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Feature
Designing for
the Ziegfeld
Follies Girls
Kathe Gust*
Famous for his stage shows featuring
beautiful women in exotic attire, Florenz
Ziegfeld and his Follies set a high bar for
theatrical costumes in the 20th century.
The impresario, Florenz Ziegfeld
began his “Follies” in 1907. The final one,
under various names, was presented in 1943
under the guidance of the Shubert Brothers.
The shows were designed as revues, with
a mixture of skits, dances, songs, variety
acts and, most importantly, 50 to 100
beautiful women in exotic costumes
throughout the various episodes. [1915
finale – 78 girls – this was the largest
chorus on stage up to that time.]
envelope on what was acceptable in daring
on the theatrical stage. A vast array of
directors, and choreographers contributed
their talents to the most dazzling and
extravagant shows ever seen on Broadway
up to that time. The 1915 Follies even
featured live elephants on stage!
The lavish set designs for most of the
shows were often provided by Joseph Urban
or Ben Ali Haggin, but the costumes evolved
over the series and were provided by a
number of designers who each contributed
something to make, and keep, The Ziegfeld
Follies the most spectacular event on
Broadway.
Florenz Ziegfeld produced the first
show in 1907 at the suggestion of his
common-law first wife, Anna Held, who
"suggested an American version of Paris'
popular Folies-Bergere: part girlie show,
part fashion show, with some comedy
thrown in", featuring large choruses of
beautiful women in glamorous, but scanty,
costumes.
The success of The Ziegfeld Follies
induced his competitors to offer more of the
same, and by the start of the 1920s most of
the Broadway chorus was bare-legged,
corsetless, and often topless, or nearly so.
The songs were popular. Many of
those ‘hits’ can still be heard today on
oldies radio and in elevators. Some of the
singers and comedians he featured became
big stars, but the most lasting effect the
Follies had on entertainment was the
evolution of the chorine into the showgirl,
largely through the medium of costume.
What was billed in 1922 as ‘A
National Institution Glorifying the
American Girl’ was actually pushing the
The Virtual Costumer Volume 10, Issue 2
Copyright © 2012 Silicon Web Costumers’ Guild
1915 Ziegfeld Follies finale for Act 1 - 78 girls. This was the largest chorus on stage up to that time.
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Ziegfeld got away with it by keeping his
shows both “classy” and spectacular.
the “Ziegfeld Girl”, and the designers who
were responsible.
Later Ziegfeld would do an about-face.
In the mid 1920’s, the man who first brought
the bare bosom to America, would declare it
scandalous! He organized the Alliance to
Reform the Stage, with the slogan “Back
A typical chorus girl's costume from
the 1890s was a knee-length dress with a
bell shaped skirt over ruffled petticoats. The
dress would be loaded down with
passementerie, sequins and assorted trims.
When appearing in comic opera costumes
could be more revealing. Stars in those
shows could even wear scanty costumes and
tights like those on the chorus dancers who
backed them up. These costumes were the
rage of Broadway, but could also lead to
cries for censorship and even police
intervention if not carefully handled.
Poster for actress, Ziegfeld girl, Florenz Ziegfeld's
common-law wife Anna Held, c. 1899. Performing Arts
Poster Collection, Library of Congress.
from Nudity to Artistry!” But by that time he
had moved his own productions toward a
(slightly) more modest, but still very
expensive and elegant exhibition ballroom
dancing style as worn by Vernon and Irene
Castle. Women appearing in trend-setting
fashions offset by one or more males in
immaculate formal wear became a standard
part of the "moving scenery" of the
presentation.
Lilyan Tashman, 1917. Ziegfeld's saw to it that his
chorus girls were both classy and spectacular.
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Let’s take a closer look at the
progression from the “Anna Held Girl” to
Actress Fay Templeton, 1904 Theatre magazine.
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yards of fabric. Skirt dancers were
fully covered, but their whirling,
clinging drapery was still considered
hot stuff at the time.
shorts. The girls in these early shows (below,
far left) were still the standard chorus
pattern – they could sing a little, dance a bit
and generally looked good on stage.
The earliest Follies procured
costumes from local suppliers rather
than specific designers. W.H Mathews
The costuming may sometimes have
been scanty, but it wasn’t cheap. Even when
nude, the girls were scattered among exotic
Portrait of “skirt dancer” Loie Fuller by Frederick Glasier, 1902.
Next in the progression was the “skirt
dancer.” Loie Fuller (above), is a fine
example of this with her flowing, highwaisted, full-skirted silk gowns which grew
longer and longer over time, eventually
requiring long wands to manipulate the
Lady of Coventry tableau, 1919.
The very first Follies, 1907.
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and the Schneider-Anderson Co. were
used several times. They were
instructed to supply expensive furs,
laces, ribbons and gems. Ziegfeld
required elaborate headdresses and
turbans to offset his chiffon draperies,
transparent harem pants and very short
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sets filled with roses and forbidden to move
(above). According to the New York laws of
the time this was the differentiator between
artistic exhibition and smut. The human
statues were remote and beautiful, but not
quite real.
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The early follies costumes were not
everything the Ziegfeld desired. He was
competing for a supplier’s attention with
other producers. He also found it hard to
recruit new collaborators since he was
developing the reputation for changing his
mind about costumes at a moment’s notice
and also being very slow to pay.
He began to look about for a costume
designer who would develop a relationship
to him and the show as his new set designer
Joseph Urban seemed to be doing. Someone
who could provide costumes that would
“blend together like the various sounds
issuing from…an orchestra, yet every girl
must stand out as an individual.”
In 1915 Ziegfeld’s second wife, Billie
Burke, introduced him to the couturier
Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon) and he signed
her for the Follies. But it wasn’t just her
garment designs he admired; it was the
mannequins she trained to show clothes in
her shop. He had finally found the missing
ingredient he felt would separate the Follies
showgirl from the Broadway chorus.
He hired Lucille because she had the
girls, and knew how to dress them. The
famous Dolores (Kathleen Mary Rose
Wilkinson) was a mannequin trained by
Lucile. Dolores never spoke, sang or danced
– she just strolled through “the episodes” in
one gorgeous costume after another
(following page).
Costuming during the “Lucile years”
(1915-1921) was known for layered, draped
garments of gauzy fabrics in sophisticated
Peacock costume, Follies of 1925.
First Ziegfeld Show Girls, 1907.
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color combinations. She loved to accessorize
with hand-made flowers. Her show
costumes also frequently featured sequined
designs to catch the lights of the stage.
Eventually, Lucile moved on without
establishing a permanent relationship with
the Follies, but the
mannequins she trained
remained. Now called
showgirls to distinguish
them from the
“small, agile
chorus girls”,
they continued
to parade the
stage in
designer
clothing (top,
far right).
The 1917
showgirls were
the first cohort
trained in the
“Ziegfeld walk”. It
was a slow, hip
forward, stroll with
extended arms. The
girls were trained to
keep their expressions
perfectly sober until they
arrived at the center spotlight. At that point
they gave the audience a smile, and then
strolled off. Their seeming indifference to
Above: Delores as Empress of Fashion models stunning
butterfly gown, 1917. Top right: Phyllis in Arabian Nights
dress designed by Lucile for 1916 Follies. Bottom right:
Kay Laurell as “September Morn.”
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the audience was part of the mystique
(bottom, at right).
After Lucile left, James Reynolds
designed a few years of Follies then moved
on to the Dilligham organization’s book
musicals before retiring to paint and teach.
Although not a couturier, Reynolds
designs were admired
for their luscious beauty,
combinations of fabrics
and skillful color
coordination.
The audiences
of the time
were
particularly
taken with
his exotic
treatment of
historical
costumes
(next page).
In two 1923
articles for the
Ladies Home
Journal Ziegfeld
stated that the
costuming for his
show was “leading
fashion” and must “keep
ahead”. But he was also prepared to consider
costume as an object rather than clothing.
The Ziegfeld showgirls wore haute couture,
but both they and the chorus might also be
dressed as everything from birds to salad
vegetables, taxicabs to soft drinks in
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episodes with titles like “Beautiful Jewels”,
“Lace Land” or “The Greatest Navy in the
World” (left).
During one season Ziegfeld tried to
entice Erté as designer, but after a brief
flirtation in 1923 Erté took his skills
elsewhere, designing exclusively on a long
term contract for George White’s Scandals
and eventually moving on to Hollywood. It’s
possible that Erté found Ziegfeld’s desire to
control every aspect of the show more
constricting than was comfortable. Very few
of his designs for the show have been
Above: Four James Reynolds costume drawings from
the 1921 Follies. “Dauphin” costumes for Madilyn
Morrisey, Gert Selden, Gladys-Loftus.; “Cyclamen
Tree: A Slave from Egypt.” Left: “The Greatest Navy in
the World” scene, 1909 Follies
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identified, but they are unmistakably his and
not Ziegfeld’s (below)
In the mid-twenties the image of the
Ziegfeld Girl was
changing again. The
old aloofness was
giving way to a more
approachable, slightly
more scandalous
“celebrity” image.
With John Harkrider,
John Harkrider, 1923.
Ziegfeld found a
compatible new partner. Just 25 years old at
the time, Harkrider was able to design
everything in a modern, new look that suited
the twenties, while keeping the spectacle of
the older versions intact. He designed from
1927 to 1931 (the last Follies before
Ziegfeld’s death) not only for the Follies, but
most of Ziegfeld’s other productions
including the historical dramas Rio Rita and
Three Musketeers.
Comedian Eddie Cantor, co-wrote a
biography of Ziegfeld in 1934 that stated,
“never before was the heart of feminine
beauty developed into such a vast industry.”
And industry it was, for despite all his
attention to detail and micromanagement of
the process, Ziegfeld knew that he could
manufacture showgirls in the same way that
a production line turned out cars. Give him
the right ingredients going in and he would
turn out an endless procession of suitable
“girls”. The thing that made them different
was the mystique surrounding the
transformation.
The true last gasp of the Follies can be
found in three MGM films The Great
Ziegfeld (1936), Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and
Ziegfeld Follies (1945). Designer Gilbert
Adrian, a friend of Billie Burke, designed
the thousands of costumes for all three films
in the Follies style. While still a student at
the New York School for Fine and Applied
Arts Adrian had contributed to the costumes
for George White's Scandals in 1921. He
also worked on the sets for the Music Box
Revue of 1921 and returned to provide
costumes for the same show in 1923. No
doubt this was only one of the reasons Ms.
Burke trusted him to design in the “Ziegfeld
Ruth Page, "Music Box" design: Gilbert Adrian, 1922.
style", something that simply couldn’t be
done today due to cost, especially for the
extravagant finale of The Great Ziegfeld,
which was reused in the1941 picture.
Most of those designs were based on
actual costumes used for Ziegfeld’s
Midnight Frolics (1915-1923) shows, which
were held in the rooftop theatre of the New
Amsterdam after the regular Follies ended
for the evening. The designs were so
elaborate and so much depended upon their
effect when in motion, that for the first and
only time during his tenure at MGM, Adrian
decided to use live models instead of tailor's
dummies for all the costume fittings.
Erte design for the 1923 Follies.
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Sources
Billie Burke and Making
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Flo Ziegfeld-Billie Burke papers,
1907-1984 (NYPL)
Florenz Ziegfeld Collection, 18931979 (bulk 1910-1930) (UT Austin)
"Her bubbly, breathless tremolo and
fluttery delicacy were
endearing rather than
exasperating. There
was really no one like
her." – Hollywood
biographer Donald
Spoto, 1996.
Joseph Urban papers, 1893-1998
(Columbia Univ.)
Costume designs for Ziegfeld (NYPL)
Anna Held and the Birth of Ziegfeld's
Broadway by Eve Golden. University Press
of Kentucky, 2000.
Historical Ziegfeld website:
http://ziegfeldgrrl.multiply.com/
Gowns by Adrian: The MGM years
1928-1941 by Howard Gutner. Abrams,
2001.
Mrs. Ziegfeld : The Public and Private
Lives of Billie Burke by Grant HayterMenzies. McFarland, 2009.
Ziegfeld by Charles Higham. Regnery,
1972.
Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show
Business by Ethan Mordden. St. Martins,
2008.
The Ziegfeld Follies. (with an
introduction by Billie Burke Ziegfeld) by
Marjorie Farnsworth. Putnam, 1956.
Zeigfeld Follies: Paper Dolls in Full
Color by Tom Tierney, Dover, 1985.
Above: Poster from The Great Ziegfeld. MGM, 1936.
Right: Billie Burke portrait from the February1920
issue of Vanity Fair by Baron Adolf de Meyer
Ziegfeld, The Great Glorifier by Eddie
Cantor and David Freedman. A. H. King,
1934.
The World of Flo Ziegfeld by Randolph
Carter. Praeger, 1974.
Ziegfeld Girl : Image and Icon in
Culture and Cinema by Linda Mizejewski.
Duke University Press, 1999.
Kathe Gust enjoys creating clothing
for many historical periods, and for various
sci-fi and fantasy genre. Visit her web site to
read articles and see photos for some of her
costuming projects.
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The Great Ziegfeld cost MGM $2
million, their biggest budget to that time.
It ran nearly 3 hours, which Variety said
was the longest running time ever for a
U.S. Film. Publicists said that Ziegfield's
widow chose William Powell for the role,
though her memoirs do not record that.
Burke did support Myrna Loy’s casting,
and brought friends to the set to meet her.
Some of Ziegfeld's top stars played
themselves, and Burke's friend Gilbert
Adrian designed the costumes.
The Great Ziegfeld earned a 100%
profit was nominated for 7 Oscars, and
won three including Best Picture and
Best Actress. But Burke always felt that
she came out the big winner. She served
as a technical advisor on the film, for
which Louie B. Mayer rewarded her with
a seven-year contract at MGM. There she
would play her most famous film roles,
including the dizzy society hostess in
Topper (1937) and “Glinda the Good” in
The Wizard of Oz (1939).
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