DORIS EATON TRAVIS, the oldest surving Ziegfeld Follies girl, celebrated her 105th birthday this past March 14th. After more than forty years in Norman, Oklahoma, Doris recently sold her 880 acre horse ranch in Norman and made a permanent move to West Bloomfield, Michigan where her next door neighbor is nephew, Joseph, Jr. His father was briefly a child star in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920. Doris is also in close proximity to another nephew, Michael Scadron, grandson of Doris's oldest late sister, Pearl. It was Pearl who was primarily responsible for Doris becoming a Ziegfeld girl at the age of 14 in the 1918 Ziegfeld Follies. Here she shared the stage with Ziegfeld greats, Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor, Marilyn Miller, Lillian Lorraine and W.C. Fields. Doris is planning her tenth dancing appearance on April 27/28 at the New Amsterdam Theatre where she will again be the star attraction for the Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS 2009 benefit. With nephew Joe, she will be dancing "Balling the Jack" a number introduced by Lillian Lorraine in the 1913 Follies.
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PATRICIA 'PATTY' ZIEGFELD STEPHENSON
April 2009 marks the one year anniversary of Patricia Stephenson's death in Burbank, California. Patricia was the only child of famed Broadway producer, Florenz Ziegfeld and his equally famous wife, stage and screen actress, Billie Burke - perhaps best known as Glinda, the witch of the north in MGM's "Wizard of Oz.! Patricia's husband, William Stephenson, a well known architect for Hollywood celebrity homes, preceded Patricia's death by six months.
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NEW 2009 BOOK RELEASE;
Advance praise for:
"ZIEGFELD" The Man Who Invented Show Business
St. Martin's Press - 2009
by Ethan Morden

"A rich and enteraining biography Broadway's first auteur. Ever the witty and erudite raconteur, Morden's... descriptions are enlivening, his profiles sharp, his tone casual and elegant, as diverse and diverting as a night at the Follies."

"With a flowing style that combines factoids of historical events with historical commentary, personal anecdotes of the players, and his own insight Morden creates ostensibly an insider's view...Highly recommended.
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NEW 2009 BOOK RELEASE;
Mrs. Ziegfeld: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke
McFarland - 2009
by Grant Hayter-Menzies

Broadway actress Billie Burke was one of the most sought after young stage beauties of her time, stealing the hearts of Enrico Caruso, Mark Twain, and, most importantly, famed Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld, who became her husband. Following Ziegfeld’s death, the threats of financial ruin and encroaching age forced Burke to recreate herself as a Hollywood character actress.

This biography benefits from the cooperation of the daughter and grandchildren of Burke and Ziegfeld, as well as from anecdotes provided by actors who performed with Burke on the stage and screen. In addition to studying the character and significance of Burke’s greatest screen role in Glinda the Good Witch of the North, this richly illustrated book also provides a complete history of Burke’s stage, screen, and radio work.

About the Author
Biographer Grant Hayter-Menzies lives in Sidney, British Columbia. His works include biographies of Charlotte Greenwood and Princess Der Ling.

Click on image to view larger version.

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JAZZ AGE BEAUTIES - by Robert Hudovernik
Forgotten for over 80 years, the lost collection of Alfred Cheney Johnston's photographs is now brought to light again in the 2006 release by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.

In 1917, Florenz Ziegfeld hired an unknown "camera artist" named Alfred Cheney Johnston to be his official photographer. Johnston, who had a remarkable talent for capturing feminine beauty on film, created thousands of magnificent publicity stills of Ziegfeld Girls and silent film stars during "the Jazz Age."



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CENTURY GIRL
100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies
by Lauren Redniss

"One of the most captivating darlings of the Twentieth Century, as rendered by one of the freshest young phenoms of the Twenty-first. Will Rogers, George Gershwin, Babe Ruth, John Wayne, and countless others, go flitting through flapper Doris Eaton's marvelously beguiling story, but time and again, it's Lauren Redniss's line and composition that capture and hold us, lingering, utterly entranced. This book is the opposite of a page-turner: it's a page-stopper, a page-savorer, in short: an unmitigated delight." -Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences. Century Girl from Amazon.com. Click on image to view larger version.