by Cole Porter
* John Ray Hubbell (1879–1954) was a songwriter; Edward Eugene Buck (1885–1957) was a lyricist and sheet-music illustrator.
† See the Manchester Guardian, 7 October 1931, 5: ‘ “Fifty Million Frenchmen,” the revue which is now running at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, will be taken off by the producers, the Daniel Mayer Company, at the end of this week. The original production cost is said to have been £10,000, and the weekly running expenses £1,250. It was felt that the revue had not met with a sufficient share of success . . . The decision to end “Fifty Million Frenchmen” marks one of the most expensive theatrical failures of recent years.’
* Nymph Errant.
* Claire Luce (1903–89), who took the role of Mimi in Gay Divorce.
† Albert Sirmay (Szirmai, 1880–1967) was a composer and music editor. The Hungarian Sirmay emigrated to the United States in 1923. Music director for Chappell Music, he edited the works of Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and George Gershwin, in addition to Porter. Throughout Porter’s career, he played a crucial role in arranging the composer’s works for publication and offering the composer advice. In 1965 he discovered 100 unpublished Porter songs at Porter’s Waldorf suite. See New York Times, 5 May 1965, 1 and 52.
‡ Irving Berlin (1888–1989) was the pre-eminent American songwriter and lyricist for most of the twentieth century.
* ‘The Physician’.
† Nymph Errant was first performed on 6 October 1933.
‡ Gay Divorce did not open in London until 2 November 1933, when it played for 180 performances at the Palace Theatre. The Times for 3 November 1933, 12, reported that: ‘The piece itself is an odd entertainment. It sets a collusive divorce to music, the tuneful music of Mr. Cole Porter, giving us a heroine who contrives to arrive at her inevitable misunderstanding with the hero by mistaking him for the professional co-respondent she has engaged. Odd this romance may be, but from it spring several taking songs, notably one called “Night and Day,” much pleasant scenery, and a ravishing display of frocks.’
* Russel Crouse (1893–1966) was a playwright and librettist; Howard Lindsay (1889–1968) was a theatrical producer, director and playwright. Crouse and Lindsay later worked with Porter on Red, Hot and Blue! (1936).
‡ See New York Times, 12 September 1934, 26: ‘Ship Fire Prompts Play Change. In order to permit the rewriting of certain scenes which treat in a farcical manner of a shipboard disaster in midocean, Vinton Freedly announced yesterday that he had postponed the scheduled presentation of a new musical play by Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse and Cole Porter from November until December. In view of the Morro Castle disaster the producer considered such material would be in bad taste.’ Porter later told Richard Hubler (possibly apocryphally) that, however indirectly, the Morro Castle disaster gave rise to the show’s name. While the script was being rewritten, ‘[William] Gaxton, coming to the theatre for rehearsal a week before the show opened, plaintively demanded of the stage-doorman: “What are we going to call this musical hash, anyway?” The doorman shrugged, grinned, and said: “Well, you know, Mr. Gaxton, anything goes.”’ See ‘How to Beget a Musical Comedy by Cole Porter as told to Richard G. Hubler’, Stanford University, Cole Porter Collection, shelfmark FE209, 2–9, Manuscripts, 3.
* The actress and singer Ethel Merman (Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, 1908–84) took the role of Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. In 1936, Merman played Nails O’Reilly Duquesne in Porter’s Red, Hot and Blue! and together with Bob Hope premiered ‘It’s De-Lovely’. She later appeared in Du Barry Was a Lady (1939) and Panama Hattie (1940).
† William Gaxton (1893–1963), actor and singer. Gaxton took the lead role, Billy Crocker, in Anything Goes.
‡ Not in Kimball, The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter. Cochran sent the lyrics to Porter on 3 July, as well as a report on the show’s takings: ‘Business is much better than anything in Town, but not entirely satisfactory. We are nearly, but not quite, selling out every night at full price. We sell out the back seats at cheaper prices and our gallery is not nearly full . . . People tell me it is because the weather is hot, but I never allow alibis. I prefer to think that it is because Reno is not perfect, and that if I can get her played perfectly we shall sell out for a year.’ CPT, Correspondence 1935.
* This line by Porter replaces ‘I’m just in the way, as the French would say “de trop”’ which in the London version was moved to Refrain 3. In the original, it occurs in Refrain 5.
* Crossed out by Porter and replaced with ‘gents’.
* Moss Hart (1904–61) was a playwright and theatre director. Hart had earlier collaborated with Irving Berlin on Face The Music (1932) and As Thousands Cheer (1933).
* Dwight Deere Wiman (1895–1951) was an actor, playwright, director and Broadway producer. Tom Weatherly (1899–1982), producer and publicity agent. Weatherly had co-produced Porter’s 1932 show Gay Divorce. Edward Hope (1896–1958), writer. Hope’s 1933 novel She Loves Me Not was the basis for the 1934 Paramount film, starring Bing Crosby, of the same name.
† Clifton Webb had appeared in The Heart of a Siren (Associated Pictures Productions, 1925) and the short The Still Alarm (Vitaphone Corporation, 1930), but did not appear in another picture until Laura (Twentieth Century Fox, 1944).
‡ See below, p. 106.
§ Possibly the singer and actor Frances Langford (1913–2005). Concerning her role in Born to Dance, see below, pp. 123–5, 128.
* The party Elsa Maxwell gave in Porter’s honour was on 9 December; see New York Times, 9 December 1934, 91: ‘Miss Elsa Maxwell will give a supper dance this evening in the starlight roof garden of the Waldorf-Astoria to celebrate the birthday of Cole Porter, the composer. The affair will be called the Turkish ball and guests have been requested to come in costume.’
† Laura Mae Corrigan (1879–1948) was a socialite; see Siân Evans, Queen Bees: Six Brilliant and Extraordinary Society Hostesses between the Wars (London, 2016).
‡ Barbara Hutton (1912–79) was a socialite and heiress to the Woolworth fortune. She had married Alexis Mdivani (1905–35), a self-styled Georgian prince, in 1933; they divorced in 1935. She subsequently married six times between 1935 and 1966.
§ Probably Neysa McMein (1889–1949), an artist best known for her magazine covers including McCall’s, National Geographic, Woman’s Home Companion, Collier’s and Photoplay; she also created the official portrait of fictional homemaker Betty Crocker for General Mills. See Brian Gallagher, Anything Goes: The Jazz Age Adventures of Neysa McMein and Her Extravagant Circle of Friends (New York, 1987).
¶ George S. Kaufman (1889–1961) was a playwright, theatre director and drama critic. Together with Leueen MacGrath and Abe Burrows, he wrote the book for Porter’s Silk Stockings (1955).
** Walter Wanger (1894–1968) was a film producer. Wanger earlier contracted Porter to compose two songs for the 1929 film The Battle of Paris (Paramount Pictures), ‘Here Comes the Bandwagon’ and ‘They All Fall in Love’.
†† Gloria Swanson (1899–1983) was an actress. Porter’s comment is possibly made in jest, a reference to Swanson’s six short-lived marriages: among them, she was married to the actor Wallace Beery from 1916 to 1918; to Herbert K. Somborn, president of the Equity Pictures Corporation, from 1919 to 1925; and to Henri, Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudraye, a French aristocrat, from 1925 to 1930.
* Sarah Scott (1866–1962) was active at several clubs in Worcester, including the Worcester Women’s Club and the Hall Club. She wrote a profile of Porter that was published in the April 1931 issue of the Worcester Academy Bulletin, 45–7.
† William Powell (1892–1984) was an actor. Powell appeared in more than ninety films and is best known for his appearance in the ‘Thin Man’ series (The Thin Man, 1934; After the Thin Man, 1936; Another Thin Man, 1939; Shadow of the Thin Man, 1941; The Thin Man Goes Home, 1944; and Song of the Thin Man, 1947).
* Possibly the singer Mabel Mercer (1900–84), who was a frequent performer at Chez Bricktop in the 1920s and might have become a
cquainted with Porter there.
* Monty Woolley.
† Jubilee, which opened at the Imperial Theatre, New York, on 12 October 1935.
‡ Sheikh Sir Khalifa II bin Harub Al-Said, Khalifa bin Harub, Sultan of Zanzibar, 1911–60.
* Anything Goes had opened at the Palace Theatre, London, on 14 June 1935.
† For Born to Dance.
‡ Harvey Cole replied on 5 July 1935: ‘I will be glad to invest the surplus funds, although I hardly know what to put it into. The return on Government securities is practically nothing and I think they are likely to decline in value. Nearly everything else is more or less speculative. If you know of anything you would like to have I will be glad to arrange for it. With reference to the annuity, I think it would be just as well to let the man in New York arrange for it, as I am not much of an expert along this line. I am delighted to know that “Anything Goes” is still going so well.’ Yale University, Gilmore Library, Cole Porter Collection MSS 82, Box 49, folder 299.
* Sam Katz (1892–1969) was a producer.
† Jack McGowan (1894–1977) was a writer. In addition to Born to Dance, his credits include Girl Crazy (RKO, 1932), Broadway Melody of 1936 (MGM, 1935), Broadway Melody of 1938 (MGM, 1937), Babes in Arms (MGM, 1939), Broadway Melody of 1940 (MGM, 1940) and Lady Be Good (MGM, 1941). Sidney Silvers (1901–76) was an actor and writer. He appeared in several Broadway shows in the late 1920s and made his film debut in The Show of Shows (The Vitaphone Corporation, now Warner Bros., 1929); Silvers both contributed to the script of Born to Dance and played the role of ‘Gunny’ Saks.
* John Barrymore (1882–1942) was an actor, the actress Elaine Barrie (1915–2003) was his fourth wife. The ‘recent escapade’ of Barrymore and Barrie was their affair, which led to Barrymore’s divorce from Dolores Costello. A lengthy account of the divorce proceedings was published in the New York Times for 10 October 1935: ‘WIFE DIVORCES JOHN BARRYMORE. Former Dolores Costello, Charging Desertion, Gets Children and $163,000 in Securities.’ Also see Elaine Barrie’s obituary in the New York Times for 4 March 2003: ‘. . . As a Hunter College student of 19, she wrote an adoring letter to Barrymore, then 53 and hospitalized in Manhattan. He phoned her, they had a pleasant talk and he invited her to visit him. There was a most meaningful kiss in his hospital room. They almost immediately became known to the public by the Shakespearean names they had bestowed on each other, Ariel and Caliban, from “The Tempest.” There was a mysterious voyage on Barrymore’s yacht, a cross-country chase (with her pursuing him), an elopement and tender reconciliations after spectacular quarrels.
† Clark Gable (1901–60) had acted with Barrymore in Night Flight (MGM, 1933); Jean Harlow (1911–37) had acted with Gable in Red Dust (MGM, 1932) and with John Barrymore in Dinner at Eight (MGM, 1933).
‡ Erich S. Hatch (1901–73) was a writer. His novel 1101 Park Avenue (New York, 1935) was the basis for the film My Man Godfrey (Universal Pictures, 1936). The Broadway producer Alex A. Aarons (1890–1943) was from 1927 co-owner, with Vinton Freedley, of the Alvin Theatre (now The Neil Simon Theatre). In Hollywood he was a production assistant for Broadway Melody of 1936 (MGM, 1935). Merrill Pye (1891–1963) was art director at MGM from the mid-1920s and the first resident designer of musicals, beginning with Broadway Melody of 1929. See Michael L. Stephens, Art Directors in Cinema: A Worldwide Biographical Dictionary (London, 2008), 251.
* A 1932 Paramount anthology film based on the narrative conceit of a wealthy businessman who leaves his money to eight strangers.
† Once in a Lifetime, a 1932 Universal Pictures film in which three vaudeville performers, whose acts have been cancelled due to the success of The Jazz Singer, head to Hollywood to break into the film business. Boy Meets Girl, a 1935 Broadway comedy by Sam and Bella Spewack (later the book writers for Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate), was the basis in 1938 for a Warner Bros. film of the same name, starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien.
* Jack Cummings (1900–89) was a film producer and director; he was married to Betty Kern, daughter of Jerome Kern. Cummings later produced the film version of Kiss Me, Kate; see below, p. 454.
† Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957), one of the twentieth century’s pre-eminent film producers, co-founder with Marcus Loew of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1924.
* As Thousands Cheer, revue, book by Moss Hart, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Premiered at the Music Box Theatre, New York, on 30 September 1933, the show ran for 400 performances until 8 September 1934.
† Phil Baker (1896–1963) was a comedian. Baker and Sid Silvers were a vaudeville act from about 1919 to 1928, after which Baker pursued a solo career.
‡ This is not much different from the plot device for As Thousands Cheer, sketches loosely based on then-current news items and the affairs of the rich and famous. It was not adopted for what eventually became Born to Dance.
* Broadway Melody of 1938 (MGM, 1937), with music and lyrics by Nacio Herb Brown (1896–1964) and Arthur Freed (1894–1973). Brown, who mostly wrote individual songs (often uncredited) for films during the 1930s, is best remembered for ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, which was featured in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (MGM, 1929); Freed had written the lyrics, and Brown the music, for Broadway Melody of 1936 (MGM, 1935).
* Musical comedy, book by Jack McGowan, lyrics by Ted Koehler, and music by Ray Henderson. Say When had a short run of seventy-six performances at the Imperial Theatre, New York, from 8 November 1934 to 12 January 1935.
† The plot of Say When revolves around two vaudevillians who fall in love with two girls from Long Island high society; see Brooks Atkinson’s review in the New York Times, 9 November 1934, 24.
* Eleanor Powell (1912–82) was a dancer and actor. Well known for her solo tap-dance numbers, Powell, who took the role of Nora Paige in Born to Dance, also appeared in Porter’s musical films Rosalie (MGM, 1937) and Broadway Melody of 1940 (MGM, 1940).
† ‘George Gard Buddy’ DeSylva (1895–1950) was a songwriter, film producer and, together with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs, founder of Capitol Records. DeSylva was involved in the production of at least twenty Broadway shows between 1919 and 1932, including George Gershwin’s La La Lucille (1919) and George White’s Scandals (1922–6). His credits as a film producer included the early Shirley Temple films The Little Colonel and The Littlest Rebel (both Fox, 1935) and Captain January and Poor Little Rich Girl (both Fox, 1936).
‡ Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 (Winter Garden Theatre, New York, 30 January–9 May and 14 September–19 December 1936), with music by Vernon Duke and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
* Laura Hope Crews (1879–1942) and Mary Boland (1882–1965) were stage and, later, film actresses.
* Max Gordon (1892–1978) was a theatre and later film producer. His early theatrical successes included the original stage version of The Jazz Singer (Fulton Theatre and Cort Theatre, New York, 14 September 1925), The Band Wagon (New Amsterdam Theatre, 6 March 1931), and Jerome Kern’s Roberta (New Amsterdam Theatre, 18 November 1933). Gordon is mentioned in Porter’s song, ‘Anything Goes’: ‘When Rockefeller still can hoard en- / Ough money to let Max Gordon / Produce his shows, / Anything goes.’
† The dancer and actor Buddy Ebsen (1908–2003) had appeared with Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1936 (MGM, 1935); in Born to Dance he took the role of ‘Mush’ Tracy. The actor Allan Jones (1907–92), who appeared in the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera (MGM, 1935) and Show Boat (Universal, 1936), did not, finally, appear in Born to Dance; see below.
‡ In the film as it was released there are neither Japanese nor Arab acrobat spies.
* Follow the Fleet (RKO, 1936), in which a sailor (Fred Astaire) attempts to rekindle a romance with the woman he loves (Ginger Rogers) while on liberty in San Francisco.
† ‘Rolling Home’.
* Astaire’s next film turned out to be the George and Ira Gershwin Shall We Dance (Paramount, 1937). At this time, March 1936, Astaire’s two 1936 RKO films, Follow the Fleet and Swing Time, had eithe
r already been released (Follow the Fleet on 20 February) or were already in production (Swing Time was released on 12 October).
† ‘It’s De-Lovely’ was not used in Born to Dance but appeared in Red, Hot and Blue! (1936). ‘Which I had just finished’ suggests that ‘It’s De-Lovely’ was composed – or that Porter at the time gave the impression it was composed – about March 1936, which contradicts two other accounts he gave of the song’s origin, or at least the origin of its title. See pp. 238–9 for alternative explanations of its genesis.
‡ The part of Ted Barker, intended for Allan Jones, was taken by James Stewart (1908–97). The actress Una Merkel (1903–86) played the role of Jenny Saks, and the part intended for the actress and singer Judy Garland (1922–69), ‘Peppy’ Turner, was given to Frances Langford. The role of the ‘jilted society girl’, Lucy James, intended for Langford, was taken by the actress Virginia Bruce (1910–82).
* John Zanft (1883–1960) was a veteran of World War I who was given the honorary title Major for arranging troop entertainments during World War II. Zanft later wrote a theatrical column under the name ‘John Zan’ and was vice-president of the Fox Theatre Corporation.
† What eventually was Waikiki Wedding (Paramount, 1937). By this time, Crosby’s last film of 1936, Pennies from Heaven (Major Pictures Corp.), would already have been in production.
‡ Prior to 1930, changes in California’s tax structure addressed inequalities in tax rates, rather than state revenue; these were changed during the Depression to make up for shortfalls in revenue; see https://www.boe.ca.gov/info/pub216/revenue_crisis.html (accessed 19 April 2018).
* ‘Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye’ was not finally used in Born to Dance. Porter considered it for the stage show Red, Hot and Blue! and it was included in the Boston tryout (October 1936), but then dropped from the production as too sombre for an opening number; see Kimball, The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, 202.
† Robert Wildhack (1881–1940) was an actor. He started in vaudeville delivering monologues and appeared as ‘The Snorer’ in Broadway Melody of 1936 (MGM, 1935).
