A Look Back
By Fred Miller
The 69th annual Night in Venice boat parade will be held on Saturday, July 20, 2024 starting near the Ocean City-Longport bridge at 6:30 p.m.
The first Night in Venice was held Aug. 12, 1907. The next day, the Ocean City Daily Ledger reported the successful event under the headline, “A Night in Venice attracts thousands.” The boat parade was held every summer until 1914.
Early in the summer of 1923 a group of public spirited citizens led by Jack G. Jernee, captain of the Ocean City Beach Patrol, decided to revive the bay boat parade. It was held on Sept. 8, 1923. The Ocean City Sentinel covered the parade in the Sept. 13, 1923 newspaper with the headline, “Entire bay front gaily decorated and a blaze of illumination.” The boat parade was held every summer until 1927.
As the summer of 1954 began, people were looking for ways to celebrate Ocean City’s 75th anniversary. Captain Jernee again revived Night in Venice. It was held on Aug. 14, 1954. Three days later the Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger reported, “What was believed to be have been the largest crowd ever assembled along the Ocean City bayfront clogged the area Saturday night to witness a colorful and entertaining pageant by 115 craft of the resort’s pleasure boating fleet.”
The article went on to say, “The pageant of boats, arranged by a committee of Yacht Club members in cooperation with Captain Jack G. Jernee, of the Jubilee Committee, was the largest event of its kind ever staged on the local bay, which was the scene of many a boating festival years ago.”
