Ever the humble composer, Irving Berlin liked to say there were only six tunes in all of music; whenever anybody would compliment him on any his melodies, he would smile and reply he liked it, too, in fact he’s used it dozens of times. His genius lay in being able to arrange those notes into countless distinct, and for a certain generation unforgettable musical creations. His legacy was always Alexander’s Ragtime Band but Berlin also wrote the musical tracks for nearly forty television and Broadway productions — including one of the most popular, Annie Get Your Gun.

On this day, May 16, in 1946, Annie Get Your Gun opened at New York’s Imperial Theatre, home of previous Berlin productions such as the 1940 Louisiana Purchase. Like practically all Berlin-scored productions, it was an unqualified success, running for 1,147 shows, and the subject of countless revivals thereafter.

Playwright Dorothy Fields wrote the pay with her friend Ethel Merman, the star of stage and screen, in mind (the play became the biggest hit of Merman’s already spectacular career). Fields then brought in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II when her first choice producer declined to do the show. It was a smooth production, except for a brief moment when Berlin, mistakenly convinced that Rodgers didn’t like it, almost pulled out the show’s signature song “There’s No Business Like Showbusiness.”