Ziegfeld Follies was producer Arthur Freed’s pet project in the early to mid-1940s.  Originally intended to celebrate the 20th anniversary of MGM in 1944, the film went through so many revisions and edits before finally being released in 1946.  During those two years, three if you count the preliminary work on the project in 1943, comedy sketches and musical numbers were planned, cast, recorded, filmed, and discarded – some were even filmed and ultimately deleted.  From the beginning, the film was conceived as a revue without a plot – one that the late famed impresario Florenz Ziegfeld might create if he could reach down from the heavens and make a new revue with the current talent at MGM.  The format allowed for any manner of musical numbers and comedy sketches to be conceived, and many were!

The original “Ziegfeld Follies” of the early 1900s were the brainchild of showman Florenz Ziegfeld, inspired by the Folies Bergères in Paris.  They ran from 1907 to 1931. “The Follies,” as they came to be known were classy, spectacular revues showcasing the great talents of the day.  They were also known for presenting the great beauties of the time in colossal production numbers with lavish sets and costumes.  The Follies became the standard by which all revues would be judged.  The Ziegfeld name became shorthand for lavishness and opulence.  The showgirls became known as “The Ziegfeld Girls” and were heavily promoted as “Glorifying the American Girl.”  Some of the great talents who were either made famous by the Follies or had great success with the Follies included: Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, W.C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Ann Pennington, Bert Williams, Will Rogers, Ruth Etting, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Marilyn Miller, Ed Wynn, Gilda Gray, and Nora Bayes.

After Ziegfeld’s death in 1932, MGM acquired the rights to the Ziegfeld name (his widow Billie Burke was a contract player at the studio) and made two films with his name in the title.  The 1936 biopic The Great Ziegfeld was a huge critical and financial success and won the second Oscar ever given to a musical for Best Picture.  It featured lavish musical numbers and enough drama to win Louise Rainer the first of her two back-to-back Oscars for Best Actress for playing Ziegfeld’s first wife (and first big star) Anna Held.  In 1941 the studio used his name again when it produced Ziegfeld Girl. The plot was simple.  It features the tried and true story of three chorus girls (Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and Hedy Lamarr) making their way up the show biz ladder.  The lavish finale borrowed clips from The Great Ziegfeld and cleverly placed Judy on the top of the famous wedding cake set first seen in the previous film.

Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, and Ziegfeld’s widow Billie Burke (another great beauty of the stage who oddly never appeared in her husband’s Follies) all appeared on screen with Judy at MGM in the 1930s (Brice: Everybody Sing – 1938; Tucker: Broadway Melody of 1938 – 1937 & Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry – 1937; Burke: Everybody Sing – 1938 & The Wizard of Oz – 1939).  Judy herself played Ziegfeld star and Broadway legend Marilyn Miller in the 1946 biopic Till The Clouds Roll By.

Judy’s involvement in Freed’s version of The Follies took place just after her work on Meet Me In St. Louis in 1944.  Judy’s name had been attached to several songs and sketch ideas for the film, including: “The Babbitt And The Bromide” (pairing her with Fred Astaire – it ended up following her segment in the final cut of the film, performed by Astaire and Gene Kelly); “Pass That Peace Pipe” (pairing her with Lucille Ball or June Allyson – it ended up being performed by Joan McCracken in the 1947 MGM musical Good News starring Allyson and Peter Lawford); “Firehouse Chat” (a sketch pairing her with Lucille Ball and Ann Sothern); “It’s Getting Hot In Haiti” (musical number); a takeoff of “Lady In The Dark” (pairing her with Mickey Rooney and Fred Astaire); a sketch with Greer Garson and Lucille Ball titled “Lady In The Clouds” in which the three would visit a psychiatrist’s office and sing a number that “they” had come up with titled “I’ve Got Those Rooney/Pidgeon/Skelton Blues”; and several more.

One idea that almost made it to filming was a sketch and musical number pairing Judy with Mickey Rooney for the first time in color titled “I Love You More In Technicolor Than I Did In Black & White.”  A copy of the script was included in the 1994 laserdisc special edition of the film.  It would have had Judy playing herself, opening with her on stage and then going off stage where she turns down dates with MGM stars James Craig, Van Johnson, and John Hodiak, to keep a date with “an old friend.”  The old friend turns out to be Mickey Rooney.  He shows her clips from their previous films and laments that he’s only kissed her in black and white while other guys have kissed her in Technicolor.  They then duet on the song.