Alfred Cheney Johnston: The Photographer Who Glorified the Ziegfeld Girl
Alfred Cheney Johnston photographed the Ziegfeld Follies for a dozen years. His studio method, his letters, his failures, and why his pictures outlived him.
Ziegfeld Girls: Beauty, Fame, and Life in the Follies
The Ziegfeld Girls were showgirls selected for Florenz Ziegfeld’s Broadway revues and promoted as ideals of American beauty, glamour, and modern womanhood. A century ago, a line of women glided languidly into the glow of the footlights on a Broadway stage. Some nearly nude, they shimmered with feathers, jewels, satin, and sequins. The audience watched…
Nyota Inyoka: The Scholar-Dancer History Forgot
In 1922, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. saw Nyota Inyoka dance in Paris and announced that he would put her in the Ziegfeld Follies. He called her “mighty dark.” On August 5, 1922 , The New York Age, a leading Black newspaper, praised him for casting her without expecting her to “pass for white.” She reached New…
