Kay Medford high school and working as a nightclub waitress. She was the original "Mama" in "Bye Bye Birdie" on Broadway, garnering excellent reviews, but lost the film role to Maureen Stapleton. Medford appeared in the Warner Bros. rock and roll film, "Jamboree" (1957). She made her Broadway debut in 1951 in the musical "Paint Your Wagon". She was cast in "Carousel" before she appeared onstage in "Funny Girl" as the mother of Fanny Brice (played by Barbra Streisand); for this performance she was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award for Featured Actress (Musical), and when she repeated the role in the
Fanny Brice later, at the time of Brice's daughter Frances's death in 1992, Brice's ashes were re-interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles, some 20 miles west of her original interment place. Fanny's grave and those of her daughter, son and her daughter's husband Ray Stark are in an outdoor pavilion. For her contributions to the film and radio industries, Brice was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with two stars. Her motion pictures star is located at 6415 Hollywood Boulevard while her radio star is located at 1500 Vine Street. The Stony Brook campus of the State