The Fanny Brice Story In Song by Kaye Ballard MGM Records (E3704) Publication date 1959

 Fanny Brice was the theatrical “‘split-personality” par excellence.

She could bring tears to your eyes through hilarious comedy or

through sad songs of unrequited love with equal ease. Her face

could twist itself into an unbelievably comic grimace one second

and relax into an expression of wan, wistful attractiveness the

next. It is doubtful that anyone has surpassed her at warm, vivid

dialect comedy; that anyone has ever in middle age created quite

so successfully the illusion of a mischievous brat like “Baby

Snooks”; that anyone ever sang so lustily of things that were

heart-rending. Fanny Brice was incomparable, inimitable, irre-

placeable. The story of her life was colorful—and that color is

captured excitingly here as talented Kaye Ballard reverently

recreates “THE FANNY BRICE STORY IN SONG”.

Fanny Brice was born on New York City’s Lower East Side

in 1891. By her mid-teens, she was singing, dancing and acting

as “straight lady” on a second-string burlesque circuit. “Burley”,

in those days, was, of course, classically what the dictionary de-

fines it as: “ludicrous imitation or representation . . . broad cari-

cature...a_ theatrical entertainment marked by low comedy”.

The little girl from New York’s “Ghetto” remembered well the

earthy, pungeant humor of the people with whom she had

grown up. Adopting a Yiddish-American accent that was almost

broad travesty in itself, she developed a series of monologues

that were quite irresistible in their sharp, yet sympathetic probing

of human foibles. They were a little larger than life, as humor-

ous reflections of living should be, but charmingly accurate in

detail and universality,

Her big “break” came in 1910, when she was nineteen.

Florenz Ziegfeld wandered into a burley-house Miss Brice was

playing and immediately signed her to appear in his “Follies”

of the year. Bert Williams also made a Follies debut — and the

score included such hits of the day as “Don’t Take A Girl Down

To Coney”, “Mister Earth And His Comet Love”, and “Nix On

The Concertina, Lena’, all penned by Gus Edwards. Around

Fanny was a sea of Ziegfeld pink, gold and white and feminine

pulchritude that her eccentric features could not quite match.

But, her unique talent won the field. She stood out above the

rest and became a star overnight. Several appearances in Zieg-

feld productions followed, including Ziesfeld's Midnight Frolics

of 1919 in which she introduced ‘Rose of Washington Square”.

Within a few years of her Ziegfeld debut in 1910, Fanny

Brice was firmly established as an international vaudeville and

musical-revue star, appearing with “headliners” like W. C.

Fields, Eddie Cantor, and Al Jolson. Mostly she dealt in dialect

comedy, songs like “Becky Is At The Ballet” and “The Sheik

Of Ave. B”. Then, in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921, she intro-

duced “My Man” and, the same year, “Second Hand Rose”—

and thus began a new Brice repertoire of songs of indigo hue

and torchy quality. That repertoire still included comic numbers,

of course, but a “new” Fannie had been born before the pub-

lic’s eyes, a Fannie of different, dramatic proportions. And, a

widely-reported, tragic romance added still other dimensions to

her heart-rending presentation of the lyrics of “My Man”.

In 1929, shortly after Hollywood had found a voice, Fanny

Brice took a cue from Greeley to travel West for a film called

quite appropriately My Man. Featured were such Brice special-

ties as the title number,“Second Hand Rose” and “I’m An In-

dian”. From then on, the marvelous Miss Brice divided her

time fairly equally between Broadway and the Film Capital. In

1934, an event of telling consequence occurred. Billie Burke,

Mrs. Florenz Ziegfeld, mounted an edition of the “Follies”.

Music and lyrics were contributed by such a stellar company of

creative artists as Vernon Duke, E. Y. Harburg, Billy Rose, Billy

Hill, Peter DeRose, Ballard MacDonald, and Dana Suesse,

among others—and sketches were done by Fred Allen, H. I.

Phillips, and David Freedman. Miss Brice starred with Jane

Froman, Willie Howard, and Buddy Ebsen as her supporting

players. And, she knocked a depression-ridden audience into the

aisles with a new characterization: Baby Snooks.

The cycle was A OenEISE “Snooks” was so successful that

the character began to dominate Miss Brice’s career. She essayed

the role for radio and the films. Except for occasional personal

appearances, the dialect comedy and the powerfully sincere torch

songs were retired to the background. And then, not too many

years ago, at a new peak of success, Fanny Brice died. She was

a legend in her time, as the poets say, a completely individual

and unique performer. There was no competition in her own

time—thus where was anyone who could replace her?

This recorded portrait of Fanny —“THE FANNY BRICE

STORY IN SONG” — surveys twelve facets of her personality

and her art. It does not “ape” or mimic that art. Miss Kaye

Ballard’s homage to a great artist is in the form of invocation,

not imitation. It is frankly, unabashedly nostalgic in presenta-

tion—a posthumous Valentine to a lady who could convulse you

with a dialect sketch, make “baby-talk” palatable and strikingly

funny, or tear to tatters a torch song.

And, all that remains to say, is “Thank you”, Kaye Ballard,

for helping us remember so well.

KAYE BALLARD’S brilliant comedy and song talents have

delighted stage, nightclub, television and film audiences in this

country and abroad. She starred on the London stage in “Touch

And Go” and appeared in two Command Performances before

British royalty. As Helen in the successful “Golden Apple,”

Kaye won unanimous Broadway critical acclaim. She has ap-

peared in numerous other stage productions including, “Three

To Make Ready,” “Top Banana,” and “Ziegfeld Follies.”

An admirer of Fanny Brice for many years, Kaye first con-

ceived the idea of reviving these songs five years ago, to bring

audiences songs only to be heard in private record collections.

Modern orchestral arrangements and Kaye’s dynamic perform-

ance combine to re-create the excitement of a famous era in

Showbusiness. Len Berge at the piano.

IMPORTANT! This MGM Stereophonic

Record is to be played only on phonographs

equipped for stereophonic reproduction.

This record can also give outstanding mon-

aural performance on many conventional

high fidelity phonographs by replacing the

cartridge with a stereo pickup. See your pho-

nograph serviceman.