Throughout the summer in the early 20th century, a showboat, a huge, scow-like wooden craft plying the Chesapeake Bay, called at Cecil County’s waterfront towns. Its arrival in Chesapeake City, Elkton, Fredericktown, North East, and Port Deposit brought great joy to the towns.
Once the tug had cautiously piloted the floating theatre up the river or the shallow twisting Big Elk Creek, the craft was moored at the town wharf. The arrival of the James Adams Floating Theatre in communities up and down the Bay was an exciting time as the show was about to begin. Each night during the stay, except Sunday, the curtain went up for a different play, as the cast kicked up their heels, and the performers and musicians entertained ticket-holders with a different show.
Before it moored at the community wharf posters prominently announced the gala week, handbills were distributed, and the county newspapers gave the upcoming entertainment plenty of play. The troupe was always ready when curtain time came as the performers had repeated these plays in water communities all around the Chesapeake. The crew, actors, actresses, and musicians traveled with the boat during the season, so there was plenty of time to rehearse.
After a week in port, the barge made the slow trip back the creek or rivers, heading toward the Bay, as it moved along on its annual circuit, and soon the activities were repeated at some other shore town. In the autumn, as the season turned, the floating theatre began to drift south toward Elizabeth City, N.C., where it normally spent the winter.
But, residents in the waterfront towns in Cecil County knew that sometime next summer the eagerly anticipated cry, “Here comes the showboat” would ring out again, as the tug pulling the floating scow steamed approached. And once again, they would look forward to a show to remember as the troupe’s acting, signing, and dancing entertained them.
The Adams Floating Theatre was launched around 1913/14 and it lasted until around the late 1930s.
Source: Kermit DeBoard
For additional Cecil County pictures of the Adam’s Floating Theatre, see this photo album Facebook.