Show Boat Essay

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Video Essay Show Boat MUS 110 In this essay I go over the main topic of “Show Boat.” I go over the characters, what they do, and what their role is in the movie. I also put my personal comments about the movie. The Cotton Palace, a showboat on the Mississippi River, pulls into port. On board are the owner Cap'n Andy Hawks, his nagging, disapproving wife Parthy, and their eighteen-year old daughter Magnolia, along with their troupe of actors, singers, and dancers. Pete, the rough, coarse engineer of the towboat Mollie Able, which pushes the Cotton Palace, notices Queenie, the African-American cook, wearing a brooch that he had sent to the Cotton Palace's leading lady, Julie la Verne, in the hopes of seducing her away from her husband, Steve Baker, leading man of the company. Julie wants nothing to do with Pete and has given Queenie the brooch. Pete threatens Julie in front of her husband. A fistfight breaks out between Steve and Pete on the levee, just as Cap'n Andy is introducing his actors to the assembled crowd. Andy quickly pretends that Steve and Pete were merely acting out a scene from one of the plays performed by the company. Windy McLain, the pilot of the Mollie Able, notices that Pete has stolen Julie's photo out of its frame on the levee, where photos of the acting troupe are posted. The angry Parthy warns Julie to stay away from Magnolia, her best friend. Sadly, Julie tells Cap'n Andy that if she cannot see Magnolia, she cannot stay on the boat, but she does not resign or leave. After everyone exits, riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal passes by and sees Magnolia on the upper deck of the showboat. The two are instantly attracted to each other. Later that day, the company is rehearsing the play they are to perform that night, when they are alerted by Ellie, the comedienne of the boat that Pete is returning with the Sheriff. Windy

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