilkes Booth, but also offers a shelf of door. The hallway was dark Iges. The news went out to a shocked they spot- and barring the assassina- sorted Washington socialites. When Lincoln. 16th lent books about Lincoln and the and empty. John Parker. Lincoln's guard that Itievlng nation that Abraham ted Lincoln, the audience gave the President had been shot tion With the help of George S. Bryan's "The served on the Metropoli- ^t-esident of the United States, orchestra struck night, a lazy oaf who Meserve a standing ovation and the one of the casual- Great American Myth," Dorothy Force, had left his post in the hall- and killed in Washington, Presidential party tan Police _ Illustrated up "Hail to the Chief." The his heart and had and Philip B. Kunhardt's richly either sat down In the gallery, to ties of a war that had broken of chairs, passed way and had studies of swept 'round the back row to join the other "Twenty Days," and cither modem play or gone outside (or a drink. flow claimed his life, gone door and dovm a gloomy hallway to watch the Imagine what it was through a had so Immortalized. Lincoln, we can easily Booth peered through a peephole hi the door tfhion dead he himself the State Box, which directly overlooked the a side door State Box (the actor was well knowrj at '"We leave the Petersen house by the audience on the to the professor hislory stage. Had we been in attenUon Washington, whose STEPHEN B. OATES. a of Ford's and nobody there had paid 'atid emerge into modem main floor, we would have seen Lincoln sink University Massachusetts at Am- empty theater streets and congested sidewalks strike at the of manage- when he had entered the rfbisy into a rocking chair provided by the the scenes evoked herst, is the author of "With Malice Toward day; he had examined the State us like a physical blow. Yet seated beside him and Rath- eariler that The Abraham Lincoln" and ment, with Mary Through Theater and the Petersen house lin- None: Life of mus- Box and drilled a hole in its door). ^^ Ford's bone, an ebulhent fellow with a walrus us anew that Lin- other boofes on Lincoln and the Civil War era. of Ught, Booth could see the ger in our minds, reminding their right. Then, as the narrow beam Jr.. tache, and Miss Harris to only yesterday, a tragic His biography of Martin Luther King LIncohi's head. Mary was stlU slttlng_ coln's era was really front of the box was adorned back of Trumpets Sound, " will be published it is today, the cataclysmic era whose concussions a^ "Let the Continued on Fodoiving Page '^d with drapes, a framed engraving of George time. » by Harper & Row m August. 41111 being felt In our own Lincoln Page To the Editor: Stepbea B. Oates is one Continued From Preceding of our best young historians and his dent Lincohi" (1909), based on con- account of the events surrounding the temporary testimony and official death of Abraham Lincoln, "Ford's recOTds and reports, maintains that Theater: the Final Act" (Travel, Feb. Booth carved the hole in the state box 14), will no doubt attract many visi- door and that he peered through it just tors to this historic site. before he shot the President. Most But what a disappointment it was to modem authorities accept DeWitt's find Professor Oates repeating the as- version, as I do. The chief Govern- serticD that Jdbn Wilkes Booth, Lin- ment witness against Booth's accom- coln's assassin, bad, earUer ao the day plices, Louis J. Weichmann, whose of the morder, examined the state box "True History of the Assassination of "and drilled a hole in its door" President Lincoln" was only recently through which to view the Presiden- published by Alfred A. Knopf, also as- tial party. serted that Booth looked through the In actual fact, though Booth may peephole at Lincoln. Weichm£um con- have used the peephole (a matter of tended that the facts Indicate that omjecture), it was not bored by Booth somebody involved in the assassina- but by worianen acting at the direc- tion plot was in the state box earlier tion of the theater's owner, Harry that day, boring the hole in question Clay Ford, a fact attested to by Ford's and making the other preparations for son. Irmically, Ford's intention in Booth's final act. having the hole drilled was to insure disprove the claim that it w&s Lincoln's safety by allowing bis guard To Booth, the National Park Service to look in CD the President without dis- Ford, who in turbing him. pamphlet quotes Frank wrote that his father had ordered The facts about the peephole can be 1962 the peephole bored in the state box found in a National Park Service pub- door that Good Friday of 1885. As a lication, "Restoration of Ford's Thea- historian, I am suspicious of hearsay ter, An Historic Structures Report," evidence offered almost a century published in 1963. Daniel A. King I m- Holden, Mass. after the event. Therefore, am dined not to accept Frank Ford's statement until it can bt: substantiated Mr. Oates replies: David -M. De- by contemporary evidence. Witt's "The Assassination of Presl- ContinuedonFoUowingPage . No Date. .\pri 1 , 10,92? A20 '/.'..' Nl-AV Yui.'h riMi.^, MONDAY, \iJASHmGrOU TALK Briefing blossom vigil has {^one forward with Uncoln enough fervor to placate a panUieon and LifG Record spring; crowds of up to 6,lWu school childrt-'ii a day already arc /J Vivuldj visiting Ford's TfiLuter and the hL>Uic near tlie subway tut X. onh of across 10th Stre^ci wneit; Lincoln dicvJ ^ the WhJte lJou.st fin and left a blcnxl-staintKl pillow that still fascinates toiu ists. ^P'in^' iommerce Is in The pillow waits as a reminder that toan.t the air T> > industry's wonh!;tli%J^. it was April when thronys waited anuJ the spnng budr. ajiJ wept for LiriLoln, and then again tor I- rankiin D Ru^su- velt. The Wabhiiij^toii April iiad seemed sot for>'ver Ly Whiinian a^ ihi. dolorous time "whi.-n lilacs last in ilic dooryard bloom "d." "It's an interesting dichotomy." says Julie Shoner, a National Paitv Service technician at Ford's Theater; "the cherry blos><;ms and all that Ii{l coming forth, and liic history of lha»" time." It is difficult, i-he Says, to measua how deeply the passing crowd sensc*i the sad reality of Lincoln. Her always reliable theme fui modem timed is the fact of assassinaliun. "It tics In viiti what they seem lu know," she says. Uut the scrai-. v,l old nioiimlnj, ..i. overl.ild \*ith cudiiiuMCu. A Uku\ (.-a eminent official pioposcd ttio oil. r day that the iJca (ur a Frajikiin it Roosevelt mcniiiiiul, an ujifullil:.J proposal long aihift fiere, C(Aild i>u- handled by nainuij; in tion and visitors' (L-nuT after iheiii.. 11. For some Rou:,lvi ii bufls, me r.t/u.H. of adding his n.iiac to a Siirawli.,,; gray building of ramps a..d txixlu.c spaccs Was an aficrilitjught with ii.> own pc\;uliar saJi.css in the cit> ^-l Whitman's "evui rdunung Spring ' ll^epaxtmeni: of the. Lm&ikn ana JSiocAm iiniijvi±ihj LHuxnasncz, iJxhoae. Udana coiJialllj invite, uou to ^incoLn ana ths ciTf-msiniaan iJ-vLLiicaL JnaaiUon C7T ib£cial exnitit of ' ^incoLn aTchiaal nToieual ftom ins !Hxourn HlnivLXiitu ^iaiaxu Obsninq ai <^nfoon ^atuuLuj, c^lriif 75, fgS5 Joia'i. —fnaatxE c^/VationaL i::r{'i±to'dc <:z:>ii£. 511 loift stxs^tJvrw. and cELElriatsa 1 tLm. until 4f2.m. in a ih£ai-u hi£i£ntation bu ^ficcial ^uEit cStiEake.1t Lptfvafnl, -Lincoln ^wub of iSoiion J^icfuiiA ^.S batman and %[[u O. ^utman CocudL-^y "^o(U Usnnifex Jd. J-ti. Cuxalot.^McJM.Lon J-inaxn ColLtction UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION 11 00 OHIO DRIVE. S.W. WASHINGTON. D. C. 20242 POSTAGE AND FEES PAID U. S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFICIAL BUSINESS INT 417 PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE. $300 Lli^COLf^ NATIONAL LIFE founts hj ion 1301 S HARRISON ST FT «AY^E in 46?01 1 heatre 511 Tenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004 202/638-2941 PLEASE FORWARD TO APPROPRIATE PERSON FOR PUBLICATION For Information: Mike Teele FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FORD'S THEATRE OFFERS CHAIRS TO LINCOLN ENTHUSIASTS Washington, D.C. -- A once in a lifetime opportunity from the nation's capital is being offered to memorabilia collectors. Frankie Hewitt, Executive Producer of Ford's Theatre, has announced a major campaign to replace the historic theatre's chairs. The existing chairs, replicas of the original seatings from Lincoln's time, are being offered to Lincoln enthusiasts, history buffs and theatre lovers for a tax-deductible contribution of $500.00. Proceeds from the campaign will be used to beautify the theatre with chair replacements. As part of the "Best Seat in the House" campaign, undertaken by the Ford's Theatre Society, all 738 chairs are being replaced by new, historically correct, and more comfortable ones. With a tax-deductible donation of $500.00, the contributor will receive one of the current chairs, with a plaque on the backside denoting its historical authenticity and importance. Proceeds from the campaign will go towards underwriting the cost of purchasing the chairs and beautifying the theatre. There are three styles of chairs now being used in the theatre, each modeled after photographs of the theatre taken by Matthew Brady the day following -more- Ford's Chairs/2-2-2-2 President Lincoln's assassination. The orchestra level of Ford's Theatre is filled with round backed, cane -bottomed chairs made out of either light or dark wood, while the chairs in the balcony of the theatre are light wood, cane-bottomed and square-backed. The new chairs, set to be installed in the theatre in March, have been chosen by historical architects, Society and National Park Service representatives. Closed after the fateful assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, the theatre was restored to its 19th century grandeur in 1968. The theatre is one of the oldest working theatres in the country, and still remains faithful to Abraham Lincoln's love for fine, wholesome entertainment. For further information regarding purchase of one of the chairs call the Development Office of Ford's Theatre Society at 202-638-29A1 . Contributions to the Society can be sent to "Best Seat In the House", The Ford's Theatre Society, 511 Tenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. it # # // // FYl: Corporate Communications Seci'ori 1 Chicago Tribune Frida, f etimary 7, 19Htl About Washington Ford's Theatre doesn't sit well; 'chairmen' rise up By Lea Donosky and Glen Elsasser those m pam. Ss^'ering to the needs of cast ot ceieonucs uu Rii«i<;ell ioined a small style T^'clTairrSfeUS?Tvic»rian 'r^S' afte^lS years wth a *°d' di^S?on ^ be%fa«d taglier-backed moitel. C«der-bottomed ! Russell <»uldn't help f!"™"!fi"S>5 down *e aisles i m time for preraic Feb 24 and be completed J^^ Mikado." on March ufe musical. -Hot 1^^^^ • •• Cultural Institutions Ford's Theater "Thrives on Polities By BARBARA GAMAREKIAN Special to The New York Timet WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — The cul- tural institutions of the capital city, from the National Symphony and Washington Opera to the art mu- seums and the Kennedy Center, as- siduously court the Washington es- tablishment, sprinkling their guest lists with Congressional heavies, studding their boards with corporate and political celebrities. When it comes to massaging the egos of the influential, few people are more adept than Frankie Childers Hewitt who has been executive pro- ducer of Ford's Theater since 1971. A former Capitol Hill staffer who worked on John F. Kennedy's Presi- dential campaign and as special ad- viser to Adiai E. Stevenson at the United Nations, Mrs. Hewitt came out of the political world, not the theater. No Longer in Debt But her political background has served her well over the years as she has turned the once debt-ridden thea- ter where Lincoln was assassinated into a $12 million-a-year venture that operates in the black. She knows whom to charm, whom to bully, whom to ignore. She also knows how to produce a celebrity-spangled audi- ence. Ihis evening, about 70 Congres- sional and Administration figures and an equal number of corporate of- ficials gathered in the candy box set- ting of Ford's Theater to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its restoration and the 125th anniversary of its origi- nal opening with the premiere of a new musical, "Elmer Gantry," adapted from the Pultizer Prize-win- ning novel by Sinclair Lewis. The theater reopened in January 1968 with a gala that starred Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda and a glittering ensemble. President Johnson's entire eorge Tames Cabinet attended. Mrs. Hewitt, who Frankie Childers Hewitt in Ford's Theater. was fund-raiser and president of the nonprofit Ford's Theater Society, had sold CBS-TV on producing the show as a news special and had talked the theater operating out of a Govern- ice maintained should be bare and Lincoln Life Insurance Company into ment-owned historic site. The In- noisy wood floors. "We actually had giving Ford's a quarter of a million terior Department allocates about $2 Waliy Hickel down on his knees here dollars to underwrite the theater's million each year toward its mainte- working out the carpel problem," first production season. nance and the National Park Service said Mrs. Hewitt, referring to Secre- "We had no money, no desks, and oversees a small museum of Lincoln tary Waller J. Hickel, a Nixon ap- not one actor signed up at the time," memorabilia on the theater's bottom pointee. recalled Mrs. Hewitt, whose organi- floor. Upstairs in the 600-seat theater, More important, there was the zation had been set up to operate the the draped Presidential box is a focal problem of censorship. All scripts house under contract from the De- point. Here, more than 120 dramas, had. to be submitted to the Interior partment of Interior. revues and one-man shows have been Department for approval and, when Since those days it has become a produced over the last 20 years by the some bureaucratic soul tried to cen- tradition that a White House recep- Ford's Theater Society. sor a production of "An Unpleasant tion precedes the theater's annual Evening with H. L. Mencken," the •The Name of the Game' gala and President and Mrs. Reagan news "somehow leaked" to the press, have been guests each year. The thea- "There wasn't a lot of corporate or Mrs. Hewitt said. lers board of trustees boasts such governmental support of the arts "They were basically little scared ago," names as Robert S. Strauss, Mrs. when we got started 20 years bureaucrats and I told them they Paul Laxalt and Secretary of Com- Mrs. Hewitt said. "We were the first were doing exactly what Mencken merce C. William Verily Jr. to recognize that those two worlds, railed about," she said. It was Mr. Verity who, 20 years ago, the political and corporate, could Rogers C. B. Morton, who was then as chairman of Armco, helped Mrs. benefit from an arts institution that Interior Secretary, "was so outraged Hewitt put together the theater's first would mix them up .socially. That is that he took away their power and we board of governors, 10 corporate ex- the name of the game in Washing- haven't had to get approval since." ecutives whose companies support ton." In the main, however, she said. the theater with annual donations of Mrs. Hewitt learned early how to Ford's plays it pretty safe on pro- $5,000 or more. Today that board attack problems by reaching out to gramming. numbers 63. friends in the White House, on the Hill "We don't do experimental works." In the early I960's. Mrs. Hewitt was and at the Interior Department. she said. "Our philosophy is to do the one of a group of Washingtonians who "There was a great deal of resist- kind of programming that is ba.sed on persuaded Secretary of the Interior ance to the concept of a theater at In- the American experience, with char- Stewart L. Udall that Government terior the first five years — from the acters and events out of history. This plans to restore the theater as a mu- top down," she said. theater, for example, is the perfect seum should include the backstage There was the matter of negotiat- place for jazz, gospel, folk music." areas as well so that Ford's could ing "historically correct" but com- "I never want to lurn the theater again be used as a livin^theater. fortable chairs, the question of car- into something that it is nut true to," The result has been a privately run peting versus what the lt\c Park Serv- she said. SUNDAY. APRIL 15. 1990 20a ST PETtRSBURG TIMES After 125-year wait ( baton will drop for march originally wanted his WaaMnfllonPott _. Withers Jr., new composition to be played be- WASHINGTON — It was to tween the second and third acts, have been the evening's finale. because he thought the play. Our The orchestra director had American Cousin, was so awful presi- composed a march — a tribute to that nobody, including the Abraham Lincoln. dent, would stay beyond that. the march was to But the play But after the second act, as he ended. The Ford's follow never was lifting his baton to lead the 125 years Theatre performance orchestra, the stage manager abrupt end when ago came to an shouted to him — via a speaking fired the shot John Wilkes Booth tube from backstage — to wait Lmcoln. that killed until after the final act. Monday night, in a concert Lincoln was shot as the third marking the 1 25th anniversary of act began. Booth then jumped to Lincoln's assassination, the march ran for a rear door, theatre. the stage and will finally be played at the reportedly knocking Withers down The 13-member Federal City in the process. Silver Cornet Band will don blue sax- later. Withers told Civil War Union caps, heft Years before the over- horns over their shoulders and puff fnends that just a drink with Booth, their way into history. ture he shared Ensemble founder Mark EIrod, who was a popular actor. even of Gaithersburg, Md., said "He was an erratic, spasmodic know the band members don't sort of chap," Withers was report- They what the song sounds hke. ed to have said shortly before his first time at a "1 will hear it for the death in 1906. noticed that rehearsal just before the show. night he seemed more than usually The concert was planned by fidgety and exciuble." the National Hark Service, which Hunur lu Our Soldiers was nev- owns the theater. er published. The performers will play an later scrawled on his arrangement of the original piano Withers the failure of his which has been collecting original score that score, the for song was due to its link with dust in a museum storage room sadness that descended over decades. great country that evening. The music's composer, William the T