Florenz Ziegfeld and his Follies

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Florenz Ziegfeld and his Follies

• The most popular of the revues

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Who is Florenz Ziegfeld?

• Producer, director in the early 20th century
• Father was the director of musical events for the
  Chicago Worlds Fair 1893
• Sent to Europe to find classical music acts, but
  instead found vaudeville acts and nearly
  bankrupted his father
• First successful act he promoted was a strongman
  he saw at the Casino Theatre in New York

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Before the Follies

• Promoted Anna Held, whom he fell in love with
• Developed and revived shows to flatter her
• Added chorus girls to his 1899 production of
  Papas Wife and 1901 production of The Little
  Duchess
• Return program in 1902 featured a line in the
  program stating Owing to the length of the
  performance the plot has been eliminated

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The Parisian Model (1906)

• Libretto by Harry B. Smith
• Featured Held and 16 dancing girls
• In one scene the girls lay on the floor and
  kicked their legs in the air, and roller-skating
  in a another
• Choreography criticized for being scandalous
• Ran for 33 weeks

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The Follies of 1907

• Written by Smith, based on his newspaper column
• Acts changed weekly to reflect current events
• One Constant was the fifty Anna Held Girls
• Ziegfeld was not committed to the show, and so
  produced Miss Innocence the same year

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Follies to 1915

• 1908 feautred the first hit song in a revue,
  Shine on a Harvest Moon
• Future Follies featured music by Victor Herbert,
  George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern
• Hired Bert Williams in 1910, breaking the color
  barrier on Broadway
• Added his name to the title in 1911

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The Joseph Urban Era

• Hired by Ziegfeld in 1915 to design sets
• Used contemporary art styles and techniques to
  being a more modern and lavish visual style to
  the theater
• Ziegfeld made the costumes more elaborate to
  match the sets
• Insisted scene changes move quickly

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The height of the Follies

• Were the most lavish musicals on Broadway from
  1915-1922
• 1919 featured Bert Williams and songs by Berlin
• 1921 cost over 250,000 to produce, starred Fanny
  Brice
• 1927 scored entirely by Berlin

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The last Follies

• Last personal edition was in 1931, but waning
  interest in the revue, and the Great Depression,
  hurt Ziegfelds ability to raise money
• Ziegfeld passed away in 1932
• His widow licensed the show to the Schuberts who
  put on several editions that became more and more
  risque

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Ziegfelds Influence

• First producer/star- Name alone would bring
  success
• Schubert brothers produced more shows (500) but
  never made an artistic difference
• The Follies inspired many revues of the next
  decade
• Inspired a 1946 movie called The Ziegfeld Follies
• Stars included Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, Fanny
  Brice, Fred Astaire
• Last edition, 1957, featured the first rock and
  roll song on Broadway