Brice, Fanny, 1891-1951

Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice; Fania Borach was born in Manhattan, New York City, United States,[1] the third child of Rose (née Stern; 1867–1941), a Jewish Hungarian woman who immigrated to the US at age 10, and Alsatian immigrant Charles Borach. In 1908, Brice dropped out of school to work in a burlesque revue, "The Girls from Happy Land Starring Sliding Billy Watson". Two years later, she began her association with Florenz Ziegfeld, headlining his Ziegfeld Follies in 1910 and 1911. She was hired again in 1921 and performed in the Follies into the 1930s.[1]

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 the Victor Talking Machine Company. The second song most associated with Brice is "Second Hand Rose", which she also introduced in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921.[citation needed]

She recorded nearly two dozen record sides for Victor, and also cut several for Columbia Records. She is a posthumous recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for her 1921 recording of "My Man".[citation needed]

Brice's Broadway credits include Fioretta, Sweet and Low, and Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt. Her films include My Man (1928, a lost film),[4] Be Yourself! (1930), and Everybody Sing (1938) with Judy Garland. Brice, Ann Pennington, and Harriet Hoctor were the only original Ziegfeld performers to portray themselves in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946). From the 1930s until her death in 1951, Fanny made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Snooks,[1] a role she premiered in a Follies skit co-written by playwright Moss Hart. Baby Snooks premiered in The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in February 1936 on CBS, with Alan Reed playing Lancelot Higgins, her beleaguered "Daddy". Brice moved to NBC in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the Good News show, then back to CBS on Maxwell House Coffee Time, with the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and actor Frank Morgan Brice had a short-lived marriage in her late teens to early twenties to a barber, Frank White, whom she met in 1910 in Springfield, Massachusetts, when she was touring in College Girl. The marriage lasted three years and she brought suit for divorce in 1913.[2]

Her second husband was professional gambler Julius W. "Nicky" Arnstein.[1] Before their marriage, Arnstein served 14 months in Sing Sing for wiretapping. Brice visited him in prison 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 Leavenworth, where he served three years. Released in 1927, Arnstein disappeared from Brice's and his children's lives. Reluctantly, Brice divorced him on September 17, 1927, soon after his release. They had two children: Frances (1919–1992), who married film producer Ray Stark, and William (1921–2008), who became an artist using his mother's surname. Ray Stark later went on to produce a stage musical Funny Girl loosely based on the life of Fanny.[1] Stark also produced a follow-up film Funny Lady.[1]

Fanny Brice wed lyricist and stage producer Billy Rose in 1929[10] and appeared in his revue Crazy Quilt, among others. The marriage failed, with Brice suing Rose for divorce in 1938.[11] She was famously portrayed by Barbra Streisand in the stage musical Funny Girl.