Florenz
Ziegfeld
(1867-1932)
Florenz
Ziegfeld was born in 1867 (the same year as Sandow) in Chicago.
His father, Florenz, Sr., was head of the Chicago Musical
College and a significant figure in the cultural life of the
city. The junior Ziegfeld worked at his father's conservatory
while in high school, earning a promotion to assistant manager
in 1885. His lifelong interest in show business was said to
be ignited by seeing Buffalo Bill's "Wild West Show" in 1883.
In 1893 Ziegfeld and his father opened a variety hall in Chicago,
the Trocadero, with strongman Eugen Sandow headlining. Sandow
was Ziegfelds first real star attraction. The show was to
be known as "The Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles".
Later that year Ziegfeld took Sandow to New York City where
Ziegfeld soon graduated from promoting acts to producing shows
with the backing of "Diamond" Jim Brady and others.
In 1896, while scouting for talent in Europe, Ziegfeld met
Anna Held and persuaded her to perform for him in New York;
they married the following year. During this time Ziegfeld's
shows began to exhibit certain features that became hallmarks
of his later productions: beautiful chorus girls and a multitude
of variety-style musical numbers. By 1905 Ziegfeld was producing
musical comedies for the theatrical booking monopoly the Syndicate.
In 1907 Ziegfeld opened the Follies of 1907, a revue
in the style of the Paris revues he had seen while overseas
in 1905. Emphasizing glamour and beauty, the Follies
became a mainstay of Broadway and ran in annual installments
until Ziegfeld's death in 1932. Ziegfeld's unfailing ability
to choose the best talent insured that the Follies
starred some of the best performers of the day. The
Follies featured or made famous Fannie Brice, Bert
Williams, Nora Bayes, Jack Norworth, Lillian Lorraine, Ann
Pennington, Ed Wynn, W. C. Fields, Olive Thomas, Marilyn Miller,
Mary Eaton, and Will Rogers. The 1915 Follies
signaled the beginning of Ziegfeld's "mastery" phase in which
talent, costumes, and sets were frequently of the highest
quality. During Ziegfeld's peak period of 1915-19, Eddie Cantor,
Marion Davies, and Van and Schenck appeared with the Follies,
and Joseph Urban's lavish sets garnered praise.
In 1911 Ziegfeld renamed the Follies the Ziegfeld
Follies. Four years later he instigated the Ziegfeld
Midnight Frolic, a revue which served as a training
ground for the Follies, commencing at midnight and
featuring dance music between the acts. The first Ziegfeld
Nine O'Clock Frolic (later called the Ziegfeld Nine
O'Clock Revue) opened in 1918. (By 1922, Prohibition killed
the Frolics which, for their success, had depended
on the refreshments as much as the entertainment. The Frolic
enjoyed a brief reprisal in 1928 and 1929.) Anna Held divorced
Ziegfeld in 1912, and he married the actress Billie Burke
(who starred as the Good Witch "Glenda" in the 1939
film "Wizard of Oz") in 1914. Their daughter Patricia
was born in 1916.
In addition to the Follies, Ziegfeld produced a Somerset
Maugham play, Caesar's Wife, and a number of musical
comedies, including Sally, Kid Boots, Annie,
Louie the 14th, Rio Rita, Show Boat,
Hot-Cha!, and The Three Musketeers. In 1925
Ziegfeld was greatly saddened when his friend Sandow died.
In 1927 Ziegfeld opened his own theater, the Ziegfeld, in
New York. It was not a great success, howeverl and Ziegfeld
migrated to California in ill health, where he died in 1932.
After Ziegfeld's death, Billie Burke presented the 1933 and
1936 editions of the Follies. Also
in 1936, a major motion picture biography called "The
Great Ziegfeld" was released which starred William Powell,
with Nat Pendleton as Sandow. A 1945 revival of the orignal
Follies starred Milton Berle, and in 1957, the revival
of the Follies starred Tallulah Bankhead but it did not
make it to Broadway.
