Anna Held

Here is a more complete portrait of Anna Held, including her life, career, and remembered remarks:

Anna Held – Life, Stage Presence, and Notable Quotes

Anna Held was born Helene Anna Held on March 19, 1872 (though some sources list March 18, 1873) in Warsaw, then part of Congress Poland.
Her parents were of Jewish origin: her father, Shimmle or Maurice Held, worked as a glove maker; her mother, Yvonne (or variations thereof), is sometimes identified as French-Jewish.
Anti-Jewish pogroms and economic troubles forced the family to move to Paris when she was young.
As a child in Paris, she sang on street corners and in local theaters (including Yiddish theater) to support her family.
After her father’s death, she and her mother relocated to London; there she worked in theaters, often in small roles in Yiddish or French-language productions.

Held first attracted wider attention in Europe before being discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld while performing in London. Ziegfeld brought her to New York and the U.S. stage.
Her association with Ziegfeld (often as his common-law wife) was central to her fame.
From about 1896 through 1910, she was one of Broadway’s most celebrated leading ladies, starring in musicals and revues as a coquettish “Parisian singer”—her public image was heavily promoted by Ziegfeld’s publicity machinery.
Some of her notable Broadway shows include The Little Duchess (1901) and A Parisian Model (1906–1907). Her numerous costume changes and provocative staging in A Parisian Model cemented her reputation.
Critics sometimes doubted her talent, suggesting her fame owed much to image and Ziegfeld’s promotional flair rather than purely to artistic merit; nevertheless, she maintained a huge audience appeal.
She is often credited with influencing the development of the Ziegfeld Follies—her style, public persona, and the way she was promoted shaped the format.

In 1894, she married Maximo Carrera, a Uruguayan adventurer, and in 1895 they had a daughter, Liane Held Carrera (who later became involved in preserving Anna’s legacy).
Her relationship with Ziegfeld was long and complex; they separated around 1908.
During World War I, she toured in vaudeville and performed in France for soldiers, raising funds for the war effort. She was sometimes regarded as a war heroine for performing near battle zones.
In 1917, her health deteriorated: she had been battling multiple myeloma (a cancer of plasma cells). Her condition worsened, and in early 1918 she closed her show Follow Me.
Anna Held died on August 12, 1918, in New York City.
Her funeral was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, though Florenz Ziegfeld did not attend, reportedly due to a phobia of funerals.

Though her performing legacy is overshadowed by later stars, Anna Held remains a symbol of early Broadway glamor, promotion, and theatrical spectacle.
The Anna Held Museum Papers (held at New York Public Library) preserve her correspondence, photographs, and drafts relating to Ziegfeld, her daughter, and her career.
Her persona—the flirtatious Parisienne, the exotic charm, the publicity stunts—helped shape the theatrical star system and the spectacle culture of Broadway.
Her life is dramatized in film and stage. For example, The Great Ziegfeld (1936) presents a romanticized version of her relationship with Ziegfeld.
Her daughter Liane opened a museum dedicated to her stage items and legacy.

Anna Held was known not only for her stage presence but also for witty, often self-aware remarks. Here are several attributed to her:

“We must go fast, because the race is against time.”
“A woman must make her fortune before she is 30; or work after she is 30; or get married.”
“You instinctively discover how to entertain an audience.”
“There is no disgrace in working. There was no silver spoon around at the time I was born.”
“Please do not ask me to talk about my divorce. Mr. Ziegfeld and I are such very good friends. It is only a little matter quite between ourselves.”
“To put on a corset properly is as much of an art as to make a corset properly.”
“You’ll never catch a man if you let him think you are too smart.”
“A woman should be like a single flower, not a whole bouquet.”