By Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson

Flo Ziegfeld, Jr.--his name alone conjures up images of decadent Broadway revues, extravagant costumes and most of all, beautiful women. He has been played on the silver screen by everyone from William Powell to Walter Pidgeon but beyond the one biographical film The Great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld's remarkable life is mostly unknown to film buffs. Married twice and with a purported eye for the ladies, Ziegfeld is explored in this new biography with an emphasis not only on his Broadway successes and failures but on a well-rounded account of the ultimate showman as a father, a husband, a friend and an alternately ruthless and benevolent employer.

In addition to the beautiful chorus girls for whom he was famous, he helped a diverse group of talented stars to achieve stardom. From Eddie Cantor to Fannie Brice to W.C. Fields to Will Rogers, they all found success as part of Ziegfeld's Broadway revues.

He revolutionized theater performances in 1927, when he produced Jerome Kern's and Oscar Hammerstein's musical adaption of Edna Ferber's best-selling book, Showboat. Along with Showboat, Ziegfeld's other theatrical hits including Rio Rita and The Three Musketeers which brought Hollywood calling.

Drawing on a wide range of sources―including Ziegfield's previously unpublished letters to his second wife, Billie Burke (who later played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz), and to his daughter Patricia―Cynthia and Sara Brideson shed new light on this enigmatic man in awell-researched book that presents an intimate and in-depth portrait of a figure who profoundly changed American entertainment.

Cynthia and Sara Brideson are the co-authors of Also Starring...: Forty Biographical Essays on the Greatest Character Actors of Hollywood's Golden Era, 1930-1965 .