Fanny Brice

3 Pages 779 Words

Fanny Brice

Fanny Brice had a very cool and inspiring career. The Entertainment industry didn’t know it at the time but her career would reflect significant changes in American theatre. Fanny was a thin, talented and very Jewish looking young lady. The common female performer of the day was the equivalent of a Vages show girl. Fanny didn’t exactly fit the mold of a typical female stage performer. The trend in theatre was to be more sexually explicit to accommodate the growing number of male audience members. So the content changed dramatically, women performers had become silent, just on stage to display their bodies. “ Turn of the century theatrical posters pictured a world dominated by females.” “ Men (usually rendered as upper class) were represented as powerless onlookers, Functionaries, or victims of working class women’s overbearing sexual presence.” Sounds empowering, yes it is, but for all the wrong reasons. This type of advertising makes them look like empowered peaces of meat.

In a world full of other performers jockeying for fame, Fanny enlisted (bribed is more like it) help from the dancers. Dancing was a big thing that she needed to work on to make herself a more marketable talent. She grabbed up all the undergarments in her house and would give them to the dancers in exchange for dance lessons. Over time she became Quite good. She took a similar approach when it came to getting a song written. “ All the other Singers were surrounding Ziegfields two African-American song writers, Joe Jordan and will Marion Cook, hoping to get a song written especially for them.” Fanny did what every fine upstanding politician would do, She Bribed them; with food that is. “ How would you like a real home cooked meal? My mom is the best cook in Now York.” The ploy worked. They ended up giving her the song “ Lovely Joe.” The really cool thing about Fanny is that she took the initiative and didn’t except t...