Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. & the Cheesecake of the Ziegfeld Follies

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.

Photo: St. Martin's Press

Source: Like Success

Born on 21 March 1867 in Chicago, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was a Broadway producer who put spectacle into early popular music, that is, the show, carving the headstone to vaudeville's nickel and dime acts by upping the ante to reviews of more modern musical extravaganza across the Broadway stage. His mother a Catholic, his father Lutheran, the latter also owned a nightclub in Chicago called the Trocadero where Musicals 101 begins Ziegfeld's career in show business by successfully booking weightlifter, Eugene Sandow, to flex big muscles on stage in 1893/94.

Ziegfeld's first Broadway musical followed in 1896 per 'A Parlor Match' starring Anna Held. Several more productions starring Held followed to the Ziegfeld Follies which began as an annual presentation of top vaudeville acts in 1907, Ziegfeld forty years old by that time. The Follies had been Held's bright notion, she performing in the Folies Bergère in Paris when Ziegfeld stole her away to the United States to become a Broadway star. The Folies Bergère was a variety show first presented in Paris in 1869, and yet to this day, featuring comedy, operettas, gymnastics and music. Held wasn't, however, one of Ziegfeld's stars. Her career on Broadway was independent of the Follies, she performing in only one sequence in 1910.

The Ziegfeld Follies came parcel with the glamorization of its numerous female performers called the Ziegfeld Girls. Official photographer of the Ziegfeld girls was Alfred Cheney Johnston. Montages of Johnston's work below document early art of the cheesecake from 1907 to 1931. They are listed for their cultural relevance to the period (the music to which most are set has little to do with the Follies). I introduce the glamor girls of the Follies before their music because they are centrally thematic rather than a footnote. Since the Follies were never produced for film, it is well to help visualize their great display on the Broadway stage with Episode 1 of 'Give My Regards to Broadway', a biography of Ziegfeld by All the Gang at 42nd Street. Images are from Ziegfeld's documentary of 1929 called 'Glorifying the American Girl':

'Give My Regards to Broadway' Episode 1   Biography of Florenz Ziegfeld

The Beauties of the Ziegfeld Follies

Jazz Age Beauties

Music: 'A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" by John Steel   Follies of 1919

Tribute to Doris Eaton

Tribute to the Women of the Ziegfeld Follies

Music: 'Legend of the Fall' by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

Vintage Ziegfeld Girls

Music: 'Take a Good Look at Mine' by Gracie Fields   1929

Ziegfeld Follies Glamour Girls of the Roaring Twenties

Music: 'Speak Low' by Billie Holiday

Ziegfeld Girls

Ziegfeld Showgirls Revisited

Music: 'Canon in D Major' by Pachelbel   Sometime 1680 to 1706

Because Ziegfeld's Broadway musical required music for dancing ladies all lined up in a row in elaborate costume, he drew upon the talents of composers like Irving Berlin, Vernon Duke, Rudolph Friml, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. Lyricist, Gene Buck, also directed for Ziegfeld from 1911 to 1931. Comedian, Leon Errol, who performed with the Follies from 1911 to 1915 also directed for Ziegfeld in 1915 and 1916. Vocalists strongly associated with the Follies include Nora Bayes (1907-09), Fanny Brice (1910-11, '17, '20-21, '23, '34, '36), the Dolly Sisters (1911), Eddie Cantor (1917-20, '27) and Ruth Etting (1927, '31). Major dancers in the ranks of the Follies were the Fairbanks Twins (1917-19), Mary Eaton (1920-22) and Gilda Gray (1922). The Broadway musical was bound to become the film musical upon the addition of sound to films in 1926 ('Don Juan') and 1927 ('The Jazz Singer'). Ziegfeld also produced a couple of motion pictures, the first 'Rio Rita' in 1929 starring Bebe Daniels, the second 'Whoopie!' starring Eddie Cantor in 1930 with choreography by Busby Berkley. The Ziegfeld Follies, however, never transitioned from stage to film, though Ziegfeld is said to have filmed Anna Held in the part of a comet in a sequence of the Follies of 1910. He also produced the documentary, 'Glorifying the American Girl', in 1929. Recordings below represent titles in the repertoire of the Ziegield Follies sung by artists not necessarily connected with them, such as Ada Jones and Billy Murray:

'Shine On, Harvest Moon'   From the Follies of 1908

Ada Jones w Billy Murray   Edison Standard 10134 issued in 1909

Composition: Nora Bayes / Jack Norworth (married Follies team)

'Just You and I and the Moon'   From the Follies of 1913

Elizabeth Brice (no relation to Fanny Brice)

Columbia matrix 16704 sometime 1913 in NYC   Issued on Pearl GEMM CD 9056 in 1993

Composition: Dave Stamper / Gene Buck

'Hello, Honey'   From the Follies of 1913

Elizabeth Brice (no relation to Fanny Brice)

Columbia matrix 31896 sometime 1913   Issued on Pearl GEMM CD 9056 in 1993

Composition: Raymond Hubbell / George Hobart

'That's the Kind of a Baby for Me'   From the Follies of 1917

Eddie Cantor

Recorded 12 July 1917 in NYC toward Victor 18342

Composition: Jack Egan / Alfred Harriman

'Gems from 'Ziegfeld Follies''   From the Follies of 1917

Victor Light Opera Company including Harry Macdonough

Recorded 19 July 1917 in Camden NJ toward Victor 35651 issued Sep 1917

Music: Jerome Kern / Dave Stamper   Lyrics: Gene Buck

'Second Hand Rose'   From the Follies of 1921

Fanny Brice

Recorded 8 Nov 1921 in Camden NJ toward Victor 45263

Music: James F. Hanley  Lyrics: Grant Clarke

'Sweet Alice'   From the Follies of 1923

Frank Crumit

Recorded 14 Dec 1923 in Camden NJ toward Victor 19236 on 8 Feb 1924

Composition: Frank Crumit

'Medley' Parts 1 & 2   From the Follies of 1927

Nat Shilkret & the Victor Orchestra   Piano: Edgar Fairchild / Ralph Rainger

Recorded 9 Sep 1927 in NYC toward Victor 35845

Composition: Irving Berlin

'It All Belongs to Me' from 'Medley' Parts 1 & 2 (above)   From the Follies of 1927

Franklyn Baur w the Brox Sisters backed by Nat Shilkret & the Victor Orchestra

Recorded 9 Sep 1927 in NYC toward Victor 35845

Composition: Irving Berlin

By 1927 the Ziegfeld Follies had been so successful through thousands of performances that Ziegfeld was able to open the 1600-seat Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan at a cost of 2.5 million dollars borrowed from William Randolph Hearst. Unfortunately razed in 1966, the Ziegfeld had first opened its doors to the public in February of 1927 to stage 'Rio Rita'. 'Show Boat' went into production in December of 1927 with music by Jerome Kern and song by Oscar Hammerstein II on such as 'Old Man River'.

'Rio Rita'   From Ziegfeld's Broadway production of 'Rio Rita' of 1927

Lewis James backed by Nat Shilkret & the Victor Orchestra

Recorded 7 Feb 1927 in NYC toward Victor 20474

Music: Harry Tierney   Lyrics: Joseph McCarthy

The Ziegfeld Follies were presented through 1931, the season of 1932 prevented by Ziegfeld's fall to pleurisy of which he died on 22 July 1932 [obit]. They were followed, however, by the radio program, 'The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air' from 1932 to '36. Later editions of the Follies were held in 1943, 1956 (in Boston) and 1957.