Fanny Brice
By David Bruce
The Fabulous Fanny, by Norman Katkov. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953. 337 pages. Photographs. No index. PN/2287/B69/K3.
Most people probably don't remember Fanny Bric e-- although they probably know about Funny Girl, the excellent 1968 movie in which Barbra Streisand won a Oscar for playing Fanny. Still, the movie -- according to George Burns -- is not particularly accurate.
As I remember Funny Girl, the gambler Nicky Arnstein -- Fanny's second husband and always the love of her lif e-- comes off very well. The handsome Omar Sharif plays the handsome Mr. Arnstein, and the script portrays Mr. Arnstein very sympathetically as a successful gambler and bon vivant who could not handle the stress of being "Mr. Brice." The real Mr. Arnstein, cheap but handsome shyster that he was, would have loved the movie.
But the real star of Funny Girl and of The Fabulous Fanny, of course, is Fanny Brice herself. Ms. Brice was a long-time comedy and singing star of the Ziegfeld Follies; on radio she was famous as Baby Snooks, a juvenile brat who was always getting in trouble. And, of course, she was famous for singing "My Man." Whenever she sang it, she was widely believed to be singing about Nicky Arnstein -- in fact, she probably was.
The author of The Fabulous Fanny, Norman Katkov, met Ms. Brice only once, when she was interviewing people to help her write her autobiography. While there, he noticed that she was impeccably dressed; he also was not shocked by her use of vulgar language. (According to Fanny, "Anyone who can't say blank is deceitful.") A year later, after Ms. Brice had died, Mr. Katkov was asked to write her biography.
In writing it, Mr. Katkov had access to the notes Fanny had been taking in preparing to write her autobiography. In addition, Mr. Katkov interviewed numerous people about Fanny, including members of her family, Nicky Arnstein, stars, and other people whose lives were affected by Fanny. Each chapter is headed with the name of a person Mr. Katkov interviewed, or with the name of Fanny herself, when Mr. Katkov used her writings. It is an interesting book about a woman comedian who was famous long before Joan Rivers.
So what about Fanny? What kind of person was she, and what anecdotes of hers can I use to amuse my readers?
Fanny's mother was very poor. Born in Hungary, Rosie Stern was sent to America by her mother so that she could have a better life. While still growing up, she worked hard at many difficult, ill-paying jobs. She was in love with a tailor making $2 a week, but choose to marry a bartender earning $80 a week -- a bartender who appears to have let his wife take over the breadwinning after his marriage. Eventually, Rosie left her husband because of this -- but not until she had a sizable nest egg.
Although Fanny had no need to steal as a youngster, she often stole -- but was generous with her spoils. According to Fanny's sister, Carolyn Sauk, Fanny often stole money to buy gifts for neighborhood children. Once, Fanny even used her mother's charge account at a shoe store to buy five pairs of shoes for needy neighborhood children.
From the above anecdote, it appears that Fanny showed that she was independent as a child. This is also apparent in her early attempts at show business. Most vaudeville comedians can tell stories of traveling with shows whose managers skipped with the funds, leaving the actors stranded far from home. Fanny's story is somewhat different. When her show's manager tried to skip with the funds (apparently a very small amount), Fanny followed her to the train station and forced the manager to buy her a ticket home. Fanny's response to this unfortunate closing of her show? "Now -- I'll find another show."
Fanny always had a talent for singing, but soon she realized that her weakness was dancing -- a weakness for which George M. Cohan fired her from the chorus line of one of his shows. Fanny soon began to work on her weakness.
Before leaving on tour with a show, the young Fanny went through her family's home and gathered up all the female undergarments she could find, using the excuse that as the star of the show she had to make many costume changes and couldn't possibly wear the same bloomers during the show. (Actually, she had only one song that she was to sing from a box seat.) On the road, she began to have girls in the chorus teach her dance steps in return for the undergarments. As soon as one girl got tired of teaching her, Fanny would offer some bloomers to another girl. In time, she learned to dance.
Fanny made it in show business at age 19 when Ziegfeld sent her a telegram to meet him. At the meeting, he offered her a role in his Follies. From that time on, she was famous. Well, almost. Lots of very good people were in the Follies , and it was difficult to stand out. Fanny wanted a song, but so did all of the other singers in the Follies. And all of the other singers were surrounding Ziegfeld's two African-American songwriters, Joe Jordan and Will Marion Cook, hoping to get them to write a song especially for them.
How to get noticed? And how to get a song written especially for her? Fanny used the same approach she used in learning to dance. She asked Mr. Jordan and Mr. Cook, "How would you like a real, home-cooked meal? My Mom is the best cook in New York." The ploy worked. The well-fed songwriters gave the song "Lovey Joe" to Fanny.
Fanny had three husbands: a barber, Nicky Arnstein, and Billy Rose. Mr. Arnstein was a talker: a person who was always going to make it big, but who got most of his money from his rich wives. Still, he was handsome, and he understood the good things in life -- that is, the good things in life that are expensive. Eventually, he spent time in prison for masterminding a bond robbery. Fanny stayed true to Nicky while he was in prison, even naming her and Nicky's second child after Nicky's lawyer. Fanny never believed Nicky was involved in the bond robbery; she once told the press, "Master Mind? He couldn't Master Mind an electric bulb into a socket."
Late in life, Fanny enjoyed interior decorating, often decorating her friends' houses for free (and disregarding their advice while doing so). She acquired her good taste in decorating through asking questions constantly and not pretending like she already knew everything. She also began talking about leaving her money to her children. Once, when one of her little grandchildren was making more racket than usual, she said, "One more crack out of you, kid, and the money goes to UCLA."
Fanny died on May 29, 1951, of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Fabulous Fanny is only a biography and not an autobiography, but it's fitting that Fanny Brice can still amuse us over 40 years after her death.