"Ziegfeld Girls": the sexiest Broadway actresses of the 1920s

For modern connoisseurs of female beauty, black-and-white photos of the early twentieth century make an ambiguous impression: the makeup of the girls looks too dramatic, the faces are too pale, the poses are theatrical. Another thing is "Ziegfeld girls": these beauties of the 1920s could compete with modern supermodels, and at the beginning of the last century they served as a real standard of sexual attractiveness.

Ziegfeld Follies is a series of theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City that were staged from 1907 to 1931. From 1932 to 1936, a radio program called "Ziegfeld Follies on the Air" was also broadcast.

Ziegfeld Florenz (Ziegfeld Florenz) is a legendary American entrepreneur, Broadway impresario, a talented director of a series of theatrical shows "Ziegfeld Follies" (1907-1931).

The son of a German immigrant and the owner of a nightclub, Flo at the dawn of the XX century went to Europe to find new talented girls, and met his first beauty there, a singer of an ordinary cafe named Anna. He was fascinated by her, and soon they were married. He wanted to return to the United States and make her a star, but Anna was not only beautiful, but also a very smart woman. She showed her husband a famous French variety show and suggested that he create a similar one in America.

The result was the Ziegfeld Follies, which was a very colorful revue, a cross between late Broadway shows and more complex vaudevilles and top-class variety shows. Many famous artists of that era appeared in these productions.

For many artists who participated in the show, the nickname "Ziegfeld girls" was fixed. All of them appeared in front of the public in chic lush costumes, which were modeled by famous couturiers of that time.

Ziegfeld himself conducted auditions, selecting the most sexy and plastic beauties in his corps de ballet. 

For the first time in 1907, Ziegfeld's wife Anna brought 50 beauties to the stage, and the show became a legend on the same day. "Ziegfeld Girls" brought a new standard of beauty. 

The New York Times wrote: 

Ziegfeld was also a master of advertising tricks. Many of his actresses became movie and stage stars. He once told the press that Lady Anna takes a bath with milk every day, and he returns the milk back if it has turned sour. The milkman sued him for libel, but the public has already taken the bait. Anna Held became a star of the first magnitude, her photos appeared in the newspapers every day.

The showman was a meticulous perfectionist in business and a real professional, at the same time he was known as a famous spender and womanizer. Lee Davis wrote in his book "Scandals and Whims" that Ziegfeld felt "the need to sleep with the best beauties who worked for him all his adult life."

Anna eventually divorced him after Flo fell madly in love with Lillian Lorraine. In response to the divorce, Flo bought a two-story apartment directly above the apartment of his former muse and lived there with a new favorite. For several years, he spent all his free time with Lillian, but the wedding never took place. Instead, in 1914, he married another beautiful woman, the actress Billie Burke.

All the "Ziegfeld girls" were immortalized in the photo portraits of Alfred Cheney Johnston, a New York photographer. Most of the photos were not published until recently.

During the Great Depression, Ziegfeld lost his audience and went bankrupt. The name of the show was repeatedly used by other impresarios after his death, but none of them managed to regain their former glory.