"
Anything Goes" is a song written by
Cole Porter for his musical
Anything Goes (1934). Many of the lyrics feature humorous (but dated) references to various figures of scandal and gossip in
Depression-era high society. For example, one couplet refers to
Sam Goldwyn's notorious box-office failure
Nana, which featured a star,
Anna Sten, whose English was said to be incomprehensible to all except Goldwyn, who came from the same part of Europe (though, in fact, Goldwyn was from
Poland and Sten
Ukraine). Other 1930s society references include
film producer Max Gordon, socialite
Evalyn Walsh McLean and her highly promoted trip to the
Russian SFSR,
interior design pioneer
Lady Mendl's scandalous predilection for performing
hand stands and
cartwheels in public at the age of 70, and the financial woes common to "
old money" families during the Depression, such as the
Vanderbilts,
Rockefellers and
Whitneys. Most modern versions omit these lyrics, replacing them instead with generic examples of social upheaval.