I wonder if anyone else noticed the poster for Macbeth on the side of one of the buildings as Bob hope wanders around the town in the gunfight scene. It advertises a production of Macbeth with a named actor whose name escapes me. I live in UK so am not familiar with 19thC American Shakeperian actors.
shareIt's not Macbeth, it's King Lear. & it's a black joke about the chances of Hope's surviving the gunfight, as the actor is "Mr. Booth" (i.e. John Wilkes Booth).
shareThanks for that. It always bugged me!
The "Mr. Booth" mentioned on the poster would almost certainly be Edwin Booth, older brother of John Wilkes Booth. Edwin toured the West performing Shakespeare several times. JWB did not.
shareNo, but i did notice that this sequence is essentially the same as "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon" sequence in Danny Kaye's "The Court Jester", another comic gem.
But you ARE Blanche ... and I AM.
the poster says John Booth, suggesting John Wilkes Booth.
www.zazzle.com/suburban_arts
The poster does not say John anywhere on it. It only says Mr. Booth. The Booth in question could be JW Booth, brother Edwin Booth, brother JB Booth Jr, or father JB Booth. It also mentions "unsurpassed tragedian" which takes JB Booth Jr out of the running as he was not successful. Edwin or JB Sr are more likely.
Looking closely at the poster, there is a date on it. It appears to be Monday Evening, March 11, 1833. That date was, in fact, a Monday. Given a year of 1833, the Booth would definitely be the father, Junius Brutus Booth, Sr.
However, the poster also mentions Harry Burnham, a play not written until 1851. If the date is March 11, that makes possible years 1861, 1867, 1872, 1878, 1889. Of course, the date may not be 11 because it is extremely difficult to see.
If course, if you take into account the DOB of Calamity Jane, it also makes the earlier date impossible and the Booth would have to be Edwin then, although the film obviously plays loose and fast with the facts of her life.
My money is on Edwin. He did play King Lear to accolades in 1881.