(See front cover.)
Probably the most spectacular feature of a successful theatre season in Manhattan has been the gigantic and prolonged good fortune of that wise and prolific producer of plays, Florenz Ziegfeld. Three (Rosalie, The Three Musketeers, Show Boat) of the five shows which he has sponsored since the autumn were playing last week to capacity houses. With the possible exception of The Theatre Guild, no other producer has scored so heavily this winter. Without exception, no other producer has ever enjoyed such consistently large revenues from his theatrical ventures.
With regard to Mr. Ziegfeld, much has been said by himself and others. This can be briefly summarized as follows:
He is the son of the late Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld, who was the founder and president of the Chicago Musical College.
He received a complete musical education, to prepare him for his father's office; in his early 20's he decided to turn his talents to commercial ends as a producer of musical entertainment.
In this capacity, his first move was to import the Hans Von Bulow Orchestra from Hamburg to the Chicago World's Fair. Next he captured Sandow, the strong man.
Before long, his keen and roving eye for the aesthetic beauty of the female figure caused him to enlarge the focus of his attention. He produced a dignified operetta called The Red Feather and another more sprightly beauty show called Mile, Fifi. His first wife was Anna Held, who starred in this show, became famous for singing "I Can't Make My Eyes Behave," and who had the narrowest waistline in the U. S. at a time when such details commanded favorable notice.
In 1907, sick of the sweet and dreary musical comedies which littered Broadway, he produced The Follies, a revue which took its name from the Parisian Folies Bergères and duplicated its gay and daring makeup. New Yorkers, at this time innocent of the malpractice which has since become famous as the "buttock and leg show," danced with frantic eagerness to see what Ziggy* had done. They discovered over the door the legend which, however inaccurate or uncomplimentary it may have seemed, described its author's business in terms that have been remembered. "Glorifying the American Girl" was the legend.
Since that time Ziggy has produced a new edition of The Follies every year as well as an enormous number of variegated musical shows, each devised, with unerring accuracy, to suit the taste of the season.
He built last year a theatre as imposing as a village bank and far more handsome. Departing from the old desk above the New Amsterdam Theatre, at which every important theatrical person, with the exception of Lee Shubert, has stood at one time or another during the last two decades, Mr. Ziegfeld moved his scenery into an airy office four floors above the entrance of the new theatre.
His homes (at Hastings-on-Hudson, Palm Beach; Patricia Island, Quebec; Manhattan) are full of flowers, sofas and pictures of two people. One of these is his wife, beautiful Billie Burke. The other is his daughter Patricia who is idolized by her father.
With regard to Mr. Ziegfeld's business, many a curious one has asked questions to which replies are as follows: