Florenz Ziegfeld

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1928 Time cover featuring Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (March 21, 1869 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies, based on the Folies Bergères of Paris.

His first foray into the world of entertainment was at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, where he managed the famous strongman, Eugen Sandow.

His stage spectaculars, beginning with his Follies of 1907, were produced annually until 1931. These extravaganzas featured a bevy of beauties chosen personally by "Flo" Ziegfeld, prominent composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern, and elaborate costumes and sets.

His promotion of the Polish-French Anna Held, including press releases about her milk baths, brought her fame and set a pattern of star-making through publicity. Ziegfeld married Held in 1897 and helped oversee her meteoric rise to national fame. (Held, in fact, first suggested an American imitation of the Parisian Follies to Ziegfeld.) ^[1]. In 1912, as Held's “advancing plumpness and a face which was showing signs of Gallic homeliness” began to interfere with Ziegfeld's marketing strategem, he divorced her amidst much publicity.^[2] Ziegfeld married Billie Burke in 1914, and they had a daughter, Patricia. His death in 1932 left Burke with substantial debts, driving her toward better remunerating film acting in an effort to settle them.

The Follies featured many performers who, though well-known from previous work in other theatrical genres, achieved unique financial success and publicity with Ziegfeld. Included among these are Fanny Brice, W. C. Fields, and Eddie Cantor.

Ziegfeld produced other landmarks as well, including Show Boat. Although he recognized its artistic value, he was terrified Show Boat would fail because of its unusually dramatic storyline. According to an eyewitness, the audience barely applauded on opening night, but it was not because they disliked the show, but because they were so taken aback.^{[citation needed]} It was a great success, and in 1932, after Ziegfeld lost much of his money in the stock market crash, he staged a revival of Show Boat. It became the biggest grosser on Broadway, until the Great Depression affected its run. Later that same year, Ziegfeld died from a lung infection related to pleurisy [1].

Ziegfeld is interred in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, Westchester Co., New York.

^ Cambridge Guide to the American Theatre, (New York: Cambridge UP, 1995) 511
^ Anthony Slide, The Vaudevillians. (Westport, CT: Arlington House, 1981) 70, 71.