Ziegfeld ethan mordden biography
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Performers or managers who defied the Syndicate couldn’t get a theater in New York or anywhere else (Sarah Bernhardt, deemed the greatest actress of the age, ran afoul of the Syndicate and wound up playing circus tents across the country).
When war broke out between the Syndicate and the Shuberts —a delicious battle that captivated the gossip columnists and is vividly recounted by Mordden—Ziegfeld was forced to choose sides.
It wasn’t true; the idea was lifted from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by a hack Broadway writer (with a decent library) who freelanced for Ziegfeld. As a matter of fact, they seem to have nothing much to say about Whoopee at all, except that is opened in December 1928 and was a huge hit.
None of Most’s fascinating insights into this show, none of her points about the famous “operation” Cantor talks about throughout, pulling his pants down to show everyone to show his “difference” (= circumcision), and none of the homosexuality dealt with as a running gag is picked up by the Bridesons. He died in 1932, at age 65, and the era of the star producer was over.
Ziegfeld engineered that, too. “Ziegfeld” conjures up entertainment on a lavish scale—spectacular sets, hundreds of costumes, a 100-piece orchestra, and row after row of chorus girls, scantily but tastefully clad.
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was the most famous producer of his era, and if the word producer makes you think of a dapper man in a sharp suit working the phones, firing off telegrams, chomping a cigar, placing a bet, and seducing a starlet—usually at the same time—you’re thinking of him.
Let’s call it the “re-sampling method.”
Cover for “Ziegfeld and His Follies,” published by University Press of Kentucky.
Cynthia and Sara Brideson – co-authors of Also Starring… : Forty Biographical Essays on the Greatest Character Actors of Hollywood’s Golden Era, 1930-1965 – have managed the quite admirable task of going through most of the relevant published literature on Ziegfeld and Broadway history, scanning old and new publications, and turning the facts and opinions they found there into an elegantly readable new book that is like a huge mosaic of (credited!) quotes.
Mordden, who has written several books on the history of Broadway, does an excellent job of conveying what it must have been like to experience a Follies. The antic, topical quality of a Saturday Night Live sketch has its roots in countless “Follies” bits featuring the supremely antic Eddie Cantor. If you already have these books, you might want to stick with them rather than investing in this new hardcover publication.
Cover for Ethan Mordden’s 2008 “Ziegfeld” biography.
There would be more to say about Florenz Ziegfeld in the future, whether it’s a feminist or a queer reading of his life and works, an account of Ziegfeld and People of Color in his productions, and many other highly topical questions worth discussing.
The show ran for 318 performances on Broadway.
When it comes to the operettas Ziegfeld produced, most famously The Three Musketeers with music by Rudolf Friml and Bitter Sweet with words and music by Noel Coward, the Bridesons have absolutely nothing to say about the genre in the 1920s and how “operetta” as envisioned by Ziegfeld was different to other Broadway shows at the time, including the famous revues Ziegfeld presented as his Follies?
Shortly after Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. arrived in the 1890s, the new subway system made 42nd Street and Broadway a hub, bringing riders to what was becoming Theaterland. Where Mordden offens a rear view of the glorified American Girl, the Bridesons go full frontal.
Tagged: Anna HeldBroadwayErik CharellEthan MorddenFlorenz ZiegfeldGay & Lesbian StudiesGender StudiesRalph BenatzkyRevue OperettaRudolf Friml
ZIEGFELD
A rich and entertaining biography of Broadway’s first auteur.
Ever the witty and erudite raconteur, Mordden (All That Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919–1959, 2007, etc.) transports readers to the time when Times Square was just an intersection of streets.
I must confess that I found this extremely disappointing. Martin’s Press, 352 pages, $32.95
The names that first lit up Broadway—Klaw, Erlanger, Frohman, Belasco—have dimmed. The movie studios Disney and DreamWorks are brands that specialize in putting animated movies on stage, seldom with the flair Ziegfeld brought to his Follies.
At the same time, the Broadway theater was changing, with spectacle losing ground to more serious work. Near the end of the ’20s, Ziegfeld set collaborators to work on an emerging form, the musical that wed songs to a strong, central narrative. For a well written summary of what has been written about Ziegfeld thusfar, this is an attractively packaged new book.
Instead, Musketeers is called “an operatic version” of the classic Alexandre Dumas tale, and later Bitter Sweet and Musketeers are labeled “light operetta” – a genre that, according to the Bridesons, didn’t stand a chance with audiences after the Wall Street Crash and the dark economic times that ensued.
Ziegfeld learned to play the piano, but Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms weren’t for him. Their complicated private and professional relationship is dealt with at length, but never do the Bridesons offer any kind of insight into the role of women “from Paris” in late 19th century American Theater.