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FLORENZ ZIEGFELD

© Joyce E. Eberly

The Ziegfeld Follies. Just those three words conjure up magical scenes with beautiful scantily-clad showgirls, beautiful sets, and comedy. Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (1869-1932) was born in Chicago, but it was in London in 1896 after meeting the beautiful French actress, Anna Held, that he conceived the idea of producing a revue. As Miss Held, who would later become his wife in 1897, said,"Your American girls are so beautiful, the most beautiful girls in the world. If you could dress them up chic, you'd have a better show than the Folies-Bergere." The first of these revues, the "Follies of 1907," opened at the New York Theatre in July 1907. Starring Anna Held with a chorus of fifty stunningly gorgeous girls, Ziegfeld updated the revue, which by then was known as "The Ziegfeld Follies," every year until the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Ziegfeld, who called himself the "glorifier of the American girl," began his theatrical career as an unsuccessful promoter of various kinds of performers. It was not until the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 that Ziegfeld became the manager of Eugene Sandow, known as the "perfect man." After about a year, Ziegfeld tired of being Sandow's manager and came to New York.

He went to London and then Paris, where he met Anna Held, whom he married in 1897. The beautiful Miss Held became the star of his first production, "A Parlor Match." It was during the unsuccessful run of the play that Ziegfeld revealed his flair for publicity. A milkman decided to sue Miss Held for the milk it was said she used for her daily bath, and the result of the furor was the great success of Miss Held. She continued to star in her husband's productions, and "The French Maid," which was produced in 1898, was the start of the elaborate and expensive revues which eventually became "The Ziegfeld Follies."

However, the years before the Follies was born were filled with losses and disappointments. Deciding to give everything up, Ziegfeld went to Europe where he spent four and a half years. Then, after winning $100,000 in one evening of gambling in 1906, he returned to American with the idea of the Folies Bergere in the back of his mind. In 1907, the first "Ziegfeld Follies" was born. The Follies continued until 1927.

During this period, performers whose names still glow in theatrical history: Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Will Rogers, Marilyn Miller, and many more began to appear in the Follies.

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