The second husband of actress Fanny Brice, Nicky Arnstein was a conman, a criminal, and one of the great loves of Brice's life.
Library of CongressNicky Arnstein looked like the perfect gentleman from the outside – but his cons landed him in jail multiple times.
One of the most memorable characters from the 1964 Broadway musical — and the 1968 movie — Funny Girl is Nick Arnstein, the husband of Fanny Brice. In real life, he went by Nicky Arnstein, as well as several other aliases. So what was his true story?
Arnstein was a gambler who married three times, went to prison twice, palled around with the loan shark who fixed the 1919 World Series, and helped inspire comedian W.C. Fields. He was also one of the great loves of Fanny Brice, and an important character in the famous depictions of her life.
But real life was different from fiction. This is the true story of Nicky Arnstein, the con man who became Fanny Brice’s husband.
How Nicky Arnstein Became A Conman
Nicky Arnstein wasn’t named Nicky — or even Nicholas. He was born Julius Wilford Arndstein on July 1, 1879 in Berlin, and later migrated to the United States with his family as a young boy. His nickname “Nicky” came from the nickel-plated spokes on his bike and “Nickelplate” turned into Nicky.
As a boy in the 1890s, Arnstein participated in bike races — but found that “throwing” races was more to his liking. According to Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl by Herbert G. Goldman, Arnstein found throwing races “romantic,” and it led him into the world of gamblers and conmen.
Between 1909 and 1912, Arnstein was arrested multiple times in London, Paris, and Monte Carlo on swindling charges — and in one case, Arnstein narrowly avoided jail time after swindling a mark out of $15,000. Arnstein had gotten lucky. And his lucky streak seemed to extend when he crossed paths with the actress Fanny Brice while passing through Philadelphia in 1912.
Wikimedia CommonsIn the 1910s, Fanny Brice performed in The Ziegfeld Follies, which helped make her famous.
Brice, who’d gotten her big break performing with the Ziegfeld Follies, was in the city performing in a play. The couple quickly fell in love, but Arnstein lied to Brice from the beginning. He never mentioned he was already married, for example, and he claimed to be a “businessman,” a “promoter of inventions.”
“Everything Nicky ever did was like a gentleman,” Brice recalled in a 1950 interview. “He was a very well-educated man, had a great manner, and was very cultured. At parties, he would be surrounded by people ten minutes after he entered a room. He was a good speaker.” She added: “Of course, half of the things he would be telling them were lies.”
The ‘Heavenly’ Early Days Of Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein’s Relationship
Fanny Brice’s mother didn’t like Nicky Arnstein from the beginning. But Brice was smitten. She later stated that she was “in heaven” during the early days of the relationship, even though she learned from private detectives that her new beau was, in fact, still married to another woman.
Library of CongressFanny Brice stood by her husband during his many legal trials.
But it didn’t take Arnstein long to take advantage of Brice’s success. Soon after moving into the apartment Brice shared with her mother, Arnstein charged $10,000 in new furnishings to Brice’s name. When the pair moved to London, Arnstein convinced Brice to hire a butler and cook, and to buy him two racehorses. And back in New York, Arnstein cajoled Brice into moving to a swanky apartment across from the Plaza Hotel.
Arnstein did ultimately tell Brice about his marriage, but Brice brushed it off — she didn’t want to lose Arnstein and was determined to make the relationship work. Then, in 1918, Arnstein’s first wife sued Brice for “alienation of affection,” but divorced Arnstein that year, leaving him free to marry Brice.
Nicky Arnstein and Fanny Brice then finally got married, and ultimately had two children together. But storm clouds had already begun to gather.
Nick Arnstein In Sing Sing And Leavenworth
William BriceFanny Brice and Nick Arnstein’s children, Frances and William.
Nicky Arnstein described himself as a businessman to Fanny Brice. He always claimed to be on the brink of success, if only his next scheme worked. “[Nick] never worried about anything,” Brice recalled in 1950. “In 1920 he would say, ‘In 1921 I’m going to have a million dollars.’ In 1921 he would say, ‘In 1922 I’m going to have a million dollars…”
Although Arnstein kept the details vague, Brice didn’t ask many questions – even when Arnstein’s criminal activities caught up with him.
In 1915, before they married, Arnstein was sent to Sing Sing on wiretapping charges. Brice pawned her jewelry to try to help fund his appeals, visited him every week for two years, and secured Arnstein a pardon.
Then, in 1920, authorities charged the ex-con with a conspiracy to sell $5 million in stolen bonds (more than $80,000,000 today), declaring that Arnstein was the “master mind” of the plot. Brice retorted, “Nicky Arnstein couldn’t mastermind an electric light bulb into a socket.”
New York Times ArchivesA New York Times article calling Nicky Arnstein the “head of the plan” behind a 1920s bonds theft plot.
Arnstein went on the lam and became the FBI’s most wanted criminal. But he ultimately agreed to turn himself in in exchange for a reduced sentence, and, in 1924, was sentenced to three years in Leavenworth.
During this time, Brice also gave birth to their two children: Frances, who was born in 1919, and William, who was born in 1921. But Arnstein was not very interested in his children, even after he returned from prison in 1927.
The End Of Nick Arnstein And Fanny Brice’s Marriage
The relationship between Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein had been marked by intense fights and separations. Once, Brice shattered a glass and shoved it in Arnstein’s face. Yet, though Brice had stood by Arnstein through two prison sentences, she filed for divorce shortly after he returned home.
Bibliothèque nationale de France A 1927 photograph of Arnstein and Brice captures the couple just before their divorce.
What was the final straw? Brice accused Arnstein of infidelity. In fact, Arnstein had been unfaithful throughout their relationship. But by the late 1920s, Brice’s patience had worn out.
Arnstein did not deny that he’d cheated. But according to the Daily Telegraph he sardonically defended himself by claiming that he “found [Brice] so much more beautiful, he was uncomfortable in her presence” so he “began seeking the society of other… plainer women.”
Through her lawyer, Brice pushed for a divorce. Arnstein refused on the grounds that women were “a dime a dozen” so he could ignore Brice’s demands. Yet legal trouble continued to follow Arnstein. He faced a wiretapping charge in Ohio and new charges over his 1920 bond thefts. Arnstein eventually gave Brice a divorce and moved to California.
Just two years later, Nicky Arnstein married again. But he would always be remembered for his connection to Fanny Brice, thanks to several famous depictions of her career.
The Fictional ‘Nick Arnstein’ Of ‘Funny Girl’
Nicky Arnstein’s name would become famous in the 1964 musical and 1968 movie Funny Girl. But before Funny Girl, there was Rose of Washington Square, a thinly-veiled 1939 film about Fanny Brice. It included a character based on Arnstein and, in response, Arnstein sued the studio.
Columbia PicturesOmar Sharif, as Nicky Arnstein, and Barbra Streisand, as Fanny Brice, in Funny Girl.
The movie “shows me as something I never was,” Arnstein stated, complaining that the character in the movie was a coward, conman, and swindler who cheated on his wife.
“I have tried industriously to live down my mistakes,” Arnstein proclaimed, insisting to the press that he wasn’t after money. His lawsuit asked for $400,000, and Arnstein was awarded a smaller, but sizeable, settlement.
Nicky Arnstein lived long enough to see Funny Girl open on Broadway. (Fanny Brice died more than a decade before, in 1951.) But he didn’t sue this time. Why? For one, the Funny Girl version of Arnstein married fewer wives, committed fewer crimes, and served fewer prison sentences. Indeed, it was produced by Ray Stark, who had married Arnstein’s daughter Frances. Stark smoothed out many of the family skeletons while producing the play.
So, in the end, gambler and conman Nicky Arnstein lucked out. The best-known version of his life erases his darkest moments.
After reading about Nicky Arnstein, the conman husband of Fanny Brice, look through these stunning photos of New York City in the 1950s. Or, learn about some of the most shocking scandals from Old Hollywood.
