Her name is Barbra, and today, April 24th, is her birthday. She’ll be 74.
And, yes, of course, we’re talking here about singer-actress-director Barbra Streisand (“like sand on the beach,” she used to inform people), but you probably know that already. Everyone is aware of Streisand — even those who claim not to like her. (Man, are they missing out.)
Once, she was just another “Barbara.” In his loving 1997 memoir, My Life with Barbra, Barry Dennen, who met a Brooklyn girl named ‘Barbara’ Streisand when she was 17, recalls the night in June 1960 when she won a career-launching singing contest at the Greenwich Village gay bar, The Lion. Afterwards, at a coffee shop, the future greatest star took a napkin from the table and printed out: B-A-R-B-R-A. As it was written, so it became.
The rest is history: A string of successful club dates (thanks to the gay boys at The Lion). A record deal. A classic TV duet with Judy. Her own TV specials. Emmys. Grammys. Funny Girl, on Broadway, and on screen. An Oscar. A wildly successful movie and recording career (she owned the 1970s). That moment when her gloved hand brushed back Robert Redford’s hair. “See ya, Hubbell.” A Star Is Born. Another Oscar. The Neil Diamond duet. Yentl (star, writer, director). The Prince of Tides (star, director). And when she was 58, a great love (with James Brolin), and a happy marriage: hope for all us late bloomers.
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My friend Joe Daquino called the Yentl soundtrack, “the Sgt. Pepper of Adult Contemporary Pop.” Such a great line and so true. It’s a genius record. Joe died this past December after a heroic fight against brain cancer, and in those last days, in hospice, when he was half-aware, but terribly agitated, I’d play him Barbra songs. And he’d calm down, instantly. It was the damnedest thing. Barbra’s voice soothed him. I think she did for him what she does for me, whenever I need her to: she took Joe to that soul-deep place where he was still himself. It was a blessing, and a gift and I’ll owe her forever.
Joe loved Yentl (1983), and the two Broadway albums (’85 & ’93), but he’d only drop in on the 2000s work. He had his Barbra; he was good. Conversely, my Barbra begins with The Way We Were studio album (I was 12), and I’m still listening, still watching. Today’s Barbra speaks to me, but I know fans who yearn for some other version—eccentric ‘60s Barbra, or soaring, sexy 70s Barbra. I try. I play them killer tracks from The Movie Album (2003) or Love Is the Answer (2009), but. . . they don’t quite listen. They’re holding tight to their Barbra.
And yet, on the verge of her third act, with a new album, and two new movies in the works, including Gypsy, Barbra hasn’t really changed. She’s still herself. Much happier, which is grand, but at 74, Barbra Joan Streisand remains the crazy talented, wildly ambitious girl who wrote her new name on a napkin. That’s grand, too.
Joe and I loved this moment: In a 1993 TV interview, when Streisand made a joke about her pupik — Hebrew for “belly-button”– Barbara Walters said, “You sound like the old Barbra.” Without missing a beat, Streisand replied, “I am the old Barbra. And I’m the new Barbra. I’m all the Barbras.”
Happy Birthday, funny girl.
Chuck Wilson is a Los Angeles-based writer whose work has been published in Village Voice and L.A. Weekly.
Bob LaBlah
I’m not surprised at all that you did not add this tie-bit about ol’ Babs. In the early 1990’s the Whitman Walker Clinic in Washington, DC was having financial problems. Babs offer them this “deal”; buy as many of her $350 per seat tickets that they could and she would wave all legality as to their reselling them for whatever price they could get for them. I kid you not, that was the deal she offered that struggling but necessary-to-the-gay-community clinic.
So much of her remembering her “roots” in my book.
Bauhaus
@Bob LaBlah:
Now Whitman-Walker Health (WWH). Operating in the black, recently opened a new medical facility, still huge in DC.
bottom250
Her music is so fabulous and touches my soul and she is such a great actress. I loved her since I was 10.
joeyty
Enormously talented person, without a doubt. But can be a real biotch, and wasn’t too cool, initially, about her son coming out.
Armiya
While I believe she is talented and and icon, I cannot stand her music and I honestly don’t I’ve missed out.
Armiya
Don’t feel I’ve missed out 🙂
martinbakman
For those big fans, See Buyer and Cellar.
I felt like she was there, in spirit at least.
Bob LaBlah
@Armiya: Hello Dolly is the only movie she made that I liked (and it seems to be the only one that made any real money, unlike every thing she did after it).
@Bauhaus: I’m glad to hear that. It was back in the 1990’s and I am sure things changed for the better, and not just for the well off in D.C. either.
Jeremy Kinser
@Bob LaBlah:
Streisand’s philanthropy has been well documented. According to the first source that came up on Google, through the Streisand Foundation she’s donated “over $25 million to more than 800 organizations over the years.” This includes AIDS organizations and groups that work toward civil rights and equality for all humans.
She was also the undisputed top female box office star during her heyday. Funny Girl was the second-highest money earner of 1968 (behind 2001). What’s Up Doc? was the third highest grosser of 1972 (behind The Godfather and The Poseidon Adventure), The Way We Were was the fifth highest-grosser of 1973, A Star is Born was the third-highest grosser of 1976.
Chuck Wilson wrote a lovely tribute to Barbra and shared an anecdote of how her music helped bring comfort to his terminally ill friend so writing negative comments about her here shows incredible insensitivity.
He BGB
Not sure it answered the question of why we love barbra. But I do and can’t explain it. I think singing along with her is fun and cathartic and when she plays the ugly duckling I identify for some reason (maybe the gay coming out thing). That she belts out songs and has control of her voice from soft and quiet to putting everything behind it like in the last lyrics of My Man where her eyes roll back in her head she’s so in the moment (watch My Name is). I read the book My Life with Barbra and it’s terrific. Itgets into how she never gives credit to the gay guys who gave her ideas about her look and repertoire of first songs when she first started. She takes all the credit.
He BGB
She had gay friends who turned her onto thrift stores, make up, hair styles and one who played his female vocalist albums to her. Maybe she took what she could and made it her own, whatever. She was just a teenager. 17? I mostly like 60s Barbra. Wish she would release some more 60s and 70s unreleased recordings. I think people either love her or hate her. No middle ground.
joeyty
@Jeremy Kinser: On THIS a Queerty editor pops in to comment ?? But not on any other article that the posters question ?
Bob LaBlah
@Jeremy……..I lived in Washington, DC at the time and we all thought it was a bit much to ask a struggling clinic to buy as many tickets as they wanted for $350 and sell them for whatever they could get for them. What if they couldn’t sell all of the tickets they bought (if they chose to do it her way)? Were it not true it would have never hit the press. As a matter of fact I do think the Washington Blade was the one who shed light on it.
But hey, Prince didn’t allow his music on Youtube to be heard for free either. And as you can see, I staunchly defend his actions as well as his generosity. Their business decisions (the late Prince and Babs) are what put them in a position to donate millions to charity, so touché. lol
Jeremy Kinser
@Bob LaBlah:
I don’t have any insight into your Clinic story and didn’t mean to single you out. But I can’t think of many entertainers who have more of a reputation for giving back than Streisand.
Bob LaBlah
Jerry, you have a very nice blog that I obviously read religiously and do spread the word about. Our memories and personal opinions have been aired. Lets go back to being friends again. No offense to you was intended and I don’t think you meant any to me either. Take care.
And by the way, that restaurant we were talking about back in October of last year was called The Southern Kitchen in Hollywood just about Hollywood Blvd and then right off of Sunset and Gower. You were right, they weren’t listed in any of the restaurant guides but it did attract many of the Motown Stars in both locations before they closed for good around 1988. The mason jars they served soda and lemonade in gave the feel of a restaurant on the chitlin’ circuit. Being a southern boy I loved the feel of it and they always treated me well in both locations.
joeyty
@Bob LaBlah: Jeremy Kinser deserves to have his butt kicked all the way down the Stoney End for not letting certain posts on Streisand get through.
Jeremy Kinser
@joeyty:
Don’t rain on my parade, Joeyty, enough is enough.
Jeremy Kinser
@Bob LaBlah:
I think the question about the southern restaurant arose in the comments thread on the Gene Anthony Ray article. It sounds like a place I’d have enjoyed, but I moved to L.A. long after it closed. I’m glad you remembered the name of it.
Uppity
It was the late 70s, I was 16, and I was turned on to Barbra by my hairdresser, who was married but even at that age struck me as gay. He was giving me a John Travolta cut while playing Barbra’s Butterfly album and waxing lyrical about her voice. This piqued my curiosity, and my first Barbra purchase was Greatest Hits Vol 2. After that I never looked back. My favourite era for her was the 70s and even now I pine to hear the superb quality of that young voice on modern tracks. I’ll hear some contemporary pop moppet warbling away and I’ll think, “that song would be so much better if it was Barbra.” To me, she is the pre-eminent female pop singer of all time. I can get a bit sad when I hear her new tracks, because even though it’s still Barbra, the vocal dynamism and power are not there to the same degree. Sometimes, I hate to say it, she sounds a bit feeble. And it’s a poignant reminder that we all get old.
Sluggo2007
People can say what they want about Barbra, but she didn’t have the career she did because she wasn’t talented. I’ve loved her since the beginning in 1961.
DCguy
@Jeremy Kinser:
Jeremy, Joey is just upset because you don’t bring him flowers anymore. Maybe some Evergreens would help smooth things over?
AtticusBennett
i’ll just leave this right here 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ju0oHvGSo
bozlightyear
And her Christmas album is still the best one of anybody’s.
Jeremy Kinser
@AtticusBennett:
Excellent. Whenever I meet someone who doesn’t understand Her appeal, I force them to watch “What’s Up Doc?” and suddenly they say, “Oh, I get it now.”
joeyty
@DCguy: Jeremy probably needs the comfort of SOMEBODY, whether it’s myself or someone else, after the report that she screamed “Walk like a man !” at the effeminate Jason Gould.
barbrasings
She never screamed “Walk like a man!” at Jason. She did say (in a normal tone of voice) “Butch it up a little” when she was directing him in THE PRINCE OF TIDES, during one of his football-playing scenes. Where you heard your story, and why you would bring it up here, I do not know.
DCguy
@Jeremy Kinser: What’s Up Doc. If you can find it on Netflix or Amazon rent that damn movie. So funny.
@joeyty:
Well I’m not sure she still does, that. I was talking to Jason and he said no, that that was simply…..”The way we were”.
AtticusBennett
@Jeremy Kinser: she’s just THE BEST.
Check out her early recordings: her live TV renditions of When the Sun Comes Out and Lover Come Back to Me are among the most stellar vocals in the history of singing.
roger ebert said it best in his review of Funny Girl: “She has the best timing since Mae West, and is more fun to watch than anyone since the young Katharine Hepburn.
She doesn’t actually sing a song at all; she acts it. She does things with her hands and face that are simply individual; that’s the only way to describe them. They haven’t been done before. She sings, and you’re really happy you’re there.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/94ptjmB0kJ/?taken-by=atticusbennett
joeyty
@DCguy: 1) Why is she always smooching with gentiles onscreen like Ryan O’Neal and Robert Redford and even Michael Sarrazin ? 2) Yes “What’s Up, Doc?” is hilarious, but “The Owl And the Pussycat” is just as funny. 3) She was probably one of the most beautiful (in the face) untraditionally-beautiful elegant women ever. 4) The worst taste in interior-decorating ever (look it up). 5) Still, it’s reported (note I say “reported” and “alleged”) that she was not at all cool about Jason’s sexuality. And just stating that (in a previous article) was enough that Kinser banned me from being able to post under that name, which is why I changed it.
bigbam24
I was bitten by the Barbra in 1965. My mother had her albums playing all the time. I was 6 years old.On New Years Day 1968 my parents took my little brother and me to see Funny Girl.I was 8 years old then and was changed for life.
At that point I started collecting every & anything that ad to do with her. I used to go to the library in my Jr. high school look up what periodicals had articles and steal them.
She graduated High School early a month before I was born. All through high school in the 70’s I loved Rock and Roll went to concerts but, all of my friends knew who my favorite was! I love everything she has done.
I am going to fast forward to 1994 when she decided to go on tour. It was something I never thought I would see. But, I did. 4x @ times at the Arrowhead Pond. Madison Square Garden 1 time. NYE in Las Vegas The Y2K concerts.
The Concerts are the HIGHLIGHTS of my life. Sorry for rambling.
bigbam24
@AtticusBennett: GREAT PICTURE!
DCguy
@joeyty:
Her name is Doris Waverly.
Um……
Her name is Doris………Wilgis?
joeyty
@DCguy: Right. (You know that movie was considered REALLY vulgar in 1970 ?)
DCguy
@joeyty:
Honestly they would probably give it an NC17 now and not let it get released. You know the Motion Picture Ratings folks. Kill 500 people, no problem, PG. Show a little side boobe or say the word penis and you get an NC17 rating.
Jeremy Kinser
@joeyty:
I’ll display my objectivity and say The Owl and the Pussycat is a film I don’t enjoy. I think Barbra looks great in it and I’m glad it provided an opportunity for her to act without singing, but I find Doris to be incredibly shrill. I’m also annoyed that the original version of the film isn’t readily available. I can’t understand what’s behind the decision behind removing Doris using the word “f*ck.”
DCguy
@Jeremy Kinser:
But Jeremy, how could you not like it, the movie is all about subtlety, class, and good taste. As this photo demonstrates.
http://origincache-prn.fbcdn.net/10268888_1431894153725882_1320183985_n.jpg
Jeremy Kinser
@DCguy:
Haha. I appreciate that Barbra got a chance to break away from all the big-budget period musicals and star in a contemporary adult comedy, but, to me, the material doesn’t hold up very well.
joeyty
@Jeremy Kinser: Whatever. Her old friend Larry Kramer says she’s uncomfortable with the thought of gay male sex, too. But Kramer also says George Washington was gay, so…who knows ?
Jeremy Kinser
@joeyty:
First, we’re taking Kramer at his word that she said this and the comment was allegedly made after he gave her a book with illustrations of men having sex. Second, I presume we can agree that Kramer’s book was likely very explicit.
Brian
Look, Barbra has had some great songs and once had a beautiful voice. She was the tops in her field. That, however, does not make her very gay-friendly. What has she ever done for the rights of homosexual men except fill their ears with some very soulful music?
OzJosh
@Bob LaBlah: For the record, you’re wrong. Very wrong actually. Dolly made money at the box office, but was so enormously expensive to make – the most expensive movie musical ever at that point – that it didn’t go into profit for many years. Whereas all of Streisand’s early movies (with the exception of the quirky, artsy Up The Sandbox) were box office hits. She was the only woman on the list of Top Ten movie box office draws for most of the 70s, with A Star As Born (76) and The Way We Were being the biggest hits. The three movies she directed (Yentl, Prince of Tides, Mirror Has Two Faces) all made money too. And her presence no doubt contributed to the huge, inexplicable success of the dire, dumber than dumb Focker movies.
OzJosh
@joeyty: The rumour that she was “not cool” about her son coming out has never been substantiated, and contradicts all the known facts. Her son, Jason Gould, has never said anything remotely hinting at rejection or lack of acceptance or opposition to him coming out. She happily did an interview about her relationship with him in The Advocate. She’s positively addressed his sexuality in any number of print and TV interviews. And she’s been a prominent supporter of AIDS-related charities. Despite Larry Kramer’s bitter jibes, she had no problem championing The Normal Heart over more than a decade, and he had no problem with her directing it until she was finally forced to give it up. Actions speak louder than rumours.
joeyty
@OzJosh: That’s why I always said “alleged” when I brought up her (alleged) homophobia. But it was still enough of disrespect to the icon (just to raise the issue) that I was banned.
DCguy
@joeyty:
I’m wondering if Kramer was posses because she never made the movie that they were talking about.
As for her box office, I also think Whats Up Doc was hugely profitable.
joeyty
@DCguy: Kramer did some great things during the worst of the AIDS crisis, absolutely, but some of his other personality traits are questionable.
DCguy
@joeyty:
TOTAL agreement. Fully support what he did in the beginning, but my guess is, if she optioned “The Normal Heart” and then didn’t produce it, he may have been …….upset. And frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised at the reaction. If I remember reading something, he showed her some book about guys having sex and she was like “Is THAT what you do?!”
My guess is, he was trying to push buttons, and I’m thinking that she would have reacted the same way if he showed her a book with straight couples tied up in leather. lol
DuMaurier
@Jeremy Kinser:
“I can’t understand what’s behind the decision behind removing Doris using the word “f*ck.”
I’m tempted to say, “Maybe the same reason you used an asterisk”, but actually, of course you’re right (except about the movie and Streisand’s performance in it)
A while back I looked at some YouTube’s of her very early talk show appearances; we’re so familiar with her after all these years, it’s hard to put ourselves in the position of audiences seeing this unknown, strange person for the first time, with that incredible voice, odd unique look and manner; so bizarrely and amazingly different from the standard, pretty, velvety-voiced “girl singers” of the time (and who even earned a rave–her first and, I believe, last–from that severe theater and film critic John Simon, for her 1962 Broadway debut)