The familiar William Powell is in almost every non-musical scene, as the famous flamboyant Broadway producer of musical extravaganzas, usually glorifying the American woman. Besides Ziegfeld, he is sometimes referred to as 'Flo'(too feminine sounding, to me), or as Ziggy. I don't know Ziggy's personality, but I suspect he was rather flamboyant. But, Powell plays his usual pompous self, for the most part, which irks some reviewers, including me. I suspect someone like Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, or Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. would have made a more appropriate Ziggy.........This Oscar-winning project was begun by Universal, but they soon realized that it was going to require deeper pockets than theirs, so sold it to MGM. In this transfer, several anticipated stars, including Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, and Billie Burk, were lost to the project. Nonetheless, they were impersonated in the film. Myrna Loy arrives rather late in the film to impersonate Billie: Ziggy's last wife. However, Myrna fails to try to imitate Billie's unique mannerisms. Billie, of course, played the good witch, in the subsequent "The Wizard of Oz". In contrast, A.A. Trimble does an excellent job of impersonating Will Rogers, while Buddy Doyle does his best to imitate a singing Eddie Cantor...........Ziggy was known to sleep with some of his show girls. But, thanks to Billie's insistence, this was not alluded to, except in the case of the charismatic, but, instable, Lillian Lorraine, played by Virginia Bruce. Lillian became his long-term mistress, until she left..........Of course, we see several productions, dominated by chlorines, either dancing or dressed up in period or outrageous costumes. After a while, I get weary of such productions. Perhaps, if some of the girls had been more scantily clad, as apparently was often the case in the originals, my attention might not have wavered!.........Finally, I got to see the most impressive number for me: the unique comical tap dancing of Ray Boger. Ray, of course, served as the scarecrow, in "The Wizard of Oz". I can't think of a more appropriate casting! We also get to experience some of the unique comical personality and singing of famous Fanny Brice. But, the Oscar committee decided the Oscar for best actress should go to the rather unknown Luise Rainer, who played the normally French-speaking real life first wife of Ziggy: Anna Held. While she was cute, dramatic, and sang a song or 2, I failed to see the merit in awarding her the Oscar. Incredibly, she won the same Oscar the very next year, for her part in "The Good Earth", with Paul Muni! Perhaps she was more disserving of that Oscar.........Nat Pendleton stands in for the historic muscleman : Sandow, who was relevant to Ziggy's start in showbusiness. He is often in the early part of the film..........I can't believe that Dennis Morgan's singing of the Gershwin's "A Pretty Girl is like a Melody" was dubbed by Alan Jones, who was an accomplished singer, but so was Dennis!...........Knockout blond Rosie Lawrence plays the singer Sally Manner, who was based on the famous torch singer Marilyn Miller. I was familiar with Rosie as the beautiful brunet, Mary, in the popular Laurel and Hardy film "Way Out West". Now, I find that she was a natural blond, and sometimes played the blond schoolteacher in the "Our Gang" series!..........The charismatic comedian and actor Frank Morgan pops up frequently, as Jack Billings: a competitor, confidant, and financier to Ziggy. Of course, Frank played 'The Wizard', as well as another role or 2, in "The Wizard of Oz". He's the 3rd member of this cast who had a prominent role in that film. ( the others being Billie Burk and Ray Bolger). .......Heck, I'd watch it again, if just to see Ray's incredible eccentric tapdancing.