cover image Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl

Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl

Herbert G. Goldman. Oxford University Press, USA, $30 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-19-505725-6

Born Fania Borach, Brice (1891-1951) grew up in relative comfort in New York and New Jersey, played vaudeville and quickly became a star in Ziegfeld Follies revues, but may be remembered best as radio's Baby Snooks, a wisecracking kid. As a person Brice was probably even more appealing than the woman portrayed by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl and Funny Lady . She was a natural ham and singer, although she had to work at dancing. She lived and dressed elegantly, was straightforward and gregarious. Goldman ( Jolson ) offers a workmanlike but uninspired account of Brice's life, listing in detail her professional appearances and including only a little of the material that made her famous--mostly the early songs. In the end the book fails to provide a strong sense of the earthy Brice, preferring instead to transfer today's psychobabble onto the past, as when Goldman writes, ``The necessity of seeing herself as her own role model built Brice's confidence and forced her to make her life with outside friends.''p.23 Moreover, his insights aren't particularly insightful. ``People often bond because of things they share.'' Photos not seen by PW . (Mar.)