Hart, on a journey from Hollywood to New York in 1931, was inspired to write a play about an American family's difficulties, over 30 years, coping with the challenges of life in the 20th century, beginning with their innocence and optimism at the beginning of the century to the dashed hopes caused by the stock market crash of 1929. Before he could realize his vision, however, Noël Coward's British version of a similar story, "Cavalcade", premiered and he shelved the idea. A few years later, however, Hart turned to Kaufman, his collaborator on the 1930 hit, "Once in a Lifetime". The idea had now evolved to tell a story backwards about an idealistic, yet ambitious playwright and his difficulties.