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Booth, John Wilkes (1838-1865), actor and assassin of President Abraham Lincoln  

Stephen M. Archer

Booth, John Wilkes (10 May 1838–26 April 1865), actor and assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, actor and assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was born near Bel Air in Harford County, Maryland, the son of Junius Brutus Booth, an actor, and Mary Ann Holmes. His grandfather, Richard Booth, named him after John Wilkes, the British reformer. As a child Booth dabbled in acting, as did some of his brothers and several neighborhood boys, both at the Booth country home, “Tudor Hall,” and at their town house in Baltimore. Booth’s father actively discouraged his children from entering the theatrical profession, but he toured extensively and died on the road when John was only fourteen....

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Cover Booth, John Wilkes (1838-1865)
John Wilkes Booth. Picture featured on a wanted poster immediately following the Lincoln assassination. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZC4-5341).

Article

Crane, Bob (1928-1978), actor  

Robert A. Armour

Crane, Bob (13 July 1928–29 June 1978), actor, was born Bob Edward Crane in Waterbury, Connecticut, the son of Alfred T. Crane and Rosemary Senich. Following graduation from high school, Crane studied music in Waterbury with plans to become a professional drummer. He played with the Connecticut Symphony from 1944 until 1946, when he left to perform with several dance bands touring the East Coast. Following a stint with the Connecticut national guard from 1948 until 1950, he became a radio disc jockey with a reputation for humor and a glib manner. Between 1950 and 1956 he worked for radio stations in New York and Connecticut before moving to station KNX in Hollywood, California, where he remained until 1965. His humor and clowning made the show a quick success....

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Hays, Will H. (1879-1954), motion picture industry official, lawyer, and politician  

James Fisher

Hays, Will H. (05 November 1879–07 March 1954), motion picture industry official, lawyer, and politician, was born William Harrison Hays in Sullivan, Indiana, the son of John T. Hays, an attorney, and Mary Cain. He graduated from Indiana’s all-male Wabash College in 1900 and privately studied law. Upon passing the Indiana bar, Hays opened a law office in Sullivan and became city attorney. He moved through a variety of political offices in Indiana before he was named chairman of the Republican National Committee in June 1918. When ...

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Cover Hays, Will H. (1879-1954)
Will Hays [left to right] Will Rogers and Will Hays, c. 1925. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-83080).

Article

Jefferson, Eddie (1918-1979), jazz singer, lyricist, and tap dancer  

Barry Kernfeld

Jefferson, Eddie (03 August 1918–09 May 1979), jazz singer, lyricist, and tap dancer, was born Edgar Jefferson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Information about his parents is unknown. It is known that he started dancing around age eight. He also played tuba in a school band and taught himself guitar and drums, experiences that later gave his singing a firm musical foundation. In Pittsburgh he was accompanied by pianist ...

Article

Langner, Lawrence (30 May 1890–26 December 1962), patent agent, playwright, and theatrical producer  

Roger A. Hall

Langner, Lawrence (30 May 1890–26 December 1962), patent agent, playwright, and theatrical producer, was born in Swansea, South Wales, the son of Baruch Bernard Freedman, a businessman, and Cecilia Sarah Langner. (He took his mother’s maiden name.) He attended private schools in Swansea and in Margate, England. After a brief stint as a clerk for a theatrical manager in 1903, he was apprenticed to Wallace Cranston Fairweather, a chartered patent agent in London. Langner passed examinations of the British Chartered Institute of Patent Agents in 1910....

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Cover Langner, Lawrence (30 May 1890–26 December 1962)

Langner, Lawrence (30 May 1890–26 December 1962)  

Maker: Carl Van Vechten

In 

Laurence Langner Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1934. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LOT 12735, no. 663 P&P).

Article

Placide, Alexandre (1750-1812), ballet dancer, choreographer, and acrobat  

Maureen Needham

Placide, Alexandre (1750–26 July 1812), ballet dancer, choreographer, and acrobat, was born Alexandre Bussart Placide in Paris, France, but otherwise nothing is known of his early life. His parents were also acrobats, and his sister Mme Billioni was a famous singer at the Comédie Italienne. He may have trained at the Paris Opéra, if he was the same “M Placide” who danced there from 1772 to 1773. After his 1770 debut at Nicolet’s, the famous Parisian theater, he began to tour, performing in the Netherlands (1780); London (1780–1785); Bath, Bristol, Norwich, and Dublin (1783–1784); and the French provinces (1787). He composed numerous pantomimes, in which he played the role of Pierrot, including ...

Article

Young, Owen D. (1874-1962), lawyer, business leader, and public servant  

Justus D. Doenecke

Young, Owen D. (27 October 1874–11 July 1962), lawyer, business leader, and public servant, was born in Van Hornesville, New York, the son of Jacob Smith Young and Ida Brandow, farmers. Enrolling in St. Lawrence University in 1890, he graduated in 1894. In 1896 he graduated from Boston University Law School cum laude, completing the three-year program in two years. From 1896 to 1903 Young taught evening classes in common-law pleading at the law school....

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Cover Young, Owen D. (1874-1962)
Owen Young. [left to right] C. C. Dill, Owen Young, and James Couzens, before the Senate Interstate Commerce Commission. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-98142).