Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisa Part 55

[>] Barbara at the age of one: Inside the Actors Studio, March 24, 2004.

[>] "No pay": Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

[>] "scandalously flaunting": Divorce papers of Diana and Louis Kind, May 2, 1957, Clerk's Office, Kings County Supreme Court.

[>] "had failed to do": Daily Mail, April 23, 1994.

[>] the students were busy preparing: It's not clear what kind of performance Streisand invited her mother to watch. It was likely one of the special workshops the Theatre Studio held for its more advanced students, which used both "experimental work on new plays and cla.s.sical material." Theatre Studio pamphlet, 1960, Curt Conway file, NYPL. My description of the night comes from Sue Anderson and several friends of Terry Leong's.

"white slavery": Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

"missed as a child": Life, March 18, 1966.

"a lot of time and money": Time, April 10, 1964.

"Is it crazy": Pageant, November 1963.

"bring so many": Cosmopolitan, May 1965.

"I have this hole": Vanity Fair, September 1991.

[>] "I can do that": Today Show interview, 2009.

the Actors Studio was her own personal mecca: There have been various stories, differing in detail, about Streisand's experience with the Actors Studio. She herself has always been vague about the experience. One account has Streisand being asked to return for an audition but never following up, which seems highly unlikely given how much she wanted to be a part of the school. Appearing on Inside the Actors Studio, Streisand described crying through her rendition of The Young and Fair, calling it an "audition." But in 1963, when her memory was presumably clearer, she described the experience as a "three-month course." (Kaufman Schwartz and a.s.sociates interview transcript, August 14, 1963, Sidney Skolsky Collection, AMPAS.) It is from this interview that I have taken the quotes about her fellow students. The "prized possession" quote comes from Inside the Actors Studio, March 24, 2004.

[>] everyone applauded: I have based my description of this night on an interview with a friend of Terry Leong's, as well as the account provided by Marilyn Fried in Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

2. Spring 1960

[>] "Did you never": Dennen, My Life with Barbra. The description of Barbara and Barre rehearsing The Insect Comedy is also derived from personal interviews with Dennen, Bob Schulenberg, Carole Gister, and Sue Anderson. Whenever my description differs slightly from Dennen's book, it is because it was told to me that way in interviews, sometimes by Dennen himself, during which I endeavored to make timelines and descriptions as accurate as possible.

[>] "Stop humming": Spada, Streisand: Her Life; Anne Edwards, Streisand: A Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 1997).

The Sound of Music was preparing: Auditions were taking place in the spring of 1960, which corroborates Barry Dennen's account that Barbara tried out for Liesl soon after The Insect Comedy closed. Henderson was named in several columns that spring as being a likely Maria von Trapp; she was officially signed in October. Plans for the road company were postponed by a labor dispute on June 8, but auditions would likely have proceeded.

Florence Henderson: various newspaper reports, Sound of Music file, NYPL.

When she was a kid: "I could sing, so people liked me. If I didn't have talent, they didn't have to like me." TV Guide, January 2228, 2000.

Eddie Blum and Peter Daniels: Details of Streisand's audition with Blum, which was also her first meeting with Daniels, come from interviews with Lainie Kazan and Jim Moore, a friend of Daniels's.

[>] Streisand tapes "Day by Day": My account is based on interviews with Barry Dennen as well as his book My Life with Barbra, with my best efforts to reconcile both into the most accurate timeline. A conversation with Sue Anderson, a friend of Carl Esser's, was also helpful.

[>] c.o.kes, and ice-cream cones: Look, April 5, 1966.

chantilly lace: Unsourced clip, April 13, 1965, profile by Hal Boyle, see Barbra Archives.

[>] "unconventional," "like them straight away": Interview with Jack Hirshberg, July 9, 1968, Hirshberg Collection, AMPAS.

[>] "Ya know," she said. "I'm going": Vanity Fair, September 1991.

[>] The King Arthur Room: In My Life with Barbra, Dennen wrote that he took Streisand to see Mabel Mercer at the RSVP Room, which was located on East Fifty-fifth Street across from the Blue Angel. However, Mercer had left the RSVP by the end of 1959 and by January 1960 was ensconced at the King Arthur Room. See Danton Walker's syndicated Broadway column, January 7, 1960. Mercer was still at the King Arthur Room in October of that year. Dennen may have remembered seeing Mercer at the RSVP earlier, but by the time he took Streisand, Mercer was definitely at the King Arthur.

The talent shows: Flyer for the Lion, 19591960 season, NYPL. Various accounts have placed them on Mondays, or on weekends, but the flyer provides doc.u.mentation.

[>] Dawn Hampton: NYT, April 26, 1960; September 29, 1960; June 11, 1982. Dawn Hampton was not the niece of Lionel Hampton, as some biographies have claimed.

"sang like there was": Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] "learn from a record": Rogue, November 1963.

Mabel Mercer was an old crust: For a detailed consideration of Mercer as a cafe singer, see James Gavin, Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret (New York: Back Stage Books, 2006).

[>] "what not to do": Rogue, November 1963.

[>] watching Barre lather his face: Dennen, My Life with Barbra as well as interviews with him, with my best efforts to order the timeline into the most accurate narrative.

"You don't screw anybody": Playboy, October 1977.

Mae West double entendres: Dennen wrote in My Life with Barbra that they stayed up late to watch Mae West in a film in which she performs with Duke Ellington's orchestra. That describes Belle of the Nineties, but Belle of the Nineties did not air on New York television stations during the year that Streisand and Dennen were close. After an exhaustive search of television listings, the only film of West's that aired in the period in question was My Little Chickadee, which was shown on Sat.u.r.day, June 18, 1960, which fits the time Dennen was describing.

"What's the matter with your animal?": This line comes from West's autobiography.

Dennen wrote about it in My Life with Barbra, and Bob Schulenberg also remembered the catchphrase.

[>] Burke McHugh ran the Lion: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra; publicity flyers from the Lion, NYPL.

[>] "Talented in a way": Interview with Tom Hall, a friend of Burke McHugh's.

With his cla.s.sic: Background on Burke McHugh comes from an interview with his friend Tom Hall, as well as NYT, May 7, 1957; April 26, 1960; May 20, 1994; and the New York World-Telegram, September 28, 1960.

other performers to the Lion: From an interview with Paul Dooley. Many performers did come to see Streisand perform at the Lion. Yet despite stories that claim Noel Coward was one of them, Coward's diaries reveal that he was not in New York during the dates Streisand was singing there.

[>] "terribly nervous": Clemons was quoted in Charles Kaiser, The Gay Metropolis (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997). Although he played piano for Mercer early on, he was most famous as a writer. His collection of stories, The Poison Tree, was published in 1959.

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.