Bright Lights and Midnight Frolics

The Real World Behind Daisy Briscoe’s Story

In Bright Light, Daisy Briscoe steps into one of the most glamorous – and misunderstood – corners of 1920s New York: Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic. While the name Ziegfeld still conjures feathers, glitter and Broadway brilliance, the Frolic was something different. It glittered, yes – but behind the shimmer was a more complicated reality.

The story doesn’t aim to glorify or condemn the world Daisy enters. It focuses instead on the women within it – the ambition they carried, the boundaries they navigated and the choices they made in pursuit of something better.

What Was the Midnight Frolic?

Florenz Ziegfeld is best remembered for the Ziegfeld Follies – lavish theatrical revues that helped shape American show business. But the Midnight Frolic, launched in 1915, was a different kind of stage: an exclusive, late-night rooftop performance space perched atop the New Amsterdam Theatre.

The Frolic catered to New York’s elite – bankers, celebrities, visiting royalty – and blurred the line between spectacle and society. Unlike the Follies, performers didn’t stay behind the footlights. They moved through the crowd, mingling with guests, making their presence felt through wit, charm and grace as much as talent.

The Ziegfeld Girls of the Frolic

Ziegfeld Girls were known for beauty, elegance and near-military discipline. On the main Follies stage, they were part of grand, tightly choreographed ensembles. In the Frolic, they performed up close – descending staircases in couture, balancing poise and approachability in equal measure.

Many saw the Frolic as a stepping stone to film or Broadway. Some made that leap. Others left quietly, their stories unrecorded. These women weren’t simply accessories to the glamour – they were working artists, navigating an environment where visibility and vulnerability often went hand in hand.

Why Ziegfeld Created the Frolic

Ziegfeld was a visionary producer and a shrewd businessman. The Frolic brought high society into his orbit and extended the Ziegfeld brand far beyond the proscenium arch. It was nightlife, marketing and showmanship rolled into one – a new kind of immersive theatre.

It was also ahead of its time in form, though not always in ethics. Like many entertainment spaces, the Frolic was designed with the audience – not the performers – at its centre. The proximity to power opened doors for some women but demanded much in return from many.

Daisy’s World Was Real

In Bright Light, Daisy arrives in New York hungry – for freedom, for reinvention, for her chance on a bigger stage. She comes armed with little more than talent, nerve and a belief in her own possibility. But the glamour she steps into has shadows. The applause is real – so is the isolation.

Today, we better understand how ambition and power can collide – often at the expense of those without protection. But these dynamics aren’t new. Women like Daisy were making impossible calculations long before there was language for the situations they faced.

My short story is a tribute to those women – the ones who boarded ships, crossed oceans, changed their names and fought to be seen – not just admired, but understood. To their talent, their sacrifices, and the quiet courage it took to keep showing up under the lights, even when the script was never written in their favour.

Ultimately, Bright Light is about finding one’s voice – sometimes through music, sometimes through defiance and sometimes just by staying on your feet long enough to be heard.

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