Flo Ziegfeld's Girl: Anna Held
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 marrying 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 marry
legally (her first husband would not grant her a divorce). However, after
seven years, they were considered husband and wife by New York’s common law. It was Held
who inspired the ‘Ziegfeld Follies.’ Sadly, Helld died at the age of 46 in 1918 from
multiple myeloma, a rare disease at the time.
Her funeral was held at
Campbell’s in NYC and was well attended by stars of the era, except for Ziegfeld,
who disliked funerals. Held’s “Empire-Style” burial site boasts a stone arch
and two benches. It was purchased for her by actress Lillian Russell. Held’s funeral
was one of the first in Westchester’s Gate of Heaven Cemetery.
She was memorialized by Carl Sandburg in his poem, An ElectricSign Goes Dark.
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