It originated in December 1998 when director and animator, Eric Goldberg approached Al Hirschfeld about the idea of an animated short set to Gershwin's composition in the style of Hirschfeld's illustrations. Hirschfeld agreed to serve as animation consultant and allowed the animators to use and adapt his previous works for the short film. Goldberg's wife Susan was art director. Goldberg does allow the animators from the production hiatus of "Kingdom of the Sun" (which was reworked into The Emperor's New Groove) were reassigned to work on the short film. Duke is named after jazz artist Duke Ellington. The bottom of his toothpaste tube reads "NINA", an Easter egg referencing Hirschfeld's daughter Nina. John is based on animation historian and author John Culhane. Goldberg took Hirschfeld's original design of Gershwin and designed it to make him play the piano. Featured in the crowd emerging from the hotel are depictions of Brooks Atkinson, Hirschfeld, along with his wife Dolly Haas and Eric and Susan Goldberg. The segment was completed two months ahead of schedule from January 1999 to March 1999. Despite this, the sequence was so chromatically complex that the rendering process using the CAPS system delayed work on "Tarzan".