Alan Hewitt and Ethel Merman Photo

From: Photo Flash: Celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Opening of Irving Berlin's CALL ME MADAM on Broadway

Americans were listening to 'Goodnight, Irene' and Bing and Gary Crosby's interpretation of a 1914 song by Irving Berlin, 'Play a Simple Melody.' And Berlin's new musical, Call Me Madam, was opening at New York's Imperial Theater with an advance of over one million dollars, by far the largest in Broadway history.