Through the portals of the Ziegfeld Club, you are welcomed to the long lost, golden era of the Broadway musical theater - the magnificent show world of Florenz Ziegfeld.

The Ziegfeld Club was organized in 1936, under the aegis of Billie Burke
(Mrs. Florenz Ziegfeld) and Bernard Sobel, one of Mr. Ziegfeld’s chief publicists. Initially, the Club was intended to be a public relations ploy to promote Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1936 musical extravaganza, “The Great Ziegfeld.” Although highly fictionalized, it was a financial blockbuster, and won the Academy Award for Best Film of the Year. Billie Burke and Bernard Sobel then chartered the Ziegfeld Club, and incorporated it as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in compliance with federal and New York State laws. Its new primary purpose, no longer purely social, became fundraising to help less fortunate, ex-Follies girls.

As the years have passed, so have most of the original Ziegfeld Follies girls. Today there is only one known survivor, Doris Eaton Travis, born in 1904. Thus, while the Club still remains responsive to its original purpose of helping women in show business, its emphasis on assistance has shifted to organizations such as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the nonsectarian Episcopal Actors’ Guild, and the Actors’ Fund of America Retirement Home in Englewood, New Jersey.

The Ziegfeld Club, Inc., is the only such organization officially sanctioned by the late Mrs. Florenz Ziegfeld. Since 1976, it has been headquartered in the prestigious Central Presbyterian Church at 593 Park Avenue, New York City, New York. The Club’s Board of Directors meets on the second Monday of each month from September through June. All members are invited to attend. Ladies pay annual dues of $40.00. Gentlemen make a one-time, lifetime membership payment of $35.00, and are carried on the rolls as “nonvoting, associate members.” Members and associates enjoy special events, fellowship, and networking. They also receive semiannual newsletters. All interested persons are welcome. A membership application form follows on this website.