On November 18, 1933, the Broadway musical Roberta opened on the stage of the New Amsterdam Theater and, despite mostly negative reviews, managed to run for 295 performances. The show’s longevity was due in no small part to the Kern/Harbach songs, of which “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” stood out among such other tunes as “I’ll Be Hard to Handle,” “Yesterdays,” and “Let’s Begin.”

Despite the popularity of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and the fact that it is the first song mentioned when speaking of Roberta, nearly twice as many jazz artists currently cover “Yesterdays.”

Roberta, based on Alice Duer Miller’s novel, Gowns by Roberta, told the story of a college football player who inherits a dress shop in Paris. The plot was panned as overly romantic and just plain ridiculous; however, the songs purportedly saved what was to be Jerome Kern’s last successful Broadway show. The Herald Tribune reported that there was a “sudden outburst of public whistling, humming, and crooning of its score.”

Another major strength of the original Broadway run was a stellar cast that included Fay Templeton, Lyda Roberti, Sydney Greenstreet, George Murphy, Bob Hope, and Fred MacMurray. Tamara was given the honor of performing the lovely “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

An instant hit with the public, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” made the pop charts four times in 1934:

• Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (Bob Lawrence, vocal, #1)
• Leo Reisman and His Orchestra Tamara, vocal, #3)
• Emil Coleman and His Riviera Orchestra (Jerry Cooper, vocal, #4)
• Ruth Etting(#15)

Later,

• Artie Shaw and the Gramercy Five (1941, #24)
• The Platters (1959, million-seller #1)
• Blue Haze (1973, #27)

The Platters’ best-selling version has been collected in The Platters Universal Masters Collection. This compilation contains a crisp version of The Platters’ number one hit. This doo-wop arrangement is probably the best known of all versions.

Hot on the heels of its Broadway success, Roberta found new life as a 1935 Hollywood musical. The film starred Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers and was again well-received on the strength of the Kern/Harbach score* as well as the Astaire/Rogers dance routines. The 1952 remake, Lovely to Look At, was not as well reviewed.

Described as “incomparable” and “immortal,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” was written by Kern as a tap dance number to be performed between scene changes during his Broadway hit Showboat. Originally up-tempo and based on a radio commercial, Kern turned it into a ballad at the request of the producer. Otto Harbach later claimed that he suggested the tempo adjustment, which reportedly irritated Kern. Regardless of who came up with the ballad idea, it was Harbach who added the lyrics based upon the Russian proverb, “When your heart’s on fire, smoke gets in your eyes,” The song was an instant hit.

*According to Clive Hirschhorn’s book Hollywood Musicals the film Roberta retained four of the show’s original numbers, “Let’s Begin,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “Yesterdays,” and “I’ll Be Hard to Handle,” the latter with new lyrics by Bernard Dougall. Three more were used as background music and two were commissioned from Kern and lyricist Dorothy Fields: “Lovely to Look At” and “I Won’t Dance” which was originally written by Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II for a London show called Three Sisters.