Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisa Part 58

[>] "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 advertis.e.m.e.nts in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reveal that her last show at the Crystal Palace was on Sat.u.r.day, 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 att.i.tude 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.

[>] "b.a.s.t.a.r.dizing 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": Sat.u.r.day 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.

[>] Diana Kind was hopping mad: I have based my account of Diana's reaction to Paar's insult of her daughter on anecdotes shared with me by three of her friends, two of whom asked for anonymity. The third was Stuart Lippner, who heard the story from both Diana and Roslyn Kind.

Barbra on the Paar show: This appearance is not always listed among Streisand's credits, but television listings reveal she appeared on the Paar show for a second time on May 22, 1961, again billed as "Barbara Strysand." As she wasn't using "Strysand" in her concurrent appearances at the Bon Soir, I suspect this was an error on the press release sent out by NBC to the newspapers, which seems to have been using the same spelling Streisand had given them a month earlier.

[>] Did Barbra ever know: It's possible she did find out later, or that there was a similar incident when Diana defended her daughter to a critic. In the May 1965 issue of Cosmopolitan, Streisand told an anecdote about her mother writing a letter objecting to some reporter who'd said the young singer had "Fu Manchu nails." According to Streisand, Diana signed the letter "Barbra's mother."

6. Summer 1961

[>] the studio technicians to stop: Interview with Don Softness.

[>] A week or so before Barbra: The Clancy Brothers appeared on the June 22 show; Streisand first appeared on July 12.

its debut on June 12: Background on PM East comes from various newspaper coverage, particularly the NYT, June 3, June 11, June 13, and June 22, 1961.

Parading into the studio: I have based my description of Streisand's first appearance on PM East on interviews with Don Softness, Bob Schulenberg, and Ted Rozar, as well as Mike Wallace's memoir, Between You and Me (New York: Hyperion, 2005).

Mike Wallace was aggressive: For background on Wallace, see Between You and Me.

[>] "self-absorption": Wallace admitted during his 1991 60 Minutes interview with Streisand that he "really didn't like her" during their time on PM East and that he found her "totally self-absorbed."

"the demeanor of a diva": Wallace, Between You and Me.

"New York is just full of unusual": Just for the Record DVD.

"more like the studio mail girl": Hartford Courant, June 24, 1962.

[>] old friend from acting school: Rick Edelstein was interviewed on WNYC radio, September 30, 2009, and recounted the story of sneaking Barbra into the Vanguard and serving her a ginger ale because she didn't drink.

[>] "an eye for promising": Gavin, Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret.

When Edelstein suggested: The story of Streisand's tryout at the Village Vanguard has been extremely difficult to pin down. Much misinformation has been written about it, turning the tryout into the stuff of myth and legend, especially in light of Streisand's much-heralded "return" to the club in 2009. Max Gordon, in his memoir, Live at the Village Vanguard, remembered that she sang three numbers at the club during a Sunday matinee that Miles Davis headlined. Gordon's wife, Lorraine, in her own memoir, Alive at the Village Vanguard, recalled that when Streisand tried out there she had been "singing off and on" at the Bon Soir. This dates Streisand's appearance at the Vanguard to 1961. That year, Davis performed at the club in February, July, September, and December. In February, Streisand was in Detroit, and by September she had already gotten the job at Gordon's other club, the Blue Angel, which had been an indirect result of her tryout at the Vanguard. So that dates her one-time appearance at the Village Vanguard to July 1961, and almost certainly to July 2, since she was in Winnipeg from July 3 to July 15. (By the time she got back to New York, Davis was gone from the Vanguard.) Along with the Gordons' recollections, I have used Edelstein's interview on WNYC to reconstruct this rather mythic performance. Bob Schulenberg also contributed to my understanding of the experience.

His name was Stanley Beck: My account of the Stanley Beck romance comes from Spada, Streisand: Her Life, as well as from the recollections of various friends.

[>] "You are fantastic": Rick Edelstein interview, WNYC, September 30, 2009.

"Beautiful," "very posh": Streisand made this statement on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, October 4, 1962.

[>] taken her out horseback riding: Kaufman Schwartz and a.s.sociates interview transcript, August 14, 1963, Sidney Skolsky Collection, AMPAS.

both dull and noisy: Elaine Sobel told James Spada for Streisand: Her Life that Streisand found the audiences at the Town 'n' Country "emotionless and dull," and several accounts attest to their noisiness.

"Miss Streisand is the type": Winnipeg Free Press, July 4, 1961.

[>] she went on the next night: It is a myth that Streisand was fired from her gig at the Town 'n' Country in Winnipeg. Newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nts from July 1961 show that Streisand played out her entire two-week engagement. "Last time tonite Barbara [sic] Streisand," reads the Town 'n' Country ad in the Winnipeg Free Press from July 15. This was supported by Helen Chandler, a waitress at the club, who told Winnipeg columnist Morley Walker in 2006 that Streisand "played out her whole two weeks" (Winnipeg Free Press, November 11, 2006). While agreeing that the firing was merely a legend, Walker suggested that Streisand may have left early to take "a big gig in the U.S.," and that singer Mary Nelson replaced her at the Town 'n' Country. This is not true, either. Again looking at contemporary newspaper ads, Mary Nelson played the Town 'n' Country in February, not July. Final proof, if any is needed given the irrefutable evidence of the July 15 newspaper ad, comes from an interview Streisand gave to Johnny Carson a year later, when she spoke about appearing in Winnipeg. She wouldn't have been so fond in her recollections if she had been fired.

"What's she doing?": Streisand made this statement to Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, October 4, 1962.