Fanny Brice

Fanny Brice, actually Fania Borach ( born October 29, 1891 in New York City; † May 29, 1951 in Hollywood ) was an American comedian, entertainer, singer, theater and film actress. Barbra Streisand portrayed Fanny Brice on stage ( Funny Girl ( musical), 1964) and in the films Funny Girl (1968) and Funny Lady (1975).

Life and work

Fanny Brice was the third of four children on the Lower East Side of New York as a child of Hungarian-Jewish immigrants. She was determined at a young age to work in show business. In 1908 she left the school after the eighth grade to take a job as " Chorus Girl " in a burlesque show. At the end of the year she changed her name from Borach in Brice to be probably not set to an Rollencliché because, at that time based much of the musical comedy humor to ethnic stereotypes - the drunken Irishman, the stupid Pole, the greenhorn with Yiddish accent, etc. Although Brice spoke no Yiddish and wanted to play serious roles - but as it turned out, their market niche should be calculated in comic roles with einstudiertem Yiddish accent.

So she had her first big Broadway success in the musical The College Girls, where she sang Sadie Salome Go Home with wrong Yiddish accent, while it offered a parody of Salome's veil dance. The song was Irving Berlin wrote for her, and she then worked for many years together.

Ziegfeld Follies

1910, she began her association with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., and until the 1930s, one of the stars of his Ziegfeld Follies. If they played serious roles, remained out of the success.

In Follies of 1921, she sang for the first time My Man ( also famous in the version of Billie Holiday ), which became a hit for them. Ziegfeld had on a trip to Paris bought the rights to the song Mon Homme and let inferior for his Follies with an English text. He insisted that Brice should recite it seriously without being comical twist.

My Man was also the most successful of its over 20 records, which she recorded for Victor and Columbia Records. Other songs that made ​​them known, Second Hand Rose, cooking breakfast for the one I love and I'd Rather Be Blue Over You ( Than Happy with Somebody Else ).

Marriages

Brice has married three times. As a teenager, she was married for a short time with the hairdresser Frank White. Her second husband was the professional player, thief and fraudster Julius " Nicky " Arnstein. He was unfaithful, constantly embroiled in shady dealings and afforded expensive lawyers of Brice's money, but spent the greatest time of marriage behind bars. Nevertheless, Brice had two children, Frances (1919-1992) and William (1921-2008), was a famous painter under the name William Brice, of him and supported him by force. Perhaps this relationship was not innocent in the only non- ethnic success of Brice: she that was once known only as ditzy comedienne, stood at the edge of the stage and sang, without theatrics and without her artificial accent, My Man, with the final line " But whatever my man is, I am his, forever, body and soul. "Many in the audience of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921 were moved to tears. Her third husband was the songwriter and producer Billy Rose Theatre, in its revues, such as Crazy Quilt, she appeared. This marriage failed.

Baby Snooks

From 1936 until her death in 1951 she starred in a very successful weekly radio show the perky Baby Snooks, a role that she had developed for the Follies. Your single television appearance was in 1950 as well in that role. The fact that this number is not quite arrived, was probably because that Brice was already 59 years old. She turned back to the radio and so dear Baby Snooks had his next appearance in November 1950 in Tallulah Bank Heads elaborate vaudeville show, The Big Show (NBC Radio ), along with Groucho Marx and Jane Powell. Lily Tomlin played later on television Edith Ann, a Baby Snooks very similar role.

On May 29, 1951 Fanny Brice died in Hollywood at the age of 59 years at a stroke. She was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

Movies

Her most famous films were My Man (1928 ), Be Yourself! (1930) and Everybody Sing ( 1938, dt curtain for Judy, Judy Garland). In The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946 ) she plays himself Their contribution to the film industry was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Film portraits

Before the musical Funny Girl and films Funny Girl and Funny Lady, which were all based loosely on the life of Fanny Brice, there was in 1939 a movie called Rose of Washington Square, which was strongly oriented to their lives. The names of the parties had indeed been changed, but this was unmistakably a plagiarism. Brice sued the production company 20th Century Fox for breach of their privacy and won. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck had to remove several scenes from the movie.