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.

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)

13.4 Linear Feet (32 boxes and 1 flat box)

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