Entertainer. She was considered one of the great beauties of the Broadway stage in the years before World War I, popularizing Irving Berlin's classic song "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (1909) and introducing the famous ditty "Row, Row, Row" (1911). However, she won greater notoriety for her scandalous personal life. Born Mary Ann Brennan in San Francisco, she made her performing debut as a dancer in 1906. Her career received a considerable boost in 1909 when theatrical producer Florenz Ziegfeld singled her out from the chorus line of his show "Miss Innoncence"; he made her his mistress and began grooming her for stardom. Their affair led to the breakup of Ziegfeld's marriage to Broadway legend Anna Held. From 1909 to 1912 Lillian Lorraine was a fixture of the annual "Ziegfeld Follies" revues and was also featured in the musical "Over the River" (1912). Offstage she was known for her mercurial personality, heavy drinking, and gift for getting into trouble. In 1912 alone she had a fling with a chauffeur who stole her jewelry, was briefly married to a bigamist who assaulted Ziegfeld in public, and was the target of a blackmail scheme that resulted in a fatal shooting. She was also said to have had shadowy connections to mob figure Arnold Rothstein. By 1914 Lorraine's relationship with Ziegfeld had cooled, though he continued to support her and cast her in two more shows, his 1918 "Follies" and the "Nine O'Clock Revue" (1920). In the meantime she tried her luck in vaudeville and also appeared in ten Hollywood films, among them "Should a Wife Forgive?" (1915), the serials "Neal of the Navy" (1915) and "The Flaming Disk" (1920), and "Lonesome Corners" (1922). In 1921 Lorraine injured her spine in a fall outside a nightclub, and her fame rapidly declined. She died poor and forgotten, and was originally buried in an unmarked pauper's grave at Calvary Cemetery. Show business friends later arranged to have her reinterred with dignity in her last husband's plot at St. Raymond's Cemetery in The Bronx. In the Oscar-winning film "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936), a gold-digging character based on Lorraine was played by actress Virginia Bruce.
Entertainer. She was considered one of the great beauties of the Broadway stage in the years before World War I, popularizing Irving Berlin's classic song "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (1909) and introducing the famous ditty "Row, Row, Row" (1911). However, she won greater notoriety for her scandalous personal life. Born Mary Ann Brennan in San Francisco, she made her performing debut as a dancer in 1906. Her career received a considerable boost in 1909 when theatrical producer Florenz Ziegfeld singled her out from the chorus line of his show "Miss Innoncence"; he made her his mistress and began grooming her for stardom. Their affair led to the breakup of Ziegfeld's marriage to Broadway legend Anna Held. From 1909 to 1912 Lillian Lorraine was a fixture of the annual "Ziegfeld Follies" revues and was also featured in the musical "Over the River" (1912). Offstage she was known for her mercurial personality, heavy drinking, and gift for getting into trouble. In 1912 alone she had a fling with a chauffeur who stole her jewelry, was briefly married to a bigamist who assaulted Ziegfeld in public, and was the target of a blackmail scheme that resulted in a fatal shooting. She was also said to have had shadowy connections to mob figure Arnold Rothstein. By 1914 Lorraine's relationship with Ziegfeld had cooled, though he continued to support her and cast her in two more shows, his 1918 "Follies" and the "Nine O'Clock Revue" (1920). In the meantime she tried her luck in vaudeville and also appeared in ten Hollywood films, among them "Should a Wife Forgive?" (1915), the serials "Neal of the Navy" (1915) and "The Flaming Disk" (1920), and "Lonesome Corners" (1922). In 1921 Lorraine injured her spine in a fall outside a nightclub, and her fame rapidly declined. She died poor and forgotten, and was originally buried in an unmarked pauper's grave at Calvary Cemetery. Show business friends later arranged to have her reinterred with dignity in her last husband's plot at St. Raymond's Cemetery in The Bronx. In the Oscar-winning film "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936), a gold-digging character based on Lorraine was played by actress Virginia Bruce.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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