Fanny Brice Records for Victor

One hundred years ago today … Fanny Brice traveled from her New York City home to Camden, New Jersey, to record two songs for Victor Records: “Oh How I hate That Fellow Nathan” and “Irish-Jewish Jubilee.”

“Oh How I hate That Fellow Nathan,” is a half-sung, half spoken song, in Jewish American English, a bout a jilted lover. She does not say “oh,” in the song. She says “Oy.” Listen to it here

“Irish-Jewish Jubilee” was not put out on record, and has not survived. “Oh How I hate That Fellow Nathan” was released as the flip side to “I’m an Indian,” recorded on November 18th. Listen to it here.

An educational site at the University of Pittsburgh discusses “I’m an Indian” in depth:

On one hand, "I'm an Indian" is a mildly offensive song that delights in imagining a young Jewish woman from New York wearing stereotypical Native American dress and participating in Native traditions. On the other hand, however, the song participates in a long tradition in which Jewish art encourages sympathy with Native Americans. The trope of the "vanishing Indian" hit home with many Jewish immigrants struggling to maintain the traditions of their homeland. Moreover, the forces that led to the vanishing Indian—racism, ghettoization, and modernization—were the same forces that many Jews confronted. 

Brice previously appeared on our site on February 23, 1920, defending her husband, the gambler Nicky Arnstein, in court. 

– Jonathan Goldman, Nov 15, 2021

TAGS: music, vaudeville, Jewish, Irish, comedy, Jewish, dialect