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Broadway musicals were a ready source for the early musicals, and RKO's smash Rio Rita led the way. Some of the adaptations were close, while others strayed wildly from the originals. Among the Broadway stars repeating their stage roles were Irene Bordoni in Paris, and Ziegfeld diva Marilyn Miller in Sally. Such films as No, No Nanette bore less resemblance to the stage success than it did to the thriving backstage genre. Composers DeSylva, Brown and Henderson found their works transferred more successfully than did Rodgers and Hart or Cole Porter. By the time of the most lavish Broadway adaptation, Whoopee!, musicals were in decline, yet with Eddie Cantor, Busby Berkeley, and Technicolor it scored a notable success.

This chapter gives a wide-ranging view of Ziegfeld as both a beloved boss and a traitorous one. The close-knit family of Ziegfeld stars, including Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, W. C. Fields, and Bert Williams, is torn apart by the Actors Equity strike of 1919. Ziegfeld’s stars remain loyal to him until they learn that he has joined the Producing Managers Association. When his stars leave, despite his good treatment of them, Ziegfeld is personally affronted. The strike ends, but Ziegfeld’s life continues to be chaotic. Olive Thomas and another showgirl with whom he allegedly had an affair commit suicide. People begin to wonder if there is a Ziegfeld curse. Burke remains loyal to her husband, but she questions his loyalty as his attentions to Marilyn Miller grow more conspicuous. He makes preparations for a show written specifically for Miller that ultimately serves as a hymn to the youth and beauty that Ziegfeld feared was disappearing in the Jazz Age.

Ziegfeld’s pessimistic mood changes when he and Eddie Cantor reunite after years of estrangement and Ziegfeld produces Kid Boots, with Cantor as the star. Even more than Sally, the success of Kid Boots proves that Ziegfeld can keep up with changing audience tastes in the 1920s. Next, the narrative returns to Ziegfeld’s marital difficulties. To prove his devotion to his wife, Ziegfeld decides to find a book musical for Burke. Annie Dear, in which the middle-aged Burke plays a young girl, is only a minor success. This chapter parallels Burke’s faltering career with Marilyn Miller’s. Now under Charles Dillingham’s management, Miller stars as Peter Pan. The failures of Annie Dear and Peter Pan have to do with the waning popularity of fantasy-themed shows. A new show by George Gershwin, Lady Be Good, signifies a shift toward jazz-inspired musicals. The chapter concludes with Ziegfeld seeking escape from his fear that, despite the success of Kid Boots, he will never produce another hit.

As this chapter begins, Ziegfeld produces an unlikely hit—an operetta of The Three Musketeers. Discussed are playwright William Anthony McGuire’s unprofessional, drunken behavior; backstage feuds; and Patricia’s propensity to fall in love with the leading men in her father’s productions. Ziegfeld’s production of Whoopee with Eddie Cantor is a phenomenal success and the producer’s fourth successive hit in the course of one year. Next he coproduces a film with Jesse Lasky, Glorifying the American Girl, although he still does not consider Hollywood a worthy rival. Ziegfeld reopens the Frolic, despite the fact that Prohibition is still in full swing. He then goes on to produce Show Girl and Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet. The latter show gets a lukewarm reception, mainly because it opens the same week that the stock market crashes. Ziegfeld loses everything but continues to produce shows. His next one, Simple Simon, flops, and he seriously reconsiders his views on Hollywood. The chapter concludes with Ziegfeld planning to explore career possibilities on the West Coast. Thanks to talking films, musicals are booming in popularity.

This chapter covers the Follies of 1918 and 1919. Lillian Lorraine reenters Ziegfeld’s life when he features her alongside his new infatuation, Marilyn Miller, in the 1918 edition. But the independent Miller dislikes Ziegfeld’s attentions and his attempts to micromanage her personal life, especially her romance with costar Frank Carter. Ziegfeld’s meddling spurs them to marry. Despite the backstage drama, the 1919 Follies emerges as the pinnacle of Ziegfeld’s revues to date. It embraces new trends, such as having a unified score written by a single songwriter (Irving Berlin) and including plenty of topical skits and modern songs. The chapter is full of rich descriptions of not only the Follies but also Ziegfeld’s dual nature as a benevolent yet controlling employer. Ziegfeld is now known throughout the land, but how long can he maintain his position as Broadway’s top musical producer?

This chapter begins with a description of the Ziegfelds’ lifestyle in Palm Beach. Included are previously unpublished letters between Burke and Ziegfeld concerning her conflicted feelings about the Florida resort town and Patricia’s impressions of it. Ziegfeld’s gambling problem reaches a climax at Palm Beach, provoking Burke to pack her bags and threaten to leave, after which Ziegfeld’s affairs and gambling decline noticeably. He attempts to launch a new revue, Palm Beach Nights (aka No Foolin’), and produces an unsuccessful Rodgers and Hart show called Betsy. Once Ziegfeld’s theater is completed, his luck changes. He premieres a new show, Rio Rita, which wins much acclaim. Ziegfeld’s winning streak continues as his comeback Follies of 1927 at the New Amsterdam reunites him with Eddie Cantor and garners enthusiastic reviews. Ziegfeld’s next project, Show Boat, will be the biggest risk of his career.

During the period 1940–41, Latouche became involved with the Kurt Kasznar revue Crazy with the Heat, the Ice-Capades of 1941, and other lesser efforts. However, his largest achievement immediately following Cabin in the Sky was Banjo Eyes, a show written for Eddie Cantor’s triumphant return to the Broadway stage, with music by Vernon Duke. The musical was an adaptation of John Cecil Holm and George Abbott’s popular 1935 farce Three Men on a Horse. After mixed reviews on the road in New Haven and Boston, management fired Latouche—or he quit, depending on the source—for not writing in a more accessible vein. The producers subsequently hired Harold Adamson to work with Duke as the show moved to Philadelphia and New York. The musical enjoyed a fair success on Broadway, but closed prematurely when Cantor decided to leave it on account of an undisclosed malady. Although the show has long been forgotten, some of the songs remain in the repertory.

This chapter discusses world events and developments in the theater that directly affect Ziegfeld’s life and work. The sinking of the Lusitania and America’s impending entrance into World War I lead to a wave of patriotism on Broadway. The 1916 Follies cleverly blends American music with spoofs of the army. Fanny Brice continues to be a hit with audiences, as does newcomer Eddie Cantor. The chapter includes a description of how Ziegfeld runs his office, with his clerical methods reflecting little of the perfection he demands from his shows. His fear of death, blood, and hospitals is also discussed as the chapter tells of his daughter Patricia’s birth and Anna Held’s death. He is absent for both events. The chapter also comments on Held’s legacy and the impact she had on Ziegfeld’s life and career. Ziegfeld tries to be a more devoted husband and father, and at Burke’s urging, he endeavors to make the Follies more appealing to families.

The advent of radio in the early 1920s allowed for the music of Broadway to penetrate even more households with dance bands, variety shows, and interview programs that exploited the rarified atmosphere of Broadway. In the 1920s, personalities such as Eddie Cantor and Rudy Vallee hawked not only the sponsors’ products, but the latest hit songs of Broadway. Songwriters, such as George Gershwin, as well as Rodgers and Hart, wrote original material for radio and appearing on the air as acclaimed celebrities. The Hit Parade program also codified the hit-making potential of Broadway songs. By the 1940s, Frank Sinatra brought the music of Broadway to avid listeners and used the “bully pulpit” of several popular radio series to disseminate the content and context of Broadway.

This chapter reveals the fate of Ziegfeld’s greatest stars, including Lillian Lorraine, Fanny Brice, and Eddie Cantor. The chapter then returns to Burke and describes her humble lifestyle in her later years. Among other things, she helps create the Ziegfeld Club, which aids ex–Ziegfeld girls who, like Lillian Lorraine, have fallen on hard times. After Burke’s passing, the Ziegfeld legacy almost disappears with the demolition of the Ziegfeld Theatre and Burkeley Crest. Burke’s and Ziegfeld’s remains were finally reunited at Kenisco Cemetery in Westchester County, New York.

The introduction discusses the myths surrounding Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. and the many conflicting impressions people had—and still have—about him. Commentary from his friends, employees, and critics reveals his multifaceted character. The introduction sets the tone for the entire book and establishes its primary argument: Ziegfeld the man must be separated from Ziegfeld the myth.

More than in any other form of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century popular entertainment, vaudeville performers consistently reached out to make their audience feel like part of the show, appealing to them beyond the footlights with every technique they had at their disposal. Their sense of artistic legitimacy was derived from their understanding that an act depended on the audience’s approval; it was not something they achieved separately or even gained from rejecting or ignoring the audience’s response. Moreover, continuous vaudeville produced a highly self-consciousness and self-critical relationship between artist and audience, in which the success of an act was never fixed or given in advance, but emerged through constant revision and refinement. Thus, even the most successful of acts was always under review. Or to put it another way, an act was always to some degree incomplete or unfinished, because no performance was ever definitive. This chapter focuses on the central problems of vaudeville performance, especially those relating to a performer’s ability to respond to the changing tastes and expectations of his audience.