Florenz Ziegfeld

The Great Ziegfeld: A Self-Made Legend

by: Femme Vivre LaRouge

Born in 1867, Florenz Ziegfeld forged his legendary status as a Broadway producer through numerous productions, most notably The Ziegfeld Follies and the original production of Show Boat.  He brought together the best of the best in every field, both onstage and behind the scenes, to present glitzy, glamorous spectacles like no other.  With the showmanship of PT Barnum and the charm of Casanova, Ziegfeld truly glorified, and adored, the American girl.

Ziegfeld’s first success as a publicist came when he brought fame to The Great Sandow during the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.  Sandow, a progenitor of modern bodybuilding, modeled himself after classical Greek statues, working tirelessly to achieve the ‘ideal’ proportions of man.  While he performed great feats of strength for his audiences, the act was not very successful until Ziegfeld began enticing rich society women to not only see Sandow flex his 58-inch chest up close and personal, but also squeeze his bouncing biceps backstage!

Ziegfeld’s next sensation came in the form of 18-inch ‘wasp waist’ music hall singer, Anna Held.  Miss Held delighted American audiences with her hourglass figure, French accent, and flirtatious songs.  But Held did not succeed on her vivacious personality and risque tunes alone –Ziegfeld pumped the press machine relentlessly.  It seems that he was never afraid of telling a little lie, so long as it was interesting.  For example, ‘Flo’ spread the word around that Miss Held regularly took milk baths, and even went so far as to publicly accuse a dairy of delivering sour milk to Anna, then sue the dairy!  A Follies publicity stunt consisted of a staged police raid during a particularly tittilating number, which ended with the officers in uniform doing a kick line with the chorus girls!

For over a decade Ziegfeld tailored his productions around Anna Held and it was she that gave him the idea for the Ziegfeld Follies format, modeling it after the Folies Bergere.  What started out as a common law marriage finally ended in divorce when Anna could no longer ignore Flo’s affair with Lillian Lorraine, who he had even moved into an aparment upstairs from his and Anna’s own suite.  Lillian, a tempermental Follies star, was only one of Ziegfeld’s many dalliances, including Olive Thomas and several other starlets.

One amusing anecdote about Lillian Lorraine came about when she threw a tantrum, accusing singer and comedienne Fanny Brice of attempting to steal a boyfriend away from her.  The argument ended with Brice dragging the diva across the stage by the hair of her head, in front of an audience!  Brice was one of the great comics catapulted to stardom by Florenz Ziegfeld.  Another was Bert Williams, the first black actor to join a white cast on Broadway.  Although the racial lines were still quite clear, Ziegfeld withstood multiple protests for even booking Bert.  Flo worked with a remarkable range of stars, booking established vaudeville talents such as W.C. Fields and Will Rogers, and discovering scores of newcomers.  Many of his cast and crew went on to work in the burgeoning Hollywood film industry.

Flo enlisted the incredible talents of set designer Joseph Urban, who created the show’s signature sweeping staircases that reached toward the heavens and grandiose rotating sets adorned with scores of lovely girls.  Urban built trap doors, fully glittering fountains, and a floor that lit up when touched by a dancer’s foot, and he also designed Ziegfeld’s own theatre in 1927.  Lavish backdrops, exotic animals, and gimmicks such as numbers specifically designed to be viewed through 3-D glasses all made the Follies shows spectacular above all else.  Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern composed original music for many of the shows, while Lady Duff-Gordon, survivor of the Titanic, costumed the girls in the enticing and opulent garments that set a Follies girl apart from any other showgirl.  The costumes and sets were often conceptual, artistic, and wildly creative.

The first Follies show took place in 1907, and from the very beginning Ziegfeld offered up the luxury, allure, and laughter that modern audiences were after.  The production cost was a whopping $13,800, but it paid off by pulling in $130,000 in ticket sales.  In the early 1920s, Follies shows ran for over 500 performances apiece and in 1924, Ziegfeld shelled out $170,000 to make sure the production had that magical ‘Ziegfeld touch.’  The Ziegfeld Follies, by Marjorie Farnsworth, describes that special touch thusly, “First, Ziegfeld knew the subtle line between desire and lust, between good taste and vulgarity, and never crossed it…Second, the exhibitionism which was part of his private life was not contrived.  It was an integral part of the personality mechanism that made him what he was: a gambler who had an almost childish irresponsibility toward the value of money and an equally childish conviction that he could always get some more when he wanted it.  Most of the time he was astonishingly right.”

In 1914 Ziegfeld married the young actress, Billie Burke, who he also starred in the Follies.  Although she retired from film for a time to raise their daughter, Patricia, Billie enjoyed a long and critically acclaimed career.  Today she is best remembered as Glinda The Good Witch.  Billie and Florenz remained together, despite his philandering, until Flo’s death in 1932, and Billie worked hard to clear the debts incurred by Flo in the stock market crash, and to preserve the name of Ziegfeld in the annals of history.

There are many films that make tribute to Mr. Ziegfeld and his career, including those listed below.  The Great Ziegfeld is a marvelous, partially fictionalized biopic, and Ziegfeld Follies has a stellar lineup of some of the most talented performers of the twentieth century, presented in a musical revue format with stunning costumes and scenery.

The Great Ziegfeld: www.imdb.com/title/tt0027698/ from 1936, starring William Powell as Ziegfeld, Fanny Brice as herself, Myrna Loy as Billie Burke, and Frank Morgan of Wizard of Oz fame (the wizard) as well as Ray Bolger, the scarecrow from the same.

Ziegfeld Follies: www.imdb.com/title/tt0039116/ from 1945, with William Powell again playing Ziegfeld, and the incredible talents of Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Lena Horne, and many more!

Ziegfeld’s own, and only, foray into film, Glorifying the American Girl: www.imdb.com/title/tt0017896/ from 1929, starring Mary Eaton, sister of Doris Eaton Travis.

See ziegfeld-follies.tumblr.com for a plethora of magnificent photos of Ziegfeld girls.

The Silver Slipper and the Infamous Evelyn West and Blaze Starr

by: Femme Vivre LaRouge

The only icon that says Las Vegas more than a slot machine is a showgirl.  From can-can to canned music, Vegas seems to have always welcomed scantily clad women on its stages.  Some of the biggest busts in burlesque were popular touring sensations at the Silver Slipper in the mid-century.  One of the largest casinos on the Strip in its heyday, some favorites at this saloon were Tempest Storm, Evelyn West, and Blaze Starr.

Although there was little protest to the stripteasers’ Vegas presentations, both Blaze Starr and Evelyn West found themselves under the scrutiny of the law when performing elsewhere.  In Philadelphia Blaze Starr’s performance was brought up on an obscenity charge for her aggressively sexual panther crawl and Evelyn West was reportedly hauled to the big house at least a half dozen times in St. Louis.

Billed as “The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque,” Blaze Starr was born in 1932, hit the road at the age of 15, leaving her Virginia home behind, and was performing burlesque in Baltimore by 16.  With her phenomenal figure and flaming red hair, Blaze quickly made a name for herself.  This hot-blooded mama can aptly be described as fierce, her acts known for their energy and daring.  Her most famous stage prop was the burning couch, a device that was both hot and humorous.  As Blaze graced the divan with her derriere and began to disrobe, the couch would start to smoke and seemingly set itself on fire!  The only person this act didn’t make her popular with was probably the fire marshall.  What really got her into trouble, though, was another little stunt involving a live panther.  The panther joined her onstage and helped her out of her clothes while searching for hidden snacks.  But problems didn’t arise from a protest by PETA or an act of animal violence.  No, the trouble all started when the panther passed away…and Blaze decicded to keep the routine, imitating the panther herself.  Although audiences were ready for her raw re-enaction of the panther’s prowl, police were not.  Perhaps they feared that Blaze would incite a sexual riot, so they arrested her for obscenity.  Just as a later accusation in New Orleans would be, the charges were thrown out.

Miss Starr is perhaps best known these days for her love affair with “the ungovernable governor,” Earl K. Long of Louisiana and the movie, Blaze, based off of her autobiography.  Previously pictured as the lead in 1962’s Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, Blaze may not have been an actual nudist, but Miss Evelyn West spent some time as a part of The American Sunbathing Assocation.  She advocated the health and happiness that nudism could bring to a person and was even a bridesmaid in a nude wedding once.

Known as “The Hubba-Hubba Girl,” Evelyn West was born in 1921 and has been credited with making burlesque ‘bust-conscious.’  She was so proud of her own pair that she had them insured for 50 big ones through the prestigious Lloyd’s of London.  She even attempted to legally change her name to Evelyn “$50,000 Treasure Chest” West.

Beginning in sideshow, Evelyn’s career really took off after World War II when she began performing a striptease at San Francisco’s President’s Club.  She appeared in the film A Night at the Follies in 1947, where she quipped, “I know you’re looking at my shoes,” and was an extra in a couple of earlier films, but burlesque was where she really made it big.  Despite her many run-ins with the St. Louis police department, Deputy Police Chief James Hacket gave her the compliment of calling her “the Babe Ruth of burlesque.”  Her most notorious prop, a dummy called Esky, modeled after Esquire magazine’s mascot, caused some to take offense.  They claimed that her act “excited men to lewd and vicious thoughts,” but as per usual, the judge in this case was hesitant to navigate the grey area between art and misconduct, and the charges were dropped.  Although she was taken in for indecent exposure several times, her bondsman, Bob Block, has stated that she was never held over night.

Miss West had no problem stirring up a little trouble, and publicity, wherever she went.  Evelyn was known to make disparaging comments about rival celebrities, even throwing a tomato at one, and threatening to sue others.  According to one source, her pin-up photos were banned by the US postal service for lewdness and a pricing scale that correlated directly to Miss West’s state of undress.

From starring at the Stardust and Silver Slipper to authoring articles such as “How I Feel about Sex” and “Are Strippers Immoral,” the buxom beauty definitely made her mark on burlesque.  Evelyn eventually retired to anonymity, though, and passed on in 2004.  Blaze Starr, however, continues to create art, selling her jewelry online at www.blazestarrsgems.com.  She also still enjoys playing the Cajun fiddle and the slot machines!

Editors note: When Femme came up with the idea to do an article on burlesque arrests, I thought it was fabulous.  When she came back and said there were just too damn many for one article, I thought- even better!  What better way to kick off a new monthly series than with the delicious Mae West & the legendary Sally Rand.

Burlesque Arrests: Sally Rand & Mae West

By: Femme Vivre LaRouge

Burlesque house raids are as infamous as those of speakeasies during prohibition, sometimes being one and the same.  As performers pushed the envelope further and further, policing agencies and government lobbyists went tit for tat trying to pass new laws of censorship and to enforce a moral code.  Many a famous burlesque performer has come under the scrutiny of the law; here we shall spotlight fan dancing pioneer, Sally Rand, and 20^th century sex icon, Mae West.

Born Harriet Helen Gould Beck, Sally Rand was a teenage runaway, circus performer, cigarette girl, model, dancer, stage actress, and silent film star before she ever picked up a pair of ostrich feather fans.  In 1933, at the Chicago World’s Fair, she not only wielded her fans wearing nothing but Max Factor body paint, but also appeared as Lady Godiva, riding a white horse, apparently nude.  Thus began her arrest record, with a total of four arrests in a single day!  Though Rand was charged with lewd conduct, Superior Court Judge Joseph B. David dismissed the case, noting that, “Some people would want to put pants on a horse…if a woman wiggles about with a fan, it is not the business of this court.”  The incident’s publicity made her a burlesque sensation, her weekly pay escalating from $125 to $3,000 in a single summer.   Never actually baring quite all, Sally Rand was noted for saying, “the Rand is quicker than the eye.”

1946 found Miss Rand back in court, charged with indecent exposure, corrupting the morals of an audience, and conducting an obscene show.  She was taken into custody after an engagement at the Savory in San Francisco, where six police officers witnessed one of her fan dances, in which she decreased her costume to a flesh-colored triangle.  Rand hired renowned defense attorney, Jake Ehrlich, who had kept both Billie Holiday and Gene Krupa from going to jail on drug charges.  Ehrlich made the point that nudity was respected in the art of the great masters and suggested that the court view the dance in question, as evidence of its artistic nature.  The judge agreed to this and even granted Miss Rand a release to continue her performances, unaltered, until the trial was over.  That very same night, however, Rand began her dance, but was stopped for arrest by the San Francisco Police Department.  Imagine their surprise when the lights came up and it was revealed that Sally Rand was hiding a pair of flannel long-johns behind her fans.  Furthermore, in place of her customary triangle of costume, was a note marked “CENSORED.  S.F.P.D.”!  The next morning she performed her usual routine for the judge and jury and was promptly acquitted, on the grounds that, “Anyone who could find something lewd about the dance as she puts it on has to have a perverted idea of morals,” as Judge Shoemaker pronounced.

From flapper to fan dancer, Miss Rand continued to strut her stuff into the, and also her, sixties.  As she said herself, of her illustrious career, “I haven’t been out of work since the day I took my pants off.”

Mae West, a household name to this day, began her career in Vaudeville, working her way up to radio, Broadway, and later the screen. Her entire career, which lasted her a lifetime, was based on one infamous character: herself.  Known for her sexual candor, wit, and double entendres, she coined many famous phrases, such as “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me” and “A hard man is good to find.”

Not only an actress, but a producer and writer, as well, Miss West titled her first Broadway show “Sex.”  The play was not such a great success until it was brought up on a morals charge, sparking a heated debate over the role of censorship in the theatre.  After being arrested and released on $1,000 bail, West continued her show, to packed audiences, for a lengthy run.  As with Sally Rand, the publicity did her nothing but good!  However, in 1927, the play was again brought up against charges of obscenity and West was convicted of corrupting the morals of youth, for which she served nine days out of a ten day sentence, getting out early on good behavior!  She served her sentence at Welfare Island Women’s Workhouse, where Mae West, never a quitter, gathered a great deal of material from observing her inmates and wrote her play-turned-film “Diamond Lil.”  During the scandal of “Sex,” West was also busy writing and producing “The Drag,” which the New York Times described as the play that “caused the sudden action…toward cleaning up the stage.”  Although the show was a success at its out of town previews, it was not allowed to open on Broadway.  This didn’t stop her from staging “Pleasure Man,” which also featured drag performers, and landed West, once more, in jail and, once more, released for $1,000 bail.  The lady certainly had a fighting spirit and, as she said herself, “Those who are easily shocked…should be shocked more often.”

Her involvement in the film business was fraught with the same battles over censorship as her Broadway career.  She caused such scandal on the silver screen that some authors jokingly credit her with singlehandedly bringing down the hammer of the censors that resulted in the Hollywood Production Code of 1934, which was the mode of film censorship until 1968.  But Mae West outlasted the production code, using her same shtick in 1978 for her final film, Sextette and still using her most iconic quote, “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime…when I’ve got nothing on but the radio.”

Story: Divertida Devotchka, Photos: Courtesy of Rick Delaup

Some of the biggest acts in burlesque will be appearing September 11 through the 13 at the New Orleans Burlesque Festival. The festival is the first of its kind in New Orleans since 2001’s Tease-O-Rama, and it’s shaping up to be one of the biggest burlesque happenings of the year. The event is boasting three nights of burlesque shows with live jazz, workshops with burlesque superstars such as Michelle L’amour, Jo Weldon and Catherine D’Lish, and panel discussions with New Orleans burlesque legends Kitty West (Evangeline the Oyster Girl), Wild Cherry, Tee Tee Red and Rita Alexander.

New Orleans burlesque has a very rich history, and I was lucky enough to discuss all of the details with Rick Delaup, the founder of the New Orleans Burlesque Fest and producer and creator of Bustout Burlesque. Delaup has almost 15 years of New Orleans burly-q research under his belt, making him a more than qualified source on the topic.

According to Delaup, the glory days of Bourbon Street burlesque were from the mid-forties to the mid-sixties. “The mid to late 1940s is when you started hearing about big burlesque stars like Stormy, Lilly Christine the Cat Girl and Evangeline the Oyster Girl,” said Delaup. “In the forties there were a lot of dancers who would come in and strip in the style of that time. In the late forties and in the fifties, they got more creative, using props like big oyster shells and champagne glasses. Things got even more imaginative, with more production value and more gimmicky shows.”

Evangeline the Oyster Girl headlined at the Casino Royale on Bourbon Street, rising out of a giant oyster shell and performing a dance with a massive pearl. She eventually dyed her hair green to make it look more like seaweed for her act.

Aside from the grandiosity of the performers, the Bourbon Street venues themselves were apparently quite a sight to behold. The most well-known locales were The Sho Bar, the 500 Club and the Casino Royale, which had raised stages with theatrical-style lighting and balconies from which spectators could watch the shows.

“The 500 Club was on the corner, so they had a great location,” said Delaup. “They could advertise from both sides and they big, tall windows with nearly life-size photos of the dancers in the windows and lots of neon lights. The outsides and entrances of the clubs were very attractive to crowds.”

Of course no discussion of New Orleans burlesque would be complete without mention of the music for which the city is most famous – jazz. According to Delaup, live jazz and burlesque were hand in hand all throughout the Bourbon Street hey-day.

“All the burlesque venues had live jazz. Louis Prima’s brother Leon Prima owned the 500 Club for a long time, and quite a few jazz musicians got started in strip clubs,” said Delaup. Legendary jazz saxophonist Sam Butera, who just recently passed away this June, got his start in Bourbon Street strip clubs when he was just a teen.
New Orleans may have a history of being a playground of debaucherous delights, but its image has changed quite a bit over the years. “It was the burlesque clubs, jazz clubs and shows that made Bourbon Street famous,” said Delaup. “Of course, there’s no semblance of that now; Bourbon Street is very different now.”

The glory days of Bourbon Street burlesque may have faded, but Delaup decided that a throwback to the old days was in order, which is why he created Bustout Burlesque in early 2005. The group consists of an average of 6 to 7 dancers (one of them being this month’s stunning spotlight burlesque performer, Perle Noire).

“We’re trying to give the audience the experience of what New Orleans nightlife was like 50 years ago while still being in the here and now,” said Delaup. “Some people who have attended our shows say they feel as though they’ve stepped back in time.”

Delaup says they’re heralded as the only authentic 1950’s style show because their entire hour and a half long show is performed with the accompaniment of a live band, which is something he decided to include in the New Orleans Burlesque Fest as well.

“It’s going to be a real challenge because all of the performers competing for the Queen of Burlesque title will be performing to live music, and some of them may or may not be accustomed to that,” Delaup said. “It will be very interesting to see how everyone does.”
In addition to the live musical accompaniment, Bustout is pretty serious about authenticity. There’s no neo-burlesque or visible tattoos in their shows. Delaup says there’s nothing wrong with either, but that their goal is to have acts that really look as though they could have come from the era.

“Our acts are very different from the average four minute strip act. They average seven to ten minutes per act, which is much more in line with the classic acts, which some could be as long as 20 minutes,” said Delaup. “A four minute song simply isn’t enough to adequately tease the crowd.”

The caliber of Bustout’s show is pretty astounding considering what they’ve been through during their existence. They premiered in March 2005 and just as things started picking up for them, Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005 and laid waste to all of their hard work.

“The show was destroyed,” Delaup said. “We lost all the costumes. The props were ruined. Performers scattered all over the country. Some returned. Some didn’t. It took half a year to restart everything from scratch.”

As soon as they were able to reassemble, they hit the ground running. Bustout Burlesque started back in March of 2006 performed every Saturday night for nine months at Tipitina’s in the French Quarter. They did runs at a cabaret and on Bourbon Street, but they’ve been performing monthly at the House of Blues for the past two and a half years.

As far as the city’s recovery from Katrina, Delaup says there’s still a lot to be done.

“New Orleans is still trying to bounce back from the storm. A lot of tourists probably wouldn’t notice because the French Quarter is rebuilt, so you don’t really see any damage in those areas,” Delaup said. “But we’re definitely not fully recovered.”

Delaup and his associates have been planning the New Orleans Burlesque Festival since October of last year, and we here at Pin Curl are quite confident that his efforts will pay off. If you haven’t already snagged tickets, you better do so quickly, because you’re not going to want to miss the opportunity to see who is crowned the new Queen of Burlesque in one of the most historically risqué cities in the country!