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Fanny Brice was an American "aktrise" (actress), comedian and "zinger" (singer).
Recent headlines read:
SIX FEET UNDER'S LAUREN AMBROSE
TAPPED FOR BROADWAY REVIVAL OF
"FUNNY GIRL"
HELLO, GORGEOUS! LAUREN AMBROSE
WILL STAR IN BROADWAY-BOUND
FUNNY GIRL REVIVAL.
The musical, Funny Girl, originally opened on Broadway in 1964 and starred Barbra Streisand. The revival will open during the "friling" (spring) of 2012.
The director, Bartlett Sher, says "It's important that people not see this casting process as trying to find the next Barbra Streisand. She is one of a kind." She added, "Instead, I really needed someone with whom I could explore the original musical and come to terms with Fanny Brice for a new era. I understand how difficult this part is to fill as well as the characeristics required to explore this in a new way. The world of burlesque, vaudeville and the Follies is a unique American invention ("oysgefins") and how Fanny Brice came up in that world is a wonderful ("vunderlekh") story, but this show is also about the sacrifices of being an artist and the high cost that women in particular suffer ("laydn") when they find great success and the difficult choices that come with accomplishment."
Shown below is a Yiddish Guide to Fanny Brice:
"baleydikn" (to offend)
Brice said, "I never did a Jewish routine that
would offend my race because I depended on my race for the laughs. In anything
Jewish I ever did, I wasn't standing apart
making fun. I was the race, and what
happened to me onstage is what could happen to my people. They identified with
me, which made it all right to get a laugh,
because they were laughing at me as much
as at themselves."
"bokherl" (youngster)
"Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's
my kind of youngster, the type I like. She
has imagination ("fantayze"). She's eager.
She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still
a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love
Snooks, and when I play her I do it as
seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks.
For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to
exist."
Brice quote
"film" (der film)
Twentieth Century-Fox, without her
permission, based the 1939 movie, "Rose of
Washington Square" on her life. She sued
and won $30,000.
"geboyrn" (born)
Fanny Brice was born in New York City, the
third child of relatively well-off saloon
owners of Hungarian Jewish descent. As a
tiny tot she sang for their customers.
"gest" (company)
"I'm a bad woman, but I'm damn good
company."
Brice quote
"hesped" (eulogy)
In an on-air eulogy, it was said, "We have
lost a very real, a very warm, a very
wonderful woman." Bruce was cremated.
"khasene" (marriage)
Brice had a short-lived marriage in her teens to a local "sherer" (barber), Frank
White, whom she met in 1911 in Springfield,
Mass. The marriage lasted only a few days
and she brought suit for divorce ("get"). Her second husband was professional gambler, Julius W. "Nicky" Arnstein.
Brice divorced him and went on to marry
songwriter and stage producer, Billy Rose.
Their marriage also failed.
"kinder" (children)
Two children were born of the Brice-Arnstein marriage, daughter, Frances, and
son, William.
"kleyd" (dress)
Brice was a gifted dress designer. She
designed the costumes for Crazy Quilt (1931).
She was also an interior decorator and decorated the homes of Eddie Cantor, Danny Kaye, Dinah Shore, and others.)
"kokhn" (to cook)
Friends praised Brice's cooking, especially
her spaetzle, spaghetti, and Hungarian
goulash.
"komish" (funny)
"Being a funny person does an awful lot
of things to you. You feel that you musn't
get serious with people. They don't expect
it from you, and they don't want to see it.
You're not entitled to be serious, you're a
clown ("lets")."
Brice quote
"libshaft" (love)
"I never liked the man I loved and never
loved the men I liked."
"When love is in your life, you're thrugh in a way. Because while it is there it's like a motor that's going. You have such vitality to do things, big things, becaue love is goosing you all the time." Brice quotes
"lid" (song)
In the 1921 Follies, Brice was featured singing "My Man," which became both a big
hit and her signature song. The second song most associated with Brice is "Second
Hand Rose." Who can forget these lines?
I'm wearing second hand hats
Second hand clothes
That's why they call me
Second Hand Rose
Even the piano in the parlor
Father bought for ten cents on the dollar
Second hand curls
I'm wearing second hand pearls
I never get a single thing that's new
Even Jake the Plummer, he's the man I adore
Had the nerve to tell me he's been
married before!
Everyone knows that I'm just Second hand
Rose From Second Avenue.
"moyde zayn zikh" (to confess)
Affectation is a very good word when
someone does not wish to confess to what
he would none the less like to believe of
himself."
Brice quote
"nomen" (name)
Fanny Brice's original name was Fannie
Borach. (She was tired of having her name
punned by friends, as in "More-Ache" and
"Bore-Act.")
"oylem" (audience)
"Your audience gives you everything you
need. They tell you. There is no director
who can direct you like an audience."
Brice quote
"radyo" (radio)
Brice made a radio presence as a bratty
toddler named Snooks, a role she premiered in a Follies skit co-written by
playwright, Moss Hart. She was given her
own radio series, "The Baby Snooks Show,"
which remained on the air for the rest of
Brice's life.
She performed in "kostyum" (costume)
as a toddler girl, even though seen only by
the radio studio "oylem" (audience).
"sheynkayt" (beauty)
"Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference."
Brice quote
"shiksa"/"shikse" (female non-Jew)
"Gee vhiz, I'm a gawjus shiksa!"
(Marilyn Michaels says that Fanny would
use this expression in her inimitable
voice)
"shpigl" (mirror)
When Fanny Brice speaks in her first lines
in "Funny Girl," she declares to her
reflection in the mirror, "Hello, gorgeous."
"shpiln" (to act/perform)
Brice got acting experience by going to
Coney Island, feigning tears and pretending
to be lost, and inducing passersby to give her carfare, which she proceeded to spend
on hot dogs and amusement-park rides.
"shtarbn" (to die)
Six months after after Big Show appearance, Brice died in Hollywood at the
age of 59 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
"shtern" (star)
Brice has a star on the H W of F at MP
6415 Hollywood Boulevard.
"shtiferish" (mischievous)
Brice had mischievous eyes and wide,
half-moon smiles. She would pull comic
grimaces, cross her eyes, puff out her
cheeks, slap her "shtern" (forehead), buckle
her knees, and collapse her long, "moger"
(slender) body.
"tantsn" (to dance)
Brice lampooned ballet dancers; she called
them "belly dansehs."
"tsukukn zikh" (to watch)
Fanny Brice was never really comfortable
in front of cameras. She said, "Making
pictures is like making love in public. You
can't be at ease when somebody is watching."
"turme" (jail)
"Nicky" Arnstein served 14 months in Sing
Sing for wiretapping. Brice visited him in
prison every week. In 1918 she married
Arnstein after living together for 6 years. In 1924, Arnstein was charged in a Wall
Street bond theft. Brice insisted that he was "umshuldik" (innocent) and funded
his legal defense. He was convicted and
sentenced to the Federal penitentiary at
Leavenworth, where he served 3 years.
Arnstein disappeared from Brice's life and
that of his two children.
"umgerekht" (wrong)
"Wrong is for other people."
Brice quote
Yiddish-accented rendition of songs Fanny Brice could not speak or understand Yiddish, yet she sang such songs as "Sadie Salome, Go Home."
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