Florenz Ziegfeld

views updated May 29 2018

Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld (1869-1932) developed the American musical revue and became a dominant force in musical theater in the early 20th century.

Florenz Ziegfeld was born in Chicago, III., on March 21, 1869. His father was a German musician of the old school who eventually became president of the Chicago Musical College. Young "Flo" found this dignified life too quiet. In his first venture into show business he managed Sandow, the strong man of the World's Columbian Exposition, in 1893. He next turned to theatrical management. In London in the 1890s he met the French beauty Anna Held and placed her under contract. Recognizing the American public's insatiable urge to know about the private lives of stars, he promoted Held into national attention with press releases describing her milk baths. He married her in 1897; they were divorced in 1913.

Ziegfeld's early musical productions enjoyed modest success; more important, he was perfecting his style. In 1906 The Parisian Model featured the beautiful girls and intricate though precise musical numbers that made him famous. That summer he visited Paris, and the Folies-Berge‧re became the model for his annual Ziegfeld Follies. Recognizing that the risqué elements of the Folies would be unacceptable in the United States, Ziegfeld substituted more displays of beautiful girls.

Few realized the future of the Ziegfeld Follies when it first opened in July 1907. Presented on the New York Theater roof, the Follies was an immediate success, and in September Ziegfeld moved it indoors. By 1910 others were beginning to copy his format, but no other revues had the precision, discipline, and homogeneity of the Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1915 Ziegfeld added an important element when he hired Joseph Urban as designer. Urban's sense of spectacle was perfectly suited to the Ziegfeld idea—beautiful girls, intricate numbers, lavish and artistic design. The Ziegfeld pattern was completed with stars: Fannie Brice, Marilyn Miller, Bert Williams, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Gilda Grey, Gallagher and Shean, and Will Rogers were under contract at one time or another. Ziegfeld had a sharp eye for talent. The first Follies had cost only $13,000 to produce; the preproduction costs of the 1927 Follies totaled nearly $300,000.

While continuing the Follies, Ziegfeld returned to musical comedy in 1920. Among his hits were Sally (1920), Show Boat and Rio Rita (both 1927), and Bitter Sweet (1929). Ziegfeld abandoned the Follies in 1927; by the time he returned to it in 1931, the magic was gone. He had lost some of his touch, and the mood of the country, deep in theGreat Depression, had changed. He died on July 22, 1932, in Hollywood, Calif.

Further Reading

No definitive work on Ziegfeld has appeared, but Cecil Smith, Musical Comedy in America (1950), contains information about his career.

Additional Sources

Ziegfeld, Richard E., The Ziegfeld touch: the life and times of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., New York: H.N. Abrams, 1993. □

Ziegfeld, Florenz

views updated Jun 27 2018

ZIEGFELD, FLORENZ

ZIEGFELD, FLORENZ (1869–1932), U.S. showman. Ziegfeld, born in Chicago, started his career at the Chicago World Fair, 1893, and staged his first production in 1896 in New York. His star was Anna Held, whom he had brought from Europe and later married, and he publicized the show with front-page advertising, a device which subsequently became his hallmark. In 1907, after a visit to Paris, he launched the Ziegfeld Follies and presented new editions periodically until 1931. These extravaganzas included lavish arrays of beautiful showgirls and set the standard for Broadway musical revues. Ziegfeld became known as "the glorifier of the American girl" and "the apostle of the beauty show." His many other productions included Showboat (1927 and 1932) and Rio Rita (1927), which opened at the Ziegfeld Theater built for him by William Randolph Hearst. Ziegfeld's productions brought fame to many stars, including Eddie *Cantor and Will Rogers. The film The Great Ziegfeld told the story of his career.

bibliography:

dab, 20 (1936), 653–4; L. Morris, Curtain Time (1953), 295–6, 308–9, 313–4; Oxford Companion to the Theater (19572), 854.

[Lee Healey]

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Florenz Ziegfeld

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