Bad actor panned again

Visitors to Charleston often take home sweetgrass baskets, artists' renderings of the Battery and miniature Civil War cannons. Visitors to Gettysburg often take home battle maps, copies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and miniature Civil War cannons.

But a souvenir that made its debut last week at the Gettysburg National Military Park is no longer available. That's because some folks were understandably offended by the bobblehead doll of John Wilkes Booth brandishing his single-shot derringer.

Gettysburg Foundation spokeswoman Dru Anne Neil explained: "On rare occasions, there's an item that might cause concern, and obviously the bobbleheads appeared to be doing that."

Thus, the 7-inch-tall figurine of the mercurial thespian/assassin, whose father, Junius Brutus Booth, once trod the boards at Charleston's Dock Street Theatre, is no longer on the Gettysburg visitor center's bookstore shelves.

But it's still for sale online at $19.95 each from BobbleHead LLC. It comes in a box that looks like Ford's Theatre in Washington, where Booth fired a fatal bullet into President Lincoln's brain five nights after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Va.

Matt Powers, sales manager of Kansas City, Mo.-based manufacturer BobbleHead LLC, told The Associated Press: "We like to let the customer decide if it's a good item or not."

And many folks seem to like most bobbleheads.

The Charleston Riverdogs have at times boosted attendance by giving spectators bobbleheads of such political luminaries as George W. Bush, John Kerry, Barack Obama, John McCain and Alvin Greene.

But even now that it's been seven score and seven years since John Wilkes Booth blasted his way into infamy, he's still not suitable bobblehead material -- certainly not at Gettysburg.