The Goldenrod was the best of the best. She was a floating theatrical palace, with 1500 seats, an elegant gilded interior, massive mirrors and hand-carved wood ornamentation. For decades, The Goldenrod toured the waterways of the Midwest, providing musical and vaudeville entertainment to cities and towns along the river. This was the Golden Age of Showboats, and The Goldenrod was queen.
But nothing lasts forever. As competing entertainments came to the river towns, showboat audiences waned, until finally The Goldenrod was forced to find a permanent home as a floating venue on one city's riverfront. Famous entertainers still came to perform on her majestic stage, and for a while, audiences still came to see them. Certain members of the electorate were nostalgic about The Goldenrod, so a National Landmark was declared. But regardless of her status, The Goldenrod's audience grew old, and showboat entertainment fell out of fashion. People stopped coming to the shows and The Goldenrod fell into disrepair. She was a burden on city infrastructure, a danger to passing barges. Being a Landmark, preservation was necessary, so she was towed to a smaller town up the river. There, The Goldenrod was remodeled and marketed to the community as "musical entertainment for the whole family". Historians were consulted, and the old rituals surrounding the showboat were recreated with scholarly precision. The authenticity of the experience was universally praised. Still no one came. 10 years passed and The Goldenrod failed to clear a profit. The cost of maintaining the aging boat was more than she was worth. The Goldenrod was towed away again.
Now, The Goldenrod rots, 100 miles from anyone who would remember her glory days, if anyone still does. These Landmarks are so very expensive to maintain. No one really likes showboats anymore, anyway. I know I don't.
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