Ziegfeld Girls - JESSIE REED BIOGRAPHY

 

Ziegfeld Girls - JESSIE REED BIOGRAPHY

There were hundreds of Ziegfeld Girls...but I am only going to highlight the ones that really pique my interest. But, I HIGHLY recommend the book Jazz Age Beauties: the lost collection of Ziegfeld photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston by Robert Hudovernik. I need to buy it myself actually, but I have checked it out thousands of times from my work and just look at the beautiful pictures. They are truly breathtaking. You will also see some familiar faces like Gloria Swanson, Norma Shearer, Clara Bow and see some new faces as well. Some aren't even named which is sad because they are just breathtaking.

Two other great books that I just love to look at are The Ziegfeld Touch: the life and times of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. by Richard Ziegfeld and Ziegfeld Follies by Marjorie Farnsworth.

Anyways, down to business. I introduce you now to Miss Jessie Reed. Another Ziegfeld beauty who was plagued by the Ziegfeld "curse." She had a great career with stardom and rich suitors, but died penniless and alone. I was drawn to her because, well, we share the same name...so I gotta connect with her on that level.

Like Myrna Darby, I don't know much about Jessie's early life, like where she was born, her birth date, etc. first appeared on stage in 1918 when she was discovered by Jake Schubert. She was quickly stolen away by Florenz Ziegfeld who put her in his 1919 edition of the Midnight Frolic...the more "risque" version of the Follies.

She continued to work on the rooftop, but also appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies from 1921 until 1924. Talk about being a busy girl!

Busy girl is right! Jessie soon became more famous (or infamous) for her life OFF the stage. If I may quote the moronic Kanye West..."I ain't sayin' she a gold digger." But...actions speak louder than words. I will give her credit for the fact that she didn't apologize for any of her actions, she knew who she was and what she was doing.

Jessie had her fair share of suitors and husbands for that matter. Her first marriage was to a black face comedian named Oliver de Brow. The two had a daughter named Ann. Apparently the two divorced after Oliver killed a man in a duel, which is a pretty good reason to divorce someone.

Her second "supposed" marriage was to another performer named Lew Reed. I have read conflicting reports as to whether they were actually married or if they were just living together for a time. After that, she married advertisement executive, Bill Young. After him was millionaire Dan Caswell.

Her last husband was named Leonard Reno, who actually visited her in the hospital before she died. He and even his new wife donated blood to try and save Jessie's life. Obviously, none of the marriages lasted. Her ex-husbands found her to be greedy, manic, and too high maintenance.

By 1935, Jessie was alone and broke. She got a few dollars from various theater charities every once in awhile that kept her fed and clothed.

Jessie Reed passed away at age 42. She became a moral lesson to young girls about what happens when you become too spoiled.Apparently she was buried at either Oliver/Olivet Cemetery. I am not sure of the state, but I think it is in New York.

Annie de Brow

Her daughter, Annie de Brow was actually going to audition for the Follies in 1932, but Ziegfeld passed away. She and her mother were not close, in fact Jessie rarely even talked about her. She was sent away as a baby to live with Oliver de Brow's family in Texas. I believe I read that Annie passed away sometime in the 1970s.

Biography: 

Beautiful and mercurial Jessie Reed was discovered by Jake Schubert in 1918 and put in the cast of his revue, "The Passing Show." Her dark good looks and graceful dancing captured attention, so Schubert installed her in the Sigmund Romberg musical "Sinbad" where her skill determined Florenz Ziegfeld to steal her for his 1919 Midnight Frolic. She stayed on in Ziegfeld's 1920 rooftop entertainment, "The Girls of 1920," and was featured in the Follies from 1921 to 1924.

Jessie Reed's greatest performances did not take place on the stage of the New Amsterdam Theater. In the 1920s she became famous as one of the most shameless gold-diggers in the country. She married twice for love, to blackface vaudevillian Oliver de Brow and performer Lew Reed, but found passion turned to dispassion all too quickly, so she opted for money, marrying two millionaires and an heir to a fortune. All found her high maintenance and manic.

By 1935, she was alone, impoverished, and receiving relief money from theatrical charities. She attempted to support herself as a nightclub hostess in Chicago, but was incapable of keeping regular hours or a civil tongue. She died indigent, at the age of 42. She became in death a favorite moral exemplum of what happens to spoiled beauties. Her daughter, Ann Carroll De Brow, was trying out for the Follies when Ziegfeld died in 1932. David S. Shields/ALS

MYRNA DERBY, Ziegfeld Girl BEAUTY ,DANCER 1908 APRIL 10 - 1929 SEPTEMBER 26

 

MYRNA DERBY,  Ziegfeld Girl  BEAUTY ,DANCER  1908 APRIL 10 - 1929 SEPTEMBER 26

This Ziegfeld Girl was not as big of a star as Ann Pennington, but she is one of my favorites due to her beautiful and haunting photographs. Also, because she died so young at age 21.

There isn't a whole lot of information about Myrna out there. I don't even know her birth date or where she was born, although my first guess would be around Pennsylvania. Or even if Myrna Darby was her birth name.

Her father worked for a railroad company. She had an older sister named Helen, and a younger sister Donna. She also had a younger brother named Lloyd.

She was discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld while performing in Pittsburgh at age 17.

She appeared in the Ziegfeld productions of Follies of 1927, Rio Rita, No Foolin', Rosalie, and Whoopee.

Myrna shared a dressing room with fellow Ziegfeld beauties, Hazel Forbes and Catherine Moylan. Evelyn Groves, another Ziegfeld girl was a close friend of Myrna's and was at her bedside when she passed away.

I have also heard different accounts as to how she died: the flu, sunburn, exhaustion, a heart condition, heartbreak, etc.

According to a New York newspaper, Myrna was worn out from a day of swimming and was also heartbroken after her engagement to a millionaire's son was called off. Her heart had been giving her troubles for the preceding months too according to Ziegfeld. Eventually it got to the point where there wasn't much they could do to help her.

Apparently many of the rich and well to do (mostly men) who were fans of hers gave money to help get her the best medical care available. Larry Fay, a well known rum runner, shelled out quite a lot of money and even paid for her funeral. He only met Myrna once, but was so taken with her that he wanted to help anyway he could.

Almost a year after she died, her name was dragged through the mud in the divorce papers of a Miles O. Rabinowitz. She was named as one of his "companions." Other Ziegfeld girls named were: Catherine Moylan, Evelyn Groves, and Peggy Blake.

Supposedly she is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, but I can't confirm that at this time.

Here are some sweet things some of Myrna's friends had to say about her:

"She was one of the nicest girls who ever came in a stags door, she was. She was good to me.. She was good to everybody. She always divided up her flowers and candy. When she came back from Europe last summer, she brought every one of us a present. She minded her own business and cut no capers." ~ Harry Mitchell, stagehand at Ziegfeld theatre.

"Sure, I paid her bills. I paid them because I liked her. I only met her once. I talked to her a couple minutes in a nightclub. She looked swell that night. She was the sweetest and prettiest girl I ever met—and I’ve met plenty. I never met her again until I heard she was sick and broke." ~ Larry Fay

“She was a swell girl, and damned lucky with the men. She was the most unsophisticated girl I ever saw. And she was just as nice to the street cleaner as she was to the richest guy around the place.” ~ Hazel Forbes

A beautiful picture of (L to R) Jean Ackerman, Jeanne Audree, Myrna, and Evelyn Groves

POSTED BY JESSICA WAHL AT 8:14 PM 

3 COMMENTS:

NAN752December 31, 2011 at 7:18 AM

This is a wonderful site! I love it! My husband and I had the good fortune to watch 'The Great Ziegfeld' 1936 with William Powell the other night. I hadn't seen it in a long time and it got me thinking about that whole era in show business so I started checking out different people from that time and landed here. A happy historical landing! I hope you keep this site going! :-)

Reply

Jessica WahlJanuary 1, 2012 at 3:05 PM

Oh thank you Nan! Being able to discuss silent film/Follies with other people who love them is so wonderful, I love everyone of you that comes and reads this. I love that movie! And William Powell is just wonderful! You should see "Ziegfeld Girl" it is a cute one with Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, and Judy Garland.

Reply

Susi ReynoldsAugust 3, 2015 at 10:45 AM

Myrna Darby was born on April 10, 1908 in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. She died on September 26, 1929 in Manhattan, New York. She is buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Reply

SILENT MOVIES ACTRESS ARE MORE ZIEGFELD GIRLS

 

SILENT MOVIES ACTRESS ARE MORE 

ZIEGFELD GIRLS

What else do I love besides silent films? The Ziegfeld Follies. The costumes and shows and the girls and the talent...just amazing. I don't think it could be recreated today. I am sure it would have amazing visual effects nowadays, but back then...it was new and state of the art. It was also during a time of gayness, frivolity, and devil-may-care attitudes. I wish I was around for that! If I had been around during that time, I picture being a Ziegfeld Girl, then a silent film actress, and marry Buster Keaton. The end.

Anyways, I love the Ziegfeld Girls. I especially love the pictures taken by Follies photographer, Alfred Cheney Johnston. They are some of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen.

I am profiling a few of my favorite girls here. Not all of them were silent film stars, but it was during the same time, so I am adding them. They were beautiful ladies and deserve to be remembered for their involvement in the most spectacular stage show of the century.

Adorable lil Ann Pennington! She packed a lot of energy in her 4'10'' body, and this is one of the reasons why I adore her. I saw a clip of her doing The Black Bottom and it was just amazing. She is also a sad example of how some of these stars ended up unknown and living in poverty later in life.

Ann Pennington was born on December 23, 1893 in Wilmington, Delaware.

She made her stage debut in 1911 and entered the Ziegfeld Follies in 1913. She quickly became a star in the Follies and moved out of just being in the chorus. Because she was so well known on the stage, she was able to appear in both the Follies and George White's Scandals.

Ann appeared in a total of 23 movies, 13 of which were silents. Sadly, most of these films are lost or her part in the film is missing or ended up on the cutting room floor. I also read that there isn't any film left of her doing her signature dance moves, but that is false. Like I stated earlier, I have seen a video clip of her doing The Black Bottom...and it wasn't that long ago.

Ann had a bright and shining personality on stage and often wore revealing costumes. But, offstage she could by shy. But, onstage or off, she loved to have fun.

She lived in both New York and California, depending on what she was working on at the time. In California, she was roommates with friend Fanny Brice.

Ann continued to tour on stage dancing until the 1940s when she retired. One of her last big public appearances was at the 1939 World's Fair.

Ann Pennington passed away on November 4, 1971 in New York City. She had been living alone and penniless for years.

She was buried in Valhallia Cemetery in New York. Her funeral and grave were paid for by the Actors Benevolent Guild. Apparently no one from her family attended her funeral (Ann had a sister named Nellie, but I don't know anything about her).

Ann never married but she did have a few beaus. The closest she ever came to marrying was when she was engaged to boxer Jack Dempsey. She was also rumored to have dated George White, but this was never confirmed because Ann never talked about her personal relationships.

George Gershwin played piano for her during Ziegfeld rehearsals, and also wrote several songs for her.

Her nicknames included "Tiny" and "Penny"

This is a video clip I found of Ann dancing her heart out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87gjzMzX6ng&feature=emb_logo

Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931),

 

 Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), 

The Ziegfield Follies is the equivalent of the Folies Bergères, but in New York, this cabaret has seen many actors and dancers, called the Ziegfeld Girls, who will sometimes become stars. The story of this cabaret was adapted to the cinema in 1936 with the film "The Great Ziegfeld" which won several Oscars [...]

Les Ziegfield Follies c’est l’équivalent des Folies Bergères mais à New York, ce cabaret a vu passer de nombreux acteurs et danseuses, appelées les Ziegfeld Girls, qui deviendront parfois par la suite des stars. L’histoire de ce cabaret a été adapté au cinéma en 1936 avec le film « Le Grand Ziegfeld » qui remportât plusieurs oscars […]

Ziegfeld Girls were the chorus girls and showgirls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical Broadway revue spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), in New York City, which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris.

Description

Sheet music cover for "Shine on Harvest Moon" with Ruth Etting of the Ziegfeld Follies

These showgirls 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 20th century. These beauties, decked out in Erté designs, gained many young male admirers and became objects of popular adoration. All of the showgirls looked very similar, both in appearance and in stature. They danced in complete synchronization, and were the only act that was uniform in the Ziegfeld Follies. 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.

In 1897, Ziegfeld married Anna Held, one of his Ziegfeld girls, by common-law. They never legally were married, but lived together long enough to be legally considered so. In 1913, Held divorced from Ziegfeld because of his infidelities with Lillian Lorraine, another Ziegfeld girl. Held died soon after. Following that, Ziegfeld married yet another Ziegfeld girl, future film star Billie Burke. Although Ziegfeld had several affairs, Burke claimed that Lorraine was the only one that made her jealous.[1] Ziegfeld remained married to Burke (and in love with Lorraine) until his death in 1932.

List of Ziegfeld girls

Anastasia Reilly, 1923

Over the years, the Ziegfeld girls included many future stars such as Fanny Brice, Marion Davies, Paulette Goddard, Joan Blondell, Olive Thomas, Jeanne Eagels, Barbara Stanwyck, Billie Dove, Lilian Bond, Louise Brooks, Nita Naldi, Julanne Johnston, Mae Murray, Dorothy Mackaill, Odette Myrtil, Lilyan Tashman, Claire Dodd, Cecile Arnold, Dolores Costello, Dorothy Sebastian, Juliette Compton, Mary Nolan, Iris Adrian, Annette Bade. Other Ziegfeld girls went onto societal and business successes such as Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Helen Gallagher, Anastasia Reilly,[2] Sybil Carmen, and Irene Hayes. Other Ziegfeld girls included Leone Sousa, Monica Van Munster,[3] Mildred Chris Kennedy,[4] Irene Amelia Melfi, Dorothy Hale, and Helen Morgan.

Mona Louise Parsons was a Ziegfeld girl who was later a member of the Dutch resistance during the Second World War.

Declined members

Dolores Costello as a Ziegfeld girl, ca. 1923

Although many future stars started out as Ziegfeld girls, many others were turned down by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his revue. Norma Shearer (in 1919 and 1920), Alice Faye (in 1927), Joan Crawford (in 1924), Gypsy Rose Lee (in 1927), Lucille Ball (in 1927 and 1931), Phyllis Haver (in 1915), Eleanor Powell (in 1927), Ruby Keeler (in 1924), Hedda Hopper (in 1913), and June Havoc (in 1927 and 1931) were among the many hopefuls that the master showman discarded after auditions. In 1957, the then-current members were featured as mystery guests on the television panel show What's My Line?[5]

Last survivors

The survivors of the chorus lines of the last century are The Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall. Doris Eaton Travis became the last surviving Ziegfeld Girl after the death of Dorothy Raphaelson in 2005.[6] Travis died on May 11, 2010 at the age of 106.[7]

Ziegfeld Follies showgirls MODELS INTRODUCED IN HOLLYWOOD 1920`S

Ziegfeld Follies showgirls 

MODELS INTRODUCED IN HOLLYWOOD 1920`S

Alfred Cheney Johnston (known as "Cheney" to his friends and associates) (April 8, 1885 – April 17, 1971) was a New York City-based photographer known for his portraits of Ziegfeld Follies showgirls as well as of actors and actresses from the worlds of stage and film
Biography
Johnston was born into an affluent New York banking family, which subsequently moved to Mount Vernon, New York. Initially he studied painting and illustration at the National Academy of Design in New York, but after graduating in 1908 (and marrying fellow student Doris Gernon the next year), his subsequent efforts to earn a living as a portrait painter did not meet with success. Instead, reportedly at the suggestion of longtime family friend and famed illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, he started to employ the camera previously used to record his painting subjects as his basic creative medium.

In approximately 1917, Johnston was hired by famed New York City live-theater showman and producer Florenz Ziegfeld as a contracted photographer, and was affiliated with the Ziegfeld Follies for the next fifteen years or so. He also maintained his own highly successful personal commercial photo studio at various locations around New York City as well, photographing everything from aspiring actresses and society matrons to a wide range of upscale retail commercial products—mostly men's and women's fashions—for magazine ads. He photographed several hundred actresses and showgirls (mainly in New York City, and whether they were part of the Follies or not) during that time period. Alfred Cheney Johnston died in a car crash near his home in Connecticut on April 17, 1971, three years after the death of his longtime wife, Doris. They had no children.

The photographer

For his indoor studio work, Johnston often employed a large "Century"-brand view camera that produced 11x14-inch glass-plate negatives, so a standard Johnston 11x14 photographic print was actually just a "contact print" from the negative and not enlarged at all. This size of negative afforded extremely fine image detail. (However, Johnston also is confirmed to have shot with a Graflex camera in 3-1/4 x 4-1/4-inch roll-film format; an unknown brand of 8x10 view camera; and a Zeiss Ikon camera in 120 [2-1/4 x 2-1/4-inch] film format.)

Johnston's "standard" work, of course, was used by Flo Ziegfeld for the normal advertising and promotional purposes for the Follies, and mainly consisted of individual or small-group shots of the Follies showgirls in their extravagant stage costumes. However, after Johnston's death in 1971, a huge treasure trove of extremely artistic full-nude and semi-nude full-figure studio photos (and their accompanying glass-plate negatives) was found stored at the farm near Oxford, Connecticut, where he'd lived since 1940. Most of these images (some named, mostly anonymous) were, in fact, showgirls from the Ziegfeld Follies, but such daring, unretouched full-frontal images would certainly have had no public-publication possibilities in the 1920s-1930s, so it is speculated that these were either simply his own personal artistic work, and/or done at the behest of Flo Ziegfeld for that showman's personal enjoyment.

The only book known to have been published by Alfred Cheney Johnston during his lifetime devoted to his nudes/glamour photography is the 1937 spiral-bound softcover "Enchanting Beauty", which contains 94 black-and-white photos (mostly about 7x9 inches, centered on a 9x12-inch page, although a number are cropped circular or in other designs). Unusually (compared to virtually all other examples of his work seen today on the Web or other sources, which were shot in an indoor studio in front of a flat-black or illustrated tapestry background cloth), 37 of these photos were taken outdoors along a stream or in flower-dappled fields, etc. All the shots in the book are "airbrushed" in the pubic area, to keep them legal with respect to the publishing standards of the day.

The stock-market crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression—combined with several unsuccessful seasons of stage productions and a variety of messy lawsuits—devastated Flo Ziegfeld's finances, and he died in July 1932. This heavily impacted Alfred Cheney Johnston's career, and likely led to his relocation to Connecticut at the end of the decade. Although he briefly operated two successive commercial photo studios there in the late 1940s/early 1950s, neither was apparently successful. It is believed that he did also continue his nude/glamour portrait work in a large converted barn/studio on his property, working with a new generation of "post-Ziegfeld" female models and stubbornly continuing to use his massive 11x14-inch view camera.

Legacy

In 1960, Johnston donated a set of 245 large prints of his work to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (largely nude and semi-nude Follies showgirls, performers from various Ziegfeld shows including Fanny Brice, Billie Burke, Ruby Keeler, the Dolly Sisters, Ina Claire, Helen Morgan, Marilyn Miller, Grace Moore, Ann Pennington, Belle Baker and Ruth Etting, some well-known actors and actresses of the 1920s/1930s including Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Pearl White, Barbara La Marr, Orson Welles, Clara Bow, Ethel Barrymore, Claudette Colbert, Corinne Griffith, Clara Kimball Young, Theda Bara, Mabel Normand, Helen Hayes, Norma Shearer, Anita Stewart, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Marie Prevost, Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Miles Minter, Hope Hampton, and a number of product-advertisement photos). Apparently five of them have "gone missing" over the years, although the Library still has 240 images in its Prints and Photographs division (Lot 8782).

Many years later, a considerable number of original Johnston-printed (and sometimes autographed) photographic prints and many original negatives were purchased at several auctions by at least four different American collectors/entrepreneurs. Nowadays, both original 11x14-inch ACJ prints and more recent reprints from Johnston's original negatives have commanded significant prices in both on-line auctions and at photo galleries.