Edna Ferber’s Showboat, from Page to Stage to Screen
By Taylor Jasmine | On June 19, 2017 | Updated July 5, 2026 | Comments (0)
Show Boat (1936) began in 1927 as a revolutionary stage musical, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Based on Edna Ferber’s best-selling novel of the same name, the musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dockworkers on the Cotton Blossom, a showboat on the Mississippi River, beginning in the late nineteenth century.
With themes including racial prejudice and enduring love, the musical contributed such classics as “Ol’ Man River,” “Make Believe,” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” to the American songbook.
Show Boat by Edna Ferber, in brief
Show Boat tells the story of three generations of performers on a floating theater, the Cotton Blossom. As the titled show boat travels down the Mississippi River from the 1880s to the 1920s, readers get a glimpse of a forgotten form of American entertainment.
Floating theaters stopped in river towns that normally didn’t have access to high quality performances because of their distance and isolation from major urban centers. Edna Ferber captured the spirit of this way of life with her skillful storytelling and captivating characters.
Through the character of Julie, she also sensitively touched on racial topics that was quite controversial at the time — mixed marriage (then called miscegenation where it was illegal) and “passing.”
When the novel came out, it was praised more for its storytelling than as a masterpiece of literature, which was typical of the reception Ferber’s sprawling tales would receive. And like many of Ferber’s works, it has a cinematic and theatrical quality. You can read about how Show Boat went from page to stage to screen (it was actually filmed twice).
Read more about this classic novel.
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A historical moment in American theater
The arrival of Show Boat was a historic moment in the history of American theater. The show was a radical departure in musical storytelling and rose above the operettas and light musicals that were in vogue at the time, and it was an equally radical concept when applied to film.
Irene Dunne stars, playing Magnolia, with Helen Morgan as Julie and Paul Robeson as Joe, who sings “Ol’ Man River.”
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Hello, U.S. Postal Service — wouldn’t it have been nice to give credit
to Edna Ferber, the author of Show Boat?
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1951 — the Technicolor version
In 1951, just 15 years after the 1936 film version of Show Boat, the wildly successful musical was made into a Technicolor, razzle-dazzle spectacle starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner (whose voice was dubbed), and Howard Keel.
The Jerome Kern songs are as beautiful as ever, including the immortal “Make Believe” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.”
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More about Show Boat (the novel), published in 1926
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Gorgeous as the film is, it doesn’t gloss over the reality of the American racial divide, when integration and miscegenation were prohibited by law. This musical is the one that changed American musical theater from light comedy to near opera.
William Warfield’s rendition of “Ol’ Man River” is as wise and sad a song as has ever been sung. Tip: See the 1936 version first.
Contributed by Leonard Kniffel, excerpted from Musicals on the Silver Screen: A Guide to the Must-See Movie Musicals, @2013 by the American Libraries Association. Reprinted by permission.
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See also: Giant, the 1956 Film Based on Edna Ferber’s Epic Novel
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More about Edna Ferber on Literary Ladies Guide
- Edna Ferber’s Quotes on Writing and Life
- 5 Great Tips for the Writing Life
- The Unanticipated Success of So Big (1924)
- A Peculiar Treasure is Testimony to the Glorious Career of a Writer
- Success or Failure, All’s to Do Again
- Developing the Discipline to Write Regularly
- Classic Women Authors Tackle Writer’s Block
- Edna Ferber’s Show Boat from Stage to Screen
- Ferber’s Inner Life of the Imagination
- Giant, the 1956 Film Based on Edna Ferber’s Epic Novel
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