page_title: Blanche Merrill
section_title: Cooperation with Fanny Brice, 1915-1925
hierarchical_section_title: Blanche Merrill / Career / Cooperation with Fanny Brice, 1915-1925
caption_attribution_description: English: Becky is Back in the Ballet, one of Merrill's first songs written for Fanny Brice
context_page_description: Blanche L. Merrill was a songwriter specializing in tailoring her characterizations to specific performers. She is most well-known for the songs she wrote for Fanny Brice.
context_section_description: In 1915 Fanny Brice was already a noted comedienne." By 1915 Merrill had established a strong reputation as a songwriter who catered to the individual characteristics of specific performers, women in particular. In July 1915 Brice began to work with Merrill, in what Grossman calls the "turning point in [Brice's] career and the beginning of a productive professional relationship. During their association, Merrill created some of Brice's most distinctive material and freed her from the problem that had always plagued her: finding songs that really suited her."
  The first results of their collaboration resulted in Brice's act opening on September 6, 1915 at The Palace. After touring with and refining the material, Brice returned to The Palace in February 1916. The act had four songs, the latter three of which had lyrics by Merrill: "If We Could Only Take Their Word," "The Yiddish Bride" (which critic and Variety founder Sime Silverman called "a gem"), and "Becky Is Back in the Ballet." The performance was favorably reviewed.
  Brice's next major appearance was in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1916. Opening on June 12, 1916, among the songs Brice sang were two with lyrics by Merrill, "The Hat" and "The Dying Swan."
  The Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 had Brice in only two numbers, both by Merrill.
  Why Worry? was a play with music and was Brice's only attempt to play a serious role on Broadway.  During its tour prior to opening on Broadway, the play closed temporarily due to an illness of one of the performers. Initial reports was that the play lacked class. When it re-opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the continuation of its pre-Broadway run, it included two songs written by Merrill, one called "The Yiddish Indian." After a troubled beginning, Why Worry? opened at the Harris Theatre on Broadway on August 23, 1918.
  "I'm an Indian" was one of Brice's most enduring characterizations. She recorded it in 1921, and the music was published in 1922. Brice performed it in her 1928 film My Man and Brice's performance of the song was briefly portrayed by cartoon character Betty Boop in the 1932 animated short Stopping the Show (the sequence was also used in the 1934 short Betty Boop's Rise to Fame). Finally, "I'm an Indian" is briefly viewed in a puppet rendition (by Lou Bunin) for Brice's final film appearance in the 1945 film Ziegfeld Follies.
  The following year Brice had an all-Merrill program before working up an act called Around the World.  The idea behind the act was that Brice would portray people from different cultures. Variety reviewer Sime described the opening number as consisting of three different styles of lyrics, and unusually, the lyrics had Brice refer to Merrill. This is the song "Make 'Em Laugh".  Longer than a typical song, it has Brice portraying herself travelling around New York City, going to the Belasco Theatre to the Music Box Theatre in search of the right kind of material to perform.
  For her 1923 vaudeville act, Brice sang at least four songs, all with lyrics by Blanche Merrill: "Hocus Pocus," "My Bill," a ballad called "Breaking Home Ties" and a "new Spanish comedy song."
  Near the end of his career, songwriter Jack Yellen recalled Tin Pan Alley and that writers of special material sometimes got the better end of a deal.  He mentioned Merrill, whom he called "an expert" who could command thousands of dollars for material, with Fanny Brice being one of her steady and smart customers.
  Apparently there was a break in the relationship between Brice and Merrill in 1924. Merrill published a poem in Variety in 1924 that Brice was now a "Belasco star" and that Merrill was her "use-to-be writer."  Grossman hypothesized that Brice felt Merrill couldn't do anything more for her career. After her marriage to Billy Rose, a songwriter, it's possible that he disallowed collaboration between Brice and Merrill because of professional jealousy. Although they were no longer working together, in an extensive November 1925 interview with Brice, she had warm words for Merrill.
caption: Becky is Back in the Ballet, one of Merrill's first songs written for Fanny Brice
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