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Ziegfeld: the man who invented show business

2009; Association of College and Research Libraries; Volume: 46; Issue: 09 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5860/choice.46-4912

1943-5975

Ethan Mordden,

Theatre and Performance Studies

When Florenz Ziegfeld started in theatre, it was flea circus and sideshow rolled into one. When he left, the glamorous world of 'show-biz' had been created. From the muscle man Sandow, to the songbird Anna Held, Ziegfeld learned that a big star filled seats and he hired them all for his - Marilyn Miller, Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Eddie Cantor and Fanny Brice among them. A man of voracious sexual appetites, Ziegfeld's ardour created the Ziegfeld Girl. Head-dressed and bejewelled, they wore little more than a smile when gliding down the steps of the most eye-popping evenings theatregoers had ever seen. His power, though, went beyond the Follies as he produced a number of landmark shows, including Kern and Hammerstein's seminal Showboat. In Ziegfeld, Mordden recreates the lost world of the Follies, a place filled with a glamour that no longer exists, masterminded by one of the most inventive and exacting men ever to fill a Broadway stage: Florenz Ziegfeld.