The Helen Morgan Page

… the George White’s Scandals of 1925 played its final Broadway performance at the Apollo Theatre.

Helen Morgan, who made her Broadway debut in this production, played all 169 performances. She also played the entirety of its 18-week post-Broadway tour.

White’s seventh annual extravaganza boasted costumes by Erté, but paled in comparison to the editions that preceded and followed it – especially musically.

George Gershwin left White after the 1924 production, and with it went standards like “Somebody Loves Me.” In turn, White hired Ray Henderson and Lew Brown to join forces with his remaining lyricist, Buddy DeSlyva. It took the new team of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson until 1926 to fully reach their stride with “The Black Bottom” and “The Birth of the Blues.”

That said, their 1925 score has its charms, especially the two numbers they handed to Helen Morgan.

Sadly, Helen never commercially recorded “What a World This Would Be” and “I Want a Lovable Baby.”

Luckily, others did. Here’s Arthur Hall having a go at “I Want a Lovable Baby” (with a quotation of “Fascinating Rhythm.”)

And here’s Paul Whiteman’s instrumental of both numbers.

Note how decidedly upbeat the two songs are. Here was Helen Morgan before she became a torch singer.

This site serves as a companion to Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld’s Last Star. Ask your local independent bookseller to stock it today!