Read Online Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers by Stewart F. Lane - Free Book Online
Authors: Stewart F. Lane
Tags: Drama, United States, General, History, 20th Century, Theater, New York, New York (State), Performing Arts, Jewish, Jews in Popular Culture - United States, Theater - New York (State) - New York - History - 20th Century, Jewish Entertainers, Jews in Popular Culture, Jewish Entertainers - New York (State) - New York - History - 20th Century, Musicals - New York (State) - New York - History - 20th Century, Musicals, Broadway (New York; N.Y.), Jews in the Performing Arts, Jews in the Performing Arts - New York (State) - New York - History - 20th Century
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During his early years as a manager and booker, Ziegfeld developed a knack for discovering and promoting new and unique talent, and it wasn’t long before he was taking his performers on extended tours on the vaudeville circuit. By the 1890s, Ziegfeld’s magic touch for finding talent 38
2. Part of the Melting Pot
took him to Broadway, where he produced musicals to showcase several talented performers at one time. However, it wasn’t until 1907 that Florenz Ziegfeld would reach the pinnacle of his esteemed career when he took the Ziegfeld Follies to Broadway for the first time.
The Shubert Brothers were already enjoying success on Broadway at the Hippodrome Theater with revues featuring popular song and dance numbers. Ziegfeld, however, had bigger plans. While Ziegfeld possessed no performing skills as a singer, dancer or performer, he had a keen eye for finding beautiful women, a talent that would later be the downfall of his several marriages.
In his quest to discover great talent and his penchant for exploring new and innovative means of promoting the “next great performer,”
Zieg feld had amassed a considerable amount of knowledge when it came to distinguishing which acts would attract and entertain the general public. Pageantry, comedy, sexuality and song and dance were all part and parcel of the public’s penchant for performances. With that in mind, he introduced elements of vaudeville and burlesque, plus a line of chorus girls, reminiscent of the Parisian Folies-Bergère, into what he would call his own follies. He then added elaborate sets, dazzling costumes, original songs by various composers, choreography by the best in the business, Julian Mitchell, and The Ziegfeld Follies of 1907 was born, using thirteen letters in the title (after his name), because he was superstitious. Coin-cidently, the show also cost $13,000.
Opulent production numbers, political and topical satire and of course the ladies, billed as “Glorifying the American Girl,” were all hallmarks of what would emerge as the longest running Broadway series of shows, with nearly two-dozen renditions until the 1930s (not to mention four additional versions after Ziegfeld’s death).
One of Ziegfeld’s star performers was his first wife, Anna Held, of Polish-Jewish descent, whom he had brought back with him from France.
In fact, Held, on whom he worked his publicity magic turning her into an immediate star, was credited in part for the idea of staging an Ameri -
can revue, featuring more than 60 Anna Held Girls, who marched around the theater beating snare drums in the original ’07 revue.
Held had made her stage debut in the Yiddish theaters of London in companies run by Goldfadn and actor-manager Jacob P. Adler. It was in Paris, however, that she had generated attention by singing in local 39
Jews on Broadway
cafés. In fact, she was so enamored by the French, that she would go to great lengths for many years to perpetuate the myth that she was French.
She even converted to Catholicism, which was also because she was fearful of being Jewish in Europe, having been among those chased from her native Poland along with her family when she was a child.
It was during one of Held’s European performances in London, in 1896, that Ziegfeld discovered her, offering her $1,500 a week to appear on Broadway. It was an exorbitant amount of money at the time, but Zieg feld was convinced she could become a star, and she did. Ziegfeld publicized that she had such clean, pure skin because she bathed in milk every day. While the story was fictitious, it landed in all of the celebrity gossip columns, started a brief fad and made Held the talk of the entertainment business. Held forever became known as the girl in the milk baths.
THE STAR-MAKING FOLLIES
It was the Ziegfeld Follies that brought Brice, Bayes and Cantor to Broadway. Bayes joined the 1907 revue and introduced the classic song
“By the Light of the Silvery Moon” in
During his early years as a manager and booker, Ziegfeld developed a knack for discovering and promoting new and unique talent, and it wasn’t long before he was taking his performers on extended tours on the vaudeville circuit. By the 1890s, Ziegfeld’s magic touch for finding talent 38
2. Part of the Melting Pot
took him to Broadway, where he produced musicals to showcase several talented performers at one time. However, it wasn’t until 1907 that Florenz Ziegfeld would reach the pinnacle of his esteemed career when he took the Ziegfeld Follies to Broadway for the first time.
The Shubert Brothers were already enjoying success on Broadway at the Hippodrome Theater with revues featuring popular song and dance numbers. Ziegfeld, however, had bigger plans. While Ziegfeld possessed no performing skills as a singer, dancer or performer, he had a keen eye for finding beautiful women, a talent that would later be the downfall of his several marriages.
In his quest to discover great talent and his penchant for exploring new and innovative means of promoting the “next great performer,”
Zieg feld had amassed a considerable amount of knowledge when it came to distinguishing which acts would attract and entertain the general public. Pageantry, comedy, sexuality and song and dance were all part and parcel of the public’s penchant for performances. With that in mind, he introduced elements of vaudeville and burlesque, plus a line of chorus girls, reminiscent of the Parisian Folies-Bergère, into what he would call his own follies. He then added elaborate sets, dazzling costumes, original songs by various composers, choreography by the best in the business, Julian Mitchell, and The Ziegfeld Follies of 1907 was born, using thirteen letters in the title (after his name), because he was superstitious. Coin-cidently, the show also cost $13,000.
Opulent production numbers, political and topical satire and of course the ladies, billed as “Glorifying the American Girl,” were all hallmarks of what would emerge as the longest running Broadway series of shows, with nearly two-dozen renditions until the 1930s (not to mention four additional versions after Ziegfeld’s death).
One of Ziegfeld’s star performers was his first wife, Anna Held, of Polish-Jewish descent, whom he had brought back with him from France.
In fact, Held, on whom he worked his publicity magic turning her into an immediate star, was credited in part for the idea of staging an Ameri -
can revue, featuring more than 60 Anna Held Girls, who marched around the theater beating snare drums in the original ’07 revue.
Held had made her stage debut in the Yiddish theaters of London in companies run by Goldfadn and actor-manager Jacob P. Adler. It was in Paris, however, that she had generated attention by singing in local 39
Jews on Broadway
cafés. In fact, she was so enamored by the French, that she would go to great lengths for many years to perpetuate the myth that she was French.
She even converted to Catholicism, which was also because she was fearful of being Jewish in Europe, having been among those chased from her native Poland along with her family when she was a child.
It was during one of Held’s European performances in London, in 1896, that Ziegfeld discovered her, offering her $1,500 a week to appear on Broadway. It was an exorbitant amount of money at the time, but Zieg feld was convinced she could become a star, and she did. Ziegfeld publicized that she had such clean, pure skin because she bathed in milk every day. While the story was fictitious, it landed in all of the celebrity gossip columns, started a brief fad and made Held the talk of the entertainment business. Held forever became known as the girl in the milk baths.
THE STAR-MAKING FOLLIES
It was the Ziegfeld Follies that brought Brice, Bayes and Cantor to Broadway. Bayes joined the 1907 revue and introduced the classic song
“By the Light of the Silvery Moon” in
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