This is the memory palace. I'm Nate de Mayo.

Spare a thought for Edwin Booth.

First, let's remember that his brother John Wilkes was an actor, and if he weren't an actor then he doesn't kill Lincoln.

Because that night that Abe and Mary go to Ford's theater to take in a play, which is this big hit,

schlocky show that had been around for years. Kind of like Lincoln had been so busy during the war that he finally had time to take his wife out to see Phantom.

Anyway, because that night that the president goes to Ford's theater, John Wilkes Booth can just walk around and no one thinks anything of it.

Because the stage hands and the ushers and whatever security they have all recognize him.

He's John Wilkes Booth the actor. Of course, he's just hanging around in the hallway.

And he's John Wilkes Booth the famous actor from the acting Booths.

His father was Junius Brutus Booth, England's greatest Shakespearean actor, which is really saying something.

And he moved to the United States and then became America's greatest Shakespearean actor, which is saying less, but it's still pretty cool.

The Booths were the great acting family going way back to England.

So it's kind of like if Drew Barrymore killed Abraham Lincoln.

Even correcting for 1865 dollars, the inflation rate of the way that fame worked back then to now.

Picture a world in which Drew Barrymore kills Abraham Lincoln.

But it's crazier than that.

And here's where we spare a thought for Edwin Booth.

Edwin Booth was Junius's second born son.

And he wanted to be an actor like his famous father.

At 16, he made his stage debut in Boston.

And a small role supporting his dad's Richard III.

And he wasn't very good.

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