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Stardom
When Held appeared in vaudeville in the late 1890s, she was a smashing success. Ziegfeld realized that his productions had not made the most of Held's charms. In 1899, as Held finally took the time to learn a fair amount English, Ziegfeld constructed a show with the blend of glamour, naughtiness and publicity appeal that would show her to best advantage. In Papa's Wife (1899), Held's teasing songs and well-turned legs delighted men, and her dazzling Paris fashions fascinated women. It proved to be Anna's first bona fide hit.

Ziegfeld backed his wife with his first line of showgirls, a troupe of wholesome but attractive chorines called "The Anna Held Girls" (photo left). He continued to give Anna the most lavish costuming possible, but this did not always make up for weaknesses in other departments. The combination of dazzling costumes and a weak script in Mam'selle Napoleon (1903) moved one critic to write, "Between gowns, the plot crept in."

Held introduced several hit songs over the years, including her signature song, "I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave." Its lyric invoked memories of an earlier Held hit –

I just can't make my eyes behave;
Two bad brown eyes,
I am their slave,
My lips may say, 
"Run away from me,"
But my eyes say, 
"Come and play with me!"
And you won't blame 
Poor little me, I'm sure –
For I just can't make my eyes behave.

And then there's "It's Delightful to Be Married," for which Held supposedly wrote the lyrics. One of her best-remembered numbers, its charms relied on her accented delivery. As for her lyric, judge it for yourself. How ironic that this song was popularized by a woman who loathed motherhood and left the raising of her only child to others –

It's delightful to be married.
To be, to be, to be, to be, to be married.
There is nothing half so jolly as
A jolly married life.
And I love to play with baby,
With my pretty little, darling little baby.
You are papa, I am mama,
What a jolly family!

A seductive portrait photo of Anna Held on a small sofa, inviting viewers to "Come and Play With Me."

Held's biggest hits were The Parisian Model (1905) and Miss Innocence (1908). Each ran for a full season on Broadway, followed by years of touring. Aside from earning Ziegfeld a fortune, these shows made Anna Held a millionaire in her own right – something rare for an actress at that era. While both of these musicals seem harmless by modern standards, many critics condemned them as scandalous and obscene. This fuss only made the public more anxious to see what the fuss was about, guaranteeing full houses.

The ever-vigilant Ziegfeld never missed an opportunity to get Held's name in the papers. Her passion for bicycling (rare among women of that time) gave him several excuses for creativity. When Anna took a minor tumble while cycling through Brooklyn, Ziegfeld informed the press that she had leapt off her bike to stop a runaway carriage and save the life of a retired judge. Most of the press didn't buy it, and one columnist asked in print which drugs Ziegfeld was using when he came up with such silliness!

It was Held who first suggested that Ziegfeld stage a Folies Bergere-style revue in New York. His first Follies (1907) featured "The Anna Held Girls" without Anna. In fact, her only Follies appearance was as a flying comet in a film used in the 1910 edition. But Held had done so much to enrich Ziegfeld's sense of fashion and entertainment that it is fair to say she was part of every Follies

Philandering Flo
Ziegfeld used Anna Held's expressive eyes as a powerful publicity ploy. In this poster, he showcased those eyes in a half-dozen different moods.

Ziegfeld and Held had lived together ever since her arrival in America, sharing a thirteen room suite in the elegant Ansonia Hotel on Manhattan's upper West side. Held was an adept homemaker and the couple appeared to share an affectionate relationship in their early years. Over time, Ziegfeld's heavy gambling and relentless publicity schemes soured the marriage. When the skeptical press and police concluded that the 1906 theft of Held's beloved jewel collection was one of Flo's headline-grabbing gimmicks, Anna realized that her husband was abusing her trust. She started banking her savings in Europe, far from his grasp.

One disturbing tale that has found its way into several biographies involves Ziegfeld making Held abort a pregnancy in 1909. Held's so-called autobiography – actually written by her embittered daughter Liane – claims that Ziegfeld wanted nothing to prevent Anna's starring in Miss Innocence that season. Liane had an obsessive hatred of Ziegfeld, making this story questionable. Moreover, Ziegfeld was never known to be physically cruel to any woman. While some historians accept this incident, I think it is as bogus as the milk bath legend.

This photo of Held appeared on period sheet music.

We do know that 1909 was the year Ziegfeld began a prolonged affair with the gorgeous but volatile showgirl Lilliane Lorraine. Held took a continental approach, looking the other way when her husband indulged in discreet infidelities with chorus girls. But Ziegfeld took Lorraine to top restaurants, and had the nerve to install her in an apartment two floors above Anna's. All New York was talking about it. Even to the open minded French, such public humiliation was not acceptable. When several attempts at reconciliation failed, Held filed for divorce and named Lorraine as one of several co-respondents.

Held dismissed suggestions of a remarriage with Ziegfeld, saying "One does not re-light a dead cigarette." However, she was still nursing private hopes of a reconciliation when she attended a 1913 New Year's Eve gala at the Astor Hotel. Her hopes rose when a drunken Lillian Lorraine argued with Ziegfeld and stormed out, but Anna watched in helpless fury as Ziegfeld spent the rest of the evening courting actress Billie Burke. Ignoring gossip about their romance in the months that followed, Held was shocked when Ziegfeld married Burke in April of 1914. However, the frequent suggestion that Held wasted away from heartache is nonsense. As an international star, she was very much in demand, and got busy on both sides of the Atlantic.

After Ziegfeld
Anna Held and her daughter Liane.

The ever-practical Held adjusted to changes in fashion and popular taste, making her public persona as irresistible as ever. She enjoyed success in vaudeville and was a tireless spokesperson for France during World War I. Her death-defying visits to the Allied trenches made her a wartime heroine. As the war dragged on in Europe, Held starred in the silent Hollywood comedy Madame la Presidente (1916), then infuriated Ziegfeld by making a triumphant return to Broadway in a musical produced by his hated rivals, the Shubert Brothers. Follow Me (1916) delighted Held's fans and critics, and she took over management of the touring version so she could reserve sufficient time to raise funds for Allied relief charities.

The year long tour of Follow Me was a tremendous success, but the once tireless Anna soon complained of strange aches. She collapsed on stage in Milwaukee in early 1918 and returned to New York, where she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare bone disease. After months of horrific pain, Anna Held died in New York's Savoy hotel on August 12. She was only in her late 40s. Her $257,000 estate consisted mostly of jewelry, with one necklace valued at $100,000. Ziegfeld's lifelong fear of sickness and death had kept him from visiting Anna's sickroom or attending her funeral. Her remains were buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Westchester.

If Held is remembered today, it is primarily because of Luise Rainer's Academy Award-wining performance as Anna in MGM's The Great Ziegfeld (1936). This moving, sympathetic portrayal provides a fitting tribute to the woman who's "dreamy eyes" and continental charm once captivated audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. As a character, Anna Held was just as crucial to the success of the MGM film as the real Anna was to the success of Florenz Ziegfeld.

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