summertime75:

Billie Burke 1907

(via my-ear-trumpet)

Fanny Brice - 1910

sydneyflapper:

My Baby’s Arms, Ziegfeld Follies 1919

 

 

 

 

bittybopp:

Ziegfeld Girls, on location.

(via bittybopp-deactivated20111129)

 

 

4th of September 2011

 

jazzage:

Ziefeld Follies

Colorized film from 1929

 

2831:

Yvonne Shelton

 

 

regardintemporel:

ACJ - Ziegfeld Follies, Ben Ali Haggin Tableau, 1920s

 

 

vintagegal:

1915 Midnight Frolic Ziegfeld Follies production

(The Girls of New York Town)- Dorothy Koffee as Washington Square.

 

 

aliaena:

Ziegfeld Follies showgirl and film actress Geneva Mitchell by Edward Thayer Monroe 1921

(via blackandwhiteandwtf)

 

vintagegal:

Ziegfeld Follies showgirl Jessie Reed by Edward Thayer Monroe c. 1920

 

 

 

screengoddess:

Ziegfeld Follies icon Marilyn Miller 1928 - Photo by Nickolas Muray

 

 

Susan Fleming

 

 

 

Drucilla Strain

Photo: Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1929

 

 

 

 

Myrna Darby

Photo by Alfred Cheney Johnston

 

 

 

Mary Nolan

 

 

The Dolly Sisters, with their dollies

 

 

 

 

The Dolly Sisters, Rosie and Jenny

The Dolly Sisters, twins Rosika (Rose) and Jansci (Jenny) Deutsch, were born October 25, 1892 in Hungary, and emigrated to the United States in 1905. They perfected a single-sex “tandem” dance act - practising in front of mirrors - under the name of ‘The Dolly Sisters’ they began earning money in beer halls as early as 1907. Barred for being under age by the New York City stage, they toured the Orpheum circuit until 1909 when they debuted on the Keith vaudeville circuit till 1911 when they signed with the Ziegfeld Follies for two seasons. It was here that they got their theme … “Siamese Twins,” which they used throughout their career.

In addition to making about a half dozen films from 1913 to 1920, they toured the theatres and dance halls of Europe.

 

 

 

The Dolly Sisters

 

 

 

(via hedda-hopper)

The Dolly Sisters

 

 

 

Helene Clive

 

 

 

 

 

 

floradoragirl:

Anna Held

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rose Dolores (1892 - 1975) was born to a poor family as Kathleen Marie Rose in England. She was discovered by Lucille (Lady Duff Gordon) and worked as a fashion model from then on.

She was hired by Florenz Ziegfeld for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 after he has seen her in a fashion show in New York. She also appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918, the Midnight Frolic of 1918, the Midnight Frolic of 1919, the Ziegfeld 9 o’Clock Revue, the Midnight Frolic of 1920 and “Sally”.

She wasn’t really talented in Singing and Dancing, but because of her looks she became one of the most famous Ziegfeld Girls.

In the Midnight Frolic of 1919 she wore an elaborate Peacock costume which was considered by many to be most spectacular single visual effect in a Ziegfeld show.

According to Doris Eaton Travis, Dolores was the tallest Ziegfeld Girl (about six feet) and “usually came on last in these parades of beautiful girls that would open up with a big fan”.

Dolores had many admirers, but in 1923 she decided to retire and marry the millionaire and art collector Tudor Wilkinson.

 

 

 

Gladys Glad (1907 - 1983)

 

 

Photo by Alfred Cheney Johnston

She performed in the “Ziegfeld Follies of 1926”, the “Midnight Frolic” of 1929, the “Ziegfeld Follies of 1931”, “Whoopee!”, “Rosalie” and “Rio Rita”.

She was some kind of the successor of Rose Dolores - she had not much Singing, Dancing or Speaking to do, but her mere presence was fascinating.

She was married to Mark Hellinger, who was the theatrical columnist for the New York Daily News and later went on to be a writer and producer of Crime Films.

After her career as a Ziegfeld Girl, Gladys started a beauty advice column for the New York Daily News and dabbled in radio.

 

 

 

(Rose) Dolores in her peacock costume

Ziegfeld Follies, 1920

 

Marilyn Miller - September 1, 1898 - April 7, 1936

  

  

One of the best female tap dancers of the 1920s, Marilyn began her career in vaudeville as part of the “The Five Columbians”, her family’s vaudeville act, where she was billed as “Miss Sugarplum”. Marilyn had arrived in New York City in 1914, - immediately began working on the New York stages.

But it was Florenz Ziegfeld who made her a star after she performed in his Ziegfeld Follies of 1918, at the famed New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street, with music by Irving Berlin. Sharing billing with Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers and W.C. Fields, she brought the house down with her impersonation of Ziegfeld’s wife, Billie Burke, in a number entitled Mine Was a Marriage of Convenience.

She followed as a headliner in the Follies of 1919, dancing to Berlin’s “Mandy”, and reputedly became Ziegfeld’s mistress, though this was never proven. Miller attained legendary status in the Ziegfeld production Sally (1920) with music by Jerome Kern, especially for her performance of Kern’s “Look for the Silver Lining.” The musical, about a dishwasher who joins the Follies and marries a millionaire, ran 570 performances at the New Amsterdam.

She was married to Jack Pickford, brother of Mary Pickford, from 1922 to 1927.

Miller had a long history of sinus infections, and her health was compromised by an increasing dependency on alcohol. According to reports shortly before her death, she entered a New York hospital in early March 1936 in order to recover from a nervous breakdown.  Three weeks after she entered the hospital, however, she developed a toxic condition and died from complications following surgery on her nasal passages.

 

She was 37. She died in New York City on the morning of April 7, 1936 and was given a funeral at Saint Bartholomew’s church on Park Avenue which drew 2,500 people, including former mayor Jimmy Walker, Beatrice Lillie, and Billie Burke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Princess White Deer

Performed in the 1927 Ziegfeld 9 O’Clock Frolic. According to the theatre program, she also performed in the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic of April 1921.

Born Esther Louise Georgette Deer of Chief James Deer and Georgette Osborne Deer (Iroquois Tribe, Mohawk - Akwesasne people of the St. Lawrence Seaway region) in 1891. She is now called the first Native American to gain fame as a dancer and vocalist.

 

 

 

Doris Eaton Travis

 

 

 

chateauxdanslair:

Billie Burke, photographed for Vanity Fair, 1920

 

 

 

thetranscendentalmodernist:

Ziegfeld Girl

Tata Leonova

 

Susan Fleming - February 19, 1909 - December 22, 2002

 

Her big stage break which led to her Hollywood career was as one of the famed “Ziegfeld Girls” in the Ziegfeld Follies. After starring in the Ziegfeld Follies productions on Broadway, she started appearing in movies. Fleming combined her dancing and cinematic interests in the 1932 movie Million Dollar Legs, in which she played the daughter of W. C. Fields’ character. As part of a publicity stunt for the film, her legs were insured for the eponymous million dollars.

Susan retired from show business when she married Harpo Marx in 1936. They dated for four years and she proposed to him three times before he finally accepted. They remained happily married for 28 years, and he died on their 28th wedding anniversary in 1964

 

 

 

turnofthecentury:

Olive Thomas & Don The Inebriate Dog in Midnight Frolic,1915

 

anneyhall:

Ziegfeld Girls

 

luzfosca:

floradoragirl:

Mae Murray

 

 

2831:

Gladys Glad

Photo: Alfred Cheney Johnston

 

 

Jean Ackerman

 

 

dolores-costello:

Helen and Dolores Costello

Ziegfeld Girls - Photo by Alfred Cheney Johnston

 

 

 

Reri (Ann Chevalier)

Performed in the South Seas Island number in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1931

Photo: Alfred Cheney Johnston (Via Historical Ziegfeld)

 

 

Mae Murray - (1920s)

Photo: Alfred Cheney Johnston

 

Bee Palmer

Beatrice C. Palmer was born in Chicago September 11, 1894, the daughter of Swedish immigrant parents Charles and Anna Palmer. She was a musician, songstress, Ziegfeld Follies performer, dancer, and song writer who had an all-around beauty and naughtiness that made her a very popular act in the Roarin’ Twenties. She first appeared on the New York stage in Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic of 1918 where she sang ballads to her own accompaniment on the piano (Bee was an accomplished pianist in her own right). It is during this time that Bee invented one of the 1920’s most popular dances “The Shimmy”.

 

Bee Palmer

 

 

Helen Morgan - (August 2nd, 1900 - October 8th, 1941).

She was the orginal torch singer; the first woman to get really drunk, sit on top of a piano and sing sad songs about how she loves her man but he treats her like dirt but she loves him anyway. During her hey-day, the 1920s and ’30s, she ruled supreme from atop a Steinway in dozens of cabarets. Her sad songs made even the hardest bootlegger cry in his beer. Literally placed on a pedestal, she was the true “untouchable” of the Jazz Age.

She performed in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1931, and Ziegfeld’s “Showboat”.

 

The Cutter Sisters

Photo: Alfred Cheney Johnston

 

 

 

sources

 

http://ziegfeld-follies.tumblr.com/archive

http://ziegfeld-follies.tumblr.com/post/11986708345/sydneyflapper-ziegfeld-follies-of-1920