 Opening just before the stock market crash, it received rave reviews, but the elaborate, old-fashioned piece was a step back from the innovations in "Show Boat", or even the Princess Theatre shows.In January 1929, at the height of the Jazz Age, and with "Show Boat" still playing on Broadway, Kern made news on both sides of the Atlantic for reasons wholly unconnected with music.He sold at auction, at New York's Anderson Galleries, the collection of English and American literature that he had been building up for more than a decade.