Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisa Part 72

"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.

rehea.r.s.e the new "Sadie, Sadie": Robbins's schedule indicated on February 28 that the "new version of Sadie, Sadie" was to be rehea.r.s.ed. 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 ma.n.u.script 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 19February 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 alb.u.m": 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 b.i.t.c.h."

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

"Look, if you're prepared": Playboy, October 1977.

"f.u.c.k you": Two company members, one of them Lainie Kazan, recalled Streisand saying "f.u.c.k 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 "f.u.c.k 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.