Bryant’s New Showboat
date: label: Date made
content: 1976
notes: label: Description
content: <I>Bryant’s New Showboat</I> was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater. Most of the shows put on for Bryant’s patrons in small towns along the Kanawha, Ohio, Monongahela, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers were vaudeville or follies productions.
label: Description
content: The ornate stage of <I>Bryant’s New Showboat</I> was home to dozens of plays like <I>Hamlet</I> and <I>Little Nell of the Ozarks</I>, and even the antics of a trained bucking mule named January. Owner Billy Bryant offered $10 to anyone who could stay on the animal’s back, but he had to retract that offer in mining towns, as the miners were strong enough to stay on.
label: Description
content: The vessel was sold to new owners in 1945, at the end of World War II. Movie theaters, personal automobiles and other developments had gradually ended the colorful showboat era on America’s rivers.
topic: label: related event
content: The Emergence of Modern America
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Energy & Power
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: Transportation
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content: On the Water exhibit
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content: Art
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.335568
label: catalog number
content: 335568
label: accession number
content: 1977.0630
objectType: label: Object Name
content: model, boat
label: Other Terms
content: Show
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 33 in x 7 in; 22.86 cm x 83.82 cm x 17.78 cm