The Greenwich Village Follies

Launched by John Murray Anderson,[1] and opening on July 15, 1919, at the newly constructed Greenwich Village Theatre near Christopher Street, the show's success has been credited in part to its timing: as a non-union production, it was unaffected by the then-current actors' strike.

[4] Like Ziegfeld's famous Follies, Anderson's revue boasted of lavish curtains,[5] original scores, comedy sketches, and, of course, a bevy of beautiful girls.

[7] Specialty acts included circus veterans, such as the wire-walking Bird Millman;[8] female impersonators, such as Bert Savoy;[9] and even blackface comics, such as Al Herman[10] and comedy team of Moran and Mack.

[14] For nearly a decade, popular composers of the day, including Irving Berlin,[1] Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers,[15] contributed tunes; but to the perpetual disappointment of the backers, the revue never seemed to produce any notable hits.

Popular stories, such as Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose”[18] and Edgar Allan Poe's “The Raven,” provided inspiration for these wordless interludes.

Like its predecessor, this production paid homage to members of the cultural avant-garde, such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and Jackson Pollock; it also tackled gritty subjects, such as the Stonewall Uprising of 1969.