MiddletownJournal.com

Early in the morning of April 9, 1923, Capt. Thomas Jefferson Reynolds awoke his family and his troupe of actors from their beds aboard the Showboat Majestic to begin a journey that has lasted some 85 years.

Capt. Reynolds built the Majestic himself with his brother-in-law Tegie Nicol. It took them several months and an investment of $7,000 and could accommodate 497 ticket-buyers.

Until the 1940s, the Reynolds family remained the Majestic's operators, each summer hiring six married couples to serve as actors and crew.

"Altogether there would be something like 30 people living on the boat," said Tim Perrino, executive director of Cincinnati Landmark Productions, which also operates the Covedale Performing Arts Center.

"They often got checked out by local ministers or local sheriffs when they arrived in a town," he said. "They would check out the living arrangements because actors were known as morally reprehensible, so they would have their marriage license posted on the wall of their stateroom to prove they were aboveboard."

There were eight children born on the Majestic, including one child born backstage after Catherine, the captain's wife, took a fall and went into labor.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, there's no record of any showboat being a self-contained paddle wheeler, Perrino said.

"It was always a floating theater barge," he said. "A smaller boat provided the electricity and would house the calliope."

For the Majestic while she was still rolling on the rivers, it was the Atta Boy, which sunk on Sept. 11, 2001.

"She was being used as a marina boat at the time and was no longer attached to the Majestic," Perrino said.

Until 1965, the boat actually traveled up and down the waterways of the Midwest until the Safety at Sea Act barred wooden-hull vessels from transporting passengers. For two years, she docked at Jeffersonville, Ind., where she was operated by Indiana University and her staged was graced by Kevin Kline, who was a student there. In 1967, the city of Cincinnati purchased her and docked her at the public landing.

"The original wood hull is still underneath," Perrino said.

In the 17 years since Cincinnati Landmark Productions has been operating the Majestic, Perrino has yet to repeat a show and considers "creative staging" on the incredibly small stage to be one of his group's best talents.

"We did 'Hello, Dolly' on this stage with 26 people," he said. "You always have to be extremely clever about the set. It's never a wagon show where you roll things in and off the stage. Everything has to revolve, flip open, serve double-duty."

Indeed, when they produced "Big River," one of the original Broadway producers came to see the show and commented how well they took to heart the stage direction that the machinations of the scenery should be true to the 19th century.

The actors are also aware of the quirks of performing on the river and frequently need to ad lib to account for the rolling waves or the fireworks emanating from the Great American Ballpark nearby.

In recent years, the Majestic became the last of her kind.

"The Goldenrod in St. Charles, Mo., got condemned because the mooring system was shot and the wooden superstructure was collapsing," Perrino said. "There are other showboats — Branson Belle in Branson and the General Jackson in Nashville — but they're not the original showboats that went from town to town.

"America is the only country with a history of traveling showboats that went up and down the river system putting on shows," he said.

CONTACT this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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