Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: A & E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 7, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000006QFV
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,003 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining,with a fascinating video clip, August 2, 1999

By 

albertatamazon (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biography - Great Ziegfeld [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This biography of Florenz Ziegfeld is up to A&E's usual high standard of entertaining biographies,and clips featuring footage of the real-life Ziegfeld may give you an awful jolt---he most certainly was not the debonair,sophisticated figure portrayed by William Powell in "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and "Ziegfeld Follies "(1946),or by Walter Pidgeon in "Funny Girl"(1968)--in fact,the Great Showman comes across as a rather sleazy gangster-type figure -a more accurate screen impersonator would have been Edward G.Robinson! This bio,lavishly illustrated with stills and posters of the era,features a long unseen and invaluable relic..SOUND FOOTAGE of three members of the 1927 ORIGINAL CAST of Ziegfeld's greatest triumph-the first production ever of Kern and Hammerstein's beloved "Show Boat",filmed at the time the original Broadway production was still running. This screen footage,featuring Tess Gardella,Helen Morgan,and Jules Bledsoe,could only have come from one source,the once-presumed lost prologue to the 1929 part-talking film version of "Show Boat",and is an invaluable chance to see some priceless clips.The quality of the video image in these "Show Boat" performance clips is quite bad-be warned-we can't make out Bledsoe's facial features at all;he is photographed in medium shot,and the picture looks almost like a badly developed photo. The sound quality for this sequence is also quite bad,but at least it survives,and is perhaps the only remaining visual record of any part of the actual original production (not to be confused with the magnificent 1936 film version of "Show Boat",a beautifully photographed,acted,and sung film,starring Irene Dunne,Allan Jones,and several members of the Broadway cast of the show.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful non-print information source on the Great Showman, October 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Biography - Great Ziegfeld [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This video gives us an entertaining peek into the private and public personas of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. The viewer finds a surprising lot of film footage of Ziegfeld at home with daughter, Patty, and there is even sound footage of the producer discussing his ongoing goal to "glorify the American Girl". I was most fascinated by the stills of Ziegfeld's productions and the short but provacative contemporary interviews with women who were actually glorified by the glorifier. And in keeping with the A & E style, this production does not shy away from presenting Ziegfeld's personal vices as well as his creative genius. A must-see for any Ziegfeld enthusiast.