Fanny Brice (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951) was a popular and influential
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedienne, singer,
theatreTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
and
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
actress, who made many
stageIn theatre, the stage is a designated space for the performance of theatrical productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience. As an architectural feature, the stage may consist of a platform or series of platforms...
,
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
appearances but is best remembered as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series,
The Baby Snooks ShowThe Baby Snooks Show was an American radio program starring comedienne and Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series began on CBS September 17, 1944, airing on Sunday evenings...
. Thirteen years after her death, she was portrayed on the Broadway stage by
Barbra Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
in the musical
Funny GirlFunny Girl is a musical film based on the stage musical of the same name. The semi-biographical plot is 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. Its original title was My Man...
. The musical was made into a film in 1968.
Early life
Fanny Brice (occasionally spelled
Fannie Brice) was the stage name of
Fania Borach, born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, the third child of relatively well-off saloon owners of Hungarian
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish descent.
In 1908, Brice dropped out of school to work in a
burlesqueBurlesque is a genre of entertainment also known as Travesty. Prior to Burlesque becoming associated with striptease, it was a form of musical and theatrical parody in which an opera or piece of classical theatre is adapted in a broad, often risqué style very different from that for which it was...
revue, and two years later she began her association with
Florenz ZiegfeldFlorenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, Jr. was an American Broadway impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl".-Early life and career:Ziegfeld was born in Chicago to German...
, headlining his
Ziegfeld FolliesThe Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
from 1910 into the 1930s. 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 Victor Records.
The second song most associated with Brice 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".
Brice's
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
credits include
Fioretta,
Sweet and LowSweet and Low is a musical revue produced by Billy Rose and starring James Barton, Fanny Brice, George Jessel, and Arthur Treacher. It features sketches by David Freedman and songs by various composers and lyricists....
, and
Billy RoseWilliam "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
's Crazy Quilt. Her films include
My Man (1928),
Be Yourself! (1930) and
Everybody SingEverybody Sing is a 1938 musical comedy film starring Judy Garland, Allan Jones, Fanny Brice, Reginald Owen and Billie Burke.-Plot:Young Judy Bellaire has trouble fitting in at school, causing trouble by introducing her jazzy style into music class and being expelled as a result...
(1938) with
Judy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy...
. Brice,
Ray BolgerRaymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hunk in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
and
Harriet HoctorHarriet Hoctor was a ballerina, dancer, and instructor from Hoosick Falls, New York. She is remembered best for her dance prowess, holding her body in positions seemingly impossible, and dancing with great ease.-Family:...
were the only original Ziegfeld performers to portray themselves in
The Great ZiegfeldThe Great Ziegfeld is a musical film produced by MGM. Although the film is a fictionalized biography of Florenz Ziegfeld from his show business beginnings to his death, it showcases a series of spectacular musical productions. The film includes original music by Walter Donaldson and Irving Berlin...
(1936) and
Ziegfeld FolliesThe Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
(1946). For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, that serves as an entertainment museum...
at MP 6415 Hollywood Boulevard.
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 co-written by playwright
Moss HartMoss Hart was an American playwright and director of plays and musical theater.-Early years:Hart was born in New York City and grew up at 74 East 105th Street in Manhattan, “a neighborhood not of carriages and hansom cabs, but of dray wagons, pushcarts, and immigrants.” Early on he had a strong...
. With first
Alan ReedAlan Reed was an American actor and voice artist, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spin-off series...
and then
Hanley StaffordHanley Stafford . An actor principally on radio, he is remembered best for playing Lancelot Higgins on The Baby Snooks Show. He is commemorated by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame....
as her bedeviled Daddy, Baby Snooks premiered in
The Ziegfeld Follies of the AirThe Ziegfeld Follies of the Air, broadcast on CBS during the 1930s, attempted to bring the success of Florenz Ziegfeld's stage shows to the new medium of radio....
in February 1936 on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
.
She moved to
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the
Good News show, then back to
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
on
Maxwell House Coffee Time, the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and comedian
Frank MorganFrank Morgan was an American actor best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
, in September 1944. Her longtime Snooks sketch writers---Philip Rapp, David Freedman---finally brought in partners like Arthur Stander and Everett Freeman to develop an independent, half-hour comedy program, launched on CBS in 1944 and moving to NBC in 1948, with Freeman producing. First called
Post Toasties Time (named for the show's first sponsor), the show was renamed
The Baby Snooks Show within short order, though in later years it was often known colloquially as
Baby Snooks and Daddy.
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 HarrisArlene Harris was a Canadian-born American radio, film, and television actress. Before her career in film, she was well-known as a comic actress on the radio program, The Chatterbox....
playing her mother,
Danny ThomasDanny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy, or The Danny Thomas Show. He is also the founder of St...
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: "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/producer Everett Freeman told Katkov that Brice didn't like to rehearse the role ("I can't do a show until it's on the air, kid") 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."
Marriages
Brice had a short-lived marriage in her teens to a local barber, Frank White, whom she met in 1911 in Springfield, Mass., when she was touring in "College Girl." The marriage lasted only a few days and she brought suit for divorce. Her second husband was professional gambler
Julius W. "Nicky" ArnsteinJulius "Nicky" W. Arnstein was an American businessman, professional gambler, and con artist. Among his aliases were Nick Arnold, Nicholas Arnold, Julius Arnold, Wallace Ames, John Adams, and J. Willard Adair. He was best known as the second husband of Fanny Brice.Arnstein's father, Berlin-born...
. Prior to their marriage, Arnstein served 14 months in
Sing SingSing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison in the Village of Ossining, Town of Ossining, New York, United States. It is located approximately 30 miles north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River...
for wiretapping, where Brice visited him every week. In 1918 they were married, after living together for six years. In 1924, Arnstein was charged in a Wall Street bond theft. Brice insisted on his innocence, and funded his legal defense at great expense. Arnstein was convicted and sentenced to the Federal penitentiary at
LeavenworthThe United States Penitentiary , Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. It is now a medium security prison.It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas...
where he served three years. Released in 1927, Arnstein disappeared from Brice's life and that of his two children. Reluctantly, Brice divorced him. She went on to marry songwriter and stage producer
Billy RoseWilliam "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
and appeared in his revue
Crazy QuiltCrazy-Quilt is the name of two DC Comics supervillains.-First Crazy Quilt:Crazy-Quilt is a noted painter who leads a double-life as a master criminal. He gives the plans for his crimes to various henchmen through clues left in his paintings. His criminal empire crashes to a halt when one of his...
, among others. That marriage also failed.
Television
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
kinescopeKinescope – kine for short, also known as telerecording, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor....
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 BankheadTallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress, talk-show host and bon vivant.- Early life and family :...
's legendary big-budget, large-scale radio variety show,
The Big ShowThe 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...
, in November 1950, sharing the bill with
Groucho MarxJulius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit.He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of which he was the third-born...
and
Jane PowellJane Powell is an American singer, dancer and actress. She was a star of MGM musicals as a teenager in the 1940s, and continued in the 1950s.-Early years:...
. 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.
Six months after her
Big Show appearance, Fanny Brice died in Hollywood at the age of 59 of a cerebral hemorrhage. She is interred in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park CemeteryThe Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California....
in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
. (Her original interment was at
Home of Peace Memorial ParkThe Home of Peace Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located at 4334 Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, California. There are a number of famous rabbis buried there, and, amongst others, a few celebrities from the entertainment industry are interred here:...
.) 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."
Brice portrayals
Although the names of the principal characters were changed, the plot of the 1939 film
Rose of Washington SquareRose of Washington Square is a 1939 American dramatic-musical film.Set in 1920s New York City, it focuses on singer Rose Sargent and her turbulent relationship with con artist Barton DeWitt Clinton, whose criminal activities threaten her professional success in the Ziegfeld Follies.Although the...
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 privacyUnited States privacy law embodies several different legal concepts. One is the invasion of privacy, a tort based in common law allowing an aggrieved party to bring a lawsuit against an individual who unlawfully intrudes into his or her private affairs, discloses his or her private information,...
and won the case. Producer
Darryl F. ZanuckDarryl Francis Zanuck was a producer, writer, actor, director, and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors .-Early life:Zanuck was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, the son of Louise Torpin and Frank Zanuck, a...
was forced to delete several production numbers closely associated with the star.
Barbra Streisand starred as Brice in the 1964
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musical
Funny Girl, which centered on Brice's rise to fame and troubled relationship with Arnstein. In 1968, Streisand won the
Academy Award for Best ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for reprising her role in the film version. The 1975 sequel
Funny LadyFunny Lady is a 1975 film starring Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall, and Ben Vereen.A sequel to the 1964 Broadway musical and subsequent 1968 film version of Funny Girl, it is a highly fictionalized account of the later life and career of comedienne Fanny Brice and her...
focused on Brice's turbulent relationship with
impresarioImpresario Impresario Impresario (from the Italian impresa, an enterprise or undertaking Origin: mid 18th century, from Italian impresa, ‘undertaking.’ New Oxford American Dictionary.
Impresa: enterprise; deed; company...
Billy RoseWilliam "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
and was as highly
fictionFiction is a branch of literature which deals, in part or in whole, with temporally contrafactual events...
alized 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.
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, and that he was wanted by the police for selling phony bonds. In reality, however, Arnstein shamelessly sponged off Brice even before their marriage and was eventually named as a member of a gang that stole $5 million of
Wall StreetWall Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It runs east from Broadway to South Street on the East River, through the historical center of the Financial District. It is the first permanent home of the New York Stock Exchange; over time Wall Street became the...
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. It is thought that
Ray StarkRay Stark was an Academy Award-nominated American film producer and powerbroker known for his Machiavellian ways...
, the producer of the play and both movies and Brice's son-in-law, changed Arnstein's story in order to avoid a lawsuit, as Arnstein was still alive at the time. Brice's son William was not mentioned in the play or movies by mutual agreement; other changes (such as the portrayal of Brice's parents as poor rather than well-off or the omission of Brice's first husband) may have been done to increase the dramatic power of the story.
Two children were born of the Brice-Arnstein marriage. Daughter Frances (1919-1992) married
Ray StarkRay Stark was an Academy Award-nominated American film producer and powerbroker known for his Machiavellian ways...
, while son
WilliamWilliam Brice was an artist known for his large-scale abstract paintings.-Biography:Born to actress Fannie Brice and gambler/criminal Nicky Arnstein, April 23, 1921, he spent his early years living with his mother and his sister Frances , while their father was in prison on a variety of charges...
(1921-2008) became an artist of note, using his mother's surname.
The campus of the
State University of New YorkThe State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the world, with a total enrollment of 438,361 students, plus 1.1 million...
(SUNY) at
Stony BrookStony Brook may refer to:Massachusetts:* Stony Brook, a tributary of the Charles River in Boston* Stony Brook on the Orange Line in Jamaica Plain...
formerly had a Fannie Brice Theatre, a small 75-seat venue which has been used for a variety of performances over the years, including a 1988 production of the musical
Hair, staged readings, and a studio classroom space. The building was razed in 2007 to make way for new dormitories.
The 1946
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
Quentin QuailQuentin Quail is a screwball animated cartoon, part of the Merrie Melodies series. It presents a tale about a quail who goes through various trials and tribulations to try to get a worm for his baby, Toots , only to be rebuffed by her because the worm looks like Frank Sinatra.-Trivia:The name...
features a character based on Brice's characterization of Baby Snooks.
Further reading
- 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
External links