the country, sitting with elderly comics and taking down their routines. He amassed a collection of some 5,000 comedy sketches. He considered writing a book, but Dr. Allen realized it would be much more fun to put on a show. He wrote a revue, based on the sketches, which was performed at the University of Tennessee. Some time later, Dr. Allen gave a talk in New York at a conference on early-20th-century popular entertainment. As part of his lecture, he read the script of his revue. Afterward, he was approached by a member of the audience, Mr. Rigby, a producer. In 1977, at a "scholarly four‐day conference to study the History of American Popular Entertainment" at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Ralph G. Allen, a theater professor and historian fascinated with burlesque, presented a lecture, from a prior College of Fellows of the American Theatre Address, with pieces of a revue he wrote, that borrowed material from long-forgotten burlesque routines, "At My Mother's Knee (and Other Low Joints)". Rigby was in the audience and approached Allen about the material, and together they wrote the book for the show. Sugar Babies debuted two years later. The show consists of old burlesque blackout gags and sketches, interspersed with song and dance numbers, and vaudeville specialty acts. Typical of the risqué jokes was this one in the "Broken Arms Hotel" sketch: DESK CLERK (on the telephone): Broken Arms Hotel... What's that? You say you got a leak in the bathtub?... Well, go ahead! You paid for the room! The Sugar Babies score contains standards such as "Don't Blame Me" and "I Feel a Song Comin' On", and newly created musical numbers, including "The Sugar Baby Bounce". The show had burlesque "tropes" such as the swing number, the sister act, the fan dance, the vaudeville dog act. "It was all fast and funny and it ended with a patriotic number...with the entire company in red, white, and blue with a flag background and Miller as the Statue of Liberty." Songs and scenes Source: Script Act 1 Scene: A Memory of Burlesque A Good Old Burlesque Show Scene: Welcome to the Gaity Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby Scene: Meet Me Round the Corner Scene: Travelin' In Louisiana Goin' Back to New Orleans Scene: The Broken Arms Hotel Scene: Feathered Fantasy (Salute to Sally Rand) Sally Scene: The Pitchmen Scene: Ellis