Florenz Ziegfeld was born in 1867 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 "low" culture was purportedly sparked 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 Eugene Sandow headlining. 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 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 1927 Ziegfeld opened his own theater, the Ziegfeld, in New York. It was not particularly successful and its owner fled 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. A 1945 revival starred Milton Berle; in 1957, a Follies with Tallulah Bankhead did not make it to Broadway.
Sources:
In 1973 the Ransom Center purchased the Ziegfeld sheet music and the Fanny Brice songbook from Robert Baral. Many of the photographs in the Florenz Ziegfeld Collection were culled from the Albert Davis Collection; others are thought to have been in the possession of the Ziegfeld family at one time. Some of the programs were purchased by W. H. Crain.
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(Last modified: 27 January 2005)
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