Imagine the cocktail party bragging rights you’d have if you had attended the first night of “Girl Crazy,” a new musical that opened in New York on today’s date in 1930. That show marked the Broadway debut of Ethel Merman, and co-stared Ginger Rogers.

But that’s just for starters…

“Why,” you could say, “in the pit orchestra that night was the Red Nichols ensemble, which included among its players Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, and Jack Teagarden—gentlemen who would all go on to become famous band leaders in their own right.”

“And,” you might continue, “Speaking of band leaders, for the opening night of ‘Girl Crazy,’ the show’s composer, George Gershwin himself, was there in the pit conducting that all-star ensemble.”

For his part, Gershwin recalled: “The theater was so warm that I must have lost three pounds perspiring. But the opening was so well received that FIVE pounds would not have been too much. With the exception of the some dead head friends of mine, especially the critics, I think the notices, especially of the music, were the best I have ever received.”

Gershwin was right: “Girl Crazy” included two songs that quickly became classics: “I Got Rhythm” and “Embraceable You.” The show ran for 272 performances—an impressive statistic in the first year of the Great Depression, and Hollywood produced not one but TWO cinematic versions of the show in 1932 and 1943.