July 23, 1932

Florenz Ziegfeld Dies in Hollywood After Long Illness

By The Associated Press

HOLLYWOOD, July 22--Florenz Ziegfeld, musical comedy producer, died tonight at a hospital here.

Death came at 10:31 P. M., after an unexpected setback that developed only tonight. Only Dr. Marcus Radwin, attending physician, and a nurse were in the room when the producer died.

His wife, Billie Burke, the actress, reached the bedside two minutes after his death.

The noted "glorifier of the American girl" had been here only a few days, having been brought from a New Mexico sanitarium. He never had recovered from an attack of pneumonia last Winter. A hard season after his illness caused a relapse and complications, although in the last few days he had appeared to be improving.

Florenz Ziegfeld had been ill intermittently since February. He suffered a relapse in June, and was confined to his home at Hastings-on-the-Hudson.

His physician said at that time that Mr. Ziegfeld had never fully recovered from a severe attack of influenza dating back to the try-out of "Hot-Cha!" in Pittsburgh during the Winter.

On July 19 a dispatch from Hollywood had reported Dr. E. C. Fishbaugh as saying that he was "hopeful" of Mr. Ziegfeld's recovery. He said Mr. Ziegfeld had suffered an attack of pleurisy and that, although both lungs had become affected, the producer's heart was improved.

His Career as "Glorifier"

Mr. Ziegfeld, known as the "glorifier of the American girl," began his career in professional theatrics with the profitable exploitation of the strong man, Eugene Sandow, as the "perfect man."

A number of years elapsed between the time of his rising popularity at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 to the production of the first of the Ziegfeld "Follies" that ran through twenty-two editions with more and more beautiful choruses. Perhaps, beneath the surface, the same idea underlay the two; that of exhibiting something so nearly perfect that people were attracted by their own desire to admire.

Mr. Ziegfeld was the son of Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld, who organized the Chicago Musical College, and recruited the symphony orchestra for Theodore Thomas. He was born on March 21, 1869, and grew up against a background of Beethoven, Schumann and Bach.

The younger Ziegfeld had a flair for the theatre, and was constantly active in amateur promotions. His father seized the World's Fair as an excellent excuse to give him a chance at the business in a professional way, sending him to Europe to obtain performers for a program.

The result was a German band, a group of Russian signers and dancers, a Hungarian string orchestra and an English singer. The combined efforts of all of them produced nothing more than a financial failure.

In New York the younger Ziegfeld knew Maurice Grau, grand opera impresario, had under contract Eugene Sandow. The "perfect man" Mr. Grau esteemed as being worth $1,000 a week. Mr. Ziegfeld could not guarantee anybody $1,000 a week and so offered 10 per cent of the gross. The deal was made and Sandow went to the World's Fair.

The ability of the young manager as a glorifier was soon being used. One night Mrs. George Pullman and Mrs. Potter Palmer, leaders in Chicago society, paid Sandow a visit in his dressing room. The fact of the visit made a newspaper story, and other prominent women found similar visits a sort of social obligation. Sandow's 10 per cent quickly ran up to about $3,600 a week, and Mr. Ziegfeld's esteem for publicity became practically ineradicable.

Mr. Ziegfeld tired of being Sandow's manager after about a year and a half, and came to New York. He brought Anna Held from Paris and presented her in his first production, "A Parlor Match," in 1896. The show was lagging financially until a milkman began suit against Miss Held for the milk in which she was said to have taken her daily bath, and when the news of that was spread, the actress became a great success.

"The French Maid," which followed in 1898, first revealed the Ziegfeld flair for elaborate and costly revue spectacles. Miss Held continued in the leading role appearing in "Papa's Wife," "The Little Duchess," and "Miss Innocence," and the Ziegfeld star was continually rising.

Quits Temporarily as Producer

At last it began to wane. "Red Feather," resulted in losses; "Higgledy-Piggledy," brought still more losses; "Pink Lady" was only so-so, and finally "Mlle. Napoleon" was a disaster. Frantically trying to stem the tide of reversals, for then, as he practically always did, Mr. Ziegfeld staged his shows without backers, he came near the verge of nervous collapse. Then he gave it all over and went to Europe for four and a half years.

Mr. Ziegfeld once said that during those years he won and spent about $1,500,000. In one evening he won $100,000 at baccarat. In 1906 he returned with the idea of the Folies Bergere in the back of his mind. In 1907 he produced his first "Follies."

Two years later names which are still familiar began to appear in his "Follies." There were Mae Murray, Sophie Tucker, Harry Kelly and Lillian Lorraine. The "Follies" caught, grew in popularity, and followed each other year after year for twenty years.

His Exacting Rehearsals

Himself a good dancer, with an excellent musical ear, Mr. Ziegfeld paid especial attention to these two phases of his shows. He chose his chorus girls with fastidious care, he went through agonizing hours of rehearsals to make each number fit into his conception of perfection as to dancing, music, costumes and scenery, and he operated on the theory that if anything is good, more of the same must be better.

In a few years he had clinched a reputation for excellent taste in feminine beauty. "Women glorify gowns, and certain gowns can glorify certain girls," he said in 1914. He then became the "glorifier." Any girl who made her appearance in a Ziegfeld chorus was deemed to have been "glorified," and the title of glorifier became the popular recognition of his fame.

In 1914 Mr. Ziegfeld married Miss Billie Burke. The ceremony was a civil one, performed in Hoboken on April 11, the couple having met the previous New Year's Eve. Miss Burke on that evening went to a party at the old Sixty Club with Somerset Maugham, the playwright and novelist. Mr. Ziegfeld, the account relates, was there in costume as a tramp. He saw Miss Burke, went out and changed to formal evening dress, came back, met her and began an ardent courtship.

Some of His Successes

Miss Burke had already achieved a large success as a stage beauty, and the marriage was widely heralded. They had one child, a daughter, Patricia.

In 1927 Mr. Ziegfeld suddenly turned from the "Follies," thereafter producing "Sally," a tremendous financial success, "Rio Rita," "Show Boat," "Simple Simon," "Show Girl" and "Smiles."

It has been estimated that Mr. Ziegfeld made $1,000,000 each from "Sally," "Show Boat" and "Kid Boots," his three biggest hits. "Smiles" was said to have cost him $350,000. In 1930 he revived the "Follies."

His home, Burkeley Crest, at Hastings-on-Hudson, was supposed to have cost $1,000,000. He had been known to take as many as a hundred trunks with him when he traveled. He had two gold telephones on his desk, and he enriched the telegraph companies considerable by his fondness for sending 500-word telegrams.

When he built the Ziegfeld Theatre in Sixth Avenue in 1927, a venture which was financed by William Randolph Hearst, he unconsciously sought to create something which would best express him, next to the nature and opulence of his shows.