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Beginning with the 1922 edition, the Follies reach the end of their glory days. Ziegfeld needs to find a new way to entertain audiences. As he struggles to come up with another hit, he is devastated to learn that Marilyn Miller plans to marry Jack Pickford. Ziegfeld’s objection to their marriage spurs Miller to claim that he made advances to her and is planning to divorce Billie Burke. Ziegfeld and Burke’s precarious marriage remains intact, despite the scandal. Ziegfeld finds Burke a play that he hopes will heal their relationship, but Rose Briar is not a hit. The latter part of the chapter contains previously unpublished correspondence between Burke and Ziegfeld. Although they are still together, it seems that Burke is more invested in the marriage than Ziegfeld is. The chapter ends on a note of uncertainty for Ziegfeld: he has not produced a hit since Sally and fears he is not adapting well to the preferences of 1920s theatergoers.

As the chapter begins, Ziegfeld is struggling to get his new musical off the ground. He funds the entire production himself and hires Jerome Kern, P. G. Wodehouse, and Guy Bolton to write the play. Sally is different from Cinderella musicals of the past; it has a distinctly modern feel, for in the end, Sally finds not only love and wealth but also a successful career. Sally is a monumental success. The seemingly unstoppable team of Marilyn Miller and Ziegfeld is threatened when she meets Jack Pickford, former husband of Olive Thomas. To Ziegfeld’s dismay, Pickford and Miller become involved romantically. He encounters more woman troubles when Lillian Lorraine has an accident and severely injures her spine; Ziegfeld secretly pays her bills. The chapter includes a brief description of the Follies of 1920 and 1921 and explains how the lucrative Midnight Frolic was forced to close due to Prohibition. The chapter concludes with rare correspondence between Ziegfeld and his parents and between Burke and Ziegfeld during his time alone in Palm Beach. Despite the enormous success of Sally, Ziegfeld still feels insecure about his finances, his place on Broadway, and his marriage to Burke.

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.