1.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
2.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
3.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
4.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
5.
Facade
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A façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. It is a loan word from the French façade, which means frontage or face. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect from a design standpoint, from the engineering perspective of a building, the façade is also of great importance due to its impact on energy efficiency. For historical façades, many local zoning regulations or other laws restrict or even forbid their alteration. The word comes from the French foreign loan word façade, which in turn comes from the Italian facciata, from faccia meaning face, the earliest usage recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is 1656. It was quite common in the Georgian period for existing houses in English towns to be given a fashionable new façade, in modern highrise building, the exterior walls are often suspended from the concrete floor slabs. Examples include curtain walls and precast concrete walls, the façade can at times be required to have a fire-resistance rating, for instance, if two buildings are very close together, to lower the likelihood of fire spreading from one building to another. In general, the systems that are suspended or attached to the precast concrete slabs will be made from aluminium or stainless steel. In recent years more lavish materials such as titanium have sometimes been used, whether rated or not, fire protection is always a design consideration. The melting point of aluminium,660 °C, is reached within minutes of the start of a fire. Firestops for such building joints can be qualified, too, putting fire sprinkler systems on each floor has a profoundly positive effect on the fire safety of buildings with curtain walls. Some building codes also limit the percentage of area in exterior walls. When the exterior wall is not rated, the slab edge becomes a junction where rated slabs are abutting an unrated wall. For rated walls, one may also choose rated windows and fire doors, on a film set and within most themed attractions, many of the buildings are only façades, which are far cheaper than actual buildings, and not subject to building codes. In film sets, they are held up with supports from behind. Within theme parks, they are usually decoration for the interior ride/attraction/restaurant, by Ulrich Knaack, Tillmann Klein, Marcel Bilow and Thomas Auer. ISBN 978-3-7643-7961-2 ISBN 978-3-7643-7962-9 Giving buildings an illusion of grandeur Poole, the article outlines the development of the façade in ecclesiastical architecture from the early Christian period to the Renaissance
6.
John Wilkes Booth
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John Wilkes Booth was an American actor and assassin, who murdered President Abraham Lincoln at Fords Theatre in Washington, D. C. on April 14,1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and and he was also a Confederate sympathizer, vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln, and strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery in the United States. Of the conspirators, only Booth was completely successful in carrying out his part of the plot and he shot Lincoln once in the back of the head, and the President died the next morning. Seward was severely wounded but recovered, and Vice-President Johnson was never attacked at all, following the assassination, Booth fled on horseback to southern Maryland, eventually making his way to a farm in rural northern Virginia 12 days later, where he was tracked down. Booths companion gave himself up, but Booth refused and was shot by Boston Corbett, eight other conspirators or suspects were tried and convicted, and four were hanged shortly thereafter. Booths parents were noted British Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and his mistress Mary Ann Holmes and they purchased a 150-acre farm near Bel Air, Maryland, where John Wilkes Booth was born in a four-room log house on May 10,1838, the ninth of ten children. He was named after English radical politician John Wilkes, a distant relative, Junius wife Adelaide Delannoy Booth was granted a divorce in 1851 on grounds of adultery, and Holmes legally wed Junius on May 10,1851, the youths 13th birthday. As a boy, Booth was athletic and popular, and he became skilled at horsemanship, each day he rode back and forth from farm to school, taking more interest in what happened along the way than in reaching his classes on time. At the Milton school, students recited classical works by authors as Cicero, Herodotus. Students at St. Timothys wore military uniforms and were subject to a regimen of daily formation drills, Booth left school at 14, after his fathers death. His sister recalled that Booth wrote down the palm-readers prediction, showed it to his family and others, Booth aspired to follow in the footsteps of his father and his actor brothers Edwin and Junius Brutus, Jr. He began practicing elocution daily in the woods around Tudor Hall, the editors introduction of the 1874 memoir of Booths sister Asia Booth Clarke states that no individual church was preeminent in the Booth household during her childhood. Booths mother was Episcopalian, and his father was described as a spirit who was open to the great teachings of all religions. On January 23,1853, the 14-year-old Booth was baptized at St. Timothys Protestant Episcopal Church, the Booth family had traditionally been Episcopalian. Clergyman Charles Chiniquy, however, stated that Booth was really a convert to Roman Catholicism later in life, historian Constance Head also declared that Booth was of this religion. Testimony given at the trial of John Surratt showed that at his death, Booth had a Catholic medal on his person, Court evidence showed his attending a Roman Catholic church service on at least two occasions. Like his sister Asia, he received education at a school established by an official of the Catholic Church, Constance Head states, In any case, it seems certain that Booth did not publicize his conversion during his lifetime. Booth made his debut at age 17 on August 14,1855 in the supporting role of the Earl of Richmond in Richard III at Baltimores Charles Street Theatre
7.
Arnold Bennett
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Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he worked in other fields such as the theatre, journalism, propaganda. Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire, Hanley was one of the Six Towns that were joined together at the beginning of the 20th century as Stoke-on-Trent and are depicted as the Five Towns in some of Bennetts novels. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, Bennett was employed by his father, but the working relationship failed. He found himself doing jobs such as rent-collecting which were uncongenial, Bennett also resented the low pay, it is no accident that the theme of parental miserliness is important in several of his novels. In his spare time he was able to do a little journalism, at the age of 21 he left his fathers practice and went to London as a solicitors clerk. In 1889 Bennett won a competition run by the magazine Tit-Bits and was encouraged to take up journalism full-time. In 1894 he became assistant editor of the magazine Woman and he noticed that the material offered by a syndicate to the magazine was not very good, so he wrote a serial that was bought by the syndicate for 75 pounds. This became The Grand Babylon Hotel, just over four years later his novel A Man from the North was published to critical acclaim and he became editor of the magazine. In 1900 Bennett gave up the editorship of Woman and dedicated himself to writing full time, however, he continued to write for newspapers and magazines while finding success in his career as a novelist. In 1926, at the suggestion of Lord Beaverbrook, he writing a influential weekly article on books for the London newspaper the Evening Standard. One of Bennetts most popular works was the self-help book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. His diaries have yet to be published in full, but extracts from them have often quoted in the British press. In 1903 Bennett moved to Paris, where artists from around the world had converged on Montmartre. Bennett spent the eight years writing novels and plays. He believed that people had the potential to be the subjects of interesting books. Maupassant is also one of the writers on whose work Richard Larch, Bennetts novel The Old Wives Tale had an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world when it was published in 1908. In 1911 he visited the United States, then returned to England, during the First World War Bennett became Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information
8.
Bette Midler
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Bette Midler is an American singer, songwriter, actress, comedian, and film producer. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her career in several Off-Off-Broadway plays, prior to her engagements in Fiddler on the Roof. She came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, since 1970, Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist. In 2008, she signed a contract with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to perform a series of shows titled Bette Midler, The Showgirl Must Go On, Midler made her motion picture debut in 1979 with The Rose, which earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress. In the following years, she starred in a string of hit films, including, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Outrageous Fortune, Beaches, The First Wives Club, and The Stepford Wives. She starred in For the Boys and Gypsy, and won two additional Golden Globe awards for these films, in a career spanning almost half a century, Midler has won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 35 million records worldwide, and has received four Gold, Midler is currently appearing on Broadway in a revival of Hello, Dolly. which began preview performances on March 15,2017, and will premiere at the Shubert Theatre on April 20th. It is her first leading role in a Broadway musical, Midler was born in Honolulu, where her family was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth, was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter, and was also a housepainter. She was named after actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbɛt/ and she was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School, in Honolulu. She was voted Most Talkative in the 1961 school Hoss Election, Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and was a sister of Delta Phi Epsilon international sorority, but left after three semesters. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, Midler married artist Martin von Haselberg on December 16,1984, about six weeks after their first meeting. Their daughter, Sophie von Haselberg, who is also an actress, was born on November 14,1986, Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film Hawaii. She landed her first professional role in Tom Eyens Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a childrens play by day. From 1966 to 1969, she played the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, after Fiddler, she joined the original cast of Salvation in 1969. She began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the Ansonia Hotel, during this time, she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first album in 1972, The Divine Miss M. It was during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album Bathhouse Betty, Midler commented on her time performing there, Despite the way turned out
9.
Bradley Cooper
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Bradley Charles Cooper is an American actor and producer. He was one of the worlds highest-paid actors for three years, and has been nominated for various accolades, including four Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Cooper appeared in Forbes Celebrity 100 on two occasions and Times list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2015, Cooper enrolled in the MFA program at the Actors Studio, New York City in 2000. His career began with a guest role in the television series Sex and he first gained recognition as Will Tippin in the spy-action television show Alias, and achieved minor success with a supporting part in the comedy film Wedding Crashers. His breakthrough role came in 2009 with The Hangover, a successful comedy which spawned two sequels in 2011 and 2013. Coopers portrayal of a writer in the thriller Limitless and a rookie police officer in the crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines drew praise from critics. He found greater success with the romantic comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook, the comedy crime film American Hustle. For his work in films, Cooper was nominated for Academy Awards—two Best Actor, one Best Supporting Actor. Cooper became the actor to receive an Academy Award nomination in three consecutive years. In 2014, he portrayed Joseph Merrick in a Broadway revival of The Elephant Man, Cooper was born on January 5,1975, in Philadelphia, and grew up in the nearby communities of Jenkintown and Rydal. His mother, Gloria, worked for the local NBC affiliate and his father, Charles Cooper, who died in January 2011, worked as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch. Charles Cooper was of Irish descent, while Gloria Cooper is of Italian ancestry, Cooper has an older sister, Holly. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and he had cholesteatoma in his ear soon after his birth, and punctured his eardrum when he started diving at an early age. Describing himself as a child, Cooper has said, I never lived the life of Oh, People thought I was a girl when I was little, because I looked like a girl—maybe because my mother would keep my hair really long. He excelled at basketball, and enjoyed cooking, I used to have come over after kindergarten. I prided myself in taking whatever was in the fridge and turning it into lasagna and he initially wanted to attend a military academy and move to Japan to become a ninja. At an early age, his father introduced him to films like The Elephant Man, while attending Germantown Academy, he worked at the Philadelphia Daily News. He says that in school he was neither the smartest person nor the coolest kid, after graduating from the academy in 1993, Cooper studied at Villanova University for a year before transferring to Georgetown University
10.
Steve Martin
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Stephen Glenn Steve Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer and musician. Martin came to notice in the 1960s as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours, in 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics. He was awarded an Honorary Academy Award at the Academys 5th Annual Governors Awards in 2013 and he released his first solo music album, The Crow, New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, in 2009, for which he won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. Martin was born on August 14,1945, in Waco, Texas, the son of Mary Lee and Glenn Vernon Martin, Martin was raised in Inglewood, California, and then later in Garden Grove, California, in a Baptist family. Martin was a cheerleader of Garden Grove High School, One of his earliest memories is of seeing his father, as an extra, serving drinks onstage at the Call Board Theatre on Melrose Place. During World War II, in the United Kingdom, Martins father had appeared in a production of Our Town with Raymond Massey, expressing his affection through gifts of cars, bikes, etc. Martins father was stern, and not emotionally open to his son and he was proud but critical, with Martin later recalling that in his teens his feelings for his father were mostly ones of hatred. Martins first job was at Disneyland, selling guidebooks on weekends, during his free time, he frequented the Main Street Magic shop, where tricks were demonstrated to potential customers. While working at Disneyland, he was captured in the background of the movie that was made into the short-subject film Disneyland Dream. By 1960, he had mastered several of the tricks and illusions, there he perfected his talents for magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals in the manner of mentor Wally Boag, frequently performing for tips. After high school graduation, Martin attended Santa Ana College, taking classes in drama, in his free time, he teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Kathy Westmoreland to participate in comedies and other productions at the Bird Cage Theatre. He joined a comedy troupe at Knotts Berry Farm, later, he met budding actress Stormie Sherk, and they developed comedy routines and became romantically involved. Sherks influence caused Martin to apply to the California State University, Long Beach, Stormie enrolled at UCLA, about an hours drive north, and the distance eventually caused them to lead separate lives. Inspired by his classes, Martin considered becoming a professor instead of an actor-comedian. His time at college changed his life and it changed what I believe and what I think about everything. Something about non-sequiturs appealed to me, in philosophy, I started studying logic, and they were talking about cause and effect, and you start to realize, Hey, there is no cause and effect. Then it gets real easy to write this stuff because all you have to do is twist everything hard—you twist the punch line, Martin recalls reading a treatise on comedy that led him to think What if there were no punch lines
11.
Edwin Booth
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Edwin Thomas Booth was a 19th-century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booths Theatre in New York, a theatre that was quite modern for its time. Some theatrical historians consider him the greatest American actor, and the greatest Prince Hamlet and his achievements are often overshadowed by his relationship with his brother, John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Booth was born in Bel Air, Maryland, into the English American theatrical Booth family and he was the illegitimate son of another famous actor, Junius Brutus Booth, an Englishman, who named Edwin after Edwin Forrest and Thomas Flynn, two of Junius colleagues. He was the brother of John Wilkes Booth, himself a successful actor who gained notoriety as the assassin of President Lincoln. In early appearances, Booth usually performed alongside his father, making his debut as Tressel or Tressil in Colley Cibbers version of Richard III in Boston in 1849. His first appearance in New York City was in the character of Wilford in The Iron Chest, a year later, on the illness of the father, the son took his place in the character of Richard III. After his fathers death in 1852, Booth went on a tour, visiting Australia and Hawaii. Before his brother assassinated Lincoln, Edwin had appeared with his two brothers, John Wilkes and Junius Brutus Booth Jr. in Julius Caesar in 1864, John Wilkes played Marc Antony, Edwin played Brutus, and Junius played Cassius. It was a performance, and the only time that the three brothers appeared together on the same stage. The funds were used to erect a statue of William Shakespeare that still stands in Central Park just south of the Promenade, from 1863 to 1867, Booth managed the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City, mostly staging Shakespearean tragedies. In 1863, he bought the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, after John Wilkes Booths assassination of President Lincoln in April 1865, the infamy associated with the Booth name forced Edwin Booth to abandon the stage for many months. Edwin, who had been feuding with John Wilkes before the assassination, disowned him afterward and he made his return to the stage at the Winter Garden Theatre in January 1866, playing the title role in Hamlet, which would eventually become his signature role. In 1867, a fire damaged the Winter Garden Theatre, resulting in the subsequent demolition. Elaborate productions followed, but the theatre never became a profitable or even stable financial venture, the panic of 1873 caused the final bankruptcy of Booths Theatre in 1874. After the bankruptcy, Booth went on another tour, eventually regaining his fortune. Booth was married to Mary Devlin from 1860 to 1863, the year of her death and they had one daughter, Edwina, born on December 9,1861, in London. He later remarried, wedding his acting partner Mary McVicker in 1869, in 1869, Edwin acquired his brother Johns body after repeatedly writing to President Andrew Johnson pleading for it
