Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisa Part 57

"The pros are talking: New York Journal-American, September 15, 1960.

[>] "a dynamic pa.s.sion": 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] "too dear": "My Life with Barbra," unpublished ma.n.u.script by Donald G. Softness, courtesy Softness.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 2024, 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 s.e.x 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. WinterSpring 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.