She claimed to be Parisian but the tempestuous Helene Anna Held was actually born in Warsaw, Poland, the daughter of a German Jewish glove maker and his French wife, March 18, 1873. In 1881, the Held family fled to Paris as anti-Semitic pogroms swept Poland. The teenage Anna found work in a sewing factory. She also sang for pennies in the streets of Paris.

After her father's death in 1884, Anna and her mother moved to London to live with relatives. It was there that she polished her singing skills, landing several roles in Yiddish musicals. Three years later she returned to Paris, where her famous rolling eyes and naughty songs made her a major star in the finest cafes. She shrewdly increased her fame by such daring gestures as riding horses astride (rather than side-saddle) and by being one of the first women to use the newly invented bicycle and motorcar.

Anna Held married South American gambler Maximo Carrera, giving birth to a daughter, Liane, around 1895. The child was raised in a convent and the uncaring parents both went back to their separate lives. Anna's primary reason for marrying was to convert to Catholicism, reinforcing her claims to be Parisian and not Jewish.

She appeared at London's Palace Music Hall in 1896 when the brash American producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. bribed his way into her dressing room. Ziegfeld wanted Held to appear in an upcoming Broadway production, and offered her the then-staggering sum of $1,500 a week. Anna Held came to the U.S. a ready-made celebrity. Ziegfeld's masterful publicity, (and his selective bribery of the press) had Held's name and photo in every newspaper and souvenir shop in New York by the time she arrived. Anna and Ziegfeld became lovers.

Always in search of a fresh publicity angle, Ziegfeld used the milky bath mixture Held conditioned her skin with and informed the press Miss Held bathed in several gallons of fresh milk every day. He reinforced his story by saying he returned one shipment from a local dairy because it had gone sour. The dairy owner sued Ziegfeld for libel and the hoax was eventually revealed - but Helds' name made headlines every step of the way.

Anna Held created a lavishly dressed troupe of chorines called "The Anna Held Girls". This style of a Parisian revue would eventually lead to the first "Ziegfeld Follies" produced in 1907.

Ziegfeld and Held lived together but they never formally married. Their longstanding cohabitation made them common law spouses as of 1904. Eventually, Ziegfeld's heavy gambling, relentless publicity schemes, and infidelities soured the marriage. By this time, Anna was already a millionaire in her own right-something unheard of for a woman of her time. They separated.

As an international star, she was very much in demand. She enjoyed success touring in vaudeville and worked tirelessly for France during World War I. She later toured America to raise funds for Allied relief charities. She also starred in several silent Hollywood movies in 1916 but died two years later, at the age of 45.

Beyond her naughty behavior and wonderful good looks, she will always be remembered for the many contributions she made to American culture.