Lillian Lorraine

Career

Born in San Francisco, Lorraine began her career on stage in 1906 at the age of 14. In 1907, she appeared as a minor performer in a Shubert production, The Tourists. It was in that show that she was discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld. He spent the next several years promoting her career, rocketing her into an ascendance, which made her one of the most popular attractions in his Follies. In 1909, Ziegfeld pulled the 17-year-old Lorraine from the chorus line in that year’s production of “Miss Innocence”, spotlighting her as a solo performer who became celebrated for introducing the song, "By the Light of the Silvery Moon".

In his book Scandals and Follies, author Lee Davis writes that, “By 1911, [Ziegfeld] was insanely in love with Lillian Lorraine and would remain so, to one degree or another, for the rest of his life, despite her erratic, irresponsible, often senseless behavior, her multiple marriages to other men, his own two marriages and his need for all his adult life to sleep with the best of the beauties he hired.”

The relationship, both professional and romantic, between Ziegfeld and Lorraine, led to the demise of his marriage to actress Anna Held. (A fictitious character, Audrey Dane, clearly based on Lorraine was portrayed by Virginia Bruce in the 1936 motion picture The Great Ziegfeld.) Lorraine and Ziegfeld's relationship was turbulent and emotionally complex, but their passion was such that Ziegfeld's second wife, actress Billie Burke, confessed that Lorraine was the only one of Ziegfeld's past sexual entanglements that aroused her jealousy.

Lorraine starred in many annual productions of The Ziegfeld Follies as well as the 1912 Broadway musical Over the River. She ventured into motion pictures with limited success, appearing in about ten films between 1912 and 1922, including the serial Neal of the Navy with William Courtleigh, Jr.

Personal life

Lorraine's personal life earned her more notoriety than either her talent or her beauty, and she was a staple in newspapers of the day with accounts of her latest turbulent romance or feuds with rival stars such as Fanny Brice and Sophie Tucker. Her personality and private life reportedly was a large influence on Anita Loos in the creation of the character of Lorelei for the novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Although her affair with Ziegfeld was over by the end of the 1910s, her box office drawing power kept her in a number of his productions of the period. Lorraine's fame waned in the 1920s, and she worked for a period in vaudeville.

Marriages

Lorraine's first marriage was to Frederick M. Gresheimer. They married on March 27, 1912 after meeting on a beach. Ten days later, Lorraine announced that the marriage had been a mistake and that the couple was "incompatible" due to her career. The marriage was later found to be invalid as Gresheimer had not divorced his first wife. Lorraine and Gresheimer remarried in May 1913. Three months later, Lorraine filed to have the marriage annulled after claiming that Gresheimer misrepresented himself.

Around 1946, she married Jack O'Brien, an accountant, taking his name. According to Lorraine's biographer, Nils Hanson, no records of a marriage exist and the marriage was likely a common-law marriage.

Final years and death

Lorraine disappeared from public view in 1941, sometimes going by her mother's maiden name, Mary Ann Brennan. She died on April 17, 1955 at age 63 in New York City. Her funeral, which was held at Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church, was attended by her husband, her accountant and two friends. Lorraine was initially buried in a pauper's grave in Calvary Cemetery in Queens. Her body was later exhumed and moved to a friend's family plot in Saint Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx.

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