On this day in 1911, The Ziegfeld Follies opened at the rooftop Jardin de Paris on 44th and Broadway (where The Gap is now.) Irving Berlin provided the score and headliners included Fanny Brice, Bert Williams, The Dolly Sisters, Leon Errol and arguably the great of all Ziegfeld Girls, Lillian Lorraine.

The show introduced (or rather imported from San Francisco) a new dance craze, “The Texas Tommy.”

Born on this day in 1933 conductor Claudio Abbado.