Born in Warsaw, Poland, to a
Jewish family, Anna Held often headlined the Folies-Bergere. Later, Held would
claim Paris as her birthplace, shave a few years off her age and convert to
Catholicism upon her marriage to a Uruguayan playboy, Maximo Carrera. With
Carrera, Held had a daughter named Liane. In 1896, Held met Florenz Ziegfeld when
he hired her to be in one of his productions. By 1897 the two were in love and
despite being able to legally marry (her first husband would not grant her a
divorce) they were, after seven years, considered husband and wife by virtue of
New York’s common law. It was Held who inspired the ‘Ziegfeld Follies’. In
1918, Held died at the age of 46 from multiple myeloma, a rare disease at the
time. Her funeral took place at Campbell’s in NYC and was well attended by stars
of the era, save for Ziegfeld who abhorred funerals. Held’s “Empire-Style”
burial site, boasts a stone arch and two benches. Purchased for her by actress Lillian
Russell, Held’s funeral was one of the first to take place in Westchester’s
Gate of Heaven Cemetery. She was memorialized by Carl Sandburg in his poem, An Electric Sign Goes Dark.
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