Anna Held "The Brains Behind the Ziegfeld Follies"

Ziegfeld Follies Girls "Glorifying the American Girl"

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ziegfeld-Follies-Tribute-Glorifying-the-America...

Helene Anna Held (March 8, 1873 -- August 12, 1918) was a Polish-born stage performer, most often associated with impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, her common-law husband.

Thanks to the Ziegfeld Follies, a wildly popular string of revues from the early 1900s, the name of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. is familiar to many theater devotees. Somewhat less well known, however, is Anna Held.

Ziegfeld got his taste in clothes, knowledge of stage presentation, and even the idea for his Follies from her. She was one of the first celebrities to win transatlantic fame, and a leading musical stage star for more than two decades. It is no exaggeration to say that she was one of the most remarkable women of her time.

According to Ziegfeld, it was Held who first suggested that he should stage a Folies Bergere-style revue in New York. His first Follies (1907) featured "The Anna Held Girls" without Anna, who was still touring in Miss Innocence. In fact, her only appearance in the Follies series would be was as a flying comet in a film used in the 1910 edition. But Held had done so much to enrich Ziegfeld's sense of fashion and entertainment that it is fair to say she was part of every Follies.

She collapsed onstage in 1918 and died after a few months from multiple myeloma at age 45. She is interred at Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York. Ziegfeld was castigated by the media he had so studiously courted, for his mistreatment of Held and apparent indifference to her illness, and his notable absence from her funeral.

In 1976 Anna Held's daughter, Liane Carrera (died 1988), opened a museum of her mother's personal and stage items in San Jacinto, California. The museum was looted by robbers and all the displayed material was stolen a few years after it opened.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Anna Held
• Ziegfeld Follies
• Florenz Ziegfeld
• Vaudeville
• theater
• theatre
• musical
• broadway
• dream
• scenes
• photography
• slideshow

[Rustylugs]

Ok Gang here it is, you have just seen a Video Portrait of a REAL Woman. i know your used to Brittany, Jessica, and Lady( ya right) Gaga. I realize this may a shock to some of you, so try to remain calm.

[staclynn72]

@Rustylugs Excellent comment!

[CuddlyItalieUniko]

My goodness, thank you for posting this up here! I've been trying to find stuff on Anna endlessly, but to no avail other than some stupid poorly cast film I found online the other day. My Great-Great-Great Grandmother was a gorgeous woman and I thank you so much for posting this :) Absolutely wonderful video! <3

[staclynn72]

@CuddlyItalieUniko Thanks for commenting...Please stop in my Ziegfeld Follies Girls Tribute on facebook. Theres an Anna album with info there...

[2Granule]

Anna was truly beautiful!

Some of the Victorian ladies had a simpering quality that she avoided.

I would have liked to have lunch with her, be her friend.

[CuddlyItalieUniko]

@staclynn72 Of course :) I just liked the page and found the album then left a comment lol

I'd like to say that this video has a haunting beauty to it. The music and the old photographs blend so well and so fantastically <3 Much thanks to you again.

[staclynn72]

@thebackgroundartiste Yep shame on Ziegfeld for sure, what a jerk.. Thanks for commenting!!! And compliment.

[zaftra]

What I call a looker

[staclynn72]

@TheLadyMalfoy I just moved my Ziegfeld page to facebook. Its called Ziegfeld Follies Girls "Glorifying the American Girl" I have a lot of Anna's photos in the pics section if your would like to take a look there.