The Whirl of New York’s Diversity/Inclusiveness
New York Times, 3 July 1921, 6.2. Newspapers.com.
One hundred years ago today ... The Whirl of New York was playing at the Winter Garden Theater, then as now at 50th Street and Broadway.
Note: We last mentioned the Winter Garden as the site of an April 9, 1921 fire that revealed some offhand racism by the NYC media.
The Whirl of New York featured a chorus of singer/dancers in Salvation Army uniforms, as its female protagonist was meant to be a Salvation Army member.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, 31 July 1921, p. 55. Chronicling America.
The play featured the hit song “I Know that I’m in Love.”
Detail from cover for sheet music for “I Know that I’m in Love,” lyrics by Sydney D. Mitchell, music by Lew Pollack and Alfred Goodman. New York: Jerome Remnick and Co., 1921. Getty Images.
On this day in 1921, choreographer Allan K. Parker gave an interview in which he touted the musical’s diversity and ethnic authenticity. He explained that it ncluded “many nationalities”:
In our Chinatown scene, for instance, we have a number of real Chinese children from Chinatown. Yet they, too, are native New Yorkers and were born in the city. Each of these children speaks not only Chinese but English as well
The presence of such cast members was part of the play’s representing “the real swirl and whirl of New York… if we do nothing else-and I know we do much-in ‘The Whirl of New York’ we give an excellent "impressionistic [sic] picture of the great metropolis. (“Moods and Tides of City Represented in ‘Whirl of New York.’ ” New-York Tribune, 10 July, 1921, IV. 3.)
The Whirl of New York was based on an 1897 musical, The Belle of New York. It played for 124 performances at the Winter Garden.
– Jonathan Goldman, July 9, 1921
TAGS: theater, Broadway, musical, race, diversity, ethnicity, Asian American