Ziegfeld Follies of 1922 "It's Getting Dark on Old Broadway" Gray, Gilda performer Eaton, Mary performer Theatrical Performance 1922-06-05 New Amsterdam Theater A musical revue in two acts, 31 scenes. Produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. Book (sketches) by Ring Lardner, Ralph Spence. Music by Victor Herbert, Louis A. Hirsch, and Dave Stamper. Lyrics by Gene Buck. Staged by Ned Wayburn. Opened 5 June 1922 at the New Amsterdam Theatre and closed 23 June 1923 after 424 performances. 5o Ladies of the Ensemble. 15 members of English Pony Ballet. The sixteenth annual production of what Noble Sissle called "glorified minstrelsy with girls" presented Gilda Gray, dressed in a costume that turned black or white according to the lighting, singing "It's Getting Dark On Old Broadway" in which she laments how all the cabarets highlighted their "dancing coons" and "chocolate babies" who "shake and shimmie" while the "darktown entertainers" monopolize the stage. She advised anyone wanting to be the "latest rage" to don blackface. The chorus production number that incorporates some of the most racist material in any Wayburn/Ziegfeld show, featured an eccentric buck dance performed by Gilda Gray and an all-female chorus of sixteen C-dancers (5'2" to 5'6" in height). "Lace-Land: Weaving (My Dreams)" the penultimate number in the 1922 "Follies" ended with fifty female chorus members on the stage; an onstage processional that featured dancers in their appropriate dance specialties that included a D chorus called [ponies) whose specialties included precision soft-shoe; and a C chorus (called chickens) who had facility in acrobatics, ballet, tap, buck and soft-shoe dance. "Some American Buck Dancing" (Act II Scene 12) performed by Mary Eaton, and an eight female ensemble. Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Stratyner, Barbara: Ned Wayburn and the Dance Routine: From Vaudeville to the Ziegfeld Follies. Studies in Dance History, no. 13 (1996). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.1536