This was Irving Berlin's idea to avoid a biopic of his life.

The real Irving Berlin was rich, famous, happily married, loved and respected by his own children, and lived to the age of 101. An honest biopic might have left the country seething with jealousy.

Berlin did lose his first wife to typhoid fever, his only only son in infancy to crib death, and was snubbed for years by his heiress wife's father. No one goes through life without grief and aggravation, not even Irving Berlin.