For nearly 30 years, from 1914 to 1941, the James Adams Floating Theatre traveled the Dismal Swamp Canal twice annually through Norfolk County — now Chesapeake — to bring big entertainment to small towns throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
The Dismal Swamp Canal, a 22-mile-long, 6-foot-deep ditch, provided a vital link among towns of the Albemarle region, the Pasquotank River and Albemarle Sound in North Carolina, Tidewater Virginia and Maryland towns in the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay.
“Deep Creek was a perennial stopping place for the Adams Floating Theatre during the first four decades of the 20th century,” said Robert Hitchings, archivist-historian at the Wallace Room at the Central Library in Chesapeake. “Enthusiasm swept through the rural community as tugboats pushed the floating theater into its berth along the wooden wharf just south of the canal locks.”
The theater’s creator, James Adams, was a circus performer from Michigan. After retiring from the carnival business, he decided to create a showboat — an entertainment venue — that he could take to waterside communities.
In 1913, Adams drew up the plans for his traveling entertainment platform. It was constructed in Washington, North Carolina, for $8,941.42. It was 128 feet in length and 34 feet wide.
The 436-ton, two-story barge drew only 14 inches of water, a shallow draft that made it suitable for easily reaching small towns such as Smithfield, Gloucester and Mathews on tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay.
“Often, area ministers railed against the showboat claiming that it was sinful, but most residents went to see the show anyway,” said Jennifer England, director of the Isle of Wight County Museum in Smithfield. “Each night of the week featured a different show.”
The James Adams Floating Theatre visited the town of Smithfield 12 times over its decadeslong career.
“An advance man arrived at each stop and plastered the streets with posters and newspaper advertisements,” England said. “When the boat later floated into town, trumpets, concerts and costume parades drummed up further business.”
Adams hired Charles Hunter as his stage manager. Hunter recruited professional actors and actresses from the Midwest and West through industry trade papers, eschewing seasoned Broadway veterans.
Adams hired two tugs — Elk and Trouper — to shepherd his converted lumber barge to various mid-Atlantic ports of call.
In late February 1914, his floating entertainment venue debuted on the Pasquotank River in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His inaugural week in Elizabeth City initiated what became a 40-week maiden cruise to Hertford, Edenton, Plymouth, South Mills and Deep Creek in Virginia.
This opening voyage eventually brought welcome entertainment to 15 Virginia and 21 Maryland waterside communities.
“It stopped in two places on the Dismal Swamp Canal. Deep Creek was one and South Mills was the other,” said Gerald Hartis, a docent at the Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways Museum. “They’d stay for five days or until they didn’t sell any tickets, and then they’d move on. The Dismal Swamp Canal connects the Pasquotank River to the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River.”
Actors also served as ushers and ticket-takers. The main auditorium had a seating capacity of 500, and a balcony seated another 350. The plays had happy endings, and the villains ultimately always got what they deserved. Vaudeville entertainers performed for the audience during set changes.
Hunter characterized the plays as “old fashioned hokum.” They were “all about mother love, faithful and unfaithful sweethearts, the lamp in the window, an occasional villain, all in a play full of smiles and tears, but mostly hilarity and fun,” he said.
Drama — as far as the floating theater was concerned — was not limited to just the stage. In 1920, the theater sank in a storm that came up suddenly while it was crossing the Chesapeake Bay.
Seven years later, it took on water again after hitting a water-logged obstruction near Norfolk.
In November 1929, the floating venue struck an underwater stump in Turner’s Cut at South Mills, North Carolina.
On Nov. 6, 1938, the theater barge hit a snag in the Roanoke River. It was raised and mended quickly in Elizabeth City.
The last hurrah of the James Adams Floating Theatre took place in Thunderbolt, Georgia, in January 1941. The showboat and its two tugs were sold to E. A. Brassell. While it was being towed to Savannah for refitting as a cargo barge, the vessel was lost in a fire.
The floating theater was not the first or even the only showboat of its era. Adams’ entertainment venue helped encourage interest in artistic and economic development in rural communities throughout the mid-Atlantic.
Historically speaking, what really distinguished the Adams showboat from other waterfront venues of that time was that Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Edna Ferber used the research she did aboard the Adams Floating Theatre as the basis for her novel “Show Boat.” Her book became a popular Broadway musical and later was made into several well-received movies.
Ferber traveled to Bath on the Pamlico River in April 1925 to await the arrival of the Adams Floating Theatre to begin her field research in preparation for her novel.
Befriended by Hunter and his wife Beulah, one of the showboat’s top stars, Ferber immersed herself in life aboard the James Adams Floating Theatre for four days. Ferber’s delighted hosts were also fans of her writing.
Hunter was an ideal source of information regarding the entertainment operation. When Ferber disembarked in Bath, she had all the background she needed to begin work on “Show Boat.”
While what little remains physically of theater may rest in the silt at the bottom of the Savannah River, its thespian spirit lives on in the Cotton Blossom, the fictional Mississippi River showboat, in Edna Ferber’s most famous novel.
