Early Ziegfeld Follies portrait of Fanny Brice

Fanny Brice (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951) was a popular and influential American comedian, singer, theatre and film actress and entertainer, remembered best for her many stage, radio and film appearances and her recordings. She was the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series Baby Snooks. Download high resolution version (510x671, 49 KB)Fanny Brice, Ziegfeld Follies photo, c. ... Download high resolution version (510x671, 49 KB)Fanny Brice, Ziegfeld Follies photo, c. ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh. ... Ercole de Roberti: Concert, c. ... Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... An entertainer is someone who is hired to entertain people. ... Interior of the 1928 B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour as a 33 â…“ LP vinyl record A gramophone record (also phonograph record, or simply record) is an analogue sound recording medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove starting near the periphery and ending near the center of the disc. ... The Baby Snooks Show was a radio show starring Fanny Brice in the role of a mischievous youngster named Snooks. ...

In the decade following her death, she was portrayed on stage and film by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. Barbra Joan Streisand (born April 24, 1942) is an Academy Award-winning American singer, theatre and film actress, composer, liberal political activist, film producer and director. ... Original cast album Funny Girl is a semi-biographical musical based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein. ...

Early life

Fanny Brice (occasionally spelled Fannie) was the stage name of Fania Borach, born in New York City, the third child of relatively well-off saloon owners of Hungarian Jewish descent. In 1908, she dropped out of school to work in a burlesque review, and two years later she began her association with Florenz Ziegfeld, headlining his Ziegfeld Follies from 1910 into the 1930s. Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... Photograph of Sally Rand, 1934. ... 1928 Time cover featuring Ziegfeld Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. ... The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. ...

In the 1921 Follies, she was featured singing "My Man" which became both a big hit and her signature song. She made a popular recording of it for RCA Victor. The second song most associated with her is "Second Hand Rose". She recorded nearly two dozen record sides for Victor and also cut several for Columbia. She is a posthumous recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for her 1921 recording of "My Man." RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. ... This list of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients J–P lists Grammy-award winners in aphabetical order of album title. ...

Her films include My Man (1928), Be Yourself! (1930) and Everybody Sing (1938) with Judy Garland. Brice, Ray Bolger and Harriet Hoctor were the only original Ziegfeld performers to portray themselves in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946). For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at MP 6415 Hollywood Boulevard. My Man is a 1982 single by Yoko Ono from the album Its Alright (I See Rainbows) in a new wave/calypso style. ... Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an Oscar-nominated American film actress, considered by many to be one of the greatest singing stars of Hollywoods Golden Era of musical film, best known for her role as Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of... Ray Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow (and the farmworker Huck) in the 1939 film classic, The Wizard of Oz. ... Categories: Movie stubs | 1936 films | Drama films | Musical films | Biographical films | Best Picture Oscar | Best Actress Oscar (film) ... The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. ... A band plays on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ...

Radio

From the 1930s until her death in 1951, Fanny made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Snooks, a role she first premiered in a Follies skit. With first Alan Reed and then Hanley Stafford as her bedeviled Daddy, Baby Snooks premiered in The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in February 1936 on CBS. She moved to NBC in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the Good News show, then back to CBS on Maxwell House Time, the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and comedian Frank Morgan, in September 1944. She was back to NBC in November 1948, in a full show of her own, first called Toasties Time but soon known as The Baby Snooks Show. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Alan Reed (August 20, 1907 – June 14, 1977) was the voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spin_off series. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... The National Broadcasting Company or NBC is an American television broadcasting company based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ...

Brice was so meticulous about the program and the title character that she was known to perform in costume as a toddler girl even though seen only by the radio studio audience. She was 45 years old when the character began her long radio life. In addition to Reed and Stafford, her co-stars included Lalive Brownell, Lois Corbet, and Arlene Harris playing her mother, Danny Thomas as Jerry, Charlie Cantor as Uncle Louie and Ken Christy as Mr. Weemish. She was completely devoted to the character, as she told biographer Norman Katkov: Danny Thomas (January 6, 1914 – February 6, 1991) was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor of Lebanese Maronite descent. ...

Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist.

Baby Snooks writer Everett Freeman told Katkov that Brice didn't like to rehearse the role but always snapped into it on the air, losing herself completely in the character:

While she was on the air she was Baby Snooks. And after the show, for an hour after the show, she was still Baby Snooks. The Snooks voice disappeared, of course, but the Snooks temperament, thinking, actions were all there.

Brice had a short-lived marriage in her teens to a local barber, Frank White. Her second husband was professional gambler Julius "Nicky" Arnstein. During their marriage, Arnstein served 14 months for wiretapping in Sing Sing, where his celebrity wife visited him every week. When he was later sentenced to serve two years at Fort Leavenworth for conspiracy to carry stolen securities into the District of Columbia, a heartsick Brice divorced him. She went on to marry songwriter and stage producer Billy Rose and appeared in his revue Crazy Quilt, among others. Unfortunately, that marriage also failed. Julius Nicky W. Arnstein (??? - October 2, 1965) was an American businessman, professional gambler, and con artist. ... Alternative meaning: Sing Sing (band) Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a prison in Ossining, New York. ... In 1827, Colonel Henry Leavenworth established a post on the bluffs overlooking the western bank of the Missouri River to protect the fur trade, safeguard commerce on the Santa Fe Trail and maintain the peace among the inhabitants. ... Billy Rose (September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American theatrical showman. ... Crazy Quilt was a villian in the Batman comic books. ...

Brice and Stafford brought Baby Snooks and Daddy to television only once, an appearance in 1950 on CBS-TV's Popsicle Parade of Stars. This was Fanny Brice's only appearance on television. Viewing the kinescope recording today, Fanny is a strange, but amusing sight: a middle-aged woman in a little girl's outfit (and none of the other cast seem to find this unusual). Brice handled herself well on the live TV broadcast but later admitted that the character of Baby Snooks just didn’t work properly when seen. She returned with Stafford and the Snooks character to the safety of radio for her next appearance, on Tallulah Bankhead's legendary big-budget, large-scale radio variety show, The Big Show, in November 1950, sharing the bill with Groucho Marx and Jane Powell. In one routine Snooks knocks on Bankhead's dressing room door for advice on becoming an actress when she grew up in spite of Daddy's warning that she already lacked what it took. Tallulah Bankhead on The Big Show The Big Show, an American radio variety program featuring 90 minutes of top-name comic, stage, screen and music talent, was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era alive and well against the rapidly-growing television tide. ... Julius Henry Marx, known as Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), was an American comedian, working both with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and on his own. ... Jane Powell (born April 1, 1929) is an American singer, entertainer and actor. ...

Six months after her Big Show appearance, Fanny Brice died in Hollywood at the age of 59 of a cerebral hemorrhage. A cerebral hemorrhage is a bleed into the substance of the cerebrum. ...

She is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. The May 29, 1951 episode of The Baby Snooks Show was broadcast as a memorial to the star who created the brattish toddler, crowned by Hanley Stafford's brief on-air eulogy: "We have lost a very real, a very warm, a very wonderful woman." Cemetery view looking South-East. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

Brice portrayals

Although the names of the principal characters were changed, the plot of the 1939 film Rose of Washington Square was inspired heavily by Brice's marriage and career, to the extent it borrowed its title from a tune she performed in the Follies and included "My Man." She sued 20th Century Fox for invasion of privacy and won the case. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck was forced to delete several production numbers closely associated with the star. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Invasion of privacy is a legal term essentially defined as a violation of the right to be left alone. ... Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902–December 22, 1979) was a producer, writer, actor and director who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors (the length of his career being rivalled only by that of Adolph Zukor). ...

Barbra Streisand starred as Brice in the 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl, which centered on Brice's rise to fame and troubled relationship with Arnstein. In 1968, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for reprising her role in the film version. The 1975 sequel "Funny Lady" focused on Brice's turbulent relationship with impresario Billy Rose and was as highly fictionalized as the original. Streisand also recorded the Brice songs "My Man," "I'd Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Happy with Somebody Else)" and "Second Hand Rose," which became a Top 40 hit. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Original cast album Funny Girl is a semi-biographical musical based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein. ... // The Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the awards given to actresses, working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... An impresario is a manager or producer in one of the entertainment industries, usually Music or Theatre. ... Billy Rose (September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American theatrical showman. ... Fiction (from the Latin fingere, to form, create) is storytelling of imagined events and stands in contrast to non-fiction, which makes factual claims about reality. ...

Funny Girl and Funny Lady are examples of how plays and films take great liberties with the lives of historical figures and/or events. The Streisand film makes no mention of Brice's first husband at all. It also suggests that Arnstein turned to crime because his pride wouldn't allow him to live off Fanny; the real Nicky shamelessly sponged off her. The film suggests Nicky sold phony bonds; he was actually part of a gang that stole $5 million of Wall Street securities. Instead of turning himself in, as in the movie, Arnstein went into hiding. When he finally surrendered, he did not plead guilty, as he did in the movie, but fought the charges for four years, taking a toll on his wife's finances. Elaborate marble facade of NYSE as seen from the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ...

Two children were born of the Brice-Arnstein marriage but only one is depicted in the film. Daughter Frances married Ray Stark, producer of both the Broadway musical and the film, while son William became an artist of note. Brice had a long and successful collaboration with Irving Berlin that is never mentioned. Many of the events depicted in Funny Lady are extreme exaggerations of the truth or outright fabrications. Ray Stark (October 3, 1915 - January 17, 2004) was a film producer and powerbroker known for his Machiavellian ways. ... Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer and lyricist, one of the most prodigious and famous American songwriters in history. ...

References

• Goldman, Herbert, Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508552-3.
• Grossman, Barbara, Funny Woman: The Life and Times of Fanny Brice, Indiana University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-253-20762-2.

Watch

• Saxony/Jasmine: Video clips of Fanny Brice

External links

• Fanny Brice at the Internet Broadway Database
• Fanny Brice at the Internet Movie Database
• Fanny Brice Collection
• Jewish Virtual Library: Fanny Brice