The Lowell Showboat

In the depths of the Great Depression, the little town of Lowell came up with a way to lift people’s spirits: a summer variety show staged on a riverboat parked on the Flat River. The first show, in 1932, drew about 7,000 people over four nights, and the Lowell Showboat became the heart of the town — folks still call it Lowell’s “town square.” Over the years it drew big-name acts like Louis Armstrong and Milton Berle. But the Showboat’s story also carries a hard part that Lowell doesn’t hide. For decades the shows were built around blackface minstrel acts — white performers in dark makeup acting out racist stereotypes, in the style of old Mississippi riverboat shows. The first boat, in 1932, was named the “George Washington”; the one built in 1935 was named the “Robert E. Lee,” after a famous Mississippi steamboat (though it shared the name of the Confederate general). A turning point came in 1967, when the legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who was Black, was booked to play but said he wouldn’t appear in any show that still used blackface. The town dropped the act for his visit, and Armstrong came — though the old minstrel tradition didn’t fully fade until the 1970s. Later, in 2017, the “Robert E. Lee” name drew objections too, and when the long-running boat was retired and a new one built in 2020, the city left that name behind — today it’s known simply as the Lowell Showboat. The new boat still anchors a free summer concert series.

You can see it at Riverwalk Plaza, just off Main Street in downtown Lowell, on the Flat River. The Lowell Area Historical Museum (lowellmuseum.org) tells the Showboat’s full story.