Producers Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley approached the Gershwins to create a showcase for the talents of English music hall star Jack Buchanan, and linked them with Fields and Ryskind, whose book required the actor to appear in dual roles, lower-class German thug Golo Schmidt and upper-crust British nobleman Michael Bramleigh.

Rather than proceed to Broadway, the creative team added characters and expanded the role of police commissioner Bauer, played by radio's "Baron Munchausen", Jack Pearl.

In addition to Givot and Pearl, the cast included Josephine Huston as Bauer's daughter Ilse and musical-comedy star Lyda Roberti (her speciality was a "polyglot of Polish, German, and near-Hungarian")[2] as Gita Gobel.

According to Ben Brantley, "By the time it hit Broadway it was a desperately stitched patchwork that ran for 33 performances before exiting into oblivion.

[5] Elektra Records released a studio cast album featuring John Cullum and William Katt in 1993.

In retaliation, Golo Schmidt opens Club 21, a speakeasy where patrons can imbibe such forbidden drinks as cream soda and ginger ale.

Golo decides to disrupt a birthday celebration for Bauer, but while en route to the party he is struck by a car and knocked unconscious.