Shall We Dance (1937 film) their musicals since "The Gay Divorcee" (1934) – contributed to their least profitable picture to date. Astaire was no stranger to the Gershwins, having headlined, with his sister Adele, two Gershwin Broadway shows: "Lady Be Good!" in 1924 and "Funny Face" in 1927. George Gershwin also accompanied the pair on piano in a set of recordings in 1926. Rogers first came to Hollywood's attention when she appeared in the Gershwins' 1930 stage musical "Girl Crazy". "Shall We Dance" was named at the suggestion of Vincente Minnelli, who was a friend of the Gershwins. Minnelli originally suggested "Shall We Dance?" with
Funny Face opening title sequence, which was designed by Avedon, during the "Funny Face" musical number which takes place in a darkroom, and when Dick (Astaire) presents it to Maggie (Thompson). The film is jokingly regarded as the first (and only) "MGM" musical made at Paramount Studios since Roger Edens was the producer, Stanley Donen was the director, and quite a few of the staff members under the Arthur Freed Unit at "Metro" (including Adolph Deutsch, Conrad Salinger, and Skip Martin), along with Astaire and Kay Thompson, were brought over to Paramount to make this film. On initial release, "Funny Face" was