ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1907, while The Parisian Model continued its lucrative run at the Broadway Theatre, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., approached Harry B.Smith with a novel idea. Ziegfeld had been hired by Klaw and Erlanger to produce vaudeville entertainment at the roof garden atop the New York Theatre, and Anna Held suggested that a Parisian-style revue-a satire of politics, society, popular fads, and the entertainment industry using a compère and commère (a master and mistress of ceremonies), beautiful girls, music, and spectacle-might be an attractive conclusion to the vaudeville bill. Ziegfeld wanted Smith to come up with about an hour’s worth of material in the Parisian style, and since the author’s earlier experiences with the revue form had been in the burlesque of contemporary plays with Weber and Fields, he welcomed the opportunity to experiment with the genre. Because the Jamestown Centenary Exposition was being held in 1907, Smith decided to use Captain John Smith and Pocahontas as compère and commère of the revue he titled The Follies of the Year, evoking a column he regularly contributed to The Rambler in the 1880s called “Follies of the Day.” Florenz Ziegfeld did not like the title because it did not contain thirteen letters. His lucky number was thirteen, and his successful productions-Little Duchess and Parisian Model-had thirteen letters in the title. Accordingly, Smith’s title was altered to Follies of 1907.
