In the opening chorus of Show Boat, when you hear the name of showboat itself, “Cotton Blossom!”—the melody you hear is “Ol’ Man River,” with the famous tune turned upside down and sung quickly.  

The title of Show Boat is purposefully two words, though in regular usage, as noun or verb, showboat is one word—and it is because of the popularity of Kern and Hammerstein’s work that “showboat” entered regular usage at all, denoting someone who behaves in a conspicuous manner to get attention. 

In the middle of Show Boat’s second act is Julie’s famous torch song, “Bill,” which wasn’t originally written for the musical and doesn’t feature lyrics by Hammerstein. P.G. Wodehouse wrote the lyrics of “Bill,” with small adjustments from Hammerstein. Kern thought this song from his 1918 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! had exactly the right degree of pathos for the bar scene of the second act. The original Julie, Helen Morgan, delivered it seated atop an upright piano in a heartbreaking rendition that was one of the iconic theatrical images of the era. 

Dorothy Hammerstein, the wife of Show Boat’s lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, overheard a fan say to Jerome Kern’s wife that it must be wonderful to be married to the man who wrote “Ol’ Man River.” Mrs. Hammerstein interjected, saying, “Excuse me, my husband wrote ‘Ol’ Man River’; her husband wrote ‘dum-dum-dee-dum…,’ intoning the famous melody. 

Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel, Show Boat, on which the musical is based, was released the year after another novel, Porgy, by DuBose Heyward, and both would become landmarks in theatrical history, forever blurring the lines between musical theater and opera. Ferber, a devoted diarist, recorded her first thoughts upon meeting the composer Jerome Kern, describing him as “a pixie little man with the most winning smile in the world.”  

Kern’s request of Ferber to musicalize her then-new bestseller Show Boat fell hard upon her at the time, when the world of musicals consisted of little but contrived dance numbers and slapstick comedy routines. Show Boat the novel was filled with family strife, ambition, heartache, and the complicated issues of race in America, and it spanned more than 40 years, hardly the typical fare for a musical of the 1920s. Ferber would later write a novel about Texas that earned her scorn from Texans at the time, Giant. 

The American musical didn’t “come from” opera so much as grow parallel to it, and all of these influences converge in Show Boat. The roots of the American musical—a play whose characters also sing—can be traced to the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, in 1866, and a show called The Black Crook, a Faustian tale set in Germany and a large-scale singing, dancing, and acting spectacle, the first of its kind in America. It earned $1 million in revenue at a time when theatrical presenters were lucky to cover their expenses, and shows normally made around 10K. The Black Crook is parodied in the show-within-a-show “mellerdrammer” in Show Boat’s first act.  

Show Boat’s librettist and lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II, was the grandson of Oscar Hammerstein I, an enterprising Prussian immigrant and opera lover who, in the early years of the 20th century, thought the young Metropolitan Opera was too staid and too European. Hammerstein set out in 1906 to build a rival company, the Manhattan Opera Company, on 34th Street, around the corner from the then-23-year-old Metropolitan. The elder Hammerstein competed so successfully with the Met that the latter ended up buying him out with his promise that he wouldn’t produce opera in the city for a decade.  

Oscar Hammerstein II would come to dominate 20th-century theater and film with his poetic and sweetly philosophical lyrics for 850 songs. Hammerstein became a theatrical giant with Show Boat in 1927, followed by many years in Hollywood, and then his string of epic hits with the composer Richard Rodgers—Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Cinderella, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music—as well as his mentoring of Stephen Sondheim, who happened to grow up near Hammerstein’s Doylestown, Pennsylvania farm. When Sondheim died at age 91 in 2021, a Hammerstein era came to close, as it was almost exactly a century before when Hammerstein opened his first professional show in 1920. 

Throughout his career, baritone Paul Robeson turned “Ol’ Man River” into a civil rights anthem, occasionally altering Hammerstein’s text when singing the song outside of a production of Show Boat. His performance of the song in the 1936 film of the show was one of the most iconic of that decade. Though Robeson did not star in the original 1927 production of Show Boat, “Ol’ Man River” was conceived for him, and Hammerstein deliberately crafted the song without many internal rhymes, which he later explained: “Here is a song sung by a character who is a rugged and untutored philosopher. It is a song of resignation with a protest implied. Brilliant and frequent rhyming would diminish its importance.”

John McGlinn’s 1988 studio recording of Show Boat was a landmark of its own. A huge, half-million dollar undertaking at the time, McGlinn’s recording brought together nearly every piece of music ever composed for Show Boat, including songs cut by Kern and Hammerstein for various revivals. The recording starred Bruce Hubbard, Frederica von Stade, Teresa Stratas, and Jerry Hadley. 

Show Boat has always inflamed two sides of one controversy. Some view the show as perpetuating racial stereotypes with Black characters speaking and singing words written for them by white authors. Others see Show Boat as a groundbreaking moment in American history, an opening of a door for conversations Americans rarely have. Show Boat is a piece of American history that holds a mirror up to where we’ve been and where we are.

10 Snazzy Facts about a century ago - 1927 – the year of Show Boat 

The President of the United States in 1927, the 30th President, was Calvin Coolidge.

The first transatlantic telephone call was placed from New York to London on January 7. 

Radio frequencies began to be regulated for the first time in the spring of 1927. 

Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight on May 20-21, from Roosevelt Field on New York’s Long Island to Le Bourget Aerodrome outside of Paris, setting off a worldwide sensation. 

The carving of Mount Rushmore, outside of Rapid City, South Dakota, began. It would eventually become a tourist destination for all Americans. 

Despite countrywide protests, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, subjects of one of the most famous trials in history, were executed in 1927. 

The United States experienced one of the largest floods in our history in April and May of 1927—the Mississippi River basin flooded, affecting millions. The river, south of Memphis, sometimes reached a width of 80 miles, with 15% of Arkansas being inundated.  

1927 saw the founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which resulted in the first Academy Awards ceremony a few years later. The first winner of Best Picture, Wings, was filmed outside of San Antonio, at Kelly Field.  

The film The Jazz Singer debuted in the fall of 1927, ushering in the era of “talkies.” 

The Holland Tunnel opened, linking New Jersey with Manhattan Island for the first time.