Background
Agnes Booth was born Marian Agnes Land Rookes on October 4, 1846, in Sydney, Australia, the daughter of Capt. Land and Sara Rookes. Her father was a British officer quartered there.
Agnes Booth was born Marian Agnes Land Rookes on October 4, 1846, in Sydney, Australia, the daughter of Capt. Land and Sara Rookes. Her father was a British officer quartered there.
Agnes was early apprenticed to the stage as a child dancer.
Agnes, at the age of twelve, appeared as a dancer with Mrs. Wood's company in San Francisco, in 1858, under the name of Agnes Land. A little later she appeared with the company of the famous and much-married Adah Isaacs Menken. Like so many young dancers of that day, her aim was the dramatic stage, and she began to act at Maguire's Opera House, in San Francisco, where she remained till 1865. In 1865 Agnes Land - the name by which she was still known - heard the call of Broadway, and crossed the continent to appear at Booth's Theatre. She was then only nineteen. A little later she supported Edwin Forrest in Richelieu, and attracted so much attention that from that time on her services were in constant demand. In 1867 she married Junius Brutus Booth, and thereafter always appeared as Agnes Booth. Mr. and Mrs. Booth acted frequently together, but Mrs. Booth also appeared in support of other male stars, notably her brother-in-law Edwin Booth, McCullough, Wallack, Barrett, and E. A. Sothern. She also served, at different times, as leading woman of the Union Square and Madison Square Theatres, both under the management of A. M. Palmer, and as the star of The Sporting Duchess during its tour of the country in 1895-1896. Booth died in 1883, and in 1885, Mrs. Booth married John B. Schoeffel, owner of the Tremont Theatre in Boston. After this marriage, she was under no necessity to act, but continued to do so for a dozen years.
Booth’s connection as leading woman with Palmer's company at the Madison Square Theatre following the new alliance. She was leading woman of this company in 1890, when the youthful Augustus Thomas, then a newspaper reporter in St. Louis, sent a one-act sketch to Maurice Barrymore, also a member of the company, which was used as a curtain raiser and led to Mr. Thomas's engagement to become dramatist to the theatre (at a salary of $50 a week). In his book, The Print of My Remembrance (1922) , he tells how he wrote A Constitutional Point for Mrs. Booth - a one-act play twenty years later to become the third act of his noted drama The Witching Hour. A. M. Palmer, the manager, considered that the public would not understand this sketch, so he put it away, and wrote another, Afterthoughts, which Mrs. Booth acted. That she herself may not have been eager to do the more modern sketch is indicated by the fact, recorded by Mr. Thomas, that when his play, Alabama, a pioneer of the new American drama, was read to the company, in 1891, Mrs. Booth paused at the stage manager's desk as she was leaving the house and whispered, "Rotten, thank you. " In fact, she at first refused her part of May Brookyn, but later reclaimed it, after the play was a sensational success. In 1892, she appeared in a sketch also written for her by Mr. Thomas, in which he supported her. Her last appearance of any moment was as Rose in L'Arlésienne at the Broadway Theatre, New York, March 22, 1897.
Booth retired from the stage to her home in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, and devoted the remaining years of her life to social activities. Mrs. Booth as actress belonged to an earlier generation in training and style. She had no "line, " but played all sorts of parts. Indeed, her versatility was exceptional. Her style, however, was robust and had little in common with the naturalistic methods which in her later years were conquering the stage.
In 1861, Agnes married Harry Perry, a popular actor, who died in 1863. In 1867 she married Junius Brutus Booth the younger (elder brother of Edwin), and thereafter always appeared as Agnes Booth. The marriage was a happy one. There were two sons - Junius Brutus Booth, and Sydney Barton Booth. Booth died in 1883, and on February 4, 1885, Mrs. Booth married John B. Schoeffel, owner of the Tremont Theatre in Boston.