The James Adams Floating Theatre brought entertainment and excitement to many waterfront communities in the first half of the 20th century, but only gained national attention after Edna Ferber made a brief stay aboard in 1925. Today, over 60 years since the showboat burned in a fire, the Floating Theatre still brings back fond memories among many older residents of Maryland’s waterfront towns.
The James Adams Floating Theatre was the brainchild of James E. Adams of Michigan, who had an extensive showman’s experience with circuses, carnivals, and traveling vaudeville shows. In 1913, he contracted to build a 128-foot-long wooden barge in Washington, North Carolina, named Playhouse. Launched in 1914, it had a 30-by-80-foot auditorium to seat 500, with room for another 350 in the balcony. The showboat carried a company of 25 people, a 10-piece concert band, and a six-piece orchestra. She was further equipped with sleeping quarters, galley (kitchen), and a dining room.
Drinking water was kept in barrels in the galley; the barrels were filled by bucket at each port by eager young boys, who were rewarded with free show tickets. The showboat’s power was supplied by two tugs, Elk and Trouper; her side read, “James Adams Floating Theatre.”
While showboats were plentiful on Midwestern rivers, this was the first of its kind on the Atlantic Coast. She was very much in the tradition of the repertoire-theater movement around the turn of the 1900s, bringing traveling entertainment to rural America. The staple of the Floating Theatre was plays, mostly comedy-dramas, where good always triumphed and evil was punished. Vaudeville was sometimes offered on the weekends.
During her career, the showboat traveled as far south as Merritt Island, Florida, and as far north as Camden, New Jersey. She typically wintered-over in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, before heading north in the spring, stopping at a number of North Carolina towns before arriving in the Chesapeake via the Dismal Swamp Canal. She played mostly on the Western Shore of Virginia and the lower Potomac. On the Eastern Shore of Maryland, favored stops were Crumpton, Centreville, Chestertown, Rock Hall, Queenstown, Stevensville, Oxford, and St. Michaels (which was the only town the showboat visited in each of her 27 full seasons).
On the Western Shore of Maryland, regular stops included Leonardtown, Solomons, North East, Port Deposit, and Elkton at the head of the bay. Typically, the Floating Theatre stayed a week, her arrival heralded by handbills and newspaper advertisements. There was a different performance each night for six days. Reserved seat admission was 40 cents, with another 15 cents for the concert following the play. After six days, she was towed to another venue while most of the performers drove their automobiles between ports.
Beulah Adams, sister of James Adams, was the leading lady from 1920-1936, and was the wife of Charles Hunter, the program’s creative director and a character actor. With her dark hair and expressive blue eyes, she was often referred to as the “Mary Pickford of the Chesapeake.” James’ older brother Selba was the manager, and his wife, Clara, the housekeeper. James Adams himself left the management to Selba and retired, but took a keen interest in the welfare of the showboat. When performers were needed, advertisements were placed in Billboard Magazine.
Plays carried titillating titles like “Why Girls Walk Home,” “Cheating Woman,” “Modern Wives and Absent Husbands,” and “Nice Girls Don’t,” but the content of the plays was only vaguely relevant to the promise of their titles. Conservative country folk were the main audience, and Adams knew his audience well.
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