Obsure. But we like 'em like that!

 Yes, there was a book by Edna Ferber (1941).

Yes, there was a movie...with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman (1945).

 But in 1959, there was also a musical,

with a book by Morton DaCosta, music by Harold Arlen

and Johnny Mercer on lyrics.

It starred Howard Keel and Carol Lawrence (above).

Edna had hit pay dirt with Show Boat

and was hoping that this musicalization would succeed as well.

Well...that didn't happen.

 Saratoga won a Tony for its Cecil Beaton costumes

(which came to over 200 in number!),

and was nominated for its very complicated set design... 

but only 80 performances for this baby.

 In a supporting role,

Carol Brice (above) who we'll hear sing 

"Gettin' A Man"

along with Carol L. (wearing Carolyn Leigh's pearls???),

below with Howard at the cast recording.

 Follow The Girls (1944) wasn't a flop at all...

it starred Jackie Gleason, Gertrude Niesen,

and in a supporting role, Danny Aiello,

and tho the plot was thin

(a strip tease dame becomes a star!

maybe it was the strip part...or the tease),

it lasted 888 performances.

Below, Gertrude getting ready to sling that bouquet:

"I Wanna Get Married"

(Thanks Getty Images!)

 Gertrude did Vaudeville,

Broadway (Take A Chance, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936,

Calling All Stars),

movies (Start Cheering, The Babe Ruth Story, etc.)

and radio shows (like Duffy's Tavern).

She was also the first lucky person to record
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" back in 1933.

 Ankles Aweigh

was a throwback to Vaudeville,

and seemed dated to 1950s audiences,

who were by then used to the new "modern" book musicals.

It starred Jane and Betty Kean,

real-life sisters playing sisters Wynne and Elsey.

Despite a few "wow" reviews (a la Walter Winchell),

it lost money and closed after 176 performances.  

We'll hear the sisters and company in

Eleven O'Clock Song/Finale.

Music Sammy Fain and Dan Shapiro.

(The posters/playbills seem the only extant pics of this show!)

 Just TRY and find a photo of Betty Bruce,

or Celeste Holm

from Up In Central Park, from 1945,

which was later made into a movie with Vincent Price!

Over 500 performances, but who's heard of it?

We'll hear Betty with "Currier and Ives",

sort of a "come up and see my etchings" number.

 From 1935, At Home Abroad,

a Howard Dietz/Arthur Schwartz with a stellar cast:

Bea Lillie (below), Eleanor Powell, Eddie Foy, Jr., 

Ethel Waters, and Vera Allen.

It was a revue with a scrawny plot:

a bored couple goes on a musical world tour,

which gave them all plenty of excuses for Japanese Geisha songs,

and Russian ballerina songs...and

 "Paree" with Beatrice.

A nice line from that song:

  "I want to kiss your right bank, kiss your left bank; 

kiss Montparnasse"

 with the emphasis on the last syllable!