Broadway Puzzler #50

Posted: 11/1/03 at 6:38pm

They competed with Ziegfeld.

Yours for a better Broadway!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/1/03 at 6:49pm

Sam Harris & George M Cohan ?

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 11/1/03 at 6:52pm

SONDHEIM FOLLIES!

[magruder]

Posted: 11/1/03 at 8:50pm

Earl Carroll and George White?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/2/03 at 10:05am

Kindly let us know the correct answer . Thanks

Updated On: 11/2/03 at 10:05 AM

[onceadancer2]

Posted: 11/2/03 at 11:46am

I don't think anyone really competed with Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld's shows, no matter how opulent, were always classy affairs, with the best that money could buy: talent, scenery, costumes, music, et al. There was an aura around Ziegfeld: the shows might not always be good, but the exquisite showmanship could never be questioned.

George White and Earl Carroll were not really rivals. Yes, they had their Vanities and Scandals, but these were dressed down and gaudy affairs that lacked taste. It was what my grandmother used to call "shund." The Schubert brothers might be considered to be in a league with Ziegfeld, but again, their taste and eye for detail could never really match Ziegfeld's.

Probably I would say that no one could rival Ziegfeld. He was in a class all by himself. Love him or hate him, the man typified and personified an era that is long gone. And no one could measure up!!!

Miriam

Updated On: 11/2/03 at 11:46 AM

Posted: 11/2/03 at 12:49pm

Granted, Miriam, competing with Ziefeld must have been next to impossible. Still, it's my understanding that there were several others who produced reveues in their own right. There were perhaps not as lavish, nor did they have the caliber of stars according to what I've read, nor did they span the decades to the extent of the Ziegfeld name. These gentlemen gave it a strong go, though.

Earl Carroll and his VANITIES, approximately 1923 thru 1940
George White and his SCANDALS, approximately 1919 thru 1940
Irving Berlin and his MUSIC BOX REVUES, approximately 1921 thru 1925
John Murray Anderson and his GRENWICH VILLAGE FOLLIES, approximately 1919 thru 1928

There were many more revues during the years just preceeding WWI with the majority of them ending years before WWII. Revues continue thru today (SUGAR BABIES, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN, SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE, PUTTING IT TOGETHER, to name a few). One might make an argrument that AVENUE Q is a contemporary equivalent of the musical revue (No boobs, please, we're politically correct!)

Ziegfeld, by the way, had his name associated with revues from his first in 1907 through 1957...50 years of glorifying the American girl.

Yours for diversity on Broadway!

[onceadancer2]

Posted: 11/2/03 at 1:32pm

The Greenwich Village Follies were small intimate revues, very much like the Music Box Revues, so they could not be compared to Ziegfeld's revues in any way.

Miriam

Posted: 11/2/03 at 2:39pm

Thank you Miriam. Terrific to learn that.

Perhaps the puzzler should have avoided the word "compete." I wanted to elicit the names of those who also produced revues, good or bad, over a number of seasons.

Thanks again for you first-hand observations. Always great to hear them.

Broadway Bulldog.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 11/2/03 at 3:00pm

granted, the only way i know him is from the FUNNY LADY movie, but what about Billy Rose? didn't he produce spectacles to rival Zeigfeld? wasn't JUMBO his?

Posted: 11/2/03 at 4:13pm

Rose was indeed a producer. He did not regularly produce revues which was the focus of this puzzler. Yes he did produce JUMBO, a book show loose enough to allow interpolation of circus acts.

Cheers, Bulldog.