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Ziegfeld and His FolliesA Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer$
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Ziegfeld and His Follies: A Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer

Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson

Print publication date: 2015

Print ISBN-13: 9780813160887

Published to Kentucky Scholarship Online: January 2016

DOI: 10.5810/kentucky/9780813160887.001.0001

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PRINTED FROM KENTUCKY SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.kentucky.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright The University Press of Kentucky, 2021. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in KSO for personal use.date: 21 January 2022

Going Home

Going Home

Chapter:
(p.381) 21 Going Home
Source:
Ziegfeld and His Follies
Author(s):

Cynthia Brideson

Sara Brideson

Publisher:
University Press of Kentucky
DOI:10.5810/kentucky/9780813160887.003.0021

This chapter covers Ziegfeld’s disintegrating physical and mental states and his desperate attempts to revive his career. Ziegfeld’s next endeavor is a zany Bert Lahr musical comedy called Hot-Cha! He has to turn to gangsters for financial backing, including the notorious Waxy Gordon, and the show receives only mediocre reviews. Next, Ziegfeld decides to stage a revival of Show Boat but loses money on the project, despite a positive critical reception. Ziegfeld then agrees to host a radio program that will broadcast songs and skits from the Follies. Burke, meanwhile, agrees to star in a film for David O. Selznick, and Ziegfeld joins his family in Hollywood, even though he is gravely ill with pneumonia. Once in California, he is admitted to a hospital and dies shortly thereafter. Burke receives a phone call at the studio but does not arrive at the hospital in time to say a final good-bye. Burke and Patricia stay with Will Rogers and his wife until they find a small bungalow to live in. Burke, devastated and left alone to manage Ziegfeld’s massive debts, suffers terribly. Will Rogers remarks that Ziegfeld was not just a man but a symbol of a glorious bygone era.

Keywords:   Bert Lahr, Eleanor Powell, Lupe Velez, Show Boat, Will Rogers, David O. Selznick, Billie Burke, A Bill of Divorcement

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