Which 1936 Best Picture winner is a biographical musical about Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.?
Answer
The Great Ziegfeld
The 1936 Best Picture winner about theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. is The Great Ziegfeld.
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film stars William Powell as Ziegfeld, Luise Rainer as his first wife Anna Held, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke. It presents a fictionalized, highly polished version of Ziegfeld’s career and his famous Broadway revues.
The film won Best Picture at the 9th Academy Awards, held in 1937, and also earned Oscars for Luise Rainer and choreographer Seymour Felix. Its elaborate production numbers—especially “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody”—helped make it one of Hollywood’s major musicals of the 1930s.
A common mix-up is Ziegfeld Follies, a separate 1946 musical, or Ziegfeld Girl, released in 1941. Neither won Best Picture, and neither is the 1936 biographical musical described here.