Reviews for A Gambler's Instinct: The Story of Broadway Producer Cheryl Crawford

The average rating for A Gambler's Instinct: The Story of Broadway Producer Cheryl Crawford based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-11-24 00:00:00 Brian Hooper Imagine hearing that one of the Baldwin Brothers or one of Martin Sheen's sons had just shot the President? That was the reaction of the public the day after Lincoln was murdered. There was no scrounging around looking for information on some obscure lone gunman like the media has been forced to do in these modern times. The theater going public of the day recognized the name of John Wilkes Booth immediately. He was the son of Junius Brutus Booth, one of first American theatrical 'stars' and brother to Edwin Booth who was just as famous in his own right. While brother Edwin amassed a fortune and basked in critical praise in Boston and New York John Wilkes worked the more intense and lower paying circuits in the south and mid-west specializing in fight scenes and swordplay. While he was popular and good looking he was the Sylvester Stallone of his day. My Thoughts be Bloody is the story of an acting family. They were famous and well off but at the same time not quite accepted in polite society. They lived in a no-man's land between the classes and add to the fact that the children were also illegitimate. It was a strange existence. John Wilkes found acceptance in the south as did Edwin in the North. Edwin settled down and married while John was constantly in trouble. The rifts and divisions among the two of them deepened just as the country split in two. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Lincoln assassination or if you are curious about how his relationship with his brother Edwin might have contributed to John Wilkes committing his infamous act.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-03-25 00:00:00 Jack Demirjian The author, Nora Titone, grabbed me from the very first paragraph, in which she describes how Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, battles a blizzard to give a speech at a gala feast that would be attended by Mark Twain and hundreds of the leading figures of 1892. The honoree of the night would be an actor named Booth, an actor with strong ties to President Lincoln, probably the best-known actor of his day. No, not John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Father Abraham, but rather, his brother, Edwin Booth. Thus begins a mesmerizing account of the growth'and near death by civil war'of a young nation told through the lives of two men who participated in, either directly or indirectly, nearly every important event of the times. From the Gold Rush to the hanging of John Brown to the New York draft riots'and of course the Civil War and the assassination of Lincoln'Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth had front row seats. These nation-changing events are described by the author like the sharp jewels they were, terrifyingly dangerous crucibles in which men were either made or lost forever. With diamond-like clarity, Titone presents a stupendous amount of scholarly research in such an accessible and vivid way that even a reader such as myself, most definitely NOT a civil war history buff, becomes completely engrossed in the world being described. Yet even more than describing a historical moment, the book is an extremely detailed look at the people who lived in that moment, and reads nearly like a novel. Through original letters written not only by the two brothers, but also by their family members and intimate associates, Titone reconstructs the thoughts, motivations and personal rivalries that drove Edwin and John Wilkes to become the men they grew up to be: Edwin, a colossally famous and wealthy Shakespearean actor; his brother John Wilkes, an itinerant actor always in his older brother's shadow and an infamous presidential murderer. Ironically, today every American grade schooler knows the name of the assassin, but the name of the man who was so famous in his day that he was recognized in the street by strangers has been completely forgotten. I cannot put it any better than does Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of "Team of Rivals," in the forward she wrote for "My Thoughts Be Bloody": "This book forces us to look at the familiar story of Lincoln's assassination in a new way'through the lens of [Booth's] tangled family history." Without a doubt, one of the best books I have read in a very long time, and one that should be on every must-read list this holiday season.