Toward the close of 1919, the prominent theatrical producer Sam H. Harris made a proposition to his friend Irving Berlin: if the popular songwriter would devise a musical revue, Harris would find a theatre for it. Berlin responded with The Music Box Revue and in 1920 the Music Box Theatre was built to house the show. The Shuberts began acquiring shares of the venue from Harris in the 1920s. When Harris died in 1941, his wife sold half the shares in the theatre to the Shuberts, and half to Berlin. From that point on, Berlin and Shubert became equal partners in the ownership of the house, and remain so to this day.