Barbra Archives 

All About The Greatest Star

Online since 2003

Launched in 2003, Barbra Archives has collected decades of factual and interesting information about Barbra Streisand’s extraordinary and long career. Here you will find rare photos, interviews with Barbra’s colleagues, set lists for her concerts, Barbra’s complete discography (official and not), her film career, her television appearances ... and more. Barbra Archives is not an official site — it’s fan-created.

Barbra Talks About Barbra ...

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    “I hated the name Barbara. But I could never bring myself to make up a new name. I don’t like those terrible stage names. But by dropping the ‘a’ I became the only Barbra in the world.”

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    “Well, first of all, I didn't have the money to have my nose fixed, even if I had thought about it—which I did think about it. But the real reason was that I didn't trust the doctors to make my nose right ... I thought my nose went with my face.”

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    “I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good.”

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    “I'm not a singer but an actress who sings. There's a world of difference in the two. I approach a song as an actress approaches a part. I try to move people when I sing—make little pictures for them which they can feel and visualize.”

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    “I remember a long time ago when I was a kid, I had to be somebody. And, I decided I didn't want to be just the best of one thing. I would be the best singer, best actress, best recording star, best Broadway star and best movie star. That was my challenge.”

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    “Why should the actor give up his role as citizen just because he’s in show business? ...But we, as people, are more than what we do — as performers, professors or plumbers — we also are, we also should be — participants in the larger life of society ... artists, especially those who have had success, and have won popularity in their work, not only have the right, but the responsibility, to risk the unpopularity of being committed and active.”

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    “By the way, you say my name wrong. It's Strei-sand. Sand. Like sand on the beach.”

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Frequently Asked Questions About Barbra

A short F.A.Q. all about Barbra Streisand ...

  • What is her real and professional name?

    REAL NAME: Barbara Joan Streisand 


    PROFESSIONAL NAME: Barbra Streisand


    Barbara dropped the extra ‘a’ from her name in 1960 when she began her acting career.


    “I always hated it,” Barbra said in 1963, “but I did not want to drop it, so I changed it slightly from Barbara to Barbra.”


    She told Barbara Walters in 1985, “I didn't want to change my name .... but I couldn't live with a false name. So all I did was take out one 'a' and I became the only 'Barbra' in the world.”

  • When and where was Barbra born?

    April 24, 1942


    Brooklyn, New York

  • Who are her parents and family?

    PARENTS: Emanuel Streisand and Diana Rosen Streisand.


    FAMILY: Streisand has two siblings: Sheldon Streisand (1935) and Roslyn Kind (1951, her half-sister — and a talented singer as well).

  • What is her height?

    5 feet 5 inches.


    In a skit with Mike Myers, when he observed “You’re small! You’re so little!” Barbra replied: “You’re just used to me big, 40-feet high on the screens. I’m a little person.”

  • Who did Barbra marry and who are her children?

    Barbra Streisand was married to Elliott Gould (1963-1971) and James Brolin (July 1, 1998-current).


    Although she never married him, Barbra was involved with the producer Jon Peters for almost a decade from 1973-1983. They lived together on the Malibu ranch in Ramirez Canyon and worked together on A Star Is Born and more.


    Streisand has a son, Jason Gould, born 1966. He is an artist and a singer and appeared with his mother in concert during her 2012-13 tour.

Streisand — a Multihyphenate


Barbra Streisand is well-known for her singing, acting and directing. In a career spanning six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment. Not content just to be an entertainer, Streisand has also been a generous citizen, lending her voice and dollars to support various philanthropic causes over the years through her Streisand Foundation, which gives grants to “national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament.” In recent years, she has concentrated on women’s cardiovascular research and education. In 2012, Dr. Noel Bairey-Merz confirmed “Barbra has now brought over $22 million to this cause, including her own generous gift of $10 million in matching funds.” The result was the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai.


Streisand is one of America’s most decorated entertainers. She is one of the few EGOT winners. EGOT is an acronym for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.” In addition, Barbra has also been bestowed with honors from the Directors Guild Of America, the Golden Globe Awards, the National Medal Of Arts, the Peabody Award, France’s Légion d’honneur, the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Chaplin Award, and a Kennedy Center Honors designation. In 2015, President Barack Obama presented her with the highest civilian honor the United States bestows, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


For her first film, Streisand won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Funny Girl ). And for the first song she wrote for a film, Barbra won an Academy Award for “Evergreen” ( A Star Is Born ). In her role as a film director, Streisand’s three films have received 14 Oscar nominations. 


Many fans appreciate Barbra Streisand for her singing. She is one of America’s greatest vocalists. She has recorded over 70 albums for Columbia Records, which signed her to the label in 1962. Barbra is the only artist to have a number one album in each of the last six decades—the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and the 2010s! Streisand has been awarded eight Grammy Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Legends Award.


Singer Donna Summer praised Streisand: “I don’t think anyone will ever quite understand the overwhelming talent, the breath control, the power, the genius that makes Barbra, Barbra . People can call her a legend or a superstar and all of that, but it somehow falls way short. What Barbra Streisand represents is simply the very best we have ever seen. Ever. ”


Writer Richard Pérez-Feria said it best in 2015: “Barbra Streisand is the world’s last superstar still with us who’s not only a great singer, talented actress, ground-breaking director, passionate activist, generous philanthropist, but who’s also aware, curious, awake right now in this decade and who’s not merely resting on her jaw-dropping successes she’s achieved. In short, Barbra Streisand still matters.”


Photo: Firooz Zahedi

Streisand’s childhood in Brooklyn

Becoming Barbra

Before Barbra Streisand removed the ‘a’ from her name she was ‘Barbara.’


Barbara Streisand was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 24, 1942 to Emanuel Streisand, a teacher, and Diana Rosen Streisand, his wife. Barbara was their second child — Sheldon, her brother, was born seven years earlier. Sixteen months later, in August 1943, Emanuel Streisand suddenly died from the complications of an epileptic seizure. Diana moved her two children to her parents’ three-bedroom apartment at 365 Pulaski Street in Williamsburg. “My brother had a folding cot, and my mother and I shared a bed,” Streisand said.  “My grandmother and grandfather lived in the other bedroom, and the third room just had a table and a credenza. We never had a couch. Couches to me were, like, what rich people had.”


Barbara's grandfather—Louis Rosen—was blessed with a good singing voice, too. Diana said in 1980: “When I heard him sing in the house—cantorial pieces—I thought that there was no voice like that in the world! He had a voice. A terrific voice.”


PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE:  Streisand as a child; Streisand and brother Sheldon; Emanuel and Diana Streisand; Louis Rosen and his granddaughter Barbara Streisand.

Streisand on stage singing at seven years old.

When Barbara was 7 years old and attending an Orthodox girls yeshiva (the Yeshiva of Brooklyn), she sang in public for the first time. “The yeshiva didn't have a stage,” Barbra recalled in 2012, “so we had to go to PS25, which was so fascinating for me to go to, you know, a normal public school and see this big stage that they had.” Barbra's principal, Mrs. Weisselberg, can be seen applauding in the photo that her brother took.


Barbra has said, "I was the kid on the block that didn't have a father but had a good voice."


Barbara would harmonize on the apartment stoops to songs from Your Hit Parade, a program that counted down the top songs of the day. One of Barbara’s favorites to sing was Joni James’ hit single, "Have You Heard?"

Streisand's Public School 89 class photo, 1955.
Barbra Streisand and her half-sister Roslyn Kind

In 1950, Barbara's mother married a man named Louis Kind. The family moved into a federally financed housing project at 3102 Newkirk Avenue in Flatbush.


Streisand was at summer camp when she found out. “She took me home to a new apartment. I didn’t know she had married a man. She never told me — or that she was pregnant.”


Barbara's half-sister, Rosalind [later, "Roslyn"] was born in 1951.


Streisand did not like her new step-father, Louis Kind, and dreamed of escaping her home and Brooklyn. “[Kind] didn’t ask me how I was,” Barbra said. “He didn’t talk to me. He didn’t see me. He didn’t recognize me. He didn’t like me.”


In 1951, Diana brought Barbara to MGM Records in New York to audition for a record contract. Barbra sang "Have You Heard?" (She didn't get that job.)

Streisand's High School yearbook photo and another photo of her as a teenager.

A few years later, Diana and Barbara (now 13 years old) went to Nola Recording Studios in 1955 and recorded acetate records. Diana sang "One Kiss" and Barbara sang "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart" and "You'll Never Know."


Barbara attended Erasmus Hall High School. “In school, I was a character,” Barbra recalled. “I was the wise guy. I always got good marks, so I was never in what you’d call real trouble, but everybody looked on me as the odd one. I used to dye my hair platinum blonde and wear strange color lipstick and eyeshadow. ”


After school, she worked at the Choy's Chinese restaurant. “It was a part-time job between my 12th and 16th birthdays. I started out baby-sitting for them and worked up to waitress and cashier,” Barbra said.

The Diary of Anne Frank was the first Broadway show Barbara saw in 1956. Perhaps it was serendipity that Anne Frank was directed by Garson Kanin, who would eventually direct Barbra on Broadway in Funny Girl. Barbra said: “I identified tremendously with Anne. We were both Jewish, and we were both fourteen. I remember thinking that I could go up on the stage and play any role without any trouble at all.”


It was 1957, at age 15, when Barbara went away to perform in summer stock at Malden Bridge Playhouse. Later she was on stage at the Cherry Lane theater in Manhattan, the Clinton Playhouse in Connecticut, and the Garret Theater on 49th Street. She graduated from high school six months early in 1958 (she was in the class of 1959) and moved to Manhattan shortly after that.


“Brooklyn to me means the Loew’s Kings, Erasmus, the yeshiva I went to, the Dodgers, Prospect Park, great Chinese food. I’m so glad I came from Brooklyn — it’s down to earth,” Barbra said about her birthplace in 2012.

Streisand posing on the beach as a teenager.
Streisand in Central Park. Photo by Michael Ochs.

Early Acting Days

Even before Barbra Streisand graduated from high school, she was sneaking off to New York City to study acting. “I was fifteen when I met Anita and Alan Miller—the two people who changed my life,” Barbra said. “I had a job at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village moving sets and painting scenery. Anita was featured in the play; her husband, Alan, was an acting teacher.”


Streisand worked out an exchange with the couple. “I baby-sat for the Millers. In return, Alan gave me a scholarship to his school. Thus I spent even more time with them. I'd browse through their library, discovering that the world of literature is larger than Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe — the authors assigned at high school.”


Streisand was young, but determined. “I went to two acting classes but I didn't want one to know about the other, so I had a pseudonym in one of them: 'Angelina Scarangella',” Barbra confessed. “I remember doing relaxation exercises a lot. I remember observing a lot; observing other actors. On the train ride home to Brooklyn I would write letters to Lee Strasberg.” (Strasberg was the head of the venerable Actors Studio).


Streisand eventually auditioned for Strasberg with a friend as a partner in a scene. Barbra received a letter from the Actors Studio telling her they liked her work and would she audition on her own. Barbra performed a scene from The Young and Fair *. 


“I cried all through it. I was only fifteen so they said come back another time. But I never did.”


* The Young and Fair by N. Richard Nash, opened on Broadway in November, 1948. Directed by Harold Clurman and starring a young Julie Harris, it was set in a New England boarding school for girls. The play was about compromising one's principles and featured a subplot of a Jewish girl, who had kept her religion secret, being forced to reveal it.

Barbra moved to Manhattan to pursue her dream of becoming an actress shortly after graduating from high school.


Streisand auditioned for the stage. "I went up to Rodgers and Hammerstein once to audition for the office manager," she said. "He got a big kick out of me. Whenever I'd come back they'd get someone at the piano, and I'd sing."


Barbra, studying the craft of acting, attended workshops in Manhattan at Herbert Berghof, Eli Rill, and Curt Conway ("acting is reacting").


“I did Medea when I was fifteen in acting class in New York,” Streisand said, “and I still think it is my best work. I'll always remember one of her lines: 'I have this hole in the middle of myself.’”


Cis Corman, who remained a close friend of Streisand's for decades, recalled when she first met Barbra: "I didn't know she could sing for two years. I met her when she was fifteen or sixteen at our acting class at the Curt Conway Studio. She was my maid-in-waiting in a play we did at the studio, Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning."


Streisand remembered “doing a scene from Christopher Fry’s A Phoenix Too Frequent. I was supposed to be yearning for the leading man but I wasn’t even attracted to him, so I put a piece of chocolate cake off-stage. This is God's honest truth. So, I could look over his shoulder and see the cake and at least I could be attracted to that, you know!”

To make ends meet, Barbra worked at the Michael Press printing company when she was eighteen years old as a clerk.


But Barbra was fired from that job, and started collecting unemployment. “To get the money, you had to look for a job,” she explained. “I was looking for a job, but as an actress, not a switchboard operator. They checked up and cut off my checks. So there I was, out of money and out of work. And then I entered this talent contest in a bar in Greenwich Village. Not as an actress though. As a singer—even though I'd never had a lesson.”


Bob Schulenberg, a young artist and illustrator, met Streisand in 1960, too. "I turned around," he wrote, "and there was this very exotic looking creature wearing a kind of lurex-y jacket of red and silver metallic threads and huge Elizabethan sleeves that puffed out, and underneath she had on a mulberry velvet short skirt about an inch and a half above the knee (minis didn’t come in to fashion for about another five years). She was carrying shopping bags stuffed with clothing – feathers, a beautiful lavender feather coat."


Half-way through 1960, Streisand found herself singing on the stage of The Lion.


The rest, as they say, is history.

Streisand wears vintage clothes at age 18.

Barbra & Marty ... Since 1961

Marty Erlichman has managed and represented Barbra Streisand in all matters of her show business career for over sixty years. Theirs is an artist-management relationship as important and iconic as Elvis and the Colonel, Rene Angelil and Celine Dion, or Brian Epstein and The Beatles.


Born in Brooklyn in 1929, Marty Erlichman was the son of a bakery businessman. Marty attended Drake University in Des Moines before moving to New York where he worked in the mailroom of CBS-TV. On Saturdays, Erlichman read interoffice memos and contracts, gaining knowledge about the legalities of show business.


In 1960, Marty, who was producing jazz and folk music concerts at the time, went to see a comedian friend perform at a little club in Manhattan called the Bon Soir. “I went to check out his material,” Marty recalled, “but out walked this eighteen-year-old singer as his opening act. She sang five songs and I had chills through all of them.” Marty went backstage to meet Streisand. “l told Barbra, right there and then, that she would go on to win every major award there was in this business. That’s how impressed l was.”


Barbra was already represented by agent Irvin Arthur, “so I sort of kept my distance at first,” Marty said. “But three months later I was out in San Francisco and I got a call. She was playing some club in Detroit and was only making $150 a week. She wanted $200 a week plus dinners. Her agent wasn't helping her out, so she remembered I wanted to represent her. She called and told me her problem. ‘But I can't pay you any commission,’ she warned me. I got on the first plane to Detroit and worked out a deal. The owners— a pair of brothers—only offered her $175 and no dinners. I told them behind her back I’d pay them the twenty-five-dollar difference if they’d throw in the dinners, which is what happened. The brothers said to me, ‘Let us get this straight. You flew here at your own expense so you could pay us twenty-five dollars and you're not even her manager? You must really believe this girl is going to be a star.’ I sure as hell did."


Besides negotiating Streisand’s record contract with Columbia Records and her multi-year deal with CBS Television — both which accorded her creative control of her albums and television specials — Marty has been an executive producer on all of her T.V. shows.  Erlichman produced her film, For Pete’s Sake.  He also produced Coma with Michael Douglas and Breathless with Richard Gere.  Besides Miss Streisand, he managed the “Ernest” comedy franchise for Walt Disney as well as the “Where’s Waldo” franchise in which he negotiated books, television shows, and movies for that character.


Erlichman is married to Miko and has a son, J.J., who has been in the touring production manager business for years, as well.


“We started together and grew together,” Marty said about Streisand. “To me Barbra was always like a live Erector set: Whatever you could think of, she could make happen. It’s one thing to say, ‘Central Park,’ it’s another to get 150,000 people there.”


Barbra has said she worked so closely with Marty because of their “soul connection.”


Erlichman attributes their long professional relationship and friendship to their honesty. “We haven’t always agreed, but that’s the strength of our relationship. I’m not a yes guy. I’m a recommender with a good objective view.”

Marty Erlichman and Barbra Streisand pose together backstage.
Marty Erlichman and Streisand at Funny Girl's opening night party on Broadway. She's a bagel on a plateful of onion rolls!

About Barbra Archives

One fan's homage to Barbra Streisand ... not official ... and online since 2003

Jamie Foxx, Matt Howe and Barbra Streisand

I'm Matt Howe, and I'm the proprietor, curator, researcher, writer and creator of  Barbra Archives — an online guide to the career of Barbra Streisand.


First, some disclaimers: Barbra Archives is not an offical website connected to Miss Streisand or her team — I'm simply a fan who has spent my spare time “putting it together.”


“It all began .....”


Barbra's film Yentl was what first inspired me to begin following her career. Barbra’s last note on “A Piece of Sky” was like nothing I had ever heard before.  Then I discovered and collected her record albums. Live Concert at the Forum was an early favorite of mine.  I was always inspired by the sumptuousness of her film On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.  And, in the 1980s, I have fond memories of gathering around cable TV to watch One Voice when it aired on HBO.  My dream came true when I finally saw her sing live in Washington, D.C. in 1994 ....


Barbra inspired me so much that I learned how to build a website about her! Barbra Archives went live on the internet in May 2003.  I have a talent for facts and a photographic memory, so I thought I'd gather all I'd learned about Miss Streisand in one place on the internet and share it with other fans of hers. 


Since 2003, I've endeavored to make Barbra Archives as factual and accurate as possible regarding Miss Streisand's career.  These pages reflect over eighteen years of research I have done, consulting many of the available biographies and photo books about Barbra.  But I've gone further than those books (which often repeat not-quite-accurate things). In this digital age, I can search archived newspapers online; I've scanned many of the magazines I've collected over the years, too. In some cases, I've visited the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and looked at the papers of Jerome Robbins (Funny Girl's director) at the New York Public Library and Marvin Hamlisch’s papers and recordings.


All the time, Barbra Streisand fans have generously sent me clippings & scrapbooks; others have scanned and emailed rare items to me. I've also been lucky to interview some of Barbra's colleagues who have worked with her on various projects.


Although this website is not officiated by Miss Streisand, her colleagues, nor Columbia Records, I do help Team Barbra from time to time.  I was a research assisant on the Release Me albums and the 50th Anniversary Funny Girl album, and I provided some photo research and fact-checking for Barbra's latest tours and tour programs.


And, yes, I have met Barbra in person a few times.  She has always been lovely to me, warm and friendly.  You must know that her eyes are as blue in person as they are on screen! It's really unbelievable sometimes to think that I have been able to meet the woman who has inspired me to create this website.


I'm thrilled to be a fan of Barbra Streisand's art and an admirer of her life and career.  And it is gratifying that this website has inspired other fans to learn more about her extraordinary career ... because she is, without a doubt, the greatest star, and an amazing woman.


– Matt Howe


Pictured:  That's me, between Jamie Foxx and Barbra Streisand after her Miami concert in 2016.  They filmed that concert as a Netflix special, and it was fun to spot myself in a couple of the audience shots, too!  Photo by Manny Hernandez.

You can support my work here!


I earn a little bit from purchases through Amazon — if you click to buy an album or DVD, I earn a few cents. But [annually] it is not a lot.


I spend an inordinate amount of time and money writing, researching, scanning, Photoshopping, and building this website.  Not to mention buying the domains, web hosting, paying for upgrades like the SEARCH bar, and the other fees associated with running Barbra Archives.


So .... I would gladly appreciate whatever you can give.


If you are savvy with Venmo, I am @Matt-Howe — or simply aim your phone camera at the QR code over there.


PayPal is also a way to contribute. You can send any amount here: matthowe66@yahoo.com


Thank you so much!  You're a lovely bunch of ..... people.


XO,


Matt Howe

Venmo QR code for Donating to Matt Howe
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