Daily Inspiration Quote by Florenz Ziegfeld

There’s a showman’s sleight of hand in Ziegfeld’s genteel phrasing: he’s praising meritocracy while quietly advertising the Ziegfeld machine. The line performs humility ("I may add", "comparatively modest") even as it builds a myth Ziegfeld helped sell better than anyone: the chorus as America’s factory floor for stardom, a place where raw material gets spotted, refined, and launched.

The key word is "unexpected". Ziegfeld isn’t just saying talent can come from anywhere; he’s saying his eye can find it anywhere. That flatters the audience (you might be watching the next big thing) and flatters the institution (the theater as a ladder). It also launders the era’s harsher realities - grueling labor, ruthless competition, narrow beauty standards - into a narrative of upward mobility that feels wholesome and democratic. The chorus becomes both literal workforce and symbolic proving ground.

Context matters: Ziegfeld built the Follies during a time when mass entertainment was becoming modern, standardized, and scalable. His productions treated performers as both individuals and a coordinated spectacle, and this quote bridges that tension. It nods toward individual "great achievement" while keeping the origin story safely within the ensemble, inside his ecosystem. The subtext is managerial: greatness is possible, but it’s curated, and it rises through the structures Ziegfeld controls. Even the compliment doubles as recruitment copy - come to the chorus, and who knows? The gatekeeper might anoint you.