Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ has Ben Hur among her lovers, which serves as one of the hints the "time travel" is actually a form of reality manipulation. More than one tribute to Wallace's most famous book and its fictional hero have been erected near Wallace's home in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The General Lew Wallace Study and Museum honors the character of Judah Ben-Hur with a limestone frieze of his imagined face installed over the entrance to the study. Wallace's grave marker at the cemetery in Crawfordsville includes a line from the Balthazar character in "Ben-Hur": "I would not give one hour of life as a
Ben-Hur (play) Wallace's novel. The character of Ben-Hur was initially cast with Walker Whiteside, but he was replaced by Edward J. Morgan at the last minute. William Farnum replaced Morgan after the show's first season. William S. Hart played Messala. Hart would go on to leading roles in silent films such as "The Aryan" (1916), and became a silent screen cowboy hero. Farnum also appeared in several films, including "The Spoilers" (1914). The character of Christ was "represented as a 25,000-candlepower beam of light" and not portrayed by an actor. The resulting production of "Ben-Hur" opened at the Broadway Theater in New