Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl

by Herbert G. Goldman

"I've done everything in the theatre except marry a property man," Fanny Brice once boasted. "I've acted for Belasco and I've laid 'em out in the rows at the Palace. I've doubled as an alligator; I've worked for the Shuberts; and I've been joined to Billy Rose in the holy bonds. I've painted the house boards and I've sold tickets and I've been fired by George M. Cohan. I've played in London before the king and in Oil City before miners with lanterns in their caps." Fanny Brice was indeed show business personified, and in this luminous volume, Herbert G. Goldman, acclaimed biographer of Al Jolson, illuminates the life of the woman who inspired the spectacularly successful Broadway show and movie Funny Girl , the vehicle that catapulted Barbra Streisand to super stardom.
In a work that is both glorious biography and captivating theatre history, Goldman illuminates both Fanny's remarkable career on stage and radio--ranging from her first triumph as "Sadie Salome" to her long run as radio's "Baby Snooks"--and her less-than-triumphant personal life. He reveals a woman who was a curious mix of elegance and earthiness, of high and low class, a lady who lived like a duchess but cursed like a sailor. She was probably the greatest comedienne the American stage has ever known as well as our first truly great torch singer, the star of some of the most memorable Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s and 1920s, and Goldman covers her theatrical career and theatre world in vivid detail. But her personal life, as Goldman shows, was less successful. The great love of her life, the gangster Nick Arnstein, was dashing, handsome, sophisticated, but at bottom, a loser who failed at everything from running a shirt hospital to manufacturing fire extinguishers, and who spent
a good part of their marriage either hiding out, awaiting trial, or in prison. Her first marriage was over almost as soon as it was consummated, and her third and last marriage, to Billy Rose, the "Bantam Barnum," ended acrimoniously when Rose left her for swimmer Eleanor Holm. As she herself remarked, "I never liked the men I loved, and I never loved the men I liked." Through it all, she remained unaffected, intelligent, independent, and, above all, honest.
Goldman's biography of Al Jolson has been hailed by critics, fellow biographers, and entertainers alike. Steve Allen called it "an amazing job of research" and added "Goldman's book brings Jolson back to life indeed." The Philadelphia Inquirer said it was "the most comprehensive biography to date," and Ronald J. Fields wrote that "Goldman has captured not only the wonderful feel of Al Jolson but the heartbeat of his time." Now, with Fanny Brice , Goldman provides an equally accomplished portrait of the greatest woman entertainer of that illustrious era, a volume that will delight every lover of the stage.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Womens

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Theatre, performance in general, is a funny thing to write history about. Unlike other arts--visual arts like painting and sculpture, textual arts like stories or poetry, even musical composition--performance is utterly ephemeral; it leaves no record of itself, only (at best) of people's description of or reactions to it. And so people who were powerful or important performers are hard to write about unless their performance was captured somehow (on film, etc). We have only traces of what made Fanny Brice so important and so successful-- a few audio recordings of her singing or in skits, a few film appearances, photographs, and descriptions by people who saw her perform. I wish we had more. She was an interesting, tough-minded, intelligent woman whose career spanned major changes in entertainment and celebrity. Goldman does a good job of narrating her life and her work; I wished for more analysis--of her relationship with Jewish entertainment circuits and traditions and with shifting attitudes to Jewishness during this difficult and remarkable time, of how her career illuminates changing attitudes to gender and aging and standards of beauty, of larger patterns of change in theatrical and entertainment and celebrity culture, and so on. So much there to explore. Goldman delivers a solid narrative biography, readable and well-researched, and he did respond to one of my questions, concerning the relationship of the real Brice to Streisand's Brice (though there's lots more to be said about that, too).

[Graceann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew very little about Fanny Brice before I picked up this book, and I learned quite a lot about this interesting lady by the time I was done reading. She was a layered presence, if that makes sense, and the author does a fairly good job of delving into those layers.

[Candice]

"She had unwittingly become one of those women who, not thinking themselves beautiful, become the 'best friend' of a truly gorgeous woman." - pp. 54-5

"Fanny always made substantial changes in her life when she felt things were just not working. Sometimes it involved auctioning off her furniture or buying a new house. This time, it was getting a new nose." - p. 112

[Rene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pick this up after watching Streisand in Funny Girl. The original funny girl herself was far more interesting than the slick Hollywood portrayal of the movie.

[Krissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not very creatively written. It was a lot of facts about Fanny Brice's life and then a few seemingly out of places declarations about the authors thoughts on Brice and Barbara Streisand. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading it. I've been interested in Fanny Brice since my family fell in love with Funny Girl and Funny Lady. The soundtracks were heard in our house often.

I think the general reader would be bored with the list of every vaudeville and theatrical show that Fanny did from 1912-1925 and the list of every song she did and the main stars of the show - many who you have never heard of. I am not saying it shouldn't have been added - it make the book a great resource for any history of theater scholar, but the it did go on and on for quite a while.

The book was a bit confusing because of the names. The author referred to Fanny as Fan a lot and then her daughter as Fran, Fanny's mom was Rose or Rosie, and then Fanny married Billy Rose and the author referred to him most as Rose. You can see how that was kind of annoying.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed learning more about Brice and life. It gave me respect for her as a person and as an performer and of course, made me look up her films on you tube.

[Debra Pawlak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not knowing a lot about Fanny Brice, I really enjoyed this book. It was well-written and well-researched and I learned many things. For example, Nick Arnstein was not the loveable con man that Omar Sharif played in the movie 'Funny Girl'. How Brice put up with him for 15 years was hard to understand. She was a huge star in her day and unfortunately most people associate her with her later years in radio as Baby Snooks, but there was so much more. My only complaint about this book was at the very end when the author decided to trash people like Barbra Streisand and mega producer Ray Stark who was Brice's son-in-law. It came out of the blue and I found it very disturbing after enjoying the book up till then. If you want to know more about Fanny Brice, read the book, but the skip 'The Legacy'--you won't miss anything there.

[Dan Shonka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herbert Goldman's book on Fanny Brice is extensive. Sure, it's a great biography, but it's also a window into the late 1800s through the mid-1900s in the States and specifically NYC and California. Like millions of other people, I saw both of the movies Funny Girl and Funny Lady. While those are somewhat informative, the book (no surprise) is much greater in its details and accuracy. My favorite parts of the books are Fanny's youthful days. It's very entertaining and often funny. But throughout you will find a lot that will strike you as tragic. I recommend this book, and I'm happy to have it on my shelf for comedians.

[Sonya Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started a reading challenge, and the first prompt was a book inspired by the highest grossing movie the year you were born. It was Funny Girl, which I had never seen. So I watched the movie and read the book today.

It was done well, and I think anyone who is into Broadway should read it - I learned a lot about how it all started.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is hard to rate. The writing is rather poor, much more like journalism and there are several errors within. Yet OTOH this is a brightly told tale and one gets a good sense of Fanny and her times.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, remarkable woman. While this suffers a bit from spotty sourcing, it is a workmanlike job. One is left wanting to know more.

[James Siejak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very detailed biography about the famous Ziegfeld Girl.

[Vicki Beyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I may be the only person in the world who has never seen "Funny Girl" and I was glad that I came to this book without any preconceived notions. I enjoyed the insights on show business in the early 19th century and how far chutzpah (even though the author never used that word) could take someone. The way in which Fanny Brice evolved her career, loved men like her father, disliked (and then became like) her mother, were all well portrayed. The various other people who come and go in her life were also interesting.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a comedienne, this was an interesting book and I might add another star. But I'm not so sure that it would be enjoyed by a general fan of memoirs who is not a performer. The book read more like a detailed log of people, places and events through-out Ms. Brice's life than it did a story. I guess I am perhaps more accustomed to memories written by the individual themselves. This book, although packed with specific detail, read more like an impersonal collaboration of notes.

[Margaret Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love musical theater and the history of musical theater. I am always intrigued by the contribution Jews have made to musical theater and I love the line from Spam-a-lot, "You won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews." However, this book was tedious and repetitive and I did not like it. I don't know what else to say about it. It was hard to keep track of what was going on. I would not recommend it.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

$1.99 Kindle version

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting lady and life. Writing style was a bit jumpy and unfinished.

[Mary Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always been a Funny Girl fan so it was interesting to read the real story.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good biography of Fanny Brice that traces her life both on and off stage.