[>] “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.
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[>] “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.
Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand Page 62