songfacts.com has information about this and other Irving Berlin songs.

This song was written for the musical revue, Ziegfield Follies of 1919. It also appeared in a number of musical films:

• The Great Ziegfield, starring William Powell, Frank Morgan*, and Virginia Bruce
• Alexander's Ragtime Band, starring Don Ameche and Ethel Merman
• Blue Skies, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire
• There's No Business Like Show Business, starring Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe

*Frank Morgan also appeared in the Dragnet and M*A*S*H television shows

It's my understanding that the Ziegfield shows used songs like this when they had displays of women in various stages of undress (i.e., somewhat more clothing than people wear on the beach nowadays). If the women moved, that was grounds for arrest. I haven't found a recording of the verses shown above. Anybody know of one? I picture a "sweet young thing" reciting the "patter" verses as the display changed, but they were originally sung in Atlantic City by Ziegfield performer John Steel.