IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mrs. A. Sandor Ince
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Object number
NPG.66.44
Exhibition Label
Born Chicago, Illinois
Master showman Florenz Ziegfeld brought a razzle-dazzle to live performance that signaled a new era in mass entertainment at the turn of the twentieth century—the production of grand-scale extravaganzas glittering with spectacle and opulence that “glorified the American girl.” Like P. T. Barnum before him, Ziegfeld understood the pulse of popular culture and had the promotional wizardry to capitalize on it. But unlike Barnum, Ziegfeld came to the fore when the entertainment industry was no longer a small-scale venture but a national commercial phenomenon. For the first three decades of the twentieth century, Ziegfeld’s Follies characterized American popular culture at its glitziest.
Provenance
Peggy Ince (Mrs. A. Sandor Ince); gift to NPG 1966