ANNA HELD ,POLISH-AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN
1872 MARCH 19 - 1918 AUGUST 12
Anna Held (19 March 1872 – 12 August 1918) was a Polish stage performer and singer on Broadway. While appearing in London, she had been spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who brought her to America as his common-law wife. Her fame seems to have owed more to Ziegfeld's promotional flair than to any intrinsic talent, and she did not gain critical acclaim. But her uninhibited style inspired the long-running series of popular revues, the Ziegfeld Follies.
Early life[edit]
Born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, Held was named Helene Anna Held, daughter of a German Jewish glove maker, Shimmle (aka Maurice) Held, and his French-Jewish wife, Yvonne Pierre.[1]
Sources of her year of birth range from 1865–73, but 1872 has been accepted in general. In 1881, anti-Semitic pogroms forced the family to flee to Paris, France. When her father's glovemaking business failed, he found work as a janitor, while her mother operated a kosher restaurant. Held began working in the garment industry, then found work as a singer in Jewish theatres in Paris and, later, after her father's death, London, where her roles included the title role in a production by Jacob Adler of Abraham Goldfaden's Shulamith; she was also in Goldfaden's ill-fated Paris troupe, whose cashier stole their money before they ever played publicly.[2]
As a young woman in France, Held converted to Roman Catholicism.[3]
Career[edit]
Early years[edit]
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Her vivacious and animated personality proved popular and her career as a stage performer gained momentum as she became known for her risqué songs, flirtatious nature and willingness to show her legs on stage. In 1894, she married the much-older Uruguayan playboy Maximo Carrera, with whom she had a daughter, Lianne (1895–1988), who was also an actress and producer, sometimes billed as Anna Held Jr.[4]
Touring through Europe, Held was appearing in London in 1896, when she met Florenz Ziegfeld, who asked her to return to New York City with him.[5] He set about creating a wave of public interest in her, feeding stories to the American press, such as her having had ribs surgically removed. By the time Held and Ziegfeld arrived in New York, she was already the subject of intense public speculation.[6][2] When she finally performed in a revival of A Parlor Match, the critics were dismissive, but the public approved.[7]
Broadway success[edit]
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David Monod of Wilfrid Laurier University has suggested that Held succeeded more on image than talent, the illusion she presented to post-Victorian era audiences who were beginning to explore new social freedoms.[8]:296–297 From 1897, Held enjoyed several successes on Broadway, including A Parisian Model (1906–1907). These, apart from bolstering Ziegfeld's fortune, made her a millionaire in her own right. Ziegfeld's talent for creating publicity stunts ensured that Held's name remained well known.[9]
Held influenced the format for what would eventually become the famous Ziegfeld Follies in 1907, and she helped Ziegfeld establish the most lucrative phase of his career. Held could not perform in the first Follies when she become pregnant by Ziegfeld in late 1908. Held's daughter Lianne later claimed in her unpublished memoirs that Ziegfeld forced Held to have an abortion because he did not want her pregnancy interfering with Miss Innocence, a show in which she would star in 1908–09.[9] The claim was repeated in an autobiography by Held entitled Anna Held and Flo Ziegfeld, however, Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld, (authors of The Ziegfeld Touch) concluded that Held never wrote her memoirs, and Lianne was the real author of the autobiography.[10]:23 Eve Golden, Held's biographer, wrote that Lianne's abortion claim was likely a lie designed to demonize Ziegfeld, whom Lianne loathed.[9]
In 1909, Ziegfeld began an affair with the actress Lillian Lorraine; Held remained hopeful that his fascination would pass, and he would return to her, but instead he turned his attentions to another actress, Billie Burke, whom he would marry in 1914.[11]
Film[edit]
New York entertainment entrepreneur Oliver Morosco cast Held in the lead for Madame la Presidente in 1916. According to an interview she gave to Hector Ames for Motion Picture Classic, she was paid $25,000 for her performance.[12]
Later years and death[edit]
After Miss Innocence, Held left Broadway. She spent the years of World War I working in vaudeville and touring France, performing for French soldiers and raising money for the war effort. She was considered a war heroine for her contributions, and was highly regarded for the courage she displayed in traveling to the front lines, to be where she could do the most good.[13]
The year 1917 was one of constant touring for Held; she toured the United States in a production of Follow Me until ill health caused her to close the show in January 1918. She then checked into the Hotel Savoy in New York City where her health continued to decline.[10]:124 Held had been battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells, for a year. News coverage began reporting that it had been caused by her practice of excessive lacing of her corsets to give her a tiny waist.[14]
According to the Washington Times, Held had been in and out of consciousness for about a week. On 12 August 1918, her doctor had pronounced her dead, and the media was alerted. Approximately two hours later, Held revived, and the media notified she was still alive, only to have Held finally die shortly thereafter.[15][16]
A Catholic convert,[17] Held's funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on 14 August.[10]:23[18] Florenz Ziegfeld did not attend as he had a phobia about death and never attended funerals. Held is interred at Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.[10]:23
She was survived by her daughter Lianne Carrera, who in 1933, had married, was living in Pennsylvania with a four-year-old daughter (also called Lianne) and running an Inn.[19]
Legacy[edit]
- The MGM film The Great Ziegfeld (1936) tells a sanitized version of the Ziegfeld-Held relationship. Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for her performance as Held. Ziegfeld and Burke were played by William Powell and Myrna Loy.[20]
- In 1978, Columbia Pictures released a made-for-television film on NBC, Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women. Held was portrayed by Barbara Parkins.[21]
- The American poet Carl Sandburg wrote a memorial poem for Anna Held, An Electric Sign goes Dark, in the collection Smoke and Steel.[22]
- In 1976, Held's daughter Lianne Carrera opened a museum of her mother's personal and stage items in San Jacinto, California.
This is Anna Held. She was born in Poland in 1872, but fled to France in 1881 to get away from antisemitic pogroms in Poland. She started working as a singer and dancer in clubs in both Paris and London as a teenager.
Her curves and flirtatiousness on stage was a huge hit, which helped her engage the audience as her singing voice wasn't that good. She designed routines and special segments to build her popularity, the way modern artist do unique concerts to differentiate themselves.
She acted a bit, mostly on stage, and was incredibly popular. At 22, she married an Uruguayan man more than double her age, and had a daughter with him. They would divorce in 1908 after 14 years, believed to be because of her booming career.
While in London in 1896 she met Florenz Ziegfeld, who convinced her to come to New York City. She started performing on Broadway, and was again a huge hit. Her talent was again only so good, but Ziegfeld fed the press stories and the public just adored her, and her shows were the talk of the town. She worked with Ziegfeld, and together she helped him establish the famous Ziegfeld Follies in 1907, which were high end models that did very artistic and sexy shows and photo shoots.
Held actually did not perform in the follies, having been pregnant with Ziegfeld baby at the time, but apparently had an abortion. She and Ziegfeld broke up, and her career on Broadway stalled. She went back to France during WWI, and performed for soldiers, raising money for the war effort. She was even declared a French Heroine for her efforts. She died in 1918 at the age of 46, believed to have developed physical issues from her body breaking down cells which ultimately caused cancer directly related to her immensely tight corsets.
Hope you enjoyed this, if this does well, i may start a new series of former famous people most people have never heard of or know anything about.
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