As an aside, Edwin Booth continued after the war as one of America’s leading actors. The public did not hold his brother’s actions against him. Of course, this was in the aftermath of the Civil War, which had torn many families apart.
Edwin lived long enough to be recorded. There is a wonderful CD that I found many years ago at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC of early recordings of many of the now legendary Shakespearian actors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of these go back to the earliest experiments with sound recording. What better subject to choose for such demonstrations of technology?
It is interesting to hear these legendary voices, but it is also a fascinating echo of the shifts in performance styles and audience expectations. The early recordings go back long before actors could wear hidden microphones, there was no amplification, and there were no cameras permitting closeups, dialogues in low tones and even whispers, and naturalism in delivery. Actors had to plant their feet firmly on stage, take a deep breath, project an unaided voice to the back row of the balcony, and eee-none-see-ate very clearly to be understood. Those recordings sound terribly stilted today. They were functional necessities at the time.
The Folger no longer has that CD available; I checked the last time I was there, fairly recently, and I sounded off about it. It is exactly the kind of thing that a top Shakespearian museum and research collection should offer. I’ve not checked to see if it’s still available elsewhere or in other formats.
Thanks for that info. What’s the recording from Othello? If you go on YouTube there is a recording of him from Othello.
Fascinating. Thanks.