Overview

"When Florenz Ziegfeld started in theatre, it was flea circus and sideshow rolled into one. When he left, the glamorous world of 'show-biz' had been created. From the muscle man ""Sandow"", to the songbird ""Anna Held"", Ziegfeld learned that a big star filled seats and he hired them all for his ""Follies"" - Marilyn Miller, Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Eddie Cantor and Fanny Brice among them. A man of voracious sexual appetites, Ziegfeld's ardour created the Ziegfeld Girl. Head-dressed and bejewelled, they wore little more than a smile when gliding down the steps of the most eye-popping evenings theatregoers had ever seen. His power, though, went beyond the Follies as he produced a number of landmark shows, including Kern and Hammerstein's seminal ""Showboat."" In ""Ziegfeld"", Mordden recreates the lost world of the ""Follies"", a place filled with a glamour that no longer exists, masterminded by one of the most inventive and exacting men ever to fill a Broadway stage: Florenz Ziegfeld."

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9780312375430

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Reviews

[Ethan Mordden possesses] the kind of long view and deep investigation that almost no writer has previously brought to bear on the [history of the Broadway stage]. <br>--Jesse Greene, The New York Times<p>Praise for All that Glittered: The Golden Age of Drama on Broadway, 1919-1959 <p> Ethan Mordden, the almost absurdly prolific theatrical chronicler, has compiled a serious and engaging history. Mordden's evocation of the glory days of drama is a handsome reminder--the next best thing, as they say, to being there. --The Washington Post Book World<p> Erudite, but casual and conversational, and full of fresh perceptions, Mordden is a charmingly insightful raconteur who condenses 40 years' worth of opening nights into a single engrossing montage. -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)<p> [A] witty, compulsively readable style and knack for finding the right figures to focus on in each era. Mordden is a master at revealing the web of aesthetic and business connections just beneath the surface of developments. -- Booklist <p> More than enlivening description, Mordden offers social, political, aesthetic and cultural context as he discusses what led to Broadway's ascendancy and demise. Mordden's keen eye, broad vision, wealth of detail and sparkling style bring to life the American rialto at its peak. -- Kirkus Reviews <p> Exudes intelligence and wit. The author clearly possesses a passion for and an involvement with the theater, and he easily wins over the reader (who may strongly disagree with his views as the book progresses) in the first few pages with his conversational style and sly wisecracks. This is an enthralling exploration of a legendary and glamorous time in theaterhistory. -- Library Journal

Author Information

"Ethan Mordden has written extensively for ""The New Yorker"" and ""The New York Times. ""Besides non-fiction on theatre, music, and film, he is the author of the ""Buddies"" cycle of short stories. The stories, adapted for the stage by Scott Edward Smith as ""Buddies,"" played an engagement at the Celebration Theater in Los Angeles. His most recent novel is ""The Jewcatcher,"" a savage black-comic fantasy on life in Nazi Germany."

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