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Berlin’s first two Broadway shows reflected his belief in musical comedy as a show of shows that could include a wide variety of styles while serving as a comic mirror of theater and the city that nourished it. Created under the auspices of producer Charles Dillingham, Watch Your Step (1914) and Stop! Look! Listen! (1915) amounted to boisterous, star-studded variety show with a “plot, if any” by the librettist Harry B. Smith. Dillingham’s approach, dubbed here legitimate vaudeville, offered vaudeville stars the prospect of long musical-comedy runs to compensate for a lower weekly paycheck. Audiences flocked to witness an unprecedented gathering of star talent. Critics and audiences alike heard in Berlin’s score the rhythmic vitality and linguistic freshness they associated with ragtime. Several hit songs came from the shows, including “Simple Melody,” “I Love a Piano,” and “The Girl on the Magazine.”

All through this period, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were hard at work on the Dillingham show, She's My Baby, which had begun rehearsals November 7th and had tryouts of a week each in Washington, Baltimore, and Newark. As well as Bea Lillie, the producer had lined up the debonair Clifton Webb, who'd made a mark as far back as 1916 in Cole Porter's Broadway bow, See America First, then graduated to featured roles in As You Were with Irene Bordoni and Sunny with Marilyn Miller. More recently he had won plaudits as an adagio dancer partnering Mary Hay at the Palace and at Giro's nightclub. The ingenue and juvenile were Irene Dunne and smiling, red-haired Jack Whiting, the poor man's Fred Astaire. To their dismay, Rodgers and Hart discovered that Charles Dillingham had lost interest in the show.

This chapter discusses Ziegfeld’s ongoing betrayal of Held and his waning interest in her career as his Follies gain momentum. It provides a detailed look at the content of the 1909, 1910, and 1911 Follies and introduces Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, and Bert Williams. Ziegfeld is open to employing entertainers of all races and creeds (Brice and Eddie Cantor are Jewish, Williams is black). The narrative returns to the ongoing saga of the Lorraine-Held-Ziegfeld triangle, and the chapter concludes with Held leaving for Paris after discovering that Lorraine is living in the same hotel, just one floor above her and Ziegfeld. Held’s exit ends her union with Ziegfeld. Professionally, he moves away from European-inspired musicals and into productions that are uniquely American in format and content—namely, Over the River, a show he coproduces with Charles Dillingham that utilizes strictly American styles of music and dance.

When Lorenz Hart got back to New York, the Broadway picture didn't look so rosy; everyone was suffering from falling ticket sales and tight budgets. Even the hit Cole Porter show The New Yorkers (book by Herbert Fields), was struggling. Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg both tried operettas. Lew Fields came back as producer of The Vanderbilt Revue, which opened at the theatre of that name on November 5th. In spite of the presence of Peggy-Ann's husky-voiced Lulu McConnell, the critics disapproved, and it lasted only thirteen performances. A by-product of this failure was Lew Fields's decision to retire — one more theatrical giant removed from the scene. Next it was Florenz Ziegfeld's turn. Charles Dillingham was already finished. In December, Arthur Hammerstein was bankrupt.

The success of Dearest Enemy in 1925 prompted interest from producers. For the first time Rodgers and Hart found themselves having to collaborate with the money men. This chapter considers the role of the producer in Broadway musical theater of the time, discussing the influence of Charles Dillingham and Florenz Ziegfeld in creating vehicles for star performers. Rodgers and Hart would later work with both these producers, but first they continued their partnership with Lew Fields. In producing their promising show The Girl Friend, written by his son Herbert Fields, Lew would take a prominent role in steering its development. Although it spawned song hits in “Blue Room” and “The Girl Friend,” and although it sustained a decent run of over 300 performances showcasing popular vaudeville stars Sam White and Eva Puck, The Girl Friend had been harshly edited by Fields, and in transfer to London it was completely rewritten.