
A showboat, or show boat, was a floating
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
that traveled along the waterways of the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, especially along the
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
and
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
rivers, to bring culture and entertainment to the river frontiers.
This special type of
riverboat
A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury ...
was designed to carry passengers rather than cargo, and they had to be pushed by a small
pusher or
towboat attached to it.
Showboats were rarely steam-powered because the steam engine had to be placed right in the auditorium for logistical reasons, therefore making it difficult to have a large theater.
History

During the American frontier era, populations of potential audiences were widely scattered about the area that is now the United States. Actors traveled to America from England, and theatre venues as well as touring companies were developed.
Noah Ludlow, an early pioneer in travelling theater, purchased a
keelboat
A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...
in 1816 for $200 and named it ''Noah's Ark''. Ludlow and 11 associates, together known as the American Theatrical Commonwealth Company, climbed aboard and traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, stopping to perform whenever they could. It is not clear whether they ever performed on the boat, or just used the boat as a means of travel. If they did, in fact, perform on the boat (as is probable),
then Ludlow's Noah's Ark would have been the first showboat.
British-born actor William Chapman, Sr. created the first deliberately-planned showboat, named the ''Floating Theater'' in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
in 1831.
He and his family of nine, along with two other people, lived on this boat and performed plays with added music and dance at stops along the waterways. The price of admission was anywhere from a peck of fresh vegetables to 50 cents a person. After reaching New Orleans, they got rid of the boat and went back to Pittsburgh in a steamboat in order to tour down the river once again the following year.
In 1836, the family was able to afford a new, fully equipped steam engine with a stage. In 1837, it was renamed ''Steamboat Theatre''.
Many other showboats followed the ''Floating Theater'' onto the rivers in the following years, and some of them began to do other performances besides theater. One popular showboat during this period was the ''Floating Circus Palace'' of
Gilbert R. Spalding and Charles J. Rogers, built in 1851, that featured large-scale equestrian spectacles. By the middle of the nineteenth century, showboats could seat up to 3,400 and regularly featured wax museums and equestrian shows.
Showboats disappeared entirely with the onset of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, but began again in 1878. Upon their revival, they tended to focus on
melodrama
A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
and
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
.
Major boats of this period included the ''New Sensation'', ''New Era'', ''Water Queen'', and the ''Princess''. New inventions such as the steamer tow and the steam calliope greatly increased both territory and audiences, and
Stephen Foster’s songs added charm to their simple programs.
With the improvement of roads, the rise of the automobile, motion pictures, and the maturation of the river culture, the popularity of showboats again began to decline. In order to combat this development, they grew in size and became more colorful and elaborately designed in the 1900s. The ''
Golden Rod'' seated 1,400 persons; the ''Cotton Blossom'', the ''Sunny South'', and the ''New Showboat'' were floating theatre palaces.
With the
burlesquing of these programs throughout the 1930s to attract sophisticated audiences, showboats ceased to perform their original function.
The last showboat to travel the rivers in authentic pattern was the ''
Golden Rod'' in 1943.
The glory days of showboats are recalled by the ''
Majestic'', which is docked on the
Ohio River
The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
in
Downtown Cincinnati
Downtown Cincinnati is one of the 52 List of Cincinnati neighborhoods, neighborhoods of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the central business district of the city, as well as the economic and symbiotic center of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Original ...
. Until 2013, she served as a venue for regular performances.
In popular culture
In 1914, circus actors James Adams and his wife launched the ''
James Adams Floating Theatre'', a showboat that would tour the
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
and bring theatre to audiences in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, and
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
. In the process of writing her 1926 novel ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...
'',
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cima ...
stayed on board the James Adams Floating Theatre to gather research material on the showboat, a disappearing American pastime. This novel served as the inspiration for the award-winning
Kern and
Hammerstein Broadway hit, ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...
'' (1927).
Since the box-office success of
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
's
1951 motion picture version of the musical ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...
'', in which the boat was inaccurately redesigned as a deluxe, self-propelled
steamboat
A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...
, the image of a showboat as a large twin-stacked vessel with a huge
paddle wheel
A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened end (the ''blade'') used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered watercraft by p ...
at the rear has taken hold in popular culture. Two earlier film versions of ''Show Boat'' and most stage productions feature a historically accurate vessel, and
Edna Ferber's novel on which the musical is based gives a description of the ''Cotton Blossom'' that accurately reflects the design of a nineteenth-century showboat.
["Smash Hit Broadway Musical Showboat Inspired by The James Adams Floating Theatre!" James Adams Floating Theatre. Web. 23 Jan. 2011.]
Slang
Based on the supposedly gaudy look of showboats, the term "showboat" became slang for someone who wants ostentatious behavior to be seen at all costs. This term is particularly applied in sports, where a showboat (or sometimes "showboater") will do something flashy before (or even instead of) actually achieving his or her goal. The word is also used as a verb. British television show ''
Soccer AM
''Soccer AM'' was a British football-based comedy talk show, produced by Sky Sports. It aired from 20 August 1994 to 27 May 2023 on Sky Showcase, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Football. From 2010, the programme was put on a short b ...
'' has a section named "Showboat", dedicated to flashy tricks from the past week's games.
Examples of showboating include
Leon Lett
Leon Lett Jr. (born October 12, 1968) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys. Lett played college ...
's grocery-bag-carrying of a recovered
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
(which was then swatted out of his hand before the goal line) in
Super Bowl XXVII;
Bill Shoemaker
William Lee Shoemaker (August 19, 1931 – October 12, 2003) was an American jockey, considered one of the greatest. For 29 years he held the world record for the most professional jockey victories.
Early life
Referred to as "Bill", "Willie," ...
's standing in the saddle before the finish line of the 1957
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby () is an American Graded stakes race, Grade I stakes Thoroughbred racing, race run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The race is run by three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of . Colt (horse), Colts and geldin ...
, costing him the win (some sources say he merely misjudged the finish line, with the jockey ahead of him not standing up then);
Lindsey Jacobellis' grab of her
snowboard
Snowboards are boards where the user places both feet, usually secured, to the same board. The board itself is wider than most skis, with the ability to glide on snow."snowboarding." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 17 Mar ...
which caused her to crash right before the finish of the
Snowboard Cross
Snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, is a snowboard competition in which four to six competitors race down a course. Snowboard cross courses are typically quite narrow and include cambered turns, various types of jumps, berms, rollers, ...
final at the
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...
, costing her a first-place finish and a gold medal (she got a silver medal instead);
Usain Bolt
Usain St. Leo Bolt (; born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican retired sprinter who is widely regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time. He is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, ...
pumping his chest before winning the 100m final at
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
, likely adding one or more tenths of a second to his world record time of 9.69 seconds; and
Mario Balotelli
Mario Balotelli Barwuah (; ''Birth name, né'' Barwuah; born 12 August 1990) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club Genoa CFC, Genoa.
Balotelli started his ...
missing a shot on (soccer) goal when he unnecessarily tried it backheel. Showboating is likely to get this sort of attention when, as a result, the contestant doing it encounters a problem in the still-in-progress competition.
In boxing, showboating often takes the form of taunting, dropping one's gloves and daring an opponent to throw a punch, or engaging in other risky behaviors while the match is ongoing. Boxers well known for showboating style include
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...
,
Sugar Ray Leonard
Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1977 and 1997, winning quintuple c ...
,
Roy Jones Jr., and
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (né Sinclair; born February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed between 1996 and 2017. He list of undefeated boxing world champions, retired with an undefeated record a ...
Anderson Silva is a
UFC fighter.
See also
*
Old Profanity Showboat
*
Goldenrod Showboat
References
{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2017
Boat types