THE SCANDALS WALK

Today’s guest-post is the second contribution by showbiz historian Roger Kimmel Smith of The Syncopated Times who previously wrote for us about the Paul Whiteman Orchestra’s “Whispering.”

One hundred years ago today … At the Globe Theatre at West 46th Street and Broadway (now the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre), the George White's Scandals of 1920 revue staged its 134th and final performance. The 1920 Scandals was the first of five annual editions of the show to feature a musical score composed by George Gershwin.

Program cover courtesy Worthpoint.com.

In 1919, the year Florenz Ziegfeld produced what many people considered his best-ever Follies, the former Ziegfeld dancer George White introduced his own competing Broadway revue. The inaugural Scandals was scored by Richard Whiting, who had written the extremely popular World War I ballad "Till We Meet Again," which you can hear here.

For the second annual production, White hired the Brooklyn-born newcomer Gershwin, just 21 years old when the 1920 Scandals opened at the Globe on June 7. He had previously composed one full theatrical score, for the moderately successful La La Lucille (1919). He was better known as a pianist, who had accompanied numerous vocalists around New York and recorded piano rolls for the Standard and Aeolian companies.

Charles Dillingham’s Globe Theatre, 1920. Photo by American Studio, N.Y.C. Library of Congress. — Charles Dillingham’s Globe Theatre, 1920. Photo by American Studio, N.Y.C. *Library of Congress.*

Gershwin was paid $50 a week for the chore of providing a score. This fee supplemented the salary he drew as a staff composer for T.B. Harms & Company. Earlier in 1920, Al Jolson had turned Gershwin's "Swanee" into the country's most popular song—the biggest hit tune either Gershwin or Jolson would ever have.

[Editor’s note: See our May 8 post about “Swanee.”]

Ann Pennington, the diminutive dancer with the dimpled knees, received top billing among the cast.

1920 publicity photo of Pennington courtesy Worthpoint.com, which credits “New York City theatre photographers White Studios” and describes the photo: “A fun and spirited jazz age portrait that showcases a gorgeous and alluring Ann Pennington as a … — 1920 publicity photo of Pennington courtesy *Worthpoint.com*, which credits “New York City theatre photographers White Studios” and describes the photo: “A fun and spirited jazz age portrait that showcases a gorgeous and alluring Ann Pennington as a life size mechanical doll for George White's Scandals of 1920. . . . Known by many nicknames over the course of her illustrious career, she is perhaps best remembered as "the girl with the dimpled knees" which are on display in this delightful theatre portrait.”

In the 1926 edition of the Scandals, Pennington would introduce the wildly popular "Black Bottom" dance on Broadway.

Songs included in the 1920 production, with serviceable lyrics by Arthur Jackson, included the "Scandal Walk," a danceable number with a memorable chromatic riff reminiscent of Irving Berlin's "Syncopated Walk" from a few years earlier; the ballads "On My Mind the Whole Night Long" and "My Lady"; a piece of topical interest for the post-war audience, "Everybody Swat the Profiteer"; and the comic tune "Tum On and Tiss Me," to be lisped by a character impersonating a toddler. Probably the show's most successful number was a piece of pseudo-chinoiserie—fashionable at the time yet grating in retrospect—called "Idle Dreams," in which Pennington danced the part of a stone idol come to life in the reverie of a "China boy." Gershwin made piano rolls of three of these selections during the show's run.

Listen to Gershwin’s piano roll recording of “Scandal Walk,” on Youtube via Nonesuch Records:

The production earned moderately positive notices, with some reviewers describing the music as a bright spot, though none praised its songwriter by name. The most significant thing about the 1920 Scandals is that it served as an apprenticeship for Gershwin. His five years working for White provided him a thorough professional grounding as a theatrical composer, churning out melodies to fit a variety show's diverse needs and moods: here an operetta waltz, there a juvenile novelty, a few incidental bars in one spot, a swanky showcase in another.

It was the major production number of the 1922 Scandals that brought about the most memorable hit song of Gershwin's tenure with White: "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise," with lyrics by Ira Gershwin (still working under the pseudonym Arthur Francis) and B.G. "Buddy" DeSylva. Vincente Minnelli's staging of this song in the 1951 Hollywood masterpiece An American in Paris, with that illuminated staircase, offers a nostalgic notion of what Broadway revue values could have looked like in the era of the Scandals.

WRITTEN BY ROGER KIMMEL SMITH, October 2, 2020

ROGER KIMMEL SMITH IS A FREELANCE WORDSMITH BASED IN ITHACA, NEW YORK. HE RECENTLY PUBLISHED THE ESSAY “1920: THE YEAR BROADWAY LEARNED TO SYNCOPATE” IN THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER THE SYNCOPATED TIMES. HE HOSTS A WEEKLY PROGRAM ON MUSIC AND POPULAR CULTURE OF THE 1920S AND 1930S, "CRAZY WORDS, CRAZY TUNE," ON WRFI COMMUNITY RADIO (FRIDAYS NOON TO 2PM EASTERN TIME, WWW.WRFI.ORG). WEBSITE: WWW.SMITHMEAWORD.COM.