1. One wanted "a brighter perspective of life" in 1936 and this film is a perfect example of the escapism that movie goers craved.
2. The lack of care about money and, more prevent, the lack of anything explicitly negative. Even the conflicts are kept light because that is what audiences needed at the time.
3. Because I have read some bios on Ziegfeld, I believe the pre-code movie would have been able to be darker and show a more realistic version of the characters. We would have seen the philandering side of Ziegfeld and the impact that it had on Held, the men would be a little more cutthroat in their competition, and there would have been a little less clothing in the dressing room.
