Restrictions on Access
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Preferred Citation
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Processing Information
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Related Material
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Fanny Brice papers
Creator:
Brice, Fanny
Identifier/Call Number: PASC.0085
Physical Description:
13.4 Linear Feet
(32 boxes and 1 flat box)
Physical Description:
159 Audiovisual Carriers
(140 records, 12 open reel audiotapes, 6 film reels, 1 audiocassette)
Date (inclusive): 1937-1945
Abstract: Fanny Brice earned a reputation as a vaudeville star before creating some of her best-loved comedic personae for radio. The
bulk of the collection consists of Baby Snooks scripts representing the radio programs
Maxwell House presents good news,
Maxwell House coffee time,
Maxwell House iced coffee time,
Post Toasties time, and
Toasties time. Additionally, there are a small amount of photographs, typed manuscript pages for what appears to be Brice's autobiography,
and Frank Morgan spots and annotated scripts.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Fanny Brice Papers (Collection PASC 85). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mrs. Ray (Frances) Stark and William Brice, 1988.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by UCLA Library Performing Arts Special Collections staff.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
Born Fania Borach on October 29, 1891, Brice was the child of Jewish immigrants who had settled on New York's Lower East Side.
Performing in The Transatlantic Burlesquers (1907-1908) as chorus girl Fannie Borach, she joined the cast of
The Girls from Happyland for the 1908-1909 season; it marked her first appearance as Fanny Brice, the name she used for the rest of her life. In Max
Spiegel's
The College Girls she won praise for her rendition of
Sadie Salome, Go Home; the song was the first Brice performed with a Yiddish accent. Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., hired her for his Follies of 1910 and
1911. For the next four years she performed in musical revues and vaudville. She began her collaboration with songwriter Blanche
Merrill in 1915, and Merrill, who specialized in writing for women, created material that suited her. It was this partnership
that helped her rise to stardom in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1916 and 1917. Although she found sucess in the Follies, she wanted
to develop herself as a dramatic actress, but found little victory in her attempts with Why Worry? (1918) and later David
Belasco's production, Fanny (1926)
From 1918 to 1927, Brice continued her stage career and appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920, 1921, and 1923; four Ziegfeld
shows, Irving Berlin's Music Box Revue (1924) and the Hollywood Music Box Revue (1927). She made several records, produced
Is Zat So? and
The Brown Derby, and also maintained a steady vaudeville presence. During this time, she refined her comedic craft and had some of her best
comic material in the Follies of 1921, including spoofs of Ethel Barrymore in Camille and the notable song
Second Hand Rose. In the late 1920s, she turned her attention to Hollywood and motion pictures. Promoted by Warner Brothers as a "female Jolson,"
Brice became the first woman to star in a sound motion picture. She would make six films in all including:
My Man,
Be Yourself (1930),
The Great Ziegfeld (1936),
Everybody Sing (1938) and
Ziegfeld Follies (1946). Billy Rose, her third husband show cased her talent in the musical revues
Sweet and Low (1930) and
Crazy Quilt (1931). She also began a successful series of radio broadcasts and achieved her greatest stage triumphs in the Ziegfeld Follies
of 1934 and 1936.
Brice premired the character Baby Snooks on a radio broadcast called The Ziegfield Follies in 1936. In 1937, with her marriage
to Billy Rose ending, she moved to California and launched a successful career on radio with Baby Snooks. That same year,
she joined NBC in
Good News of 1938. Snooks became a regular part of the program and was a mainstay on radio for the next 14-years.
Good News was continued to 1939, but in March 1940, it was cut to a half hour program. Known as Maxwell House Coffee Time, it was cut
to a 15-minute segment. In 1944, Brice emerged again on CBS with her own half hour Baby Snooks show; it was sponsored by Post
Cereals and later Sanka Coffee. In 1948, she went off the air during a highly publicized contract dispute caused by competition
from the burgeoning television industry. In 1949, Brice took Snooks to NBC Tuesday nights; it is reported that she had no
interest in making the transition to television. Brice also began writing an autobiography she would not live to complete.
She suffered a stroke on May 24, 1951 and died in Los Angeles, five days later, without regaining consciousness.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of materials related to career of comediene and actress Fanny Brice. The bulk of the collection is
script material representing Brice's radio career playing the character of Baby Snooks on the radio programs
Maxwell House presents good news (1938, 1939, and 1940),
Maxwell House coffee time,
Maxwell House iced coffee time,
Post Toasties time, and
Toasties time. Additionally, there are a small amount of photographs, typed manuscript pages for what appears to be Brice's autobiography,
and Frank Morgan spots and annotated scripts.Collection consists primarily of radio scripts for Baby Snooks episodes featuring
Fanny Brice.
Organization and Arrangement
Arranged in the following series:
Personal Papers
Radio Projects
Related Material
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Actresses -- United States -- Archives.
Women comedians -- California -- Archives.
Brice, Fanny--Archives