Fanny Brice at the movies

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Fanny Brice made six movies. Her first movie appearance was in the 1928 movie My Man (now lost) for Warner Brothers, in which she played Fanny Brand, a poor girl who became a star. Famous numbers included in the movie are I'm an indian, Second hand rose, I'd rather be blue and of course My Man. The movie premiered on December 21, 1928.

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She acted in the movie Night club, a 28 minute long movie from Paramount. Originally this is her debut movie, but it was only released on August 11, 1929.

Be yourself from 1930 included scenes with the songs When a woman loves a man and Cooking breakfast for the man I love. It premiered on March 6, 1930.

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She lent a note of authenticity to The great Ziegfeld (1936) by playing herself, together with William Powell as Florenz Ziegfeld, in the scene My Man.

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In Everybody sing (1938) she played together with Judy Garland, Allan Jones and Billie Burke, in a musical about a nutty family involved in putting on a show. Fanny played the Russian servant Olga Chekaloff.

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She did her famous Baby Snooks "Why?" "Because!" routine with Judy Garland, and did a special, The sweepstakes ticket, with Hume Cronyn and William Frawley, in the movie Ziegfeld follies (1946).

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Finally, she had a brief cameo scene in a Ben Hecht and Charles MacAthur crime drama, Crime without passion (1934).

Movie credits

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Movies on DVD

Be Yourself
Released by Kino International (now Kino Lorber)
Black & white, aspect ratio 1.33:1, 66 minutes, region 1
It seems this movie is no longer available on their site.

Below left: cover of the DVD
Below right: click for a clip from the movie (QuickTime required)

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Behind the scenes

On Monday June 19, 1950, Fanny Brice made her debut on television. She appeared on a show called "Popsicle Parade of Stars" for by CBS. Fanny never appeared on television again.

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From left to right: Crime With Passion, Everybody Sing and My Man.

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