"The Two Johns" were both people and place: as people, they were two vaudevillians from the late 1800s. While most sources agree that their given names were John and John, the sources don't agree on their family names, which are given variously as Crossey, Stewart and Hart. Some sources have them as father and son. The sources also agree regarding their heft—enormous—with Hulbert Footner's account below being typical.
"The Two Johns" the place was a large Victorian house on the banks of the Choptank River, just south of Denton, MD. The two Johns purchased the house around 1880 and remodeled it to include a theater, a roof-top observatory, and a riverside pavilion, where they put on dances and spectacles.
It is important to remember that the Chesapeake was historically both a workplace and a playground for all those who lived along and around it. It was plied by steamboats and ferries and barges of all sorts. Taking a day excursion by steamboat on the Chesapeake with stops in various ports along the way was deemed a first-rate way to spend the day. Stopping off to see a show at the Two Johns must have been a hoot, although I have yet to find any first-hand accounts.
With that in mind, here is Hulbert Footner's account of The Two Johns in Maryland Main and the Eastern Shore, published in 1942 when The Two Johns were already long gone:
"Down the river in sight of Potter Hall stands what remains of a house known in the neighborhood as The Two Johns. About sixty years ago, to this remote spot in old Caroline [County] came a preposterous figure who called himself J. Stewart Crossey. He was part proprietor and the principal actor in a vaudeville show known as the Two Johns, and he weighed four hundred and fifty pounds. The second "John" was John Hart, another noted comedian who weighed a mere three hundred pounds. One of their later shows was called 'The Fat Men's Club.' Associated with these two was Paul Dresser, a famous song-writer of the day, elder brother of Theodore Dreiser, the novelist. The vaudevillians bought a house on the [Choptank] river and, after greatly enlarging and embellishing it in the best Victorian style, christened it the 'Two Johns.' It included a small theater, an observatory on the roof, and a 'Roundhouse' on the shore for dancing.
"After it was finished the steamboat from Baltimore made it a regular port of call, and almost every day brought gay parties of guests. One can picture the impact on sober Caroline of these flamboyant Bohemians, and their goings-on. The country people were scandalized, but I'm sure they enjoyed it. On one occasion the 'Two Johns' hired a steamboat to bring the people of Denton to a show in their theater. Unfortunately, a man fell overboard and was drowned, which put a damper on the merriment; nevertheless, the show went on. The Two Johns eventually fell on evil days. Crossey died in a garret, according to the best Bohemian tradition, and his partner dropped out of sight...." (p. 236)The Choptank River Heritage website says that the house burned to the ground in 1947. All that is left in Caroline County today is the name of the short stretch of road leading from Maryland Rt. 16/Harmony Road towards the Choptank River. The Google maps coordinates are 38.820226, -75.857858.
Note also, by the way, that the Choptank and the town of Denton were important in the Underground Railroad and may well have been frequented by Harriet Tubman, who was born nearby.
I'll be putting up more bits about Maryland as time goes by, as I do love my adopted state.
Next post: Shoofly Pie: A Dane Amongst the Amish
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