Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisa Part 59

"I've seen her act": Hoffman recalled watching Streisand on PM East in the National Enquirer, January 2, 2005.

"beauties of New York": The Daily Review, July 12, 1961.

[>] "Let us get this straight": Vanity Fair, September 1991.

Yet Marty's shrewdness: I am indebted to several people for sharing with me insights into Erlichman's brilliant management of Streisand's career. These include Don Softness, Ted Rozar, Phyllis Diller, and Orson Bean. Others, very close to the people involved, have asked for anonymity. Letters from and references to Erlichman in the collections of William Wyler, Herbert Ross, Jerome Robbins, Smith and Dale, and Richard Lewine also reveal his management skills.

[>] "buy him off": Spada, Streisand: Her Life. The rest of my description of the scene with Rozar comes from a personal interview with Rozar.

"one of his cyclical": San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 1963.

the question was "a bit": Rogue, November 1963.

[>] His mother kept misp.r.o.nouncing: Background on Another Evening with Harry Stoones comes from an undated, unsourced article, auth.o.r.ed by Jeff Harris, found in the clippings collection for the show at the NYPL.

[>] "people who hate revues": Publicity for Another Evening with Harry Stoones, September 3, 1961, NYPL.

"epidemic": Undated press release for Another Evening with Harry Stoones, NYPL.

managed to raise $15,000: Press release, "Sunday Drama," August 27, 1961, NYPL.

[>] "hot, clearly talented": Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

[>] Susan Belink: She later changed her name to Susan Belling and became a successful soprano at the Metropolitan Opera and elsewhere.

[>] he thought she'd fit in: "I put her into the Blue Angel later," Gordon wrote of Streisand in Live at the Village Vanguard.

into G.o.ddard Lieberson's office: I have based my account of this meeting on interviews with Columbia employee Lynnie Johnson, as well as two anonymous sources. In addition, various newspaper articles on Lieberson, and Shaun Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music (New York: Delacorte, 1985), and Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

"own fiefdom": Walter Yetnikoff, Howling at the Moon: The Odyssey of a Monstrous Music Mogul in an Age of Excess (New York: Broadway Books, 2004).

"Listen to her when the phones": Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

7. Fall 1961

[>] "so enthusiastic": Wallace, Between You and Me.

marveled at the way the kid: Don Softness's observations and recollections of working with Streisand on PM East come from a personal interview with him, as well as his unpublished ma.n.u.script, "My Life with Barbra," used here courtesy Softness.

[>] Tony Franciosa might star: Hedda Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, August 9, 1961.

Arthur Laurents would direct: NYT, October 5, 1961.

[>] the Softness Group: Miami News, December 8, 1963; NYT, July 23, 1973; September 21, 1974; March 5, 1979; March 29, 1987; April 29, 1987.

her picture in the New York Times: NYT, October 15, 1961.

[>] Jerome Weidman's mood: Weidman's perspective on Streisand's audition comes from a first-person piece he penned for Holiday, November 1963.

Laurents was already at the theater: Laurents's perspective on Streisand's audition comes from a personal interview as well as his memoir, Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood (New York: Hal Leonard/Applause Books, 2009). Quotes not cited in the notes come from the personal interview.

"must have been turned down": Laurents, Original Story By.

"flawed," "unmarked for success": Laurents, Mainly on Directing: Gypsy, West Side Story, and Other Musicals (New York: Knopf/Borzoi Books, 2009).

[>] "calculated spontaneity": Laurents, Original Story By.

She was nervous: Streisand remembered: "At my audition, I was asked to sit in a chair because I was nervous and because I thought it was an interesting concept." (TV Guide, January 2228, 2000.) Laurents said it was she who asked for the chair. Her statement that she thought sitting in it was an "interesting concept" was more telling, Laurents believed. "She knew exactly what she was doing," he said.

[>] this "fantastic freak": Life, May 22, 1964.

"the weirdo of all times": Time, April 10, 1964.

"None too stimulating": NYT, October 23, 1964.

"quick, flippant": New Yorker, November 4, 1961.

"gleeful," "riotous": Women's Wear Daily, November 5, 1961.

"quite strong enough": Village Voice, October 30, 1961.

[>] "excellent flair for dropping": Variety, October 28, 1961.

Barbra briskly replied: Weidman wrote a highly romanticized account in Holiday of Streisand's audition, with whole pages of fabricated dialogue. He had Barbra saying things such as "Can I sing? If I couldn't sing, would I have the nerve to come out here in a thing like this coat?" and when asked if she could come back to sing for David Merrick, "Gee, I don't know. Marty, what time's my hair appointment?" When he read this dialogue, Arthur Laurents replied: "Legend!" Although Streisand was eccentric and even a little c.o.c.ky in her audition, just as she was on PM East, she would never have been so blunt or so rude when auditioning for a major Broadway show. "She would have killed her chances right there," Laurents said, if she'd hesitated about returning to sing for Merrick or mouthed off the way some accounts portray. Weidman's account, published in November 1963, was written after Streisand had become well-known. It remarkably resembled a scene in her upcoming musical, Funny Girl-almost certainly an intentional connection. Similarly, the description of the audition from Merrick's casting director, Michael Shurtleff, given to Anne Edwards for Streisand: A Biography, seems equally fanciful, part of a post-1964 phenomenon that turned every account of Streisand's life into a mirror of f.a.n.n.y Brice in Funny Girl. This phenomenon, both unconscious and deliberate, found its way into many sources, including Howard Kissel's David Merrick: The Abominable Showman (New York: Hal Leonard/Applause Books, 2000) and most Streisand biographies.

[>] they might call her back: Although most accounts say Streisand came back that same day, Laurents said that wasn't the case. "Not how it worked," he said. She would have been called in for a second audition at a later date. Besides, it wasn't "very realistic," he said, to believe she came back later that same afternoon when she had her opening at the Blue Angel to prepare for. But again, "that's how myths are made," he said. "And a lot of myths were made about Barbra Streisand."

"You said you wanted": Life, May 22, 1964. Streisand also told the story in Playboy, October 1977.

There'd been no real feeling: On the Let's Talk to Lucy radio show that aired October 7, 1964, host Lucille Ball asked Streisand if she'd fallen for Gould the first time she saw him. "No" was the plain and simple answer. Ball then tried to get Streisand to say something romantic about their first meeting, or at least to say that she'd found Gould attractive right from the start. But Streisand seemed to reject the whole line of questioning and changed the subject.

[>] Lorraine had also involved Barbra: Lorraine Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard.

The team from What's in It for Me?: According to an article in the Sat.u.r.day Evening Post, July 27, 1963, David Merrick "strolled in" one night to hear Streisand before signing her for Wholesale. Laurents, however, said Merrick never went to see her and based his judgments of her solely on her auditions.

[>] "undisciplined," "another disappointment": Variety, November 22, 1961.

[>] "had to be in the show": Laurents, Original Story By.

"the X quality": Holiday, November 1963.