July 8, 1907: The 1st "Ziegfeld Follies"

July 8, 1907: The Follies of 1907 premieres, at the Olympia Theatre, on New York's Broadway. They were the first "Ziegfeld Follies."

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was a Chicago native, the son of a German immigrant who wanted to bring European classical music to the Midwest. But the son hated it, and, in 1885, 18 years old, ran off to join Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, impressing Cody himself by beating him in a trick-shot contest. Everything Flo Ziegfeld learned about show business, he learned from Buffalo Bill.

In 1896, on a visit to London, he met Anna Held, a French-Polish singer. She took him to the Folies Bergère in Paris, giving him the model for the stage show he wanted to put on in New York. He rewarded her by promising to make her the biggest musical star in America.

She had the face and the body for it.

Sadly, I can't find a recording of her voice.

He kept that promise by casting her as the lead in The Follies of 1907. He took the Paris idea of the sexiest chorus girls he could find, but making them appear as wholesome as possible, so that high-class people would be willing to see them, and willing to be seen while going in to see them. Before radio, let alone television, could begin broadcasting, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was America's greatest entertainment impresario, surpassing even actor, singer, dancer, writer, producer and director George M. Cohan, who nonetheless remained the king of Broadway performers.

Once, onstage, Ziegfeld and Held "married each other." But there was never a legal marriage. By 1909, as most Broadway producers have tended to do, Flo was cheating on her with other actresses in the show. She held out hope that he would drop them all and return to her, but that hope was every bit as futile as that of Flo's friends that he give up gambling. Anna died of myeloma in 1918, only 46 years old. Flo did not attend her funeral, not because of his infidelity, but because he had a fear of funerals.

Having discovered such performers as Anna Held and Billie Burke (whom he married in 1914), raised Fanny Brice from a comedian on New York's Yiddish-language stage to English mainstream stardom, and provided a venue for Bert Williams, the leading black entertainer of the time, Ziegfeld continued to run his various Follies productions until 1931. He died the next year, from pleurisy, at the age of 65. His last words may or may not have been a hallucination: "Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good! The show looks good!"

In 1936, the film The Great Ziegfeld was made, beginning a trend of composer biographies that lasted well into the 1940s. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture. William Powell played Ziegfeld, Luis Rainer won an Academy Award for playing Anna Held, and Myrna Loy played Billie Burke.

Burke was not only still acting at that point, her most famous role was yet to come: She would go on to play Glinda, "the Good Witch," in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, a film whose color-TV broadcasts ensured that she would be remembered long after Flo Ziegfeld was treated as a relic of a past that, for the most part, wasn't even capture on black & white silent film. She lived on until 1970. Her daughter with Ziegfeld, Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, became a journalist, living until 2008. She had 4 children, so the Ziegfeld family line continues.

The Olympia Theatre was at 1514 Broadway, at 44th Street. It was demolished in 1935, and retail occupies the space today.

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July 8, 1907 was a Monday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Cleveland Naps, 5-4 at League Park in Cleveland. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the 2nd baseman and manager for whom the future Indians and Guardians were then named, went 3-for-4 with a walk. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at the Polo Grounds. Ed Karger pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Brooklyn Superbas lost to the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown pitched a 6-hit shutout. The Superbas, named for their former manager, Ned Hanlon, and a popular circus troupe of the era, Hanlon's Superbas, became the Dodgers in 1911.

* A doubleheader was split at the 3rd and final version of the South End Grounds in Boston. The Boston Doves won the opener, 2-0. Vivan "Vive" Lindaman pitched a 4-hit shutout. The Cincinnati Reds won the nightcap, 4-0. Roy Hitt pitched a 7-hit shutout. The Doves were named for their owner, George Dovey. In 1912, they became the Boston Braves.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Sam Leever pitched an 8-hit shutout. Honus Wagner went 0-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at South Side Park in Chicago. Charles "Chief" Bender was the winning pitcher.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Americans, 6-5 in 14 innings at Bennett Park in Detroit. Ty Cobb went 4-for-5, and Sam Crawford went 4-for-6. The Americans became the Red Sox the next season.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Washington Senators, 3-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.