Curtain! Fast music! Light!: A Day 3 Recap of The Great Ziegfeld Blogathon 2020!

Please see the Day 1 Recap and Day 2 Recap here.

Time for the final curtain call, but before it falls please note that,

The Day 3 entries are:

*Trying out a new way of post presentation so please click on an image to read a post (images used below are pulled from the posts with the titles & authors of posts overlaid)

NEW!:

    

   

 

 

ZIEGFELD QUIZ ANSWERS:

**STOP: Before reading further, please pop over to the Day 2 recap for the quiz questions**

Q1. Which famous classic actress was NOT a Ziegfeld girl? 

a). Joan Blondell

b). Paulette Goddard

c). Norma Shearer

d). Barbara Stanwyck

When she was just starting to pursue acting and doing extra work, Norma Shearer scored a letter of introduction to meet Ziegfeld…who was thoroughly unimpressed and dismissed her as having “bad legs, a poor figure, and a cast in one eye,” according to Norma’s biographer Gavin Lambert. Over time Norma learned how to mask her perceived defects and play up her strengths and eventually the girl who Ziegfeld predicted would never make it in showbiz became one of the biggest moneymakers for her studio, earning the unofficial title of Queen of the MGM lot. Not everyone can be right all of the time…

Q2. Which two Ziegfeld headliners had a major fight backstage resulting in one dragging the other onstage by his/her hair?

a). Fanny Brice vs. Lillian Lorraine

b). Eva Tanguay vs. Sophie Tucker

c). Eddie Cantor vs. Will Rogers

d). Mae Murray vs. Olive Thomas

Onetime Ziegfeld mistress and showgirl Lillian Lorraine was known not only for her beauty, but her fiery and confrontational nature. During one performance Lorraine picked a fight with comedienne and torch singing headliner Fanny Brice over a man and a backstage fight ensued so loud that the audience could hear it. It ended with a victorious Brice dragging a defeated Lorraine onstage by her hair. 

Q3. Which one of these actors married not one, but two Ziegfeld girls? (Bonus points for naming the girls)

a). Lionel Barrymore

b). Charlie Chaplin

c). Rod La Rocque

d). Jack Pickford

Jack Pickford, actor and brother of Mary, married Ziegfeld girl Olive Thomas, but her untimely and mysterious death at age 26 by ingesting mercury bichloride (ruled as accidental, but speculation persists that it could have been suicide or even murder carried out by Jack) made him a young widower. Jack later married Ziegfeld dancer and headliner Marilyn Miller who, like Olive, was also rumored to have been a onetime mistress of Ziegfeld. Jack and Marilyn divorced after a few years and married other people. Like Olive, Jack and Marilyn also died young; Jack at age 36 of neuritis, possibly provoked by his alcoholism, and Marilyn at age 37 from complications after a surgery to relieve chronic sinus issues. 

If you picked Charlie Chaplin, you were close, though only one of his wives was a former Ziegfeld girl, the gorgeous Paulette Goddard. 

Q4. One of performer Claire Luce’s acts was to ride a live _____ with a diamond studded collar on stage. What did she ride?

a). Camel

b). Elephant

c). Ostrich

d). Zebra

Draped in ostrich feathers and headdress, Claire Luce’s big act included riding an ostrich onstage from which she would alight and perform a dance with fans also made from ostrich feathers. Unfortunately the creature had stage fright (or maybe was afraid he’d be made into her next accessory) and was said to have run off the stage on a couple occasions, once when it chased W.C. Fields for pulling out a feather and once more taking Luce for a ride through the city streets after escaping out of a stage door. 

Q5. The name of Ziegfeld’s other revue, a racier one which took place on the rooftop after hours, were the Midnight ____

a). Antics

b). Frolics

c). Revels

d). Scandals

After the Follies wrapped up for the night, patrons could continue the fun upstairs on the roof for the Midnight Frolic, which functioned as part supper club and part revue. Folks could drink booze, sit and eat, or dance while the band played. While the Follies was like the revered first son, the Frolic was his naughty younger brother. Chorus girls danced on a glass walkway over patrons’ heads and sat in their laps wearing costumes enhanced by balloons, which they encouraged gentlemen to pop with their cigars…

Luce in her feather costume

****

How did you do on the quiz?

As we wrap up this blogathon, I must say how much fun I’ve had and how grateful I am for the astounding participation and quality of posts. This blogging community is amazing! Some folks even went out of their comfort zone and jumped right in to take the opportunity to learn about or try something new, which I find quite heartening.

This was the second blogathon I’ve ever hosted (and the first time I’ve done it the usual way) and I thank you readers and writers for such a lovely experience!

I read this quote below years and years ago, supposedly Ziegfeld’s last words as he hallucinated one final show, and they stuck with me. While I’m not certain if these were his actual last words or not (they seem too perfect to be true), I still like to believe they could be. After all, Ziegfeld loved to showcase beautiful fantasies. If it isn’t true, I’m happy to keep up the illusion.

“Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good, the show looks good!”

*****

Sources for the trivia include:

The Ziegfeld section of Musicals101.com (by John Kenrick), an excellent source for all things Ziegfeld.

Golden, Eve. (2000). Anna Held and The Birth of Ziegfeld’s Broadway. Louisville, KY: University Press of Kentucky.

Lambert, G. (1990). Norma Shearer: A life. New York, NY: Knopf.

Mordden, E. (2008). Ziegfeld: The man who invented show business. New York, N.Y, NY: St. Martin’s Press.