Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand (74 page)

Thanks also to my friends and colleagues who provided connections, advice, information, and other help or material: Clark Bason, Tom Judson, Steven Brinberg, Mitch Villari, Jeremy Kinser, Wayne Lawson, Tim Teeman, and Michael Childers.

My original editor, George Hodgman, was the true Streisand fan behind this project right from the start; his imprint remains on every page. My current editor, Andrea Schulz, provided keen insight and a much-needed steadying hand. Johnathan Wilber was a help at every turn and made things happen. Michaela Sullivan designed a beautiful cover. David Hough, once again, brought his sharp eye and keen ear to the manuscript. My agent, Malaga Baldi, was, as always, indomitable. And my first and best critic will always be my husband, Dr. Tim Huber. My gratitude to all.

Finally, thanks to Barbra Joan Streisand, for not throwing up any roadblocks and for making me finally understand why she really was, and remains, such a big deal.

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.