Meet the Famous Ziegfeld Girls at the Larchmont Library

LARCHMONT, NY – The Ziegfeld Follies are perhaps the best-known series of elaborate theatrical productions to ever be staged on Broadway in New York City. Martin Schneit takes you back to the days of the Ziegfeld Follies discussing such famous personalities as Irving Berlin, Anna Held, Justine Johnston, Ann Pennington, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Marilyn Miller, Fanny Brice, Joseph Urban and Ruth Etting. Schneit will also discuss the music of the Follies including songs like “My Man, Love Me or Leave Me” and “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody”.

Date/Time: Monday, May 2 at 7:30pm

Location: Larchmont Public Library

No reservations required

Created in 1907 by Florenz Ziegfeld, the idea for the Follies may have come from Ziegfeld’s wife, entertainer Anna Held, and based on the famous “Follies Bergère” which had taken Paris by storm. From 1907 through 1931, the Ziegfeld Follies were the most famous of shows anywhere. Much of what made these shows memorable were the “Ziegfeld Girls”.

The Ziegfeld Girls followed on the heels of the "Florodora girls", who had started to "loosen the corset" of the Gibson Girl in the early years of the twentieth century. These beauties, of similar size, decked out in designer costumes, gained many young male admirers and they became objects of popular adoration. Many were persuaded to leave the show to marry, some to men of substantial wealth. The Ziegfeld Ball in New York City continued as a social event of the season for years after the last production of the Follies.

The Follies were lavish revues, something between later Broadway shows and a more elaborate high class Vaudeville variety show. While many of the top entertainers of the era appeared regularly in the Follies, it was the beautiful “Ziegfeld Girls” that consistently packed the house. The Ziegfeld girls "paraded up and down flights of stairs as anything from birds to battleships." With the Ziegfeld Girl, Florenz Ziegfeld glorified the American girl and made her a symbol of the modern independent woman. Ziegfeld was instrumental in bringing women to the center of society and the Ziegfeld Girl became an American Institution.

Martin Schneit is a native New Yorker. In addition to being a life-long New York history buff, he has been a licensed New York City Tour Guide for over ten years. For the past ten years, Schneit has been volunteering his services, conducting walking tours of the City for Open House New York, a non-profit organization that promotes a greater appreciation of the city’s built environment; broadens public awareness by exposing diverse audiences to distinctive examples of architecture, engineering and design; educates and inspires discussion of issues of excellence in design, planning and preservation; and showcases outstanding new work as well as structures of historic merit. Schneit also conducts an annual walking tour called the “Jane Walk” for the Municipal Art Society. The walk is in memory of Jane Jacobs with an emphasis on where and how Jewish America started.

The program is free and everyone is welcome. The Larchmont Public Library is located at 121 Larchmont Avenue in Larchmont, NY.

For more information about Martin Schneit, visit his website at: www.martynewyork.com.

For more information about programs at the Larchmont Public Library, call the library at (914) 834-2281 or visit www.larchmontlibrary.org.

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