William Warfield

Show Boat (1951) starring Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner

Product description of Show Boat

 One of the greatest Broadway musicals comes to the screen in this tale of music, racial bigotry and enduring love as outsized as the American heartland set aboard a Mississippi River Show Boat. Magnolia Brown has grown up onboard a sailing theater, plying the river from town to town to entertain people, and she has always dreamed of a life on stage. When the star’s, Julie LaVerne part African American ancestry is revealed and she is forced to leave, Magnolia steps in to take Julie’s place on stage.

Magnolia soon falls in love with her leading man, the handsome gambler and rogue, Gaylord Ravenal (Howard Keel—Kiss Me Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), and the two marry, have a daughter and live happily–for a while. But Ravenal’s gambling debts force Magnolia to find a job, and Julie LaVerne again leaves her starring role–this time voluntarily–to give Magnolia the break she needs, an opportunity that leads to stardom.