Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisa Part 63

Earl Wilson was currently suggesting: Earl Wilson's syndicated column, as in the Galveston (Texas) Daily News, June 28, 1962.

[>] William Morris Agency: Contract dated July 6, 1962, www.barbra-archives.com. Because Streisand was not yet twenty-one, her mother had to cosign with her. Diana chose to omit the "Kind" from her signature, using just "Streisand."

"An unknown": LAT, August 27, 1967.

"Miss Streisand has such": NYT, June 10, 1962.

Reviews for Pins and Needles: For example, San Antonio Light, August 5, 1962.

[>] "Tell Barbra I think": Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

In her gla.s.s-enclosed "teahouse": Boston Herald, January 5, 1964.

[>] "G.o.d knows she has": Jerome Robbins to Ray Stark, June 11, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"desire and intention to": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, Isobel Lennart, Bob Merrill, and Jule Styne, May 17, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"listed haphazardly": Ray Stark to Robbins, Lennart, Styne, and Merrill, May 17, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

[>] "If she can sing": Jerome Robbins to Ray Stark, June 11, 1962.

Merrill and Bancroft had dated: Interview with Suzanne Merrill. I am grateful for her background not only on the relations.h.i.+p between Merrill and Streisand, but also Styne and Streisand.

"to work with her a bit": Jerome Robbins to Ray Stark, June 11, 1962.

[>] "People insist he wants": David Merrick office memo to Jerome Robbins, June 12, 1962.

[>] Barbra's audition changed no minds: Stories of Streisand's declaring she couldn't act with such terrible lines as the script provided seem to be so much mythmaking. There is absolutely no evidence of anything like that in the Robbins papers. There may have been such conflict later on, but Streisand's first reading was described as "marvelously sensitive" by Robbins, hardly likely if she had been argumentative or defensive.

"a marvelously sensitive reading": Jerome Robbins to Ray Stark, June 11, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"really anxious": David Merrick's office to Jerome Robbins, June 29, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"You, of course, know": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, June 20, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

Barbra seemed clueless: This anecdote was told to me by a longtime Streisand fan who was frequently in the audience, and occasionally backstage, during Wholesale. I confirmed that Lillian Gish was indeed in attendance one night, according to Earl Wilson's syndicated column, as in the Delaware County Daily Times, June 27, 1962.

[>] Barbra's unprofessionalism: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] Barbra and Elliott sat in the dark: In an interview published in Life, May 22, 1964, Streisand recalled seeing a movie that could only be Mothra (the giant caterpillar eating cars) but conflated the experience with an earlier outing, which took place in the winter. Mothra opened in Manhattan on July 11.

"marvelous Victorian cabinets": The New Yorker, May 1962.

"just wild ... genius": Life, May 22, 1964.

[>] "hot romance backstage": Earl Wilson's syndicated column, as in the Idaho Falls Post-Register, July 20, 1962.

couple had secretly married: Earl Wilson's syndicated column, as in the Uniontown (Pennsylvania) Evening Standard, August 1, 1962.

[>] "They print such rotten": syndicated article, May 31, 1962.

"talk back to the director": syndicated UPI article, as in the Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), July 26, 1962, and elsewhere.

[>] "brushed out": Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

"the stable one": Let's Talk to Lucy, October 7, 1964.

[>] His admiration for her: Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

[>] "packing into the clubs": Dorothy Kilgallen's syndicated column, as in the Montreal Gazette, July 28, 1962.

"hit the big time": Earl Wilson's syndicated column, as in the Reno (Nevada) Evening Gazette, July 27, 1962.

[>] "Miss Streisand is a delightful": Variety, July 25, 1962.

"strictly private for hotel guests": Hartford Courant, July 17, 1962. Also, the Middletown Press, July 16, 1962.

[>] Barbra was applying to Dartmouth: See, for example, Lawrence Witte's syndicated column, as in the Masillon (Ohio) Evening Independent, August 1, 1962.

[>] "urgent [that an] immediate": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, telegram, August 6, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"I hope you will have": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, letter, August 6, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"A tremendous talent": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, letter, August 6, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

[>] "Dear Annie": Jerome Robbins to Anne Bancroft, July 30, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"Dear Barbara": Ray Stark to Barbra Streisand, August 6, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

[>] "pus.h.i.+ng the script until certain": Jerome Robbins, "Statement of Contribution to Funny Girl," sound recording, JRC, NYPL. All of my descriptions of Robbins's statements on the work he did on the script up to the fall of 1962 come from this source.

[>] "If you don't hear": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, August 6, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

"A more honest or exploitable": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, August 21, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

[>] "broker between script and stars": NYT, May 10, 1960.

"I have rarely seen anyone": Doris Vidor to Jerome Robbins, August 1, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

Doris Vidor would later marry, and quickly divorce, f.a.n.n.y Brice's third husband, Billy Rose.

"the relations.h.i.+p really becomes": Jerome Robbins to Ray Stark, August 10, 1962.

Peter Lawford was "very interested": Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, August 22, 1962.

On the call sheet for two thirty: Audition sheet, August 30, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

[>] "inauthentic" and "overhyped": Unsourced articles, dated June 4, 1962, and September 1, 1962, the latter a look-ahead at the coming nightclub season that predicted Streisand would be back at the Blue Angel, Barbra Streisand file, NYPL.