Ziegfeld Follies Follies" with Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, William Powell, Gene Kelly, Fanny Brice, Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse, Lucille Ball, Kathryn Grayson, and others performing songs and sketches similar to those from the original Follies. Brice appeared in the Follies for more than ten years. The 1964 musical, "Funny Girl", starring Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice, depicts Brice's success with the Follies. The 1968 Columbia film of the musical also starred Barbra Streisand as Brice and Walter Pidgeon as Florenz Ziegfeld. The 1912 version of the Ziegfeld Follies included a song entitled "Row, Row, Row", which has been
People (Barbra Streisand song) for the musical score of "Funny Girl". It is based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedian Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein. Composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill were hired to write the musical score and met each other for the first time in 1962 in Palm Beach, Florida. They wrote their songs by day and tested them by night on the Palm Beach socialites at cocktail parties. As they worked to develop the character of Fanny Brice, they needed to write a special love song depicting