FLO ZIEGFELD
His detailed, handwritten and signed instructions on contract negotiations with actor Hugh Wakefield (circa 1924)
Autograph Memo signed: "Ziegfeld" in pencil, 1 page, 5½x8½. On memo paper of the Ambassador Hotel, New York, undated. To "Cochran, Cockramus, Pricy" , London". In full: "Offer Wakefield six hundred dollars eight performance weekly run play contract after thirty weeks seven fifty. Be here not later December 20. Wimperis advises him to accept. Lay out conditions as to rehearsal & as accepted confirm conditions by cable. [1 word illegible] reply necessary. Thanks." During the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (1867-1932) managed Sandow, the strong man. In 1896, he turned to theatrical management. His promotion of a French beauty, Anna Held, using press releases about her milk baths, brought her fame and set a pattern of star-making through publicity. Held and Ziegfeld were married from 1897 until they divorced in 1913. In 1907, Ziegfeld produced his first revue, The Follies of 1907, modeled on the Folies-Bergère of Paris but less risqué. The New York revue's combination of semi-nudity, pageantry and comedy was repeated successfully for 23 more years in the Ziegfeld Follies, until the Great Depression ended the annual spectacles. This note provides Ziegfeld's agents in London with instructions for negotiating a Broadway appearance by English actor Hugh Wakefield. Wakefield appeared in Ziegfeld's stage production Louie the Fourteenth, March - December 1925 (thus fulfilling the six month prerequisite for a raise). The Wimperis mentioned in the memo was Arthur Wimperis, author of the book and lyrics for this musical comedy. The music was written by Sigmund Romberg. Creased and soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.