"Ken McCutchan is a life-long resident of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, descended from pioneer families that entered the area in the early 1800s. He is veteran of WWII, having served with Army Corps of Engineers in both North Africa and Europe. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Composition and Modern Language from the University of Evansville, a certificate in French Language and Culture from the Sorbonne in Paris, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from the University of Southern Indiana. His other books include: The Adventures of Isaac Knight, From then Til Now, Saundersville, An English Settlement, At The Bend in the River, and Dearest Lizzie. Mr. McCutchan's books may be purchased at Willard Library in Evansville, IN.

Showboat's A Comin' !!   

by Kenneth P. McCutchan

From the years before the Civil War until the beginning of World War I, the merry sound of the calliope and the cry “Showboat’s coming!” would bring crowds of entertainment hungry citizens to the riverfront.

Many showboats docked at the river towns along the Ohio, offering a wide variety of entertainment.

Perhaps none was more glamorous than the Eisenbarth-Henderson Floating Theatre, The New Great Modern Temple of Amusement

Built for Eugene Eisenbarth in 1903 by the Pope Dock Company in Parkersburg, W. Va, the new Temple was greatly enlarged version of a boat by the same name that had sunk near Grand Tower, Illinois, after being rammed by the Sprague .

Eisenbarth strove to raise the cultural level of the populace by offering “high class” entertainment. With a whole season of Shakespearean plays, along with a few good melodramas such as Human Hearts, the Temple cleared more money than almost any other boat on the Ohio River, although the boat often only played four nights a week and never on Sunday.

In 1909, Eisenbarth sold the Temple to the Needham-Steiner Amusement company of Chicago, Illinois, which completely remodeled it and renamed it , Cotton Blossom (the first of several boats to bear the name).

New white and gold paint, red velour seats and curtains, and strings of electric lights made the Cotton Blossom a truly spectacular craft. Under the new management, the programs were shifted from the classics to a mixture of popular melodramas and vaudeville.

However, after only a year, Needham-Steiner sold the boat to Ralph Emerson, known as “The Showboat King.” Emerson owned nine showboats, including some of the largest and finest that plied the rivers from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.

Emerson, an excellent promoter, inaugurated an intense publicity campaign that launched the Cotton Blossom on a mounting wave of prosperity that lasted several years. Under his ownership, such hits as “East is West,” “Peg O’ My Heart,” and “Daddy Longlegs” were presented, along with exciting Vaudeville acts.

It was during the severe winter of 1917 that the Cotton Blossom , then 14 years old, made its last appearance. While tied up at Mt.Vernon, Indiana, playing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it and its tow-steamer Jewel were irreparably crushed by ice.

The boat’s demise came near the end of the showboat era, by then, the public’s fancy was being captured by the moving pictures.