In the cab on the way: Interview with Adam Pollock.
[>] “because that was too false”: CBS Sunday Morning, September 27, 2009.
“hated” the name Barbara: Rogue, November 1963.
“losing touch with reality”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.
strode over to Burke McHugh: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra; interview with Tom Hall.
“the only Barbra in the world”: AP wire story, as in The Derrick (Oil City, Pennsylvania), October 11, 1963. Note that in his memoir My Life with Barbra, Dennen wrote that he changed the spelling of his name to Barry around the time Barbara became Barbra, and most accounts of her life have used the latter spelling for his name after this point. But newspaper notices of Dennen’s appearances in theatrical productions reveal that he was still spelling his name with an “é” instead of a “y” as late as September 1961.
3. Summer 1960
[>] “as funny as Shakespeare”: NYT, June 30, 1960.
[>] “promised participation”: Theatre Studio pamphlet, 1960, Curt Conway file, NYPL. Although it was established works such as The Boy Friend and Look Homeward, Angel that paid the bills, the Cecilwood served primarily to try out new work. That summer Conway was presenting Cry of the Raindrop, written by his Theatre Studio partner Lonny Chapman, as well as the Studs Terkel drama Amazing Grace, featuring Peter Fonda in one of his first roles.
He desperately wanted: I’ve taken my account of Streisand’s late arrival at Henry V from personal interviews with Dennen and Schulenberg, as well as Dennen’s My Life with Barbra, attempting, as ever, to establish the most accurate narrative.
[>] “to keep one hand”: Look, April 5, 1966.
[>] Not long after: Interviews with Barry Dennen, Bob Schulenberg, and Dennen’s My Life with Barbra.
[>] “change the tilt”: Playboy, October 1977. In a personal interview, Barry Dennen also reported having essentially the same conversation with Streisand in the summer of 1960.
”loved her bump”: Playboy, October 1977. Streisand also told Oprah Winfrey she’d always liked her bump. O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.
her father’s nose: Pageant, November 1963.
[>] “They’re not ripped”: Time, April 10, 1964.
Ben Sackheim, Inc.: Information on the company comes from the NYT, August 28, 1941; July 12, 1951; August 18, 1959; October 20, 1959; April 18, 1960; November 16, 1960; July 26, 1965; and January 3, 1966, as well as the online magazine Postscripts, October 31, 2009.
[>] “acting alive”: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, BBC, October 2, 2009.
“made-up foreign languages”: Time, April 10, 1964.
[>] “Greenwich Village version”: Variety, February 27, 1952.
“one of the lead funspots”: New York World-Telegram, November 11, 1959.
“wanted to do something”: Rogue, November 1963.
[>] “Kid, you are going”: All About Barbra, undated clipping, Barbra Streisand file, AMPAS.
$108 a week: This is the figure reported in a profile of her career in the Saturday Evening Post, July 27–August 3, 1963. In Streisand: Her Life, James Spada gives the figure as $125 a week.
“It just seems”: syndicated UPI article, as in the Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), July 26, 1962, and elsewhere.
[>] “chauffeured around”: This Week, February 5, 1966.
Since returning to Manhattan: In My Life with Barbra, Dennen described Streisand as moving in with him earlier than this point. Although there were likely overnight stays, Bob Schulenberg, whose memory is uncannily accurate, insisted that it was not until right before her appearance at the Bon Soir that Streisand moved in with Dennen.
[>] “French from the moon”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.
Barré’s apartment: Dennen, My Life with Barbra, as well as interviews with Dennen and Schulenberg.
[>] “If I can identify”: CBS Sunday Morning interview, September 27, 2009.
[>] “once again throbbing”: NYT, October 20, 1960.
“Box offices are busy”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal, September 30, 1960.
“tucked behind a façade”: NYT, October 13, 1960.
[>] “Customers who jam”: NYT, October 13, 1960.
[>] “far-out females”: Variety, January 4, 1962.
“all the gay guys”: Quotes and observations from Kaye Ballard come from a personal interview as well as her memoir, How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years (New York: Back Stage Books, 2006).
“the funniest woman”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal, September 30, 1960.
[>] the size of a peapod: Quotes and observations from Diller come from a personal interview as well as her memoir, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse (New York: Penguin, 2005).
Around eleven, the place started: Various sources report that the Three Flames began playing around ten pm, but a contemporary account of evenings at the Bon Soir in the NYT, November 10, 1960, when Streisand was on the bill, reported that the place didn’t begin to fill up until eleven thirty and that Tony and Eddie went on at midnight. I’ve calculated that the band probably started the evening’s entertainment closer to eleven than to ten. The Three Flames played a half-hour set.
[>] “a-twinkle with glow worms”: NYT, November 10, 1960.
“Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now”: Anne Edwards in Streisand: A Biography wrote that her first number was “A Sleepin’ Bee,” calling it “a brave opening,” since most cabaret acts began with “a spirited number to catch the audience’s attention.” According to Barry Dennen, who has tapes and notes from that performance, her first song was “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” exactly the sort of spirited number that could, and did, grab the audience’s attention. Edwards also reported that she sang “When the Sun Comes Out,” but Dennen refutes that. In Streisand: Her Life, Spada reports that among the numbers she sang that first night was “Who Can I Turn to Now?” but Dennen also denies that. That song was added, however, to the repertoire before the Bon Soir run ended.
[>] “triumphant roar”: Pageant, November 1963.
4. Fall 1960
[>] “one of the biggest”: NYT, September 13, 1960.
“the find of the year”: New York World-Telegram, September 16, 1960.
“The pros are talking: New York Journal-American, September 15, 1960.
[>] “a dynamic passion”: Rogue, November 1963.
“too trapped by her”: Judge wrote about seeing Streisand at the Bon Soir in the New York Journal-American, April 25, 1965.
[>] Diana bragged: This description comes from several friends of Diana’s, including Stuart Lippner, and is bolstered by Streisand’s own comment on Inside the Actors Studio: “My mother was the type of woman who praised me to other people but not to my face. She used to say, ‘I don’t want you to get a swelled head.’”
“a series of manic ups”: Barry Dennen, My Life with Barbra. This chapter is also supplemented by a personal interview with Dennen.
[>] “feminine wiles”: Vanity Fair, September 1991.
[>] “just in time for the World Series”: NYT, October 3, 1960. The sale ran from the end of September through October 25.
[>] “too dear”: “My Life with Barbra,” unpublished manuscript by Donald G. Softness, courtesy Softness.
“original designs created”: NYT, October 16, 1960.
[>] “A startlingly young”: NYT, November 10, 1960. This was not a specific review of a particular Streisand performance, but came within a larger profile of the nightclub scene.
[>] “the whitest white man”: Dennen, My Life with Barbra. My description of that first meeting is also supplemented by personal interviews with Dennen and Ted Rozar, which did not always jibe when considered together, but I have done my best to square their memories with the available facts.
“you can take me to dinner”: During my interview with Rozar, he told me, “Barbra still owes me that dinner she promised.”
> [>] “ninety percent of jazz’s”: The Daily Reporter, November 18, 1959.
somewhere deep in the fir forests: Neither Rozar nor Dennen could remember exactly where the hotel was, and Streisand has never talked about it. An exhaustive search through clippings and digitized newspaper databases also did not turn up the location or the exact date. I hope that some dogged Streisand fan will someday turn up the details.
[>] Carl Esser had just opened: program bio, Whisper to Me, November 21, 1960, NYPL; Bridgeport Post, July 17, 1960.
Roy Scott, was currently in rehearsals: NYT, January 9, 1961; Montserrat program, NYPL.
[>] Outside, it was snowing: NYT, December 20–24, 1960.
[>] And Barbra was having her revenge: I’ve based my description on the strife between the two of them on personal interviews with Dennen and Schulenberg, as well as Dennen, My Life with Barbra.
[>] a club called the Townhouse: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.
She walked in to find: My description of this fateful New Year’s Eve is based on Dennen’s My Life with Barbra as well as, more important, a personal interview, in which he described Streisand, years later, confronting him about that night. Dennen said he had “blocked out” the details of the incident, claiming he did not recall having sex with a light-skinned black man, but he did not dispute Streisand’s account of it. “I don’t want to remember it, but it’s perfectly possible it happened,” he admitted. According to Dennen, Streisand told him there were “moments in life one never forgets,” and for her, catching him with a man that New Year’s Eve was one of them.
“A lot, yeah”: Playboy, October 1977. Asked if it was anything like she expected it to be, she replied: “Yes and no.”
5. Winter–Spring 1961
[>] “all the cold-shouldering”: Personal interview with Barry Dennen.
London Chop House: In 1961, chef and food critic James Beard named the Chopper as one of the ten best restaurants nationwide, the same year it won a Dartnell Survey award as one of America’s Favorites. Various newspapers, digitized collections.
[>] Les Gruber had looked at: Detroit News, August 26, 2000.
“weird” was the only way: Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966.
“a hippie”: Detroit News, August 26, 2000.
“a big stack of dog-eared music”: Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966.
“I’m a fast learner”: Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966. The legend that Streisand learned ten songs that very first night, in just the few hours before her first show, originates here, with Chapman’s rather fanciful account, told when Streisand was a big star. Those who had worked with her in Detroit were looking back from the vantage point of 1966 with romantic nostalgia. Streisand was indeed a fast learner, but working out all that new material in such a short time defies credibility. In fact, much later, a less starry-eyed Matt Michaels told an interviewer that on her first night, Barbra sang the five (not four) songs she already knew. (Detroit News, August 26, 2000.) This shouldn’t detract from Streisand’s achievement, however. In a week’s time she was singing at least four new numbers and being hailed for them. That’s impressive enough without needing to embellish.
[>] “All she needed”: Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966.
“tough lady”: Detroit News, August 26, 2000.
“shut up,” “ to be a star,” “in front of a mirror,” “belligerence”: Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966.
[>] “could do a squib”: Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966.
“came from Brooklyn”: Streisand made this statement on PM East on July 12, 1961.
[>] By day Fred Tew: Wall Street Journal, January 3, 1968; Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966; archives of Detroit Free Press, for which Tew wrote for many years before moving to Chrysler; interview with Mike Walter, Detroit News, August 26, 2000.
Her little press junket: Detroit News, March 4, 1961; Windsor Star, March 6, 1961.
[>] “I’m comin’ in to play”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.
[>] “striking rather than beautiful”: Variety, March 8, 1961.
[>] “sociable downtown gang”: Detroit News, August 26, 2000.
“bachelors about town”: Detroit News, October 18, 2000.
“critiques,” “Do you know”: Detroit News, August 26, 2000.
[>] “You’re great”: Detroit Magazine, March 27, 1966.
Barbra a new contract: Agreement between London Chop House and “Barbara Striechsand,” dated March 1, 1961. www.barbra-archives.com.
“turn off people”: Playboy, October 1977.
[>] It had all happened rather suddenly: Anne Edwards, in Streisand: A Biography, quotes Bob Shanks, talent coordinator for the Paar show, as saying Streisand herself kept calling to try to book herself on the show. “I said no to Barbra Streisand,” Shanks told Edwards. This, however, was simply not how booking was done. Both Orson Bean and Ted Rozar were clear that they got Streisand the gig together. The story Shanks told of Streisand asking for his advice may have happened later, but not before she had been a guest. The image of a completely unknown Streisand calling and cajoling the Paar show on her own, making up outlandish stories to get a job, seems part of the later legend that insisted she was single-handedly responsible for her own fame.
[>] Madame Daunou’s salon: NYT, February 17, 1950; April 16, 1950; April 4, 1966. Also a detailed interview with Bob Schulenberg.
[>] “Barbara Strysand”: Hartford Courant, others, April 5, 1961; NYT, April 5, 1961. As to whether Dennen watched the show, he said he did not recall.
[>] “This girl was a young girl”: Fortunately many of Streisand’s early television appearances have been uploaded to YouTube. This first Paar show is included on the DVD Just for the Record, planned as a companion to the CD set of Streisand’s music in 1991 but never released. Thankfully, a bootleg version has circulated among fans for years, and it has allowed me to be precise in describing Streisand’s radio and television appearances.
[>] “could be accused”: Variety, December 27, 2004.
“hep audience”: Variety, August 2, 1961.
“as relaxed as an old shoe”: Variety, May 3, 1961.
“to showcase rising new talent”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 14, 1961.
[>] “a zippy revue”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 21, 1961.
“their sort of patter”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life. Bob Schulenberg also shared stories of how the humorous patter in between Streisand’s songs originated.
[>] “inimitable, sultry way”: Variety, May 3, 1961.
less than forty-eight hours: It’s often been stated that Streisand ended her run in St. Louis on May 8 and started up at the Bon Soir the very next night. But notices and advertisements in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reveal that her last show at the Crystal Palace was on Saturday, May 6. Her contract with the Bon Soir indicates she began there on Tuesday, May 9. So most likely she would have flown out of St. Louis on Sunday, May 7.
[>] salary raised to $175: Contract dated April 17, 1961, reproduced on Barbra Archives, www.barbra-archives.com.
“wrong,” “a floozy job”: Interview on Late Night Line-Up, BBC2, 1966. This attitude was also confirmed by Bob Schulenberg and Don Softness.
magnanimous of her to lend: Both Randall Riese and James Spada report versions of this story in their respective biographies. According to Pim Allen, a regular patron of the Bon Soir who was there for much of Streisand’s run, this occurred only on opening night.
“only intermittent nutritional value”: Variety, May 17, 1961.
[>] “bastardizing her art”: Late Night Line-Up, BBC2, 1966.
[>] “chills through all of them”: Vanity Fair, September 1991.
“industry people,” “a lot to learn”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life. It is not recorded what five songs Streisand sang at this second engagement at the Bon Soir. It’s possible that the ballad she opened with was “A Sleepin’ Bee,” but that’s just speculation.
born in Brooklyn: Most accounts say Erlichman was born
in the Bronx, but the 1930 census shows him, at age seven months, living with his parents on Quentin Road in Brooklyn.
[>] “Jazz on the Hudson”: NYT, May 24, 1959.
Marty certainly wouldn’t have pegged Barbra: Erlichman, of course, insisted he knew right away that she was going to be huge, that he saw Oscar and Emmy and Grammy in her future, and wanted to be her manager even if she didn’t pay him right away. This sounds much like the same way Ted Rozar described his own first experience with Streisand and is, in fact, typical hyperbole from a personal manager. At the time, Variety was saying of Streisand’s second Bon Soir engagement that she had not “developed much box office” (May 17, 1961). Various observers from the period, such as Bob Schulenberg, Don Softness, Phyllis Diller, and others believed Erlichman’s later insistence that he knew right from the start that Barbra would be a giant superstar was simply a personal manager saying the right thing about a client.
“what Chaplin had”: Saturday Evening Post, September 27, 1963.
Without any niceties: My description of the first meeting between Streisand and Erlichman comes after critical reconsideration of what both have said about it and how others remember it. As noted earlier, Erlichman described their initial encounter with all sorts of hyperbole, as a shrewd manager should. He reported telling Streisand that very first night that she’d win all the awards and that she would be “the biggest movie star of them all.” This he told to the press long after Streisand had actually become a big movie star, and it suited the legend they had shaped: that she was a born star and those with keen eyes had seen the truth of that from the start. Bob Schulenberg, however, remembered the first meeting between Streisand and Erlichman much less dramatically. It was brief and pleasant. Each left an impression, but neither was making grandiose predictions about the other. However, it does seem likely that Erlichman did tell Streisand, as he’s always claimed, that she shouldn’t change a thing about herself. Schulenberg remembered asking Streisand soon after she met Erlichman if he wanted her to change her nose or her name, and she replied that he did not.
Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand Page 57
