Junius Brutus Booth

 

During the early 1800s, Junius Brutus Booth was a frequent visitor to the Planters Hotel bar.  An actor like his infamous son, Junius stayed at the Planter's Hotel while performing in Charleston.  Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth, notorious assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was English-born and was one of America's most famous actors.  It is said he had a drinking problem, as well as some psychological issues, and one day he went berserk and beat his manager to near death with a fire iron, chasing him throughout the halls of the hotel. The very next day he performed  Richard the III at the Charleston Theater as if nothing had ever happened.  The assault was well reported in the pages of The Charleston Mercury.

 

These days, it is reported that the spirit of Booth can be seen watching rehearsals from the balcony.  A male ghost, clothed in formal apparel, is thought to be good ol' Junius. Purportedly Booth, will watch rehearsals from the balcony and occasionally play tricks on the stagehands.

 

Interestingly, Booth was named after Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the lead assassins in William Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar.  He did not die at the Planter's hotel however. While traveling by steamboat from New Orleans to Cincinnati in 1852, Booth developed a fever, presumably from drinking impure river water. No physician was on board, and he died aboard the steamboat near Louisville, Kentucky on November 30, 1852. Booth's widow, Mary Anne, traveled in Cincinnati alone to claim his body.  Booth is buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.