"In Hollywood where novelty is the spice of life, MGM's Ziegfeld Follies is the most novel of all - it's a musical WITHOUT a story! Flo Ziegfeld, the showman who made an American institution out of beautiful girls and gave the world its most magnificent reviews now has his immortal "follies" brought to the screen as they were originally conceived by him. In addition to the Ziegfeld Girls, America's most glamorous beauties, the show has the greatest constellation of star names ever to reach the screen." [MGM Press Release]

DIRECTORS
    Vincente Minnelli
    Lemuel Ayers
    Roy Del Ruth
    Robert Lewis
    George Sidney
    Norman Taurog

WRITERS
    Peter Barr
    Roger Edens
    David Freedman
    Kay Thompson
    Harry Tugend

CINEMATOGRAPHERS
    George J. Folsey
    Ray June
    Charles Rosher

MUSIC
    Roger Edens
    George Gershwin
    Hugh Martin
    Harry Warren

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS
    Lemuel Ayers
    Edward C. Carfagno
    Tony Duquette
    Irene
    Harry McAffee
    Merrill Pye
    Jack Martin Smith

COSTUME DESIGNERS
    Florence Bunin
    Irene
    Helen Rose

FILM EDITING
    Albert Akst

PRODUCER
    Arthur Fred

CHOREOGRAPHERS
    Robert Alton
    Eugene Loring
    Charles Walters

LYRICISTS
    Ralph Blane
    Earl K. Bent
    Arthur Freed
    Ira Gershwin
    Kay Thompson

MAKE-UP ARTISITS
    Jack Dawn

MUSICAL ARRANGERS
    Ted Duncan
    Roger Edens
    Calvin Jackson
    Paul Marquardt
    Conrad Salinger

ART DIRECTORS
    Cedric Gibbons

HAIR STYLISTS
    Sydney Guilaroff

CONDUCTOR
    Lennie Hayton

ORCHESTRATOR
    Wally Heglin

COLOR CONSULTANTS
    Natalie Kalmus
    Henri Jaffa

SOUND RECORDIST
    Douglas Shearer

VOCAL ARRANGER
    Kay Thompson

SET DIRECTORS
    Edwin B. Willis

• "Ziegfeld Days" [William Powell, the Brunin Puppets]
• "Here's to the Ladies" (Roger Edens-Arthur Freed) [Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Cyd Charisse, Ensemble]
• "Here's to Those Wonderful Men" (Roger Edens-Arthur Freed) [Virginia O'Brien]
• Water Ballet: "This Heart of Mine" (Harry Warren-Arthur Freed) [Esther Williams]
• "Number, Please" (Peter Barr) [Keenan Wynn]
• "Traviata" (Verdi) [James Melton, Marion Bell]
• "Pay the Two Dollars" (George White-William K. Wells) [Victor Moore, Edward Arnold]
• "This Heart of Mine" (Harry Warren-Arthur Freed) [Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer]
• "A Sweepstakes Ticket" (David Freedman) [Fanny Brice, Hume Cronyn, William Frawley]
• "Love" (Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane) [Lena Horne]
• "When Television Comes" (Edne Skelton) [Red Skelton]
• "Limehouse Blues" (Alton-Graham-Furber) [Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, Robert Lewis]
• "A Great Lady Has an Interview" (Kay Thompson-Roger Edens) [Judy Garland]
• "The Babbitt and the Bromide" (George and Ira Gershwin) [Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly]
• "Beauty" (Harry Warren-Arthur Freed) [Kathryn Grayson, the Ziegfeld Girls]

Lucy appears as a beautiful panther-tamer with a rhinestone-studded whip in the opening number, "Here's to the Ladies."

Arthur Freed announced that Ziegfeld Follies would begin production on January 9, 1944 - with a three-million-dollar budget.

The film was supposed to have twenty different segments which would involve every major MGM star.

Lucy was originally supposed to have a part in four segments, but due to the gargantuan state of the production, she only ended up appearing in one production number, "Here's to the Ladies."  All she did in this was crack a rhinestone whip -- not a word came out of her mouth.

Lucy was supposed to appear in these sketches; "Fireside Chat," with Judy Garland and Ann Sothern; "Glorifying the American Girl," with Marilyn Maxwell, Lucille Bremer, Lena Horne and Elaine Shephard; and "A Trip to Hollywood," with Jimmy Durante, Marilyn Maxwell and others.

William Frawley appears with Fanny Brice in the skit "A Sweepstakes Ticket" - he would later become Fred Mertz.

Production began in January 1944, and the film was previewed at the Westwood Village Theater on November 1, 1944 at a length of two hours and fifty-three minutes!  Since reaction was very mixed, the film was withdrawn for major editing and retakes.  Altogether, there were seven sequences cut.  These featured Fred Astaire, Jimmy Durante, Fanny Brice, James Melton, Lena Horne, Esther Williams, Lucille Bremer and Cyd Charisse, among others.  Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney also prerecorded a song, "Will You Love Me in Technicolor As You Do in Black and White," but that was never filmed, and the prerecording track has yet to be found at MGM.  Ziegfeld Follies ended up costing MGM $3,240,816.86 by the time it was released for good on April 8, 1946.

Reviews were mixed, but the most-enjoyed sequences were Esther Williams', Red Skelton's, Judy Garland's and Lucy's intro with Fred Astaire.

Ziegfeld Follies was one of the top grossing films of 1946, with upwards up $5,344,000 in ticket sales.

Ziegfeld Follies won the Cannes Film Festive Award for Musical Comedy.

Ziegfeld Follies is available on VHS tape from MGM/UA Home Video.  You can order two different versions of the film online from Ted's Lucille Ball Bookstore (in association with Amazon.com).  Click here to order just the videotape.  You can also click here to order the video and soundtrack CD.

"[Ziegfeld Follies] was a great, glittering, lavish production of Arthur Freed's, with many top stars, including Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, and Gene Kelly.  I was promised that I could dance with Fred Astaire and do some Bea Lillie-type sketches.  But it was such a stupendous production, involving so many egos and temperaments, that I ended up doing nothing but cracking a rhinestone-studded whip over eight black panthers.  Ziegfeld Follies got terrible reviews; it was a costly dud, lacking all sparkle and originality." [Love Lucy]

"Though inconsistent in quality, Ziegfeld Follies was awesomely professional and never dull." [Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical]

"It's all stupendous, terrific, colosal, practically everyone would agree. Even Zieggy." [Variety]

"Between opening and closing is packed a prodigious amount of material, some of which is frankly not deserving of the lavish treatment accorded it." [Film Daily]

"The film's best numbers...are a couple of comedy skits, especially one done by Red Skelton. Fanny Brice plays a Bronx hausfrau quite...funnily. Judy Garland is also amusing as a movie queen giving an interview. Ziegfeld Follies is entertaining - and that's what it's meant to be!" [Bosley Crowther, The New York Times]

"...At least three of the numbers would highlight any review on stage or screen. In 'A Great Lady Has an Interview', Judy Garland, with six leading men, displays an unexpected flair for occupational satire." [Newsweek, April 1, 1946]

"I don't understand why Lucy fanatics would love this film. The only thing Lucille Ball does in the picture is crack a whip a few times. There are many other Lucille Ball films I prefer. Among them are Stage Door, [Yours, Mine and Ours], The Long, Long Trailer, and [Too Many Girls] (The film which brought togeather Lucy and Desi)" - Craig