Flo Ziegfeld's Girl: Anna Held

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Born in Warsaw, Poland, to a Jewish family, Anna Held often headlined the Folies-Bergere. Later, Held claimed Paris as her birthplace, shaved a few years off her age, and converted 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 despite being unable 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, Held 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. Carl Sandburg memorialized her in his poem An ElectricSign Goes Dark.

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