System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Fanny Brice, Comedienne/singer
October 29, 1891 - May 29, 1951
Born Fanny Borach, on October 29, 1891 in New York City, Fanny Brice was equally effective in a comedy sketch or singing a torch song.
Beginning in burlesque in 1906, Brice built a reputation for dialect comedy, parody and outrageous physical clowning. She could also sing tragic love songs to heartbreaking effect. After making her first appearance in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies in 1910, she was featured in nine more editions, as well as several editions of Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic revue. Brice introduced numerous songs in these productions, included "My Man, "Second Hand Rose" and "Rose of Washington Square." After her rocky marriage to petty criminal Nick Arnstein, she had an ultimately unhappy marriage with producer Billy Rose.
Brice starred in several disappointing early talking films. She appeared in the films My Man (1928), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), and Ziegfeld Follies (1944). The best surviving visual record of her work is Be Yourself (1930), which preserves several of her classic routines – including cavorting as a ballerina. She also starred in Broadway shows, emphasizing her plainness by means of a comic awkwardness. In 1937 she created the popular role of Baby Snooks (a character she first created in a Follies sketch) on NBC Radio.
Fanny died May 29, 1951, in Hollywood, California at the age of 59.
Fanny's life story inspired three biographical musicals: the fictional but thinly disguised film Rose of Washington Square (1939), the stage and screen hit Funny Girl (NY 1964 - filmed 1968), and the sequel film Funny Lady (1975).
