Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand (81 page)

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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).

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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.

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“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.

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“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.

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“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.

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“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.

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“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.

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

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“like a Zen master”:
Playboy,
October 1977.
“to be friends with him”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

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“What am I doing here?”:
Family Weekly,
February 2, 1964.
“It’s this kid from Brooklyn”: Kaufman Schwartz interview.

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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.

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“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.

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

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“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.

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

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“I hope the Dodgers”:
Playboy,
November 1970.
“the marriage to Elliott”:
Saturday Evening Post,
July 27, 1963.

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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).

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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“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.

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“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.

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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

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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in certain markets:
Lowell Sun,
October 9, 1963.
“in fine fettle”:
Variety,
October 1, 1963.

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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.”

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“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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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Aubrey decreed that:
San Antonio Express,
October 7, 1963.
“Dynamic, sensitive”: LAT, October 8, 1963.

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“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.