"Z" as in ZIEGFELD

Are we really up to "Z" already???  Welcome once again to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  I have chosen to write about the ZIEGFELD Follies this week.


The ZIEGFELD Follies and The ZIEGFELD Frolic were the brain child of Florenz (Flo) ZIEGFELD, Jr. and ran for the most part from 1907 until 1927 in New York City.  ZIEGFELD has often been called Broadway's greatest showman.  In addition to the long running ZIEGFELD Follies revue he also produced the musical Show Boat.  His shows featured beautiful women, elaborate costumes, and amazing sets.

His "ZIEGFELD girls" were regarded as the standard of beauty for their day.  ZIEGFELD called himself the "glorifier of the American girl."  My great aunt was one of his girls.  Her name was Margaret Morris and family legend says she was discovered by ZIEGFELD dancing on a New York city street corner.  I'm not so sure about that story, but somehow she was discovered.

This is a photograph of her taken by the famous ZIEGFELD photographer Alfred Chaney Johnston.  I know he took a lot of nude photographs of other ZIEGFELD girls, but I've never seen one of Margaret.  (She was a good Catholic girl.)

I'm the unofficial family historian and have her old photo album and some other memorabilia.  Unfortunately, a lot of the photos in the album were unidentified.  I did meet someone online some years back that helped with some of the identification.

There were a couple of movies made about ZIEGFELD and his Follies, but they were made a long time ago.  I would love to see a movie made today about the Follies.  I can picture Tom Hanks in the role of Florenz ZIEGFELD.  After watching this season of Dancing With The Stars I've decided Rumor Willis should play my aunt.  I can picture in my mind the elaborate costumes and sets.  The musical numbers, the dancing, etc., would be so entertaining along with some of their interesting background stories. Come on Hollywood...get busy!

Look at some of these costumes my aunt wore.  This one was when they did some kind of balloon dance.  I believe I heard one time that the gentlemen could pop the balloons on their costumes.

Here she is wearing another rather unusual costume.

 I believe I found this online at the New York City Library site.  Maybe this was a proof sheet?  You can see the above photograph on this sheet.  They are standing on an elevated glass walkway that was part of the set.  This is from the Midnight Frolic.  Margaret appeared in the ZIEGFELD Frolic and the  Follies.  (You can click on it to enlarge.) 

 This is from the 1915 Midnight Frolic.  L-R: Olive Thomas, Muriel Hudson, and Margaret Morris

I've always liked this one.  Margaret is the second one from the left.  I found this in her photo album and either Margaret or someone else wrote the names on the back.  As you can see it's from the 1920 Midnight Frolic.

Margaret also posed for this ad during her career.

She appeared in at least one silent movie, The Gypsys.  This was also found among her things.

This must have been taken on one of her trips to Europe.  I've seen this photo being sold on eBay.

Eventually, it all came to an end for Margaret and the Follies/Frolic.  She worked for many years as a wardrobe mistress on Broadway.  At times she was on welfare.  I have a few childhood memories of her, but the Morris family wasn't close and I only saw her once in a while.  I remember her kind smile and I knew that she was always happy to see us.   Margaret was my grandfather's sister.


I think this picture was probably taken in the 1940's.  Margaret was a member of the ZIEGFELD Club in her later years.  I believe this is a picture of Margaret with her fellow ZIEGFELD Club members.  Margaret is in the center of the first row with her arm around the older lady.

While browsing the Internet I discovered that a revised version of the Midnight Frolic is playing this Spring in New York City.  The Yelp reviews sound good.  If only I lived closer!

Now get busy Hollywood.  I'd like to see a movie and I'm not getting any younger.

Please head over to Jenny's blog for a list of this week's participants.  Thanks for visiting.

Working on some family projects...

I've been thinking about working on genealogy again.  I originally did some work back in the 1980's BC (before computers).  At that time we even visited some of my relatives in New York cemeteries.  By doing so I even found where a great-great grandmother was buried next to a great grandmother and no one in the family ever knew it.

A few years ago I became interested in learning more about the Ziegfeld Follies since my great aunt had been a Follies Girl (as they were called).  She performed in the Follies and the Midnight Frolic.  This is a picture of her from the Ziegfeld Frolic and I believe this was called the balloon dance.  From what I understand gentlemen could pop the balloons. 

I came across a site called Find a Grave and decided to add my great aunt's information in case a relative of another Follies Girl stumbled upon it.  Then I forgot about it until a few weeks ago when I decided to take a look at the site again.

My Dad died this past September and I was surprised to find his information entered on the site.  I assumed my sister or someone in her family had probably stumbled across the site and decided to add it, but to my surprise they hadn't.  It was someone I didn't know, so I clicked on the name.  It was a man who lives in the next town and does volunteer work for the site.  He gathers information on local deaths and enters them so they'll be available for research.  I contacted him and he turned the listing over to me so I could update the biography.  That's when I decided to start adding information on my mother and other relatives.  I'm only adding the ones that I have first hand information about...either the cemetery plot information or graves I've personally visited in the past.  If I haven't documented it myself I don't add it.  I'm still not finished, but work on it whenever I have a little extra time.

I've also started going through old photos and writing on the back who the people are, where the photo was taken, etc., and then scanning them.  Does anyone know if there's a program that I could put on my computer for old photos?  I'm finding I can't list all the names, dates, and locations when I save the scans to my computer.  The titles would be much too long.

I enjoy old photos.  Here are a few I've come across:

Both sets of my grandparents together. 

My second grade class.  I'm the little girl with the glasses in the second row at the front of the class.  The little boy at the front of the third row told me there was no Santa Claus in Kindergarten.  I've never forgotten.

My Grandma Durgin with Hilda Sims in 1932 in Washington, DC.  I believe Hilda must have been a cousin since my grandmother's maiden name was Sims.

This is my Grandpa Morris' Christmas card.  He owned a gas station in Westwood, NJ.

Have a good weekend...

Alphabe-Thursday...M as in "Look at ME!"

Class is in session and it's time again for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." Head over to her blog for information on Alphabe-Thursday and a list of this week's participants. Today we are working on the letter M.

Did you ever do this as a child? Hang from your knees on the monkey bars and yell, "Look at ME?" You did? You're a show off!


And now down to something very serious. On August 31, 1968 I married into the MARTIN family...or so I thought. I was misled and deceived.

A few years ago, my sister-in-law decided to do some genealogy work on the MARTIN side of the family. Much to our surprise she discovered that we're not MARTINS at all. No, we're Kwiatkowskis. My husband's grandfather was Roman Kwiatkowski, but somewhere along the line he decided he'd be Raymond MARTIN. Who knows why? Perhaps he liked the letter M. He apparently used the name for many years and then in 1941 made it legal by having his name officially changed while living in Jersey City, NJ. Around the same time he was issued a Delayed Registration Certificate of Birth from Manistee, Michigan. I would imagine he needed a birth certificate to have his name legally changed.

So, my husband isn't really a MARTIN. I married a Kwiatkowski and didn't even know it. My husband never knew he was of Polish descent, but his great grandparents were born in Poland. His father's birth certificate lists his name as James MARTIN and his father as Raymond MARTIN. We now know that the name hadn't even been legally changed to Raymond MARTIN when his father James MARTIN was born.

So, if you happen to know any Kwiatkoskis in Michigan please let me know. They could be cousins of my husband.

This is a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Kwiatkoski on our wedding day when we thought we were Mr. and Mrs. MARTIN.


I've posted pictures before of my great aunt MARGARET MORRIS. She was a Ziegfeld Girl and performed in the Ziegfeld Follies and the Ziegfeld Frolic. I know of at least one silent movie she performed in too.

Here are a few pictures...




And here's a theater program.


Margaret is in the second row, second from the left.


I received a copy of this theater program and some pictures from Jane over at Historical Ziegfeld. There are a lot more old pictures, programs, information, etc., on this site. There's additional information about MARGARET too. Jane is very knowledgeable about all things Ziegfeld.

Class dismissed! Mrs. Matlock told me to tell you.