Shadows and Acts

Born in Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater in 1849, George Berrell died in 1933, after a life he often described as one of growing up with the country. His travels of self-discovery and those of his life on the stage are illustrative of a nation moving from travel on foot and horseback to that of automobiles and Boeings first major airliner, the 247. Berrell saw it all and performed on stages in early Deadwood to St. Louis and Chicago and all points in between. Torn between his affection for John Wilkes Booth and the actress Catherine Terrell, pursued by Miranda Ives, the daughter of a primitive preacher, one of Quantrill's Raiders who proclaimed that he was destined for her, Berrell's personal and theatrical life spanned the continent, ending in the motion pictures where in 1917 he appeared in John Ford's first full-length western, "Straight Shooting." Based on Berrell's memoir, Shadows and Acts is the story of a large chunk of American history as seen through one man's eyes.