Notes

Abbreviations

AMPAS = Margaret Herrick Library for the Performing Arts, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

BFC = Bob Fosse/Gwen Verdon Collection

JRC = Jerome Robbins Collection

LAT = Los Angeles Times

LoC = Library of Congress

NYPL = New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

NYT = New York Times

Where not cited, quotes are taken from personal interviews with the author. On occasion, quotes from printed sources have had grammar adjusted and/or ellipses discarded, but only if the original intent, meaning, or accuracy of the quote was not altered by doing so.

Why Streisand Now

[>] “one of the natural wonders”: High Fidelity, May 1976.

[>] “to be a star having”: Interview with publicist Jack Hirshberg, July 9, 1968, Hirshberg Collection, AMPAS. Hirshberg conducted in-depth interviews with clients, then polished them up and released portions to newspaper columnists and reporters. This is taken from the unedited transcript of his interview with Streisand.

“It was right to the top”: Time, April 10, 1964.

[>] “for her talent to speak”: Pageant, November 1963.

[>] “carried her own”: Time, April 10, 1964.

“I don’t think so”: The Rosie O’Donnell Show, November 21, 1997.

“That goes so deep”: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

“Barbra Streisand doesn’t sound”: Kaufman Schwartz and Associates interview with Streisand, August 15, 1963, submitted to Sidney Skolsky, Skolsky Collection, AMPAS.

[>] “negative implications”: Playboy, October 1977.

“each ear is,” “I really don’t”: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

“What is so offensive”: Playboy, October 1977.

1. Winter 1960

[>] For sixty-five cents: Sue Anderson, a friend of Carl Esser’s, related a story Esser told her about being with Streisand on her father’s birthday eating fish at a diner on Broadway south of Times Square. Anderson said he used the phrase: “ninety-three cents and some pocket lint.”

[>] called her “farbrent”: Vanity Fair, September 1991.

“what life should be”: Vanity Fair, September 1991.

“a need to be great,” “preacher”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.

“where people really”: Look, April 5, 1966.

[>] never seen Duse act: Later Streisand would see Duse in an Italian film from 1916 and call it “extraordinary.” James Spada, Streisand: Her Life (New York: Random House Value Publishing, 1997).

[>] “duty to squelch”: These were Streisand’s exact words when she confronted Susskind a few years later on PM East.

“a coat of some immense”: Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1966.

Jules Feiffer cartoon: LAT, September 10, 1963.

“I never hear”: Playboy, October 1977; TV Guide, January 22–29, 2000.

a hundred such institutions: Background on the Theatre Studio and other acting schools in New York of the period was found in an article in the New York World-Telegram, February 21, 1959.

weekly radio program: Theatre Studio on the Air was broadcast on Wednesday evenings. Whether Streisand ever participated is not known; all students were eligible, but no one was promised participation. Among the productions aired while she was at the school were Sophocles’ Antigone on October 11, 1959; Sean O’Casey’s Pictures in the Hallway with the original Broadway cast on November 4, 1959; Chekhov’s Swan Song on February 24, 1960; and Shakespeare’s sonnets on August 17, 1960.

The school offered: Theatre Studio pamphlet, 1960, Curt Conway file, NYPL.

[>] some of the greats: Advertisements for the Theatre Studio, Village Voice, September 30, 1959; NYT, October 14, 1959, and January 9, 1961. The Theatre Studio should not be confused with its competitor, Stella Adler’s Theatre Studio, which operated at 150 East Thirty-ninth Street. To avoid confusion, the Theatre Studio was sometimes advertised as “Curt Conway’s Theatre Studio.”

with enough “appetite”: Allan Miller, A Passion for Acting: Exploring the Creative Process (Sherman Oaks, CA: Dynamic Productions, 1995).

a nice review in the local newspaper: “As the homely sister, Barbara Streisand is transformed from a tomboy to a pretty girl, aware of her powers, in a wholly believable transition.” Berkshire Eagle, August 31, 1957.

“like someone who”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

$180 for a fifteen-week course: Theatre Studio pamphlet, 1960, Curt Conway file, NYPL.

named Dustin Hoffman: Streisand spoke about Hoffman being the “janitor” at the Theatre Studio on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, BBC, October 2, 2009. Hoffman was quoted about being at the Theatre Studio with Streisand in the National Enquirer, January 2, 2005.

[>] Socrates, Euripides: Kaufman Schwartz and Associates transcript of interview, August 15, 1963, Sidney Skolsky Collection, AMPAS. In this interview, Streisand said she “never read any of our American authors.”

“Can you imagine”: Playboy, October 1977.

“ever did in high school”: Unsourced magazine clipping, circa 1970, NYPL.

“Acting is the only art”: Theatre Studio pamphlet, 1960, Curt Conway file, NYPL.

“very awkward, emotionally”: Randall Riese, Her Name Is Barbra (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994).

“the political niceties”: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] “real ugly kid”: Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1966.

“couldn’t bear to look”: Life, March 18, 1966.

“very pretty and attractive”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

[>] “You’ll get a disease”: Playboy, October 1977.

“the sexiest scene”: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra. Streisand also described performing the scene in Playboy, October 1977.

[>] “a big deal”: Streisand’s attitude toward Vasek Simek comes from an interview with Barry Dennen.

What exactly did she “vibrate”: Playboy, October 1977.

“supersonic hearing”: Playboy, October 1977.

[>] “right to the top”: Time, April 10, 1964.

“Where did you ever”: I have based my description of Barbara’s shopping expedition with Terry Leong on interviews with Adam Pollock, Barry Dennen, and another friend of Terry’s who asked to be kept anonymous. I have also used newspaper descriptions of Third Avenue during the period and of the various boutiques that operated along it. Terry’s friend recalled he shopped at Stuart’s.

“delicately attenuated”: Barry Dennen, My Life with Barbra (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1997).

[>] Terry sat her down: That Terry Leong taught Streisand a great deal about fashion and style was insisted upon by Adam Pollock: “Knowing her background, she’d have had no idea who those designers were. I’m sure he had a hand in her education whether she wants to admit it or not.”

“secrets, and codes”: Dennen, My Life with Barbra.

[>] “about love and life and sex”: Playboy, October 1977.

She accepted the news: Interview with Adam Pollock.

“You know, once”: Players Magazine, Spring 1965.

“double-dealing, marauding”: New York World-Telegram, June 4, 1948.

[>] “remotely adolescent”: Redbook, January 1968.

After Barbara played: Vanity Fair, September 1991.

The Cormans were now: The description is culled from various interviews Barbra and Cis gave over the years, as well as from the recollections of a friend of one of the Corman children, who remembered seeing the young Streisand at the house in the early morning, watching the goings-on without saying a word.

grandparents’ living room: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

“an amazing thing”: Vanity Fair, November 1994.

[>] one friend out of her atheism: Playboy, October 1977.

“I am deeply Jewish”: Playboy, October 1977.

“Christmas, Christmas, Christmas”: New York, September 9, 1968.

“I don’t remember”: Rogue Magazine, November 1963.

[>] “last chance of freedom”: Streisand made this statement when she appeared as a guest on What’s My Line? on April 12, 1964.

ninety-four average: Pageant, November 1963.

“Why isn’t this kid”: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

“further experience”: Streisand’s mother’s note to her teachers is quoted in Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

“actual beatniks”: Pageant, November 1963.

“You’ll get paid”: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

[>] “You’re smart, you’re pretty”: 60 Minutes, November 24, 1991.

“Don’t go out in the rain”: Playboy, October 1977.

left her at the same time: 60 Minutes, November 24, 1991.

Her paternal grandmother: Interview with Stuart Lippner.

“rubber tummy”: New York, September 9, 1968.

[>] taught her mother how to smoke: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

“allergic to kids”: Playboy, October 1977.

“I tried to imagine”: Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1966.

[>] “kind of a wild”: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

“you weren’t supposed to do”: Inside the Actors Studio, March 24, 2004.

[>] The first thing: I have based my description of Diana Kind’s apartment, her life, and her attitudes toward her daughters on interviews with Stuart Lippner, Mo Fisher, and two others who knew her well. I have also referenced an interview Diana gave to the Daily Mail, April 23, 1994.

[>] 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 classical 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 Associates 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 Barré 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 22–28, 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.

[>] Cokes, 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, 1959–1960 season, NYPL. Various accounts have placed them on Mondays, or on weekends, but the flyer provides documentation.

[>] 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 café 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 Barré 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 Saturday, 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 classic: 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 Noël 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.

“losing touch with reality”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.

strode over to Burke McHugh: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra; interview with Tom Hall.

“the only Barbra in the world”: AP wire story, as in The Derrick (Oil City, Pennsylvania), October 11, 1963. Note that in his memoir My Life with Barbra, Dennen wrote that he changed the spelling of his name to Barry around the time Barbara became Barbra, and most accounts of her life have used the latter spelling for his name after this point. But newspaper notices of Dennen’s appearances in theatrical productions reveal that he was still spelling his name with an “é” instead of a “y” as late as September 1961.

3. Summer 1960

[>] “as funny as Shakespeare”: NYT, June 30, 1960.

[>] “promised participation”: Theatre Studio pamphlet, 1960, Curt Conway file, NYPL. Although it was established works such as The Boy Friend and Look Homeward, Angel that paid the bills, the Cecilwood served primarily to try out new work. That summer Conway was presenting Cry of the Raindrop, written by his Theatre Studio partner Lonny Chapman, as well as the Studs Terkel drama Amazing Grace, featuring Peter Fonda in one of his first roles.

He desperately wanted: I’ve taken my account of Streisand’s late arrival at Henry V from personal interviews with Dennen and Schulenberg, as well as Dennen’s My Life with Barbra, attempting, as ever, to establish the most accurate narrative.

[>] “to keep one hand”: Look, April 5, 1966.

[>] Not long after: Interviews with Barry Dennen, Bob Schulenberg, and Dennen’s My Life with Barbra.

[>] “change the tilt”: Playboy, October 1977. In a personal interview, Barry Dennen also reported having essentially the same conversation with Streisand in the summer of 1960.

”loved her bump”: Playboy, October 1977. Streisand also told Oprah Winfrey she’d always liked her bump. O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

her father’s nose: Pageant, November 1963.

[>] “They’re not ripped”: Time, April 10, 1964.

Ben Sackheim, Inc.: Information on the company comes from the NYT, August 28, 1941; July 12, 1951; August 18, 1959; October 20, 1959; April 18, 1960; November 16, 1960; July 26, 1965; and January 3, 1966, as well as the online magazine Postscripts, October 31, 2009.

[>] “acting alive”: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, BBC, October 2, 2009.

“made-up foreign languages”: Time, April 10, 1964.

[>] “Greenwich Village version”: Variety, February 27, 1952.

“one of the lead funspots”: New York World-Telegram, November 11, 1959.

“wanted to do something”: Rogue, November 1963.

[>] “Kid, you are going”: All About Barbra, undated clipping, Barbra Streisand file, AMPAS.

$108 a week: This is the figure reported in a profile of her career in the Saturday Evening Post, July 27–August 3, 1963. In Streisand: Her Life, James Spada gives the figure as $125 a week.

“It just seems”: syndicated UPI article, as in the Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), July 26, 1962, and elsewhere.

[>] “chauffeured around”: This Week, February 5, 1966.

Since returning to Manhattan: In My Life with Barbra, Dennen described Streisand as moving in with him earlier than this point. Although there were likely overnight stays, Bob Schulenberg, whose memory is uncannily accurate, insisted that it was not until right before her appearance at the Bon Soir that Streisand moved in with Dennen.

[>] “French from the moon”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

Barré’s apartment: Dennen, My Life with Barbra, as well as interviews with Dennen and Schulenberg.

[>] “If I can identify”: CBS Sunday Morning interview, September 27, 2009.

[>] “once again throbbing”: NYT, October 20, 1960.

“Box offices are busy”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal, September 30, 1960.

“tucked behind a façade”: NYT, October 13, 1960.

[>] “Customers who jam”: NYT, October 13, 1960.

[>] “far-out females”: Variety, January 4, 1962.

“all the gay guys”: Quotes and observations from Kaye Ballard come from a personal interview as well as her memoir, How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years (New York: Back Stage Books, 2006).

“the funniest woman”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal, September 30, 1960.

[>] the size of a peapod: Quotes and observations from Diller come from a personal interview as well as her memoir, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse (New York: Penguin, 2005).

Around eleven, the place started: Various sources report that the Three Flames began playing around ten pm, but a contemporary account of evenings at the Bon Soir in the NYT, November 10, 1960, when Streisand was on the bill, reported that the place didn’t begin to fill up until eleven thirty and that Tony and Eddie went on at midnight. I’ve calculated that the band probably started the evening’s entertainment closer to eleven than to ten. The Three Flames played a half-hour set.

[>] “a-twinkle with glow worms”: NYT, November 10, 1960.

“Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now”: Anne Edwards in Streisand: A Biography wrote that her first number was “A Sleepin’ Bee,” calling it “a brave opening,” since most cabaret acts began with “a spirited number to catch the audience’s attention.” According to Barry Dennen, who has tapes and notes from that performance, her first song was “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” exactly the sort of spirited number that could, and did, grab the audience’s attention. Edwards also reported that she sang “When the Sun Comes Out,” but Dennen refutes that. In Streisand: Her Life, Spada reports that among the numbers she sang that first night was “Who Can I Turn to Now?” but Dennen also denies that. That song was added, however, to the repertoire before the Bon Soir run ended.

[>] “triumphant roar”: Pageant, November 1963.

4. Fall 1960

[>] “one of the biggest”: NYT, September 13, 1960.

“the find of the year”: New York World-Telegram, September 16, 1960.

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

[>] “a dynamic passion”: 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 manuscript 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 20–24, 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 sex 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. Winter–Spring 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.

[>] “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 advertisements in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reveal that her last show at the Crystal Palace was on Saturday, 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 attitude 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.

[>] “bastardizing 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”: Saturday 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 Associates 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 advertisements 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.

“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 mispronouncing: Background on Another Evening with Harry Stoones comes from an undated, unsourced article, authored 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 Goddard 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 manuscript, “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 22–28, 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 cocky 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 Fanny 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 Saturday 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.

[>] David Merrick was one of those: I have based my description of Merrick on an interview with Arthur Laurents, as well as Kissel, David Merrick: The Abominable Showman and Merrick’s NYT obituary by Frank Rich, April 27, 2000.

[>] “didn’t sing unless she was paid”: I have based my account of Streisand’s impromptu performance of “Moon River,” her eviction from her apartment, and Don Softness’s influence on her public persona on a personal interview with Softness, as well as his unpublished manuscript, “My Life with Barbra,” used courtesy Softness. Quotes used in this section come from both sources.

“You can’t see them”: Hartford Courant, June 24, 1962.

[>] “The uphill grind”: This was printed in various newspaper television listings, including the Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram, December 21, 1961.

“as a young performer aspiring”: www.barbra-archives.com.

8. Winter 1962

[>] stepped into the Fifty-fourth Street Theatre: Rehearsals were held here according to Whitney Bolton’s syndicated column, as in the Cumberland Evening Times, February 14, 1962. Other descriptions of the rehearsal come from an undated, unsourced newspaper article, circa 1965, David Merrick file, NYPL.

“a young Fagin,” “funny looking”: Life, May 22, 1964.

[>] “A limited amount”: Laurents, Mainly on Directing.

[>] “I hear you’re gonna”: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] “very bad neighborhoods”: PM East, October 1961, as recorded on the DVD Just for the Record.

“a loner”: Time, April 10, 1964.

“like a little kid”: Life, May 22, 1964.

she didn’t inhale: Streisand said she didn’t inhale on Let’s Talk to Lucy, October 7, 1964.

Barbra was also scheduled: In Alive at the Village Vanguard, Gordon implied she was responsible for Streisand’s getting hired for PM East, stating that it was her suggestion to Wallace, at the time of the January 2 show, that he bring “this young singer” on the show that secured Streisand a running gig. But Streisand had already been appearing on PM East for several months by the time Gordon appeared on the show.

[>] “You’re involved in this”: The anecdote comes from Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard.

[>] “just another piece of furniture”: Holiday, November 1963.

[>] “Too many twitches”: Laurents, Original Story By.

“she was different”: Laurents, Original Story By.

“on blueprinting exactly how”: Unsourced article, July 26, 1962, www.barbra-archives.com.

But when she argued: Accounts that portray Streisand as openly defiant or contemptuous of the director, writers, or producers of Wholesale are inaccurate, Laurents insisted. She did not ignore direction. She had “her own mind,” but she was not belligerent. Such tales come from a later image of Streisand being projected back to her early days and are quite simply wrong.

“low threshold”: Laurents, Original Story By.

[>] “ungrateful,” “arrogant”: Interview with Arthur Laurents.

“got something out of it”: www.barbra-archives.com.

“too special for records”: Laurents, Original Story By.

“I want to be a straight”: Hartford Courant, June 24, 1962.

It took choreographer Herbert Ross: Streisand has insisted that it was her idea to sing the song in the chair all along. “They wouldn’t let me do it,” she said in an interview with TV Guide, January 22–29, 2000. “But the number wasn’t working, so before opening night they finally said—the director said—‘do it in your goddamn chair.’” Arthur Laurents said it was true that she had auditioned that way, but there had been no suggestion, from her or from him, to do the number similarly until Herbert Ross conceived of it as a way “to give the song some structure.”

[>] “fascinated,” “to be protected”: Time, April 10, 1964.

a full-scale snowball fight: Gould described the snowball fight in Time, April 10, 1964. Streisand also described the snowball fight in Life, May 22, 1964. She conflated this event with another date she had with Gould, when they saw the film Mothra, describing both events as occurring on the same night. But Mothra did not show in New York until that summer.

Barbra was a combination of . . . “most innocent thing”: Life, May 22, 1964.

[>] “a throwback” to Louis Kind: Vanity Fair, November 1994.

Barbra’s “weirdness,” he realized: Gould said, “She always thought of herself as an ugly duckling, and made herself up to be weird as a defense.” Time, April 10, 1964.

“Like out of a movie”: Time, April 10, 1964.

[>] “Just thirty years”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 12, 1962.

[>] “from Brooklyn and brought up”: The Rosie O’Donnell Show interview.

[>] tastes tended more toward musicals: Philadelphia Weekly Press, August 26, 2009.

“range and versatility”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 13, 1962.

[>] “brings down the house”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 13, 1962. Arthur Laurents, in the September 1991 issue of Vanity Fair, contended that out-of-town audiences didn’t “get” Streisand as Miss Marmelstein. This review, as well as other contemporary accounts, would seem to dispute that view. Although some accounts have said that Merrick persisted in wanting to fire her all the way to New York, this seems highly unlikely given that she was often the only cast member singled out for such unqualified praise.

“She stops the show”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 1962.

“registered considerable enthusiasm”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in The News Tribune (Fort Pierce, Florida), February 21, 1962.

“as large and melancholy”: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] “Godfathering the romance”: Laurents, Original Story By.

“most of [his] life”: San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 1987.

“psychic power”: Playgirl, May 1975.

“trip on anything”: Time, September 7, 1970.

“communicate in a world”: Interview with Elliott Gould at www.aish.com.

“get beneath the roots”: New York Post, August 11, 2009.

[>] “too much pride,” “Four home runs”: Playboy, November 1970.

Lucille was the offspring: 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census.

“didn’t understand one another”: NYT, March 4, 1973.

“Be careful, don’t trust”: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] “in terror of conflict”: San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 1987.

“Mr. and Mrs. Captain Marvel”: Playboy, November 1970.

“You won’t ever have”: Esquire, September 22, 2009.

“done out of love”: Time, September 7, 1970.

“fat ass”: Playboy, November 1970.

“creations of Hollywood”: Life, December 12, 1969.

[>] “looking to buy a kid”: Playboy, November 1970.

“very withdrawn”: Interview with Elliott Gould at www.aish.com.

“parenthesis-shaped legs”: New York magazine, December 31, 1979.

“Fix up his diction,” “Whoever got any”: Time, September 7, 1970.

“Mary had a little lamb”: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] “has-been”: Time, September 7, 1970.

[>] “got sick on the bus”: Playboy, November 1970.

“Telegram for Bill Callahan!”: Playboy, November 1970.

high-waisted dancer’s pants: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] “From the Deli Lama”: Esquire, September 22, 2009.

[>] “ferocity,” “scared of women”: Village Voice, September 8, 1987. Although in various interviews, Gould sometimes implied he had lost his virginity earlier, in a proposal for an autobiography that made the rounds of New York publishers, he claimed he had “surrendered” his virginity to Streisand in Philadelphia. See Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

“terribly green”: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] “I bat from just one”: NYT, March 4, 1973.

“trying to become a man”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

the man didn’t “necessarily”: Playboy, October 1977.

[>] the first commandment: Laurents, Original Story By.

“sweeten” and “explain”: Stephen Sondheim to Roddy McDowall, March 5, 1962, McDowall Collection, Boston University.

“approach New York with”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 1962.

[>] “persevered ... despite the usual”: Bedford Gazette, February 16, 1962.

“were sprayed with sweat”: Laurents, Original Story By.

[>] “stage newcomer”: Boston Globe, February 18, 1962.

“assertive young woman”: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] “generally entertaining”: Boston Herald, February 28, 1962.

“What, indeed, are they doing”: Boston Globe, February 28, 1962.

“the piece of blubber”: Laurents, Original Story By.

[>] “Barbra is striking”: “My Life with Barbra,” unpublished manuscript by Donald G. Softness, courtesy Softness.

“by the name of Barbara”: Pittsburgh Press, Radio-TV Editor supplement, January 8, 1962.

[>] “Who does that girl”: Kissel, David Merrick: The Abominable Showman.

Sam Zolotow had announced: NYT, December 4, 1961.

[>] “a likeable newcomer”: NYT, March 23, 1962.

“give affection or admiration”: New York Daily News, March 23, 1962.

“How to Almost Succeed”: New York Journal-American, March 23, 1962.

[>] “something of a find”: Wall Street Journal, March 26, 1962.

[>] “like a little orphan”: Life, May 22, 1964.

9. Spring 1962

[>] Rent was sixty dollars: In other accounts, the rent has sometimes been reported to be somewhat more than sixty dollars, but according to a letter from Evelyn Layton, who was trying to arrange for a friend to sublet the place, the rent was sixty dollars even. Evelyn Layton to Tom Higgins, July 8, 1963, Higgins Family Collection, NYPL.

[>] a disagreeable man: Softness, “My Life with Barbra.” According to various online sites, Oscar Karp was also the inspiration for Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

[>] declared the composition “beautiful”: Redbook, January 1968.

“things [she] could never afford”: Us magazine, October 9, 2000.

“the more money you make”: Kaufman Schwartz and Associates interview with Streisand, August 15, 1963, submitted to Sidney Skolsky, Skolsky Collection, AMPAS.

“What is this?”: Us magazine, October 9, 2000.

[>] what really made her happy: syndicated article that ran in various papers in late May through the middle part of June, as in the Danville (Virginia) Register, May 31, 1962, hereafter syndicated, May 31, 1962.

“What does it matter”: syndicated, May 31, 1962.

“jolly-dollying”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in Daily Times-News (Burlington, North Carolina), April 7, 1962, and elsewhere.

[>] “the Mayor of Forty-second Street”: NYT, January 30, 1994.

[>] “reading all the casting reports”: Leonard Lyons’s syndicated column, as in the San Mateo Times, April 23, 1962.

“strange color lipstick”: syndicated, May 31, 1962.

[>] “Instead of giving me”: Edward Robb Ellis, A Diary of the Century (New York: Kodansha, 1996).

“I used to baby-sit for a”: The New Yorker, May 19, 1962.

[>] “You know, like in”: syndicated UPI article, as in the Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), July 26, 1962, and elsewhere.

“not there at all”: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] “world’s greatest gate-crasher”: Bridgeport Post, April 30, 1962.

“never heard of her”: Scott Schechter, Judy Garland: The Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Legend (Boulder, CO: Cooper Square Press, 2002).

[>] “Streisand’s going to win”: Kissel, David Merrick: The Abominable Showman.

[>] “Barbara Streisman”: Undated list in the Jerome Robbins Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division (hereafter JRC), NYPL.

[>] had soured on Bancroft: Many accounts of Streisand’s life have stated that Stark wanted Bancroft, but after at least late 1961, he was arguing against her, according to the Jerome Robbins Collection.

“new character based on”: Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins and Jule Styne, October 25, 1961, JRC, NYPL.

“the most exciting girl”: Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, October 24, 1961, JRC, NYPL.

“a Spanish exclamation point”: Jim Bishop’s syndicated column, as in the Newark (Ohio) Advocate, May 5, 1963.

[>] bombastic and overwrought: I have based my descriptions of Robbins on a thorough review of his papers at the NYPL, as well as on Greg Lawrence, Dance With Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins (New York: Penguin, 2002); Deborah Jowitt, Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004); and Amanda Vaill, Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins (New York: Random House, 2008).

“that out of the fires”: John Huston, An Open Book (Boston: Da Capo Press, 1994).

“Commit”: LAT, August 27, 1967.

[>] had “more infectious enthusiasm”: Laurents, Original Story By.

“to see her in person”: Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, November 24, 1961, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “a natural comedienne who has been”: NYT, May 6, 1962.

she’d told her mother: Life, May 22, 1964.

[>] Bob Harris: He was also the father of actor Ed Harris.

[>] he’d accepted Jule Styne’s invitation: Most accounts of Streisand’s life have stated, or implied, that Stark first saw her perform at the Bon Soir in November of 1962. But it is clear from correspondence in the Jerome Robbins Collection that he had seen her by the spring of that year. Stark said, “Barbra was an unknown when she was first brought to my attention in I Can Get It for You Wholesale and at the Bon Soir in New York.” (LAT, August 27, 1967.) Since the Robbins correspondence shows Stark was sold on Streisand as the best choice to play Fanny Brice by the early summer of 1962, he must have seen her in these two places before that time. We know that Styne first saw Streisand at the Bon Soir in the spring, and we know that he brought Stark to see her, so it seems safe to conclude that it was sometime in the spring that Stark first saw her. He was back in Los Angeles by early June, when Hedda Hopper wrote in her column that he attended a party thrown by David Merrick at Chasen’s, having just returned from Europe (Hartford Courant, June 18, 1962). So it seems likely he would have seen Streisand in Wholesale and at the Bon Soir in late May. I am also grateful to Suzanne Merrill, widow of Bob Merrill, for her insights on the chronology.

[>] “a literal biography”: NYT, September 15, 1968.

[>] Stark’s grandfather had emigrated: The Stark family history comes from the U.S. Census, New York, New York, 1880–1930, as well as military and immigration records. Also see the NYT, April 18, 1925; February 25, 1996.

[>] “inattention to his studies”: Hal Boyle’s syndicated column for the Associated Press, as in the Long Island Star Journal, March 25, 1965.

“There’s something about having”: NYT, September 15, 1968.

[>] “decided to make a stab”: Hal Boyle syndicated column for the Associated Press, as in the Long Island Star Journal, March 25, 1965.

[>] “100 percent sole star billing”: Associated Booking contract, www.barbra-archives.com.

“terse, mocking intros”: New York World-Telegram, January 4, 1962.

[>] “Twenty-year-old Barbra”: Variety, May 30, 1962.

[>] “Do you know how wonderful”: “A Love Song for Barbra,” posted August 3, 2011, on the Huffington Post. Although the Bergmans wrote that this occurred when Streisand was eighteen, at her first Bon Soir appearance, she did not sing “My Name Is Barbara” until May 1962.

“a masseur, an analyst and a wife”: NYT, September 29, 1960.

[>] “of anyone else in the part”: LAT, August 27, 1967. It has become part of Streisand lore that Stark opposed her in Funny Girl right from the start, and only after much effort was he finally persuaded to cast her. But the Jerome Robbins Collection reveals that this was not the case at all. Although it seems to have taken Fran Stark longer to come around, Ray Stark was strongly in Streisand’s corner by the late spring of 1962.

10. Summer 1962

[>] thought the outfit was horrible: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

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 glass-enclosed “teahouse”: Boston Herald, January 5, 1964.

[>] “God 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 relationship 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.

[>] “pushing 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, Fanny Brice’s third husband, Billy Rose.

“the relationship 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.

“strong-minded Barbra”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Salt Lake Tribune, June 1, 1962.

“Friends of the sensationally”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal, August 29, 1962.

[>] “Barbra Streisand is the front-runner”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Lowell Sun, August 31, 1962.

[>] Harold Clurman, in a long piece: NYT, September 23, 1962.

11. Fall 1962

[>] “very dependent on each other”: Playboy, November 1970.

“so right for each other”: Esquire, September 22, 2009.

[>] “old things and bizarre things”: Life, December 12, 1969.

[>] “listen to the radio”: NYT, March 4, 1973.

“the first annual Alexander”: Life, May 22, 1964.

“didn’t want Elliott”: Playboy, October 1977.

“Animalism ... a certain animal quality”: Kaufman Schwartz and Associates transcript of interview, August 15, 1963, Sidney Skolsky Collection, AMPAS.

[>] begun talking salary: Earl Wilson reported that Streisand hadn’t yet signed for the part because she was still “discussing salary.” (Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Reno Evening Gazette, September 17, 1962.) Not surprisingly, Dorothy Kilgallen put it in more negative terms: Streisand was “still dickering over salary.” (Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Salt Lake Tribune, September 18, 1962.)

[>] in her own word, “hell”: Life, May 22, 1964.

“some special business”: Louella Parsons’s syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, October 4, 1962.

Barbra and Fran: A syndicated Hollywood column with no byline published in the Hartford Courant, September 30, 1962, stated: “While Barbra Streisand ... was taping a Dinah Shore show, Fanny Brice’s daughter, Fran (Mrs. Ray) Stark, showed up to ogle her for the title role in the coming musical based on Fanny’s life.”

[>] Peter and Wendy grew up: Interview, September 1985.

“the outstanding Hollywood party”: NYT, September 29, 1960.

a treasure chest of gems: In June 1953, the Starks, staying at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York on their way to Paris, had their room broken into; $40,000 worth of jewelry was taken. The thief overlooked other jewelry worth $13,700 sitting atop a dresser in the bedroom. The jewels were only “partly insured.” Stolen was a platinum-and-gold ring with two eight-carat diamonds as well as a platinum bracelet holding a six-carat diamond and three emeralds, each valued at $20,000. Left behind on the dresser were two pearl rings, a pearl necklace, platinum earrings, and a diamond-and-platinum wedding band. Associated Press newswire, as in the Lima (Ohio) News, June 28, 1953.

[>] “a group of vocal performers”: Hartford Courant, May 12, 1963.

[>] Barbra seemed “anxious”: syndicated Scripps-Howard article, as in the Albuquerque Tribune, May 13, 1963.

[>] Barbra Streisand would never play: A quote from Fran Stark, “That woman will never play my mother” or some variant thereof, has shown up in virtually every account of Streisand’s life. John Patrick told Anne Edwards for Streisand: A Biography that Fran Stark spoke the line directly to him. Given that the quote has usually been accompanied by the erroneous assertion that Ray Stark, as well as his wife, opposed Streisand’s casting, I was tempted to doubt its authenticity. However, Jule Styne, who was very much on the scene during the period in question, was quoted in several accounts confirming Fran’s opposition; Kaye Ballard, who by this time was in the running for the part, and Suzanne Merrill also remembered it. In Spada’s Streisand: Her Life, however, Styne was quoted as saying it was Ray Stark who said Streisand would never play his mother-in-law, which the Robbins papers clearly disprove.

[>] “a lot of loot”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Lowell Sun, September 29, 1962.

“creative control, no coupling”: Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

Marty had secured a clause: Billboard, August 3, 1963.

“After months of negotiations”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Dunkirk (New York) Evening Observer, October 8, 1962.

[>] “It doesn’t feel like”: Backstage with Lee Jordan, WXYZ radio, September 1962, included on the Just for the Record DVD.

[>] Merrick would “bristle”: Kissel, David Merrick: The Abominable Showman.

[>] “Yeah, let’s go”: Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

[>] “David Merrick may hold”: LAT, September 29, 1962.

“completely out of”: Louella Parsons’s syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, October 4, 1962.

“Although Jerry has been”: Floria Lasky to Albert da Silva, September 20, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

“ghastly sessions”: Isobel Lennart to Jerome Robbins, [nd, September 1962], JRC, NYPL.

“not ready yet”: Jerome Robbins to Ray Stark, [nd, September 1962], JRC, NYPL.

“I think there can be”: Ray Stark to Albert da Silva, August 31, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “As for delivering”: Jerome Robbins to Ray Stark, [nd, September 1962], JRC, NYPL.

“not want any”: Floria Lasky to Albert da Silva, September 20, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

“Barbra Streisand, who’s been practically”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Wisconsin State Journal, October 5, 1962.

[>] Peter found he could work: For background and insight into Peter Daniels, I am grateful to Lainie Kazan.

[>] press reports were stating that Kaye Ballard: NYT, October 10, 1962.

[>] “was doing everything”: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] “like putting on”: NYT, May 21, 2009.

[>] Wholesale was $140,000: Kissel, David Merrick: The Abominable Showman.

“I’m free! I’m free!”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

12. Winter 1963

[>] “Now let’s hear it from”: Liner notes from Streisand’s Just for the Record CD album, 1991.

“She’s breaking me up”: Just for the Record DVD. Streisand appeared on the Sullivan show on December 16. She had been advertised in some TV listings to appear on December 9, but perhaps that date was changed since Wholesale had just ended the day before, and it was decided not to let that cloud Streisand’s appearance.

[>] There were reports: John Patrick told Anne Edwards for Streisand: A Biography that after the Bon Soir, Fran Stark had said that Barbra would never play Fanny Brice. But a reliable source told me that she “softened” on Barbra after the Bon Soir and from then on kept her views very private so as not to interfere with her husband’s work.

[>] “terrible anxieties”: Playboy, November 1970.

director Joe Layton’s offer of a part: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Idaho Falls Post Reporter, December 3, 1962.

[>] forfeiting $100,000 worth: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Delaware County Times, January 14, 1963.

“pretty heavy shouting”: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

In just twelve hours: NYT, January 25, 1963.

[>] “vital and imaginative”: Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, eds., The Noël Coward Diaries (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2000).

“dehydrated”: Cole Lesley, The Life of Noël Coward (New York: Penguin, 1988).

[>] “a big compliment,” “very harsh at times”: Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

[>] “walking a tightrope”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

[>] had their columns clipped: Interview with Don Softness.

“hottest young comedienne”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Delaware County Times, January 14, 1963.

“glad, sad or mad”: NYT, July 1, 1965.

“She packs more personal”: Robert Ruark’s syndicated column, as in the El Paso Herald-Post, January 18, 1963.

[>] “A bump on a girl’s”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Delaware County Times, January 14, 1963.

“There is a full-blown”: Mel Heimer’s syndicated column, as in the Masillon (Ohio) Evening Independent, December 29, 1962.

[>] “I think Barbara Streisand is”: Bridgeport Post, January 25, 1963.

Barbra was set to fly out: Hollywood Reporter, February 1, 1963.

[>] “in a Broadway theater at last”: Dennen, My Life with Barbra. My account is also supplemented by a personal interview with Dennen.

[>] “should draw an enormous amount”: Billboard, March 23, 1963.

“getting the kind of reception”: Billboard, March 2, 1963.

“Miss Marmel Steisand”: Boston Globe, February 1, 1963.

had retreated to the back: See the series of photographs at www.barbra-archives.com.

reached only Midwest audiences: As an advertisement in the NYT on July 31, 1963, makes clear, Group W was planning to bring The Mike Douglas Show into the New York and other markets soon, but had not yet done so. “A big success in Cleveland,” the advertisement calls the show.

[>] “To the singer from”: Kaufman Schwartz and Associates transcript of interview, August 15, 1963, Sidney Skolsky Collection, AMPAS.

[>] “talked out of going”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Manitowoc (Wisconsin) Herald Times, February 28, 1963.

“something technical on”: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] “She was easily the kookiest”: San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 1963.

[>] “Barbra Streisand is unquestionably”: San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 1963.

“a vocal plumber”: San Francisco Chronicle, March 5, 1995.

“Well, my dear”: San Francisco Chronicle, January 31, 2001. The quote comes from Country Joe McDonald, who was also the one to liken Davis to Auntie Mame.

[>] “Singers are not known”: People, July 6, 1981.

“obstructing the performance”: San Francisco Chronicle, March 5, 1995.

“Funny singer Barbra Streisand”: Galveston (Texas) Daily News, March 28, 1963.

[>] “consciousness of an unconscious”: People, July 6, 1981.

[>] comedian Woody Allen: Allen closed at the hungry i on March 30, so he and Streisand overlapped by four days. San Francisco Chronicle, March 30, 1963.

“the most influential nightclub”: NYT, May 13, 1961.

“being catapulted into”: Oakland Tribune, April 13, 1964.

[>] “modestly disclaimed having”: NYT, May 13, 1961.

[>] “a tawny, feline, long-haired”: San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 1963.

a young engineer named Reese Hamel: See All About Barbra fanzine, number 37, as well as www.barbra-archives.com. The recording of that night is available online.

13. Spring 1963

[>] “a potentially great new stylist”: Syracuse Post Standard, April 14, 1963.

“shows herself to be one”: Altoona (Pennsylvania) Mirror, April 8, 1963.

“the silk in ‘Happy Days’”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the San Antonio Light, April 13, 1963.

[>] “almost definite”: NYT, April 26, 1963.

Investors had lost: NYT, May 4, 1963.

[>] “been signed for the role”: Oakland Tribune, March 23, 1963. The San Francisco Chronicle also reported she’d been signed on March 26. Both publications, however, referred to the Brice project as a film.

“They’ve been having a tough”: Mike Connolly’s syndicated column, as in the Pasadena Independent, April 18, 1963.

“That funny Barbra Streisand”: Mike Connolly’s syndicated column, as in the Pasadena Star News, May 7, 1963.

“an ordinary beauty shop”: Cosmopolitan, May 1965.

[>] “the most sought-after”: Payn and Morley, eds., The Noël Coward Diaries.

[>] The Barbra Streisand Album had reached: Billboard, May 18, 1963. Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, was higher than Streisand on the chart, but only as part of her group.

“much too busy”: This anecdote is recounted in Ballard’s memoir, How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years, and was also told in more detail in a personal interview.

[>] Originally called La Vie en Rose: NYT, October 25, 1967.

“the town’s top agents”: Billboard, May 25, 1963.

Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn: Grant’s telegram was reported in Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Uniontown (Maryland) Morning Herald, May 16, 1963. For Hepburn, see Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

“shouting their enthusiasm”: Louis Sobol’s syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 19, 1963.

for his upcoming show: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun, May 17, 1963, and Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as also in the Lowell Sun, May 19, 1963.

“A potent belter”: Variety, May 22, 1963.

[>] “with the talent and ability”: Billboard, May 25, 1963.

“Kenneth coif”: Variety, May 22, 1963.

“a different kind of mama”: syndicated UPI article, as in the Columbus (Nebraska) Daily Telegram, May 13, 1963.

“attempt one of the great”: syndicated Scripps-Howard article, as in the Albuquerque Tribune, May 13, 1963.

[>] “playfully mocked”: Sir! magazine, October 1963.

“juxtaposition of the music”: Variety, May 22, 1963.

“turning himself into a period piece”: Billboard, May 25, 1963.

[>] “an Armenian folk song”: Saturday Evening Post, July 27, 1963.

“The last act of Tosca”: syndicated Scripps-Howard article, as in the Albuquerque Tribune, May 13, 1963.

“a Flatbush gamine”: Alan Gill’s syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 16, 1963.

“crawling under a table”: syndicated UPI article, as in the Columbus (Nebraska) Daily Telegram, May 13, 1963.

[>] hosted by Keefe Brasselle: According to the Hartford Courant, May 28, 1963, Brasselle had four summer shows taped and “in the can”; according to Alan Gill’s column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 30, 1963, one of those shows was the one with Streisand.

“live in-between”: Unedited transcript of a Kaufman Schwartz and Associates public-relations interview with Streisand, August 15, 1963, submitted to Sidney Skolsky, Skolsky Collection, AMPAS. An extraordinary unexpurgated account straight from Streisand’s lips. Hereafter, Kaufman Schwartz interview.

[>] “down in her own purse”: Merriman Smith, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, wrote about the gala in a UPI report, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 26, 1963.

comedian Jack E. Leonard: Earl Wilson’s column, as in the Idaho Falls Post Register, May 24, 1963.

an electric bread slicer: My account of the dinner and gala comes from the NYT, May 25, 1963, and various wire reports.

[>] “Just as long as you’ve been”: This iconic meeting of Kennedy and Streisand has taken on much mythology over the years. Peter Daniels, who was there, gave his eyewitness account to Shaun Considine for Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music, so I have based much of my account on his. However, Daniels told Considine that Kennedy used his back to sign Streisand’s program. But a photograph of the moment shows the president signing it in his hand as Daniels and Streisand look on. Merv Griffin, in his memoir, Merv: An Autobiography, wrote that he asked Streisand the next day why she’d broken protocol, but he did not seem angry that she had done so, despite what subsequent accounts have implied. In addition, Griffin said that when he asked Streisand what Kennedy had written, she replied, “Fuck you. The president.” This was clearly a joke, a good example of Streisand’s sense of humor. Kennedy wrote no such thing. But several accounts have presented the story as if it were true.

“Smart girl”: Merv Griffin with Peter Barsocchini, Merv: An Autobiography (New York: Pocket Books, 1981).

[>] “He knows you well”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News, June 24, 1963.

“three-week showing”: Chicago’s American, June 13, 1963.

“somebody’s living room”: Chicago Sun-Times, August 21, 2005.

[>] “A cross between a sweet-voiced”: Chicago Daily News, June 15, 1963.

“That’s almost enough”: Chicago Tribune, June 16, 1963.

“alive and thrilling”: Chicago’s American, June 13, 1963.

“A fantastic first!”: Billboard, June 29, 1963.

[>] “do this [and] do that”: Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

“If I have ideas about sets”: Playboy, October 1977.

[>] “We don’t want to upset”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

“a national reputation”: Pageant, November 1963.

“demanded” a copy: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Galveston Daily News, May 31, 1963.

[>] “with the Bostonese”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Idaho Falls Post-Reporter, June 3, 1963.

the security guard at the Studio 50: Saturday Evening Post, July 27, 1963.

“which may star Barbra”: Billboard, June 1, 1963.

to an “ovation”: NYT, May 31, 1963.

[>] “practically at the contract-signing”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Idaho Falls Post-Reporter, June 13, 1963.

Barbra had already been: Mike Connolly’s syndicated column, as in the Pasadena Independent, June 6, 1963.

14. Summer 1963

[>] Liberace wanted his fans: My account of Liberace introducing Streisand, and their time together in Vegas, comes from Bob Thomas, Liberace: The True Story (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), as well as memories of several Streisand friends. Many of the stories of Streisand being hostilely received at the Riviera in previous accounts seem exaggerated since, with the exception of one snide Hollywood Reporter review, contemporary coverage of her time in Vegas was glowing. Still, friends recalled that Liberace did help prepare his audience for Streisand. My account attempts to reconstruct that experience as accurately as possible.

[>] two nights were “disastrous”: Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

thirty thousand souvenir postcards: Oakland Tribune, July 26, 1963.

“By far the hottest singer”: Oakland Tribune, July 26, 1963.

“the edge in experience”: Van Nuys News, July 5, 1963.

“assembly-line singers”: Variety, July 8, 1963.

[>] “If you haven’t heard”: Evelyn Russell Layton to Tom Higgins, July 8, 1963, Higgins Family Collection, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, NYPL.

[>] “burst to astonishing life”: LAT, June 28, 1963.

“a one-woman recovery”: Oxnard (California) Press-Courier, June 26, 1963.

“the year of Barbra”: Undated, unsourced AP wire story, clipping in Streisand file, NYPL.

“enigma of a gown”: Mike Connolly’s syndicated column, as in the Pasadena Independent, August 20, 1963.

“I don’t want to wrinkle”: AP wire story, as in The Derrick (Oil City, Pennsylvania), October 11, 1963.

she had found a new place: Some reports have said that Gould found the place on Central Park West. But he was in London through the second week of July, and it’s clear from the Kaufman Schwartz interview that Streisand had the apartment by then. Perhaps Gould made the final arrangements once he returned home.

“some of the best acting”: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] The lukewarm review: The Times, May 31, 1963.

“switch into certain inner”: Playboy, November 1970.

“After reading a zillion”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Salt Lake Tribune, July 22, 1963.

[>] “What do you want”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the Eureka (California) Standard, July 4, 1963.

“A refugee from Flatbush”: Saturday Evening Post, July 27, 1963.

his partner, Harvey Sabinson: The reason I’ve suggested that it might have been Sabinson is that Hamill later admitted to Streisand that he had spoken to Sabinson for the piece and that Sabinson may have been the source of a quote she objected to. Streisand revealed this in a “Truth Alert” on her own official website.

[>] “where people really lived”: Look, April 5, 1966.

“The personality of Anne”: Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins and Jule Styne, October 25, 1961, JRC, NYPL.

“suggestions, ideas, and material”: Floria V. Lasky to Ray Stark, May 1, 1963, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “no creative contribution”: Albert da Silva to Floria V. Lasky, May 17, 1963, JRC, NYPL.

“Make it like B.”: Script for Funny Girl dated June 19, 1963, BFC, LoC.

“become a caricature”: NYT, July 26, 1963.

“I’m not approaching it”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

[>] “certain natural characteristics”: NYT, July 26, 1963.

[>] They seemed to be very much: NYT, July 26, 1963.

“an animated yet balanced”: Steven Ruttenbaum, Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth (New York: Balsam Press, 1986).

[>] a rather storied history: My account of the Ardsley’s history was drawn from a digitized search of the New York Times.

Lorenz Hart had rented: Notice of Hart’s rental was published in the NYT, August 5, 1939.

[>] “the homosexual elite”: NYT, May 28, 1999.

In those few days: Streisand closed in Las Vegas on August 4. She then appeared on Long Island on August 9 and in the Catskills on August 10. She gave the interview to Marv Schwartz on August 14 in Los Angeles. At the most, she would have had six nights free in New York to deal with her move, and maybe less, depending on when she returned from Las Vegas and when she left for Los Angeles.

Liberace had left a night early: Van Nuys News, August 2, 1963.

a fifty percent raise: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Uniontown (Pennsylvania) Evening Standard, August 9, 1963.

TO FLO FROM FANNY: Van Nuys News, August 9, 1963.

[>] “torn the place apart”: Robert Towers quoted in Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, It Happened in the Catskills: An Oral History in the Words of Busboys, Bellhops, Guests, Proprietors, Comedians, Agents, and Others Who Lived It (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2009).

“My mind reverted”: Van Nuys News, August 16, 1963.

[>] “Without flats”: Playgirl, May 1975.

a leaky boat: Playboy, November 1970.

“Maybe he was crazy”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

“verbalize about it”: Saturday Evening Post, July 27, 1963.

[>] “You’re paying to talk”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

“self-discovery”: Playboy, November 1970.

“hit it big”: Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

[>] “each ready and eager”: Slocum was filling in for Walter Winchell on his syndicated column, as in the Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News, August 24, 1963.

[>] “What do you really enjoy”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

[>] “like a Zen master”: Playboy, October 1977.

“to be friends with him”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

[>] “What am I doing here?”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.

“It’s this kid from Brooklyn”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

[>] There were movie stars: My description of the Cocoanut Grove audience comes from the syndicated columns of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, who both provided firsthand detailed accounts of the evening. Hopper, as in the Altoona (Pennsylvania) Mirror, August 27, 1963, and Parsons, as in the Anderson (Indiana) Daily Bulletin, August 28, 1963.

[>] “would have approved”: Sheilah Graham’s syndicated column, as in the San Antonio Express and News, August 17, 1963.

the president’s autograph: Streisand never gave her mother the autograph; she reportedly lost it. See Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music.

[>] “gay as a bird”: Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column, as in the Anderson (Indiana) Daily Bulletin, August 28, 1963.

[>] “just late enough to get”: Notes for McDowall’s book, Double Exposure, Roddy McDowall Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University. Accounts that have depicted the audience as hostile and resentful over Streisand’s lateness are mythmaking. There is no contemporary mention of any displeasure over the starting time of the show.

“I’m the kind of nut”: Associated Press syndicated article, as in the Florence (South Carolina) Morning News, September 1, 1963.

“If I’d known the place”: LAT, August 24, 1963. The line has also been reported as “If I had known you were going to be on two sides of me, I would have had my nose fixed.”

“Dodgers won—sixteenth inning”: Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column, as in the LAT, August 24, 1963. Randall Riese, in Her Name Is Barbra, apparently working from the same source, wrote that Cahn was disruptive and disrespectful. Yet Hopper did not give that impression at all.

“be great as our beloved”: Louella Parsons’s syndicated column, as in Anderson (Indiana) Daily Bulletin, August 28, 1963.

“I gave up singing”: syndicated NEA article, as in the Logansport (Indiana) Press, September 7, 1963.

[>] “didn’t care for her”: LAT, September 6, 1963.

[>] “I hope the Dodgers”: Playboy, November 1970.

“the marriage to Elliott”: Saturday Evening Post, July 27, 1963.

[>] Bob Hope’s show: It is clear that Streisand taped The Bob Hope Show sometime in late August, since the High Point (North Carolina) Enterprise carried a photograph of the two of them together, in their hillbilly makeup, on September 1, 1963. Various articles reported that Hope had signed “red-hot” Barbra Streisand for the show on August 13, so it would seem that the taping was somewhere between those two dates.

“the new pet of the movie crowd”: AP wire story, as in the Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent, October 6, 1963.

Rosalind Russell hosted: Louella Parsons’s syndicated column, as in the San Antonio Light, September 9, 1963.

Danny Thomas had been: Louella Parsons’s syndicated column, as in the Anderson (Indiana) Daily Bulletin, September 11, 1963.

“You two are the luckiest”: Gerald Clarke, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (New York: Random House, 2000).

[>] “I’ve got a job”: AP wire story, as in the Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent, October 6, 1963.

“Where did you get”: LAT, October 6, 1963.

"If you want to get away”: Evelyn Russell Layton to Tom Higgins, December 11, 1965, Higgins Family Papers, NYPL.

Disneyland, where Barbra got to spend: LAT, September 10, 1963.

"going to great pains”: Salt Lake Tribune, August 31, 1963.

[>] Sobol wrote up a description: Louis Sobol's syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, September 2, 1963.

Bob Fosse, by his own admission: I have based my description of Fosse’s problems with Stark on a draft of his resignation letter, written in his own hand, dated September 1963, BFC, LoC.

[>] Fosse ditched the direct cut: I have compared the various scripts in Fosse’s collection, including ones dated June 19, 1963, and September 6, 1963, BFC, LoC.

How to Succeed in Business: The show opened on July 29 and ran through August. LAT, July 27, and August 18, 1963.

“a little late for that kind”: Draft of resignation letter, September 1963, BFC, LoC.

[>] "Hello, gorgeous”: Funny Girl script with Fosse’s annotations, dated June 19, 1963, BFC, LoC.

[>] erased some of the insecurity”: Parade, September 8, 1963.

  “shook on it”: Life, May 22, 1964. Gould did indeed honor his agreement to fabricate the date and place of the marriage. In the Life article, he said that two days after the wedding, he was pushed onto the plane to London.

[>] “the hottest canary”: Parade, September 8, 1963.

“Most newcomers would be”: Barney Glazer’s syndicated column, as in the Van Nuys News, November 19, 1963.

“A fine new voice”: Bakersfield Californian, August 24, 1963.

“The results are best”: Brookfield (Illinois) Citizen, September 9, 1963.

[>] “precise phrasing, clarity”: Billboard, September 14, 1963.

NOW THERE ARE: Billboard, August 31, 1963.

“when to emphasize”: Tom Santopietro, The Importance of Being Barbra: The Brilliant, Tumultuous Career of Barbra Streisand (New York: Macmillan, 2006).

“an otherwise viable”: Playboy, November 1970.

[>] Justice Pete Supera: Background on Supera and Carson City comes from various digitized searches of the Nevada State Journal and the Reno Evening Gazette.

15. Fall 1963

[>] to escape to Italy: Earl Wilson wrote of their intention to take a belated honeymoon in Italy in his syndicated column, as in the Reno Evening Gazette, November 20, 1963.

“an unexpected change”: NYT, September 23, 1963.

I Picked a Daisy: As it turned out, Fosse did not work on the show, nor did Feuer and Martin produce it. Retitled On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, it opened in October 1965, produced by Alan Jay Lerner, directed by Robert Lewis, and choreographed by Herbert Ross. Barbra Streisand would star in the 1970 film version.

“Cannot believe that [a] professional”: Ray Stark to Bob Fosse, September 17, 1963, BFC, LoC.

“just withdraw and leave to you”: Bob Fosse to Streisand, et al., [nd] September 1963, BFC, LoC.

[>] “didn’t make contributions”: Floria V. Lasky to Albert da Silva, September 3, 1963.

“upset and angry”: Jerome Robbins to Floria V. Lasky, September 5, 1963, JRC, NYPL. tape-recorded an hour-long recitation: This tape recording still exists, a fascinating artifact. To listen to Robbins in his own voice describe everything he contributed to Funny Girl up to that point was an extraordinary experience. “Statement of Contribution to Funny Girl,” JRC, NYPL.

[>] Hugh O’Brian was “ready to sign”: Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column, as in the Lima (Ohio) News, August 29, 1963.

Tony Martin was in as Nick: Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, September 16, 1963.

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., was in the running: Mike Connolly’s syndicated column, as in the Pasadena Independent Star-News, September 15, 1963.

played by Richard Kiley: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, Eureka (California) Humboldt Standard, October 2, 1963.

“long enough to make”: Barney Glazer’s column, Van Nuys News, November 19, 1963.

She’d been saving: Riese, Her Name Is Barbra.

[>] Tormé thought the combination: Anne Edwards interviewed Tormé for Judy Garland: A Biography. Tucker Fleming confirmed for me that the counterpoint had been Garland’s idea.

[>] in certain markets: Lowell Sun, October 9, 1963.

“in fine fettle”: Variety, October 1, 1963.

[>] David Begelman had introduced his two: In Scott Schechter’s Judy Garland: A Day-to-Day Chronicle of a Legend, a photograph of Garland and Begelman is identified as being taken on September 13, the “closing night” of Streisand’s run at the Cocoanut Grove. On September 13, however, Streisand was already performing at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. Numerous press items at the time reported that Garland had seen Streisand perform in “Vegas”; this was recalled also by Garland’s friend Tucker Fleming, who is the source of the quotes here. But Streisand was not yet a client of Begelman’s, nor had she signed for the Garland show, during her run in Las Vegas. It would make more sense for Begelman to take Garland to see Streisand after these two events had occurred. I am concluding that Lake Tahoe was misreported and misremembered as “Vegas.”

[>] “A sort of Streisand cult”: Bakersfield Californian, July 30, 1963.

“In today’s show business”: Parade, September 8, 1963.

Pageant magazine had gone a step: Pageant, November 1963.

[>] feeling very “secure”: Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer, September 22, 2005. Streisand spoke of her perplexity about Garland’s nerves on this show. She also mentioned Garland on the liner notes for Just for the Record (1991).

[>] the script called for: Matt Howe has reproduced a page of the script at www.barbra-archives.com, but the actual televised show does not follow it after a point.

“historic meeting of two”: Notes to Double Exposure, Roddy McDowall Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.

[>] Garland started out a bit: The DVD of The Judy Garland Show allowed me to see firsthand what that magical night was like, but I am especially grateful to Seth Rudetsky’s brilliant deconstruction of their medley, available on YouTube, for helping me to grasp what made their pairing so remarkable.

[>] Aubrey decreed that: San Antonio Express, October 7, 1963.

“Dynamic, sensitive”: LAT, October 8, 1963.

[>] “Barbra Streisand came on”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, October 14, 1963.

both albums were in the Top Ten: Billboard, November 9, 1963.

“The hottest of the past year’s”: Tucson Daily Citizen, October 12, 1963.

Kanin had come on board in early October: Kanin gave an interview to Anne Edwards for her Streisand: A Biography in which he stated he’d been hired much earlier, even before Streisand. But that was untrue. Fosse was director until mid-September, and Streisand was hired probably in late June, certainly by early July. Kanin, who told elaborate stories to Edwards about how he’d helped engineer Streisand’s hiring, was clearly endeavoring to spin his own myth, which he was very good at doing. The NYT reported Kanin was hired as director of Funny Girl on October 14, 1963.

[>] Allyn Ann McLerie for the part: The New York Herald-Tribune reported on McLerie’s casting on November 14, 1963.

“quite beautiful”: Michael Shurtleff, on David Merrick stationery, to Jerome Robbins, August 6, 1962, JRC, NYPL.

“Latin as Yorkshire pudding”: Whitney Bolton, the New York Morning Telegraph, May 16, 1960.

[>] “That doesn’t happen”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, November 12, 1963.

“Everything seems like me”: Boston Globe, December 29, 1963.

“physical fitness special”: Pageant, November 1963.

[>] consideration of Tommy Leonetti: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal, October 16, 1963.

“sounded like Minnie Mouse”: People, March 20, 1989.

[>] “maleness,” “sensitive, feminine side”: Vanity Fair, September 1991.

his star’s “misbehaving”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal, July 13, 1962.

fashionable place to be seen: NYT, November 12, 1963.

[>] “bit role” in Funny Girl: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Tribune, November 20, 1963.

“Everybody knows Barbra Streisand”: Van Nuys News, November 19, 1963.

“no big thing”: Playboy, November 1970.

“consistent discouragement”: Playgirl, May 1975.

[>] “damnedest not to take seriously”: Playboy, November 1970.

“I get worried about such”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the Sarasota Journal, October 2, 1963.

“The public throws”: Van Nuys News, November 19, 1963.

[>] “the younger-looking buyers”: UPI syndicated article, as in the Redlands (California) Daily Facts, November 13, 1963. The benefit fashion show was announced on November 8 in the NYT.

[>] “A kook is a person”: Associated Press syndicated article, as in The Derrick (Oil City, Pennsylvania), October 11, 1963.

“Anyway, here I was”: Pageant, November 1963.

[>] “A hoax,” Barbra thought: My description of Streisand’s reaction to Kennedy’s death comes from Spada, Streisand: Her Life; Considine, Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music; and an undated newspaper clipping, “Barbra and JFK,” in the Streisand file, NYPL.

[>] “Controlled hysteria”: San Francisco Chronicle, December 6, 1963.

[>] “one-girl concert”: Billboard, November 30, 1963.

There hadn’t been a lot of publicity: Streisand had been scheduled to appear on The Jack Paar Program on November 29, apparently hoping to tape it right before heading out to Chicago. Her name was included in hundreds of TV listings for that date. Liberace was also scheduled to be a guest. It’s not clear if Streisand appeared, however; no video has surfaced, and the Internet Movie Database does not list her as a guest for that date, although it does list Liberace. Perhaps Streisand cancelled at the last minute in order to get to Chicago on time.

[>] “Not me”: Script for Funny Girl, dated December 1963, Bob Merrill Collection, LoC.

[>] “This is worse than opening night”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Reno Evening Gazette, December 16, 1963.

“life is too short to deal”: Kissel, David Merrick: The Abominable Showman.

in excess of $100,000: Louis Sobol’s syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 1, 1964.

[>] she wanted a raise to $7,500: Some reports have said that Streisand was originally signed for $1,500; however, Mike Connolly reported in his column that she was being paid $3,500, ten times what Merrick had paid her for Wholesale. As in the Pasadena Star News, October 29, 1963.

$350 a week, singing in clubs: Contracts between Lainie Kazan and the Colonial Tavern and Huddle’s Embers, May 21, 1963, and September 27, 1963, respectively, Lainie Kazan Collection, NYPL.

[>] specially tailored trousers: UPI syndicated article, as in the Wisconsin State Journal, January 19, 1964.

“vocal and dramatic coaching”: Contract between Seven Arts and Lainie Kazan, 1964, Lainie Kazan Collection, NYPL.

[>] “said very little”: Personal interview with Sharon Vaughn.

“reportedly getting the biggest”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, January 29, 1964.

“artistic responsibility”: Playboy, October 1977.

“affected by things”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

[>] “didn’t think she wanted”: Vanity Fair, September 1991. Suzanne Merrill also provided additional information and confirmation of this episode.

“Don’t tell me not to fly”: Bob Merrill notebooks, Bob Merrill Collection, LoC.

[>] “in a desperate race”: NYT, May 24, 1964.

[>] “very probably made it difficult”: Boston Herald, January 9, 1964.

“This play is really about”: Associated Press story, as in the Hartford Courant, January 26, 1964.

“Ten years ago they started”: Oakland Tribune, December 13, 1963.

[>] “I don’t want to imitate”: Associated Press story, as in the Hartford Courant, January 26, 1964.

“Little girl”: Sheilah Graham’s syndicated column, as in the San Antonio Express, December 2, 1963.

“We hate each other”: Boston Globe, December 29, 1963. I am also grateful to Orson Bean, a close friend of Chaplin’s, for background on the relationship between Streisand and Chaplin.

[>] “very chummy”: Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

“a note to the show”: The Garson Kanin papers at the Library of Congress do not contain any material on Funny Girl. Apparently Kanin or his widow, Marian Seldes, withheld these when the donation was made, for the material does exist, or at least, it did exist when Kanin shared the letter he wrote to McLerie, dated February 28, 1964, with Anne Edwards for her Streisand: A Biography. Kanin also supplied McLerie’s reply, which shows her to have been very gracious, calling her firing part of “the hazards of the trade.” McLerie had, perhaps, reason to be gracious: she’d been signed to a one-year contract, so unless a settlement was arranged, she’d still be paid her full year’s salary.

“the length of the musical”: NYT, December 30, 1963.

“a little Burmese idol”: Cecil Beaton, Photobiography (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1951).

[>] Barbra was “on fire”: Theodore Taylor, Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne (New York: Random House, 1979).

“was to attempt to get her”: Players Magazine, Spring 1965.

“The actor has to have some”: Playboy, October 1977.

“loved [her] . . . wanted to make”: New West, November 22, 1976.

[>] “Whatever happens to the show”: Boston Globe, December 29, 1963.

[>] Louis Sobol’s column featuring: Louis Sobol’s syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, November 15, 1963.

no longer had any real friends: Vanity Fair, November 1994. In this piece, Streisand talked about the Cormans being her only friends, not accepting invitations, and not having people at her place.

[>] “encamped there like a pair”: Time, April 10, 1964.

remained very simple: Playboy, November 1970.

“I am now a mature”: Pageant, November 1963.

“And that’s what one year”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Reno Evening Gazette, January 10, 1964.

[>] “Streisand is an original”: Cue, December 28, 1963.

16. Winter 1964

[>] to make his move: I have based my account of the beginning of Streisand’s affair with Chaplin on accounts provided by Orson Bean and another friend of Chaplin’s, who said the affair began on the first night of their stay in Boston when Chaplin went to her room.

“the old things”: Boston Herald, January 9, 1964.

[>] “trying his best”: Boston Herald, January 10, 1964.

unapologetically liked sex: Consider her response to the question of her favorite sound on Inside the Actors Studio. It was “the sound of orgasms.”

“playing games with men”: Playboy, October 1977.

[>] “really didn’t have”: Playboy, October 1977.

“very self-destructive”: Playboy, November 1970.

“I’m just finding myself”: Life, December 12, 1969.

“trips,” “inner understanding”: Playboy, November 1970.

“Kid, you’re gorgeous”: Interview with Orson Bean, also referenced in many other accounts.

[>] the Harborne Stuarts: Boston Globe, January 13, 1964.

[>] “the songs were unimportant”: Oakland Tribune, February 2, 1964.

“wouldn’t open a can of sardines”: NYT, February 12, 1964.

all but two of the auditorium’s: Boston Herald, January 14, 1964.

“every Barbra Streisand fan”: Lowell Sun, January 14, 1964.

“a personality the crowds”: Oakland Tribune, February 2, 1964.

[>] “What begins with bright”: Boston Globe, January 14, 1964.

“more of a movie scenario”: Billboard, January 25, 1964.

“to sell the costumes and scenery”: Lowell Sun, January 14, 1964.

“a quality that makes you want”: Boston Herald, January 14, 1964.

[>] “The second act becomes”: Boston Herald, January 19, 1964.

“the weakness of the libretto”: Boston Evening American, January 14, 1964.

“a heavy, oracular style”: Boston Globe, January 14, 1964.

“auditioning for a punch”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Salt Lake Tribune, February 1, 1964.

[>] “she was driving herself”: NYT, May 12, 1964.

“who makes every note sound”: Lowell Sun, February 3, 1964.

“Leave ’em laughing!”: Boston Herald, January 19, 1964.

“The first half is a delight”: Boston Globe, January 26, 1964, and other dates.

“they still haven’t decided”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, January 29, 1964.

“She excels . . . in every dept.”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the Eureka (California) Humboldt Standard, January 27, 1964.

“Three years ago she lived”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the Nevada State Journal, January 29, 1964.

“a sensation . . . but the book”: Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column, as in the Lima (Ohio) News, January 23, 1964.

[>] “a cult of worshippers”: Lowell Sun, January 14, 1964.

Joan Crawford made sure: Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column, as in the Lima (Ohio) News, January 23, 1964.

“If a musical comedy with”: Boston Herald, January 14, 1964.

[>] “Biggest screaming scene”: Walter Winchell’s syndicated column, as in the Eureka (California) Humboldt Standard, January 31, 1964.

last night of their Boston run: Lainie Kazan said “Something About Me” was performed on their last night in Boston.

[>] at the same hotel: Hotel assignments are given in a memo in the Funny Girl papers, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “Dear Gar”: Jerome Robbins to Garson Kanin, February 18, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

“The first triumph belongs”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1964.

“The funny girl should”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 9, 1964.

[>] Buzz Miller, one of the lead: See Vaill, Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins.

[>] “The British group, something like”: Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder, February 15, 1964.

“impossible to get a radio”: Associated Press syndicated article, as in the Portland Oregonian, February 11, 1964.

[>] Dick Kleiner’s top picks: Dick Kleiner’s syndicated column, as in the Lowell Sun, February 17, 1964.

“Funny Girl must agree”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Lowell Sun, February 12, 1964.

“Tisn’t so, comes the word”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Delaware County (Pennsylvania) Daily Times, February 14, 1964.

[>] “graceful, nimble, handsome”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1964.

rehearse the new “Sadie, Sadie”: Robbins’s schedule indicated on February 28 that the “new version of Sadie, Sadie” was to be rehearsed. JRC, NYPL. Earlier he had given a pep talk to the company.

[>] “Forty-one different last”: Playboy, October 1977.

[>] offered producer Kermit Bloomgarden: NYT, February 7, 1964.

“jet-fueled with the robust”: “Barbra: Some Notes,” a manuscript written by Jerome Robbins and submitted to Roddy McDowall for possible inclusion in his book Double Exposure, Roddy McDowall Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.

[>] He’d just signed his contract: Contract between Jerome Robbins and Ray Stark, February 19, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

“After twenty years of working”: NYT, March 22, 1964.

[>] notes on Barclay Hotel stationery: These are all preserved in Robbins’s Funny Girl papers, dated February 19–February 29, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

“Hey, gorgeous, here we go”: Jule Styne to Jerome Robbins, February 19, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “not in keeping with the image”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Lima (Ohio) News, March 17, 1964.

“Everything we know of”: Undated rehearsal notes by Jerome Robbins, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “several extra coats of paint”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Lowell Sun, February 20, 1964.

“for the first time since”: Edith (Stark’s secretary) to Jerome Robbins, February 24, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

“the top figure deal with”: Louis Sobol’s syndicated column, as in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 1, 1964.

the call from Earl Wilson: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Petersburg (Virginia) Progress-Index, February 26, 1964.

[>] “dashing into the record stores”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal, December 28, 1963.

“the arrangements, the cover”: Playboy, October 1977.

“Every moment in the album”: Billboard, February 29, 1964.

“spellbinding effect”: Bakersfield Californian, February 22, 1964.

[>] “oooooo, aaaaaay”: Playboy, October 1977.

“inadequate [about] singing”: Playboy, October 1977.

“a mixture of old and new”: Oakland Tribune, July 26, 1963.

A poll taken of teenagers: Lowell Sun, February 6, 1964.

[>] “like rituals performed”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Oneonta (New York) Star, March 10, 1964.

“The craze to get in ahead”: NYT, April 26, 1964.

“should cut at least twenty-eight”: NYT, April 5, 1964.

[>] a handful of notes just for her: These are all preserved in Robbins’s Funny Girl papers, dated between March 1 and March 20, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “getting the laughs it used to”: Ray Stark to Jerome Robbins, March 20, 1964, JRC, NYPL.

[>] “the wrath of the public”: NYT, March 19, 1964.

[>] “one of the biggest deals”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the Dunkirk (New York) Evening Observer, March 5, 1964.

“in essence,” “a real character”: Playboy, October 1977.

Stark could be a bully: My description of Streisand’s relationship with Stark at this point is drawn from several interviews: Lainie Kazan, Anne Francis, and two very important anonymous sources. Also, Frank Pierson wrote in New West magazine, November 22, 1976, that Streisand told him on the set of A Star Is Born: “I can’t stand for someone to tell me what to do. Ray Stark always used to bully me, the son of a bitch.”

[>] shoved and kicked a photographer: Associated Press newswire, as in the Lima (Ohio) News, June 28, 1953.

“Look, if you’re prepared”: Playboy, October 1977.

“Fuck you”: Two company members, one of them Lainie Kazan, recalled Streisand saying “Fuck you” to Stark. The belief was that she said it very soon before opening night. Allan Miller recalled a similar moment for James Spada in Streisand: Her Life,although it is implied that the words were spoken at an earlier point in the previews, while Kanin was still director. The dialogue I have quoted here comes from Miller’s account. It could be that Streisand said “Fuck you” to Stark more than once. No one would be surprised. Elliott had a job: On March 17, 1964, in his syndicated column, as in the Pasadena Star News, Mike Connolly reported that Gould had been cast in Burnett’s forthcoming Broadway show, The Idol of Millions, later called Fade Out—Fade In, with music by Jule Styne. As Gould was not in this show, I suspect Connolly got the name of the project wrong, and it was Once Upon a Mattress he should have reported. The presence of Layton as director seems to confirm that. It’s possible, however, that Gould was going to be in Fade Out—Fade In and pulled out to do the film The Confession.

[>] some blind items in the columns: Anne Edwards in Streisand: A Biography wrote that Earl Wilson had reported in the New York Post: “What new musical comedy star and her leading man are a romantic duet offstage to the fury of the actor’s beautiful wife?” Edwards did not provide a date for that notice, and a check of the Post from January to April of 1964 did not locate the quote. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there; the Post is not digitized before the 1990s and searching has to be done on microfilm, so I may have missed it. But a digitized search of other newspapers that carried Wilson’s column in 1964 also did not locate the quote.

“The stories about the domestic”: Mike Connolly’s syndicated column, as in the Pasadena Star News, March 17, 1964.

“He handles it all very”: Ladies’ Home Journal, August 1966.

“So how do you feel?”: Interview on the Robbins Nest radio program, WNEW, broadcast March 28, 1964, included on the Just for the Record DVD.

“been open about two years”: NYT, April 5, 1964.

[>] “Barb, I brought you up to Fifty-third Street”: Just for the Record DVD.

“fashion wise”: NYT, April 26, 1964.

between fifteen and eighteen thousand dollars: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Lima (Ohio) News, March 19, 1964.

[>] “You can be my bagel”: A copy was preserved in JRC, NYPL.

“Barbra Streisand crosses the stage”: Time, April 10, 1964.

[>] “She has everything that”: Robbins Nest radio program, Just for the Record DVD.

[>] “overlooking the lights”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Galveston Daily News, April 1, 1964.

“her face stiff, her backbone stiffer”: NYT, April 5, 1964.

[>] “You tired, honey?”: Robbins Nest radio program, Just for the Record DVD.

“people were pawing her”: Life, May 22, 1964.

“All those cameras and lights”: NYT, April 5, 1964.

“You didn’t bring chicken soup”: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Galveston Daily News, April 1, 1964.

17. Spring 1964

[>] “looking as stylized and elegant”: Life, May 22, 1964.

[>] “Everybody knew that Barbra”: New York Herald Tribune, March 27, 1964.

“Hail to thee, Barbra”: New York World-Telegram, March 27, 1964.

“proves . . . she can sing”: Wall Street Journal, March 30, 1964.

“remarkable demonstration of skill”: New York Daily News, March 27, 1964.

[>] “honest emotion underneath”: NYT, March 27, 1964.

[>] champagne and chocolate cake: Life, May 22, 1964.

the island’s Blue Mountain Inn: The Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica), May 6, 1961.

[>] a rabbit, a canary: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column, as in the Galveston Daily News, May 25, 1964.

“locked up in prison”: Playboy, October 1977.

“inspiration wanes and craft”: New York Herald-Tribune, March 27, 1964.

[>] “Now that I’m supposed”: NYT, April 5, 1964.

“Happy Birthday”: Life, May 22, 1964.

[>] "nut on TV": NYT, July 4, 1965. I have drawn my account of the Winter Garden Kids from both this newspaper report, in which a teenaged Lippner was interviewed, as well as several personal contemporary interviews with Lippner.

[>] "how to approach a big sister": Spada, Streisand: Her Life.

“threatened and frightened”: Playboy, October 1977.

[>] Presents were left: Players, Spring 1965.

“the real screwy ones”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

[>] and a little embarrassed: This can possibly be deduced from Streisand’s statement: “I should have been in a different category,” in a wire-service story, as in the Tucson Daily Citizen, May 30, 1964.

[>] Under the Jamaican sun: Much of my description of The Confession shoot comes from The Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica), May 6, 1964.

“protect her,” “She was my woman”: Playboy, November 1970. I have also used various other interviews as context for his thoughts at this time.

[>] “a remarkable performance”: The Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica), May 6, 1964.

called him a “masochist”: Time, September 7, 1970.

Jack Jones suddenly froze: I have taken my description of the 1964 Grammy Awards from the NYT, May 13, 1964; the AP wire story, as in the Hartford Courant, May 13, 1964; and the UPI wire story, as in the Oxnard Press-Courier, May 13, 1964.

[>] “There’s nothing we can do”: NYT, May 12, 1964.

[>] “That’s my line”: Dorothy Kilgallen’s syndicated column, as in the New Castle (Pennsylvania) News, May 20, 1964.

[>] “simple [and] nonintellectual”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.

[>] “No, no, can’t be done”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.

[>] Barbra sauntered into fashion designer: Eugenia Sheppard’s syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, June 25, 1964.

for Cosmo Sirchio’s collection: Eugenia Sheppard’s syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, May 24, 1964.

“I am high fashion!”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.

named to the worst-dressed list: Louella Parsons’s syndicated column, as in the San Antonio Light, January 23, 1964.

[>] “ask how much things cost”: Sunday Bulletin, April 25, 1965.

pocket money: This Week, February 5, 1966.

“All you think about is”: Family Weekly, February 2, 1964.

million-dollar television contract: NYT, June 23, 1964.

Marty was crowing: Alex Freeman’s syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, September 1, 1964.

[>] “The screaming could be heard”: Alex Freeman’s syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, July 23, 1964.

Carol Burnett proposed a joint: Hartford Courant, October 11, 1964.

“traffic going by”: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

[>] “Stardom is a part of”: Vanity Fair, September 1991.

“To end the rash of rumors”: Alex Freeman’s syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, May 18, 1964.

“going to be a big movie star”: Wire-service story, as in the Uniontown (Pennsylvania) Morning Herald, May 20, 1964.

“a bath in lava”: Time, September 7, 1970.

“Oh, God, don’t envy me”: Playboy, October 1977.

[>] “Being a star is being a movie star”: Rough copy for a “Tintype” column, 1964, Sydney Skolsky Collection, AMPAS.

“a practical person”: This Week, February 5, 1966.

[>] “off on the track of always”: Playboy, October 1977.

“I didn’t want you”: O, The Oprah Magazine, October 2006.

[>] “alone with [her] thoughts”: Unsourced clipping, perhaps Dorothy Kilgallen’s column, circa summer 1964, NYPL.

“larger than life”: Interview with Elliott Gould at www.aish.com.

[>] “You must only give three-quarters”: Playboy, October 1977.

“I have visions in my head”: Playboy, October 1977.

“Her performances astound”: “Barbra: Some Notes” by Jerome Robbins, Roddy McDowall Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.