Evening star., 1932-09-04
Romance and Glamour of
Show Boat Are Passing
Chesapeake Bay "Emporiiums of Entertainment -
Are Conducted in Practical Manner With Eyes
the Box Ohce-One Night in Galesville.
By G. E. Nelson.

bunch of city slickar3 who, although
they may be forced to lowering them
selves by ''ushing" the guests to their
seats before the show starts, could sup
ply tunes for any dance hall in WASH
ington. The chap who plays the bull
fiddle also sells tickets, and the first
violinist is head keeper and polisher Of
the anchor chain. Band concerts be-
fore the show starts are expensive;
calliope ballads waste lot of steam,
and strutting actors usually ask for high
salaries-and the show boat must watch
the red ink side of the ledger.
And, getting down to the perform
ance itself, the show boat players do
not stage such old favorites as East
Lynne" Uncle Toms Cabin" Lena
Rivers" and Railroad Jack" Not by
any manner of means, for the audiences
todav are sophisticated: they demand
such things as THE Devil which We
witnessed Wednesday night; The Old
Soak" and all sorts of deep" produc-
tons, with different play every night.
ment Of comedy relief-even such
play as 1.-THE Devil" which, by the way.
is not a version of the famed Ferenc
Molnar squib. The devil in this pro-
ducticn, according to little explana-
tory speech by the leading man before
the show started, Is supposed to be a
visionary character. That is. the show
boat audience does not really see him:
he Is a sinister figure in the background
who makes wicked monologues and in
fiuences 1the weak and willing players.
OF course, and in keeping with all sue
cessful plays, this devil-in-a-frock-coa
Is overcome in the end and Is sent back
to his scorching habitat mot much
hotter than the inside of that show
boat Wednesday night. But he GER
tainly caused lot of trouble. The
hero of the affair, once home-loving
young bank clerk who falls into the
clutches Of the sinister 'backgrounder,
wins our full sympathy early in the first
the play, MY God, I do hope Faith
(his wife) gives up the idea of this pic
mic" For we hate picnics also. The
young fellow falls a victim of passion,
Of cowardice. avarice, thievery and all
the tricks in the devils bag-but in
the end, comes triumph, much as the
dawn used to come In the old-time
movies.
RUT the show boat "aint what she
used to be-" And we are not COM
planning because it was not good show,
nor because we did not have good seats.
NeltLer 90 we ma IauIt WIN the De-
tween-the-acts rackets Of selling prize
packages and songs that are not prizes.
1t may be, as mentioned before, that we
are growing older and that the spirit Of
romance has left us instead of leaving
the show boat. Or 1t may be that
running show boat on Chesapeake
Bay Is just a practical, everyday af-
fair-with all the glamour, the glitter
and the melody lost in days gone by.
We go over to Mrs. Zang's, away out
at the end Of the pier, for a couple OF
those superb soft-shell crabs, shed a
tear or two in the tartar sauce, then
gently remove Old Dobbin's nose from
the feed bag and start back home.
Now, everything is quiet again IN
Galesville. The show boat has gone to
the Eastern Sho'. Today will be very
much like tomorrow and the day after.
The water laps softly against the wharf;
there may be an unusual catch of hard
heads or trout, or a sail boat may be-
come unruly and tip over; but, aside
from these goings on. the village Just
sort of sleeps away the Summer and
Autumn days.