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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 1915)
! The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page fiorA- ft' R khl IT M , v Gin t rT tt IVHITI.N'Y.. '0 ' 7 71 . . .. ! t .... fi. 1 v a. . ( "V ' ! i 1 VI 7,4 ' 7 A One of the Exceptions A Girl Who Is Married, Has Children, a Happy Home, and Is Still in the Ziegfeld Chorus. By Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. IT has been said that "matches are made In heaven." In my professional career as theatrical manager I hare found wires for 1,440 men. It I have . been guided by any special heavenly in spiration I do not know it Are these men happyT I do not know. Are the women whom I started on the voyage of matrimony happyT I do not know. The fact remains I selected brides that appealed to 1,440 men. and to the girls who married I should, by all the tenets of romance, be looked upon as a fairy godfather. For some I did ss much aa the fairy godmother did for Cinderella. Many married fabulously rich men. From a condition of comparative pov erty, through me many leaped into lux urious homes and a life replete with all luxurious appurtenances footmen, but lers, maids, automobiles, horses, prize winning dogs. In the olden days, so it is recorded, certain kings found an agreeable diver sion from the monotony of kingship in finding wives and husbands for court favorites. Yet no matchmaking king ever boasted of a record such as mine. I feel I have done more in encouraging matrimony than any other man in the world. I feel I have done more in the actual service of finding wives for wife-seeking men, and in establishing homes, than anyone else in the United States. Each year I employ about 250 girls. Each yar I must find a fresh supply of girls. Each year one-half of my choruses are recruited anew. With tew excep tions, no girl remains in my chorus more than two years. Every two years there is an absolute change. Now and then a girl remains in my chorus for five or six years, because she does some remark able stunt, but this only proves she is not in the class of the others not the prize package some man Is hastily eager to wed. My most successful girls leave the quickest I must immediately find a new face and form as fair as the one that has won a man's heart, and often it is not easy. My business Is like prospecting for gold. Why do I select girls for my choruses that men will want to marry? Beauty as you know, is rare. Men will go where they find beauty. It is not as common as weeds. The average man does not con sciously know his taste for beauty. I do. Like Solomon, who had 600 wives and gained great wisdom, I, who have em ployed over 6.750 girls in productions, have gained likewise in wisdom. I have two shows running annually in one I v Florence Ziegfeld, Jr., Who Has Found Wives for 1440 Men, Reveals Some Curious Secrets of What Makes the Elusive Feminine Charm Which Men Find Irresistible employ 100 girls; In the other 30 girls. Constantly girls are leaving and their places are filled. ' Constantly girls are married from the showsT and new girl are recruited. As the years pass, my chorus has no left-overs. Each year ap proximately I present to the American public 250 fair faces, 250 enticing pairs of Hps, 500 provocative, fascinating eyes, 500 alluring arms, 600 dancing, prancing feet. On an average 26 per cent of the girls employed each year marry. That is "5 of every 100 about 60 to 65 of the total number of 260. During my career I have given wives to nearly 1,600 men. Why do men go to shows? To see pretty girls. Why do men want to see pretty girls 7 Because, in his life, every man is look ing for the Ultimate Girl, not for a bevy of girls, but the one, precise, inevitable type that above all others appeals to him. My success is due to more than taste. . . , , No man consciously goes about look ing for a wife. Yet I know that every man Is unconsciously looking for a wife. The average man doesn't know how to go about it He doesn't know the type of woman that will appeal to him. He has no coherent conception of his un- realized ideal. I. on the other hand, know what girl to select that will ap peal to a man. I visualise his ideal. I find its physical incarnation; there fore, in selecting girls for my chorus, my difficult task is to find girls that will appeal to a proportion of male audlenoea as possible wives. But married men go to see your prize choruses, you say. They io. Why? Marriage does not destroy sin admira tion for beauty, and then, perchance, some may go to see what they have missed! Admiration for beauty Is what brings men to my productions, and the eternal quest of man for his ideal type is what brings dollars to my pockets. I meet the demand I get the box office re ceipts. To find a wife for one man would be quite easy. But to select potential wives for 100 men is decidedly difficult. Never theless I succeed. For I know men's tastes thoroughly. There Is no type, no aspect of loveliness, no point of feminine beauty that stirs men's hearts to rapture that I do not know. Consequently I select the girls for my choruses personally; the final decision is mine. Long experience has rendered the task less difficult than it used to be, and now I select girls with a knowledge that Is scientific, with the unerring and unfailing sureness of a trained instinct What types of beauty do men admire? What demands must I meet in gathering the fairest of each year's Spring offering of girl flowers? One rule rigidly applies. I cannot select girls of one type. A chorus of brunettes would be a failure. A chorus of blondes would be a failure. A chorus of ponies, or a chorus of Amazon girls would be doomed to Instant failure. I must embrace, In my chorus, the entire gamut of feminine loveliness. For I must meet all tastes. My chorus must be a gem of purest ray serene, without a flaw, yet with a hundred different facets. Gen erally I follow a rule of selecting 25 per cent brunettes, 25 per cent blondes, and 60 per cent medium types. Do tastes change as the seasons pass? They do. The theatrical business is as uncertain as the stock market One sea- . son brunettes are predominantly in de mand; another, blondes; another, girls with brown hair. You can never meet the demand for girls with Titian hair there are too few. What happens If I have an oversupply of blondes in a sea son when the taste for brunettes pre vails? Adapt the chorus to the popular taste. In any case, I must always have in my chorus a supply of girls of every type, and if one type is exhausted by the demands of matrimony I must fill the vacancies with the same type. What type of girl marries quickest? Slim girls. Youth and slenderness are the supreme requisites. What type of girl marries last? For what type Is there the least appeal? The fat girl. There is little, if any, chance for the tat glrL Alas, but why shed crocodile tears over the Inevitable ver- A Man Who Plays 600 Instruments WHAT is probably the world's great est collection of ancient musical w instruments Is the property of Rev. F. W. Galpln, an English clergyman. It numbers more than six hundred in struments and what Is still more remark able, its owner is able to render a credit able solo on each and everyone of them. The instruments in the collection are grouped in families and arranged In the order of their development The flute family, for instance, Includes the Nay, or ancient Egyptian flute of a type played 2.000 and more years before Christ; a nose flute of the Fiji Islanders, blown from the nose Instead of the mouth; flageolets which Fepya " found "mighty pretty" and recorders (old English beaked flutes, mentioned la 'Hamlet"). Here are a few of the collector's other treasures: A viol da Gamba, made in 1611 la Southwark, next door to Shakespeare's Theatre. A horu nsed in the worship of Bacchus a century before Christ An old English iron curfew belL A horn of the Bronze Age. All the Instruments of Nebuchadnes rer's band, mentioned in the book of Daniel. The latter Instruments do not belong to Biblical times but to the Elizabethan age when the Bible was translated. The translators did not know what the origi nal Assyrian Instruments were, so they gave them the names of those In a good band of their own time "cornet flute, barp, aackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of snuslck. diet of experience! They like 'em slim you can put that down as a standard and established fact What about age? They like them young. That is established. I know. Knowing men's tastes, what ages do I select? From seventeen to twenty-live. Seldom thirty. Never, never forty. The chances of a girl of twenty marrying are ten times as great as a girl of twenty-five, and twenty times as great as those of a girl of thirty. The rHs in a chorus must look fresh. Mad beauty does not appeal. The too s wilt and fade. 'A girl who does i... . marry In two or three years after lier first appearance does not come In the first class of de sirable wives. The girls in my chorus must be as fresh as the roses of Springtime. Now and then I employ a girl of thirty or more If she possesses some exceptional talent but it Is as a professional enter tainer. Or it may be, In rare cases, that she is of a domestic type that appeals to a certain class of men. In the present chorus of one of my productions is a girl who was married and Is the mother of a daughter of twelve. But she still looks young and her ap peal Is uniquely per- ' sonaL V J? T-r r if- I,1' What of the height and weight of girls? From my experience I think girls of about five feet four Inches, marry quickest and therefore select a majority of this height Some men, however, like the pony type, of about four feet two inches, other the tall Ama zon type, of five feet ten. I never fall to Include both of these extremes. Men can take their choice. As to the weight of girls, the most popular type is light on the scales. A girl of about Ave feet four, weighing about 100 to 110 pounds, is the most appealing to seventy- five per cent or mankind. Yet in my chorus I try to meet all demands, and the girls range In weight from 85 to 136, sometimes 140 pounds. My experience has taught me some interesting things. A girl weighing 100 to 105 pounds has ten times the chances of marriage that a girl weighing 130 to 186 pounds has. A girl weighing 110 pounds has six times the chances of the hesvler girl. A girl weighing 120 pounds has four times the chances. The opportunity for marriage decreases as the weight goes up. Men prefer slim, slight slender, light-weight girls. The most popular feminine stand ard of beauty is slight The Dresden china girl bas a thousand chances Jar marriage against the 150-pounder who may be able to sing in opera. There Is a psychologic reason for this. A man gazes upon a slight girl. Ha realizes, although perhaps subconscious ly, that she will give herself readily and feasibly to his embrace. He can domi nate her. Then, being small, she will wear less clothes. Consciously the num ber of yards of goods used in her dress will not occur to him, but It will sub consciously. She needs less silk and linen. That appeals. The huge woman appals and intimidates. No man likes the idea of a large woman sitting on his knee.. Alas, as I have said, tor the fat girl I How about height and build? I have said seventy-five men of every hundred prefer a slight girl, of about five feet four. Ten men of a hundred admire a tall girl of about five feet ten. I should say fifteen men of every hundred prefer a mite i of a girl of about four feet ten. weighing about ninety to ninety five pounds. But all must be young. In selecting potential wives for my chorus I must go further than all this further than age, height, weight, color of hair and eyes, further than the distinc tion between big girls and little girls, blondes, brunettes and mediums. I must consider all the points of beauty that appeal to men. Some men admire languorous black eyes; others bright, vivacious blue eyes; some a dimple in the cheeks, others dimples in the knees. While three men of five admire heavy arched eyebrows, the other two prefer thin, delicate out lines. Borne men are carried away by long, drooping, beaded lashes. Seven men out of ten admire a straight aquiline nose, two the nez plquante, one the retrousse nose. All these details In feminine loveliness It is my business to observe. It is important to consider the lips. The favorite type is the full, luscious Hp. Yet while twenty men of twenty-five be- t i. V WKITI . M Y. Miss Daisy Virginia ThU Face Won a Millionaire from London come enamored of rich pomegranate Hps, five are stirred only by pale, ascetlo Hps like those of the ladles painted by Rosettl. All girls must have good teeth there is no deviation from this rule. I eliminate from the men to whom my productions appeal the wretch who could fall in love with a woman with falso teeth. That man would not pay $2.60 for a seat The shoulders snd neck of a girl must . . x ' a. .v : ; , . y l. ' j '7;V ;.- ; .. 77 ,:. 7 v V v4 , 0 , - r1 ,'P'w . ' 1 I Olive Thomas rfj -. li I the "Inno- ;'f' cent" Type ; .I' I Which Is Most - : -' !-, Quickly Married. -'- - A ) - , ...... ' ' " . ' , t ; . " - ' . 7 - 77:::;77;:;.r-: y7- - 7 ,V -7,- " 7 .77 r , 7 .. 4- Jrk.H J be perfectly proportioned, according to This Type of Girl Not Too Huge, Not Too In'telli her type. I never select a tall girl with a short neck or a short girl with a long, lanky neck. Legs and feet must be altogether be yond criticism. Not too plump, not too thin, but including all the gradations within the Impossible extremes. All men admire a perfect ankle. 1 could not afford to employ a girl, no matter how beautiful otherwise. If her ankles were thick, or if she were clumsy on her feet. Nlmbleness on the feet and grace In the movements of the arms attract the eye. Men select wives primarily according to their face and feet their attention is at tracted by the antipodal extremes. Certain things are Impossible, I may put It on record once and for all bow legs, pigeon toes or splayed feet What measurement of chest most quickly finds a domestic nest? Excuse me, I am a modest man and do not select beauty by the rule and tape line. A glance is sufficient. Still modestly I may say I try to select a variation of flowers from the bud of promise to the one In opulent full bloom. I have never married off a Cat-chested girl. Dimples have a most potent and irre sistible appeal. 1 believe that of the Coprright, 1111, by th Star Company, Grsat Britain Rights lUssrvsc, gent, and Not Too Vivacious, Is in Great Demand. fifty girls who marry from my chorus each year thirty have dimples. If dimples are In the knees a girl's chances are Improved 100 per cent. Even beyond all the points of beauty, I am compelled to select girts according to their personality. What type of personality to which the physical de tails are accessory are mobt appealing? There ia the Innocent Ingenue type; the Carmen, Spanish, coquettish type; the reckles, dashing type; the volatile, sprightly, flirtatious type, and the som bre, tragic type. The Innocent ingenue - is most favored, I should say, by 75 per cent of the men. That is. she has seventy-five chances in a hundred against the heavy, tragedy brunette type. We know that certain gray-bearded kings have given $50,000 necklaces to this type, and that this heavy type appeals to Kusslaa counts at least In fiction. The appeal of fresh innocence is most potent to the average man. For a wild whirl of flirta tion some men may find a zest In pur suing the Carmen type, with flashing eyes and glinting teeth but they do not mafry her. They do not marry the girt who looks as though she knows ft all. They distrust the ob vious coquette. And what of the Lobster Girl? Does, she marry? Occa sionally. Usually she drifts from on chorus to another. If. my choTus changes every two seasons, where do the girls go you ask. Those that do not marry usually en gage themselves in other shows. Whence do I draw my supply of fresh girls each year? Be cause of the reputa tion of my chorus many young appli cants come to New York. For freshness of beauty, I am al ways willing to sac rifice Uck of experi ence. Nevertheless, before a production opens, all girls go through a rigid train ing. Sometimes girls send me their pho tographs, ssklng for positions. If the pho tograph Is promising I send for the girl. While on tour, many girls apply for posi tions. I should say 60 per cent of my chorus is recruited from small cities and country districts throughout the coun try. The rules that I apply In the selection of a chorus also govern the selection of principals to a certain extent I select principals primarily according to the ex. cellence of their work; nevertheless I try to vary the types. Into what classes of society do the girls of my shows marry? I should say ten out of fifty marry rich men. Daisy Virginia, of the "Follies of 1915." met Ford H. Keith, a rich man from London, and was married to him last August. She left the show to go on a long honeymoon to China and Japan. Helen Moyer, who appeared in "The Follies of 1914," mar ried John J. Spear, a . rich maa and member of a socially prominent Philadel phia family. You see they marry Into all profes sions. Few ever marry men of the , chorus, however. Among the husbands 1 could mention are various classes and professions represented. Where do most of the girls marry? In New York. I should say five out of those who marry annually contract engagements while on the road.