Ruth Etting and Harold Arlen (circa 1933)

Harold Arlen and Ruth Etting
In 1930, Ruth Etting starred in Ruth Selwyn's unsuccessful musical Nine-Fifteen Revue which closed in New York in less than a week; however, she did introduce Ted Koehler's and Harold Arlen's great song Get Happy which became one of her most famous hit records. George Gershwin called her handling of the song "the most exciting finale he had ever heard in a theatre." The song was Harold Arlen's first hit.

Harold Arlen went on to write over 400 popular songs including It's Only A Paper Moon, Stormy Weather, I've Got the World on A String, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which was recently named the Number One Song of the Century.