The Ziegfeld Follies of 1918

Broadway supported America's war entry from the nation's entry into the struggle. Very early on, George M. Cohan composed the marching song of the AEF Over There. The biggest extravaganza on the Great White Way in 1918 was the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918. 

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.

Named after its founder, Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (1867–1932), and inspired by the Folies Bergères in Paris, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931) remains one of the most celebrated American revues of the 20th century. Its brisk pace, ripped-from-the-headlines content, popular songs, and innovative designs, combined with its regimented display of beautiful, young, white female bodies made it a distinctly modern entertainment form. Each installment of the Follies offered a series of acts, ranging from solos and comedy routines to full-company dance numbers and fashion spectacles. In keeping with the revue format, the theme and narrative varied from year to year, but the show consistently offered a rapid-fire "revue" or review of current events, hit Broadway plays, technological innovations, and other modern developments.

Lillian Lorraine and W.C. Fields

The Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 had 151 Performances with music from a selection of the most talented composers of the day, including  Dave Stamper and Irving Berlin.  The cast included some of the most beloved entertainers of the 20th century: Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice and W.C. Fields. The famed Ziegfeld Girls provided elaborate dancing routines. Each of the stars played roles in several of the 26 scenes of the review. Will Rogers, for example, joked about American politics and the Irish demand for Home Rule but also appeared in musical numbers, lassoing Ann Pennington as she danced, and strutting in white tie and tails with Lillian Lorraine.  One of the tableau set-ups apparently included a mock-up of a British tank, but I was unable to locate a photo showing it. 

The numerous song selections  included:

• I'm Gonna Pin a Medal on the Girl I Left Behind

• Garden of My Dreams

• When I Hear a Syncopated Tune

• Any Old Time at All

• I Want to Learn to Jazz Dance

• Would You Rather Be a Colonel with an Eagle on Your Shoulder or a a Private with a Chicken on Your Knee  (Sung by Eddie Cantor)

Naturally, the routines had a distinctly military flavor, which acerbic columnist Dorothy Parker had fun with in her review of the 1918 Follies:

One sweetly solemn thought comes to me o’er and o’er—“Can they ever produce a revue when we get through with the war?” I brood over the thing practically without ceasing, but I can find no answer to it. I can see no future whatever for our musical entertainments once peace is declared.

How will they ever costume the show-girls if not in the flags of the Allies? What will the prima donna do if she can’t appear at least once as Columbia? How will they ever get the curtain down if it can’t fall on a finale of the tights of all the Allies? What will they do for the big scene, if they can’t use the Lee Lash trench with Our Boys—all exempt—gazing manfully out into the wings, over the property sandbags?

How could there be a score with a good-bye song; or a marching song in which the doughboys are referred to as “Sammies;” or a musical number almost entirely composed of the phrases “over there” and “over here;” or choruses introducing strains of “The Marseillaise?”

The thing is too much for me. I don’t see how the managers are ever going to get along without a war somewhere around. . .

Will Rogers with the Ziegfeld Girls

Look at this year’s Follies, for instance. Where would they be if there hadn’t been the Allies to fall back on? Why, Echo doesn’t even answer. The audience staggers out of the New Amsterdam Theatre, all used up with patriotism, muscle-bound from applauding Dolores swathed in the stars and stripes, and Kay Laurell simply gowned in the French flag.

Every few minutes there is a parade of most of the beautiful women in the United States, dressed in what comes under the head of uniforms; or a song about the Blue Devils; or a trench scene; or a Ben Ali Haggin tableaux; or a finale of the Allied color bearers. It is charming to hear the buzz of spirited argument, during the finale, as the audience tries to settle which flag belongs to what Ally. Everything is fair enough, of course, when they are dealing with France, England, Italy, and Belgium; but it does get a bit thick when they start bringing in the colors of Montenegro, Portugal, and Serbia.

There is one great moral lesson to be derived from the Follies and that is this: if we must have our patriotic spectacles of an evening, Mr. Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., is unquestionably the man to produce them. Any more dazzling stage pictures than those which go to make up the Follies, I have never beheld. They deserve every word that the advertisements say of them, and more besides. And I never knew there were as many pretty girls in the world as they are gathered together on the New Amsterdam stage; really, I saw so many beautiful women in the course of that one evening that it was a positive relief to go home and look in the mirror.

 

Sources: Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, IBDB, Today in NYC History, Allthatsinteresting.com, New York Public Library, Fitzpatrickauthor.com, Playbill