Evening star., 1935-09-22
Nearby Streams Harbor
Old Floating Theater
Melodramas No Longer Lead the Bill at
Maryland and Virginia Landings of
Twenty-Two-Y Year-Old Show Boat.

the stage and the Hunters almost
luxurious suite over the box Office it
is small wonder that the troupe IS
happy and carefree one.
A far cry from the old show boat
days are the autos that are carried
aboard ready to whisk members of
the troupe-perhaps to city enter
tainment, when the curtain has been
dropped on show boat drama.
FROM some of the town hangabouts
at the landing we learned that
this twentieth century show boat
visits are viewed by the Negroes with
the same superstitions that have fol-
lowed show boats since they first
made their appearance nearly three
quarters Of century ago. Namely,
that the floating theater is diabolical
invention to lure the black popula-
ton aboard, lock them up and trans
port them back to Africa! However,
even the shanty wireless that has
dogged the boats at landings has ever
been powerless to keep the dark faces
and music-loving hearts from lettering
on the wharf and listening to the
sweet sounds from within.
No picture of Mississippi show boat
days would be complete without the
levee roustabouts and the shrill cries
of pickininnies when "de floatin' PAL
aces" started to below at the landing.
And after all, it is back to "Ole
Man Ribber" that we must turn to
trace the glamorous life of its most
picturesque institution - the show
boat. There are only two left on
the Mississippi today. ten years ago
there were Is. At the close Of the
nineteenth century there were so and
all doing a landofice business.
Two years ago when the Cotton
Blossom, one o. the famous Missis-
sippi show boats, was sold and con-
verted into a barge it was front-page
news in metropolitan papers. Ro-
mantle hearts from every quarter
wrote wistful "reminiscences of child
iSh thrills when the "floatin' palaces"
drifted to the landing unheralded
save by the snort of a caliope.
The Cotton Blossom, built and
owned by the famous Capt. Otto Hitler,
was one of the largest show boats
ever built. 1t boaSted seating Ca
pacity of 1900, with a history inter-
woven with cotton blossoms, mag
nolia blooms. mockig birds and lone
stars. The Golden Road. one of her
sister boats, is still doing business
down by the Mississippi levees.
Some day the history of this most
unique and picturesque division of the
American theater (although not ex-
actly recognized as such in histronic
annals) will be gathered into one
volume with sketches of the captains
given full space. For, there is no
more colorful character in American
history than some of those men who
sensed the need of entertainment for
remote little river towns without
benefit of "opry house" and who, for
over a period of half a century, made
the floating theater share with
Thanksgiving and Christmas in the
life Of the community. Who has not
4tCoRA VA SdRt- d14u nullL
Cally French, his wife, the pioneers
Of the show boat business after it
emerged from its shady reputation of
pre-war days?
An orphan at Palmyra. Mo, county
seat to Hannibal. home of Mark
Twain, French joined on a river
steamer as cabin boy at just about
the time Huckleberry Finn, Tom
Sawyer and Niffer Jim were headed
down the river on a raft. Later the
boy became part of a troupe that
floated down the river on Spaulding
Floating Palace. The war drove him
and the pleasure boatS-then of ques-
tionable reputation-from the river
and French eaked out a living wher-
ever he could find it.
But the river called and called-it
has way Of doing that to children
born within sound of its seductive
voice. He envisioned floating
palace" that would appeal to better
patronage than that to which he had
played in his youthful days. His
"Cally' backed him up-she had the
stuff OF pioneers in her makeup
and they manage to scrape to-
gether enough money to build the
flrst-Sensation. From that date. 1873
until Is years ago, there was always
French's Sensation afloat. It made
towns large and small and We'd with
Mardi Gras in the thrill it brought
to "fablous New Orleans"
CAPT. FRENCH entered the show
boat business prepared to "live
down" its vile reputation, and he did.
In addition to the, stage revelations.
certain gamblers, trickSters and worse
had made the show boats a by-word
until the time came when armed
posses of citizens guarded the land
1ngs and prevented the boats from
tying up. This reputation, together
with four years of war, drove the
boats from the river never to appear
again in their old guise.
Capt. French, more than any other,
perhaps, had the leading role in this
publication of the show boat. He
saw chance of bringing entertain
ment as might be viewed with i'm
punity by all and he straightway
went about it in his own original
manner.
For the next six years the Frenchs
operated two boats, known as Sensa-
ton No. l and No. 2. Mrs. French.
who had won her pilots license in
1888 and her masters papers in 1892,
became skipper Of the older boat and
her husband took the newer. She
was the first woman to hold a pilots
license on any river and the only
woman who ever held both pilots and
masters papers. Up until the time
Of the old lady's death, some 10 years
ago, she delighted in exhibiting her
masters ticket, which read, ION all
rivers" and her pilots license, good
from Cincinnati to Bayou La Fourche
In Louisiana.
The French success soon attracted
others in the purified show boat busi-
ness, and in 1890 the finest boat on
the river was built by Capt. c. F.