Actually, I think he was, though perhaps not as much of a celebrity as his father or brother.
Yeah, I thought he was just a “Booth” family member, not all that well known.
Like, less famous than Stevie Baldwin. I mean, come on. That’s pretty low.
The Wikipedia articles on Junius Booth (father of the assassin) says, “In less than a year, Booth became the most prominent actor in the United States. Critic William Winter said, “He was followed as a marvel. Mention of his name stirred an enthusiasm no other could awaken” (Smith 23). He embarked upon a 30-year acting career that made him famous throughout the country. Booth traveled to Baltimore, Boston, and New York.”
And regarding Edwin Booth (brother of the assassin), Wikipedia says, “He is considered by many to be the greatest American actor of the 19th century.”
The Shemp of the Booths
We had a thread about how famous John Wilkes Booth was not that long ago. It’s hard to compare with today but he was certainly famous for the time and a bit of a sex symbol.
Very recent; only two months ago.
I love that they mentioned Stephen Baldwin as well. He’s just a great example of a lesser brother.
“You are the Diet Coke of celebrity jerks.”
That was a tough listen.
Did she pull it off ok? Got a link to the video, by any chance? I love stuff like that.
Oh, I forgot to mention and missed the edit window in my last post-- I just watched the movie ‘Saturday Night’, and thought I’d talk about a scene in this thread, since Chevy is name-checked in the OP title, and Milton Berle has been prominently discussed here (It’s not really a spoiler so I won’t blur it, but stop reading now if you want to watch it fresh for yourself):
So, the movie mainly takes place in the chaotic couple hours leading up to the debut SNL episode. In one scene Chevy is looking for his girlfriend and finds 67 year old Milton Berle (played by J.K. Simmons, who seems to be enjoying himself immensely playing Miltie) flirting with her. They get into a ‘jerk-off’ with Chase calling Berle a dementia-ridden has-been and Berle calling Chase a loser nobody. Probably entirely fictional, but an amusing scene that illustrated their legendary jerkiness, so I thought I’d share it here.
Apologies for the slight highjack - but this was a fascinating coincidence.
Sometime after that fateful day, Edwin Booth was at a railway station and saved the life of a man who had fallen or about to fall on to the path of a train. That man was Robert Lincoln - the son of Abraham Lincoln
I think I saw the SNL episode with Berle. My only memory of it was the sketch involved some kind of improv, and Berle telling the actor “Butte” (MT). I know it was Berle, and he did say “Butte.” Looking at the episode cast, the musical guest was one “Ornette Coleman” (1930-2015), whom I have never heard of despite numerous mentions on this board.
One must distinguish between Rotten/Lydon’s on stage persona from his off stage one.
IRL, Lydon has a lot of old art school influences that he used in his act. E.g., he was a fan of Richard III portrayals and can be seen imitating those in performances. It can be quite artistic at times. So a real jerk.
OTOH, he was a jerk in real life, but a different kind of jerk. On the one hand he is acting like a jerk, on the other hand he is actually a jerk.
Here’s an NPR brief with an embedded video.
There’s also Rayna’s husband’s video, which isn’t as steady because he’s going adorably nuts.
Thanks! Now that I watched the video, I remember seeing it somewhere before-- maybe even posted in another music thread here. Sounds like she did pretty well, though she was kind of hard to hear-- I wonder if they turned down the sound mix in case she wasn’t very good. Or maybe she wasn’t singing or playing very loudly due to being nervous.
In any case, very nice video. ‘Duncan’ has always been one of my favorite early solo period Simon songs, going back to when I was a kid and my parents had a ‘Best of’ Simon compilation album with that song on it.
Ornette Coleman was a musical guest on SNL?
Mind blown.
Yeah. Simon was counting the measures and came in at the agreed moment. I don’t think he meant to cut the girl off.
Which explains why gay rights took 40 years to become a thing. Not a good look for the Peace & Love Generation.
Nowadays the musical guests are mostly found on top 40 radio. In the beginning some of the choices were pretty out there.