International Hotel 1969

Streisand / LIVE 

International Hotel (1969)

Showroom Internationale
Las Vegas, Nevada
Showtimes: 8:15 and Midnight

July 2—30, 1969
Exterior picture of the International Hotel with Barbra's name on the marquee.
Marquee with Streisand's name at the International Hotel, Las Vegas.
On February 17, 1969, Barbra Streisand signed a contract with the Las Vegas International Hotel. The hotel’s executive vice president, Alex Shoofey, said Streisand’s salary would make her the highest-paid performer in night club history. 

Financier Kirk Kerkorian developed the $60 million International Hotel and desperately wanted Elvis Presley to open the 2000-seat main showroom.

The hotel’s entertainment director was Bill Miller. “We finally got [Elvis] on one condition,” said Miller, “[Colonel] Parker didn't want him to open in that big 2,000-seat theater. He said that we would have to put someone else in to open, and Elvis would follow.

“So I went to work on Barbra Streisand,” Miller recalled. “She was leaving, on her way to Europe, when I got her to sign the contract. And she opened the International.” (Elvis was booked to follow Streisand in the Internationale theater).

Variety reported that Streisand signed a five-year contract with the hotel, earning in the neighborhood of $100,000 a week for four weeks, plus stock in the hotel. Streisand would be paid for future dates in cash. Ultimately, the entire engagement probably cost Kerkorian $1 million for Ms. Streisand’s singing services.

Bill Miller was more specific. “I thought the Streisand deal was perfect for her and good for the hotel,” he said. “We made an agreement not to discuss the figures. She was permitted to buy stock in the hotel at the market price, which was very cheap then. We charged $15 a person to see her. You put 4,000 in that room with two shows a night, and you've got $60,000 a day without whiskey. So how much are we losing?”

“She was nervous about going back to the stage,” Marty Erlichman told Billboard magazine. “Then we found out the hotel wasn't ready. There were no chairs, tables or booths in the theater. She was rehearsing in an empty room. I took her around to some of the shows so she could get a feel of things.”

Streisand told a reporter, “After the privacy of the motion picture camera, a live audience is quite frightening.”

Meanwhile, designer Arnold Scaasi began work on Streisand’s wardrobe for the engagement. “I began to search for fabrics that would be different from the usual glitz one saw on Las Vegas stages.” Scaasi discovered beaded saris from India. “The fabrics were gorgeous in the extreme … completely embroidered in gold tiny sequins and beads. Down the center of these marvels ran different designs, also heavily embroidered.”

Scaasi also designed a pillbox hat made of each fabric that Barbra could wear with her hair pulled back. “In profile she did look like Queen Nefertiti,” Scaasi gushed.

Marty Farrell wrote Barbra’s show at the International, and she did not use an opening act, which was customary in Las Vegas. She would share the stage only with the 40-piece Bobby Morris orchestra under the direction of Peter Matz (also drummer Don Lamond, and bassist Milt Hinton).
Streisand sitting on the stage and singing a song at the International Hotel
On July 2, 1969, Vegas was buzzing. The International’s four-story marquee said, “Bill Miller Presents,” then in her special typeface, “Barbra.” 

Variety reported the schedule for Streisand's opening: “Barbra Streisand will do one show [July 1], but only hotel employees will be invited. There will be one show on each of the two following nights for VIPs and press; then a two-show per night policy will start July 4.”

Columnist Perry Phillips set the scene in his July 4, 1969 story:

Kirk Kerkorian opened the doors of his lavish International Hotel with the biggest grand opening I've ever seen here. Two thousand guests jammed the Showroom Internationale Wednesday night to see and hear Barbra Streisand sing up a storm and usher in what undoubtedly will be a new era for this desert spa.

... By most standards, a 2000 seat showroom would be cavernous. However, I didn't get this impression in the Showroom Internationale. The room has a balcony that seats, I would estimate, around six or seven hundred. The main floor is about the same in size as the High Sierra Theatre of the Sahara Tahoe. The balcony is reserved for those wishing cocktails only during the dinner show and the room is serviced by two huge kitchens. It is a beautiful room and should prove one of Las Vegas' biggest showcases. I can't recall ever seeing so many celebrities for an opening night here. 

Celebrities spotted in the opening night audience: Phyllis Diller, Dick Smothers, Robert Culp, Richard Zanuck, Ernest Lehman, Danny Thomas, Phil Ford and Mimi Hines, Anthony Newley and Joan Collins, Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and Andy Williams. Cary Grant walked on stage and said some brief words about the hotel and Kirk Kerkorian, then he introduced Barbra.

After the Streisand overture played, Barbra sang her first song: “I've Got Plenty of Nothing”—an ironic joke about her $1 million payday for performing at the hotel.

Cue Magazine compared Streisand’s opening night to Peggy Lee —also performing at the International’s 500-seat Casino Theatre. “Within hours after the opening of the International Hotel here, word went racing through New York show-biz circles that Barbra Streisand—the inaugural performer in the main showroom—had bombed. The acclaim a glossy first-night audience withheld from her it lavished extravagantly on Peggy Lee in the smaller Casino Theatre, giving her a moist-eyed, table-pounding, triple-standing-ovation send-off she could never forget.”

Streisand's opening night at the International wasn't a success with the critics.

Marty Erlichman and Streisand spoke to columnist Earl Wilson about her original idea to open the show: Streisand wanted to enter wearing dungarees and say to the audience, with a shrug, “The hotel isn't ready yet, either.” Then she'd exit while the orchestra played the overture, and re-enter wearing her opening night chiffon gown.

“It's kind of tricky,” Erlichman said.

“I know, but I like to take a gamble on opening night,” Streisand explained

Singer Dionne Warwick wrote in her autobiography that Streisand's “actions onstage took away some of the positive perception and ‘glimmer’ I had given her. As usual, her voice was impeccable; her designer outfit was definitely made specifically for her. But she was brash and sang mostly to the orchestra, with her back to the audience.”
A newspaper ad for Barbra's appearance at the International Hotel
A postcard for the 1969 International Hotel opening
Streisand on stage at the International Hotel, Las Vegas [Photo: Borsari]
Streisand holding the microphone at the International Hotel
Although it's doubtful Streisand sang with her back to the audience, she did respond to the criticism by explaining, “I was aloof on opening night because I was in a state of shock. You could feel the hostility of that opening night audience, all the gamblers who were there because they're important to the hotel, all the actors who resent the fact that you're doing things they think they should be doing. It's total fear time up there.”

Barbra also stated, “Some performers get a thrill out of winning over a cold audience—I talked to Elvis about it last night; he does—I don't. It turns me off.”

She also rang up columnist Joyce Haber and complained that the hotel's decor “was mixed dumbo. Especially ugly were the stuffed, life-sized replicas of George and Martha Washington on either side of the stage. Someone said the room was so large that even the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would have been swallowed up.”

Streisand may have had a set-back with the critics, but she went to work changing and honing her act. For instance, instead of opening the show with “I've Got Plenty of Nothing,” Streisand instead sang the up-tempo “Don't Rain on My Parade,” followed by “People” – this put her well-known songs from Funny Girl right up front.

Columnist Joyce Haber noted during her backstage visit with Barbra after the show that there was a big calendar on the wall on which Streisand marked off the days with X’s. “Only 39 performances to go,” Barbra said.

“There were specific problems: The show was too long; the selections were largely an extended and finally counter-productive plug for her three movies and a new album. The chat between songs was self-conscious and unconvincing.

The 36-piece orchestra seemed to be miked so that the brass output was muffled, leaving a rather shrill and fussy accompaniment for her. As a song stylist, in fact, Miss Streisand tends alarmingly toward the over-elaborate and the dynamic extremes, even though her most successful songs have probably been her simplest.”

... Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times review of July 2nd show

International Hotel Set List

By closing night, her 55-minute set list looked like this:

  • Don't Rain on My Parade
  • People
  • My Honey's Lovin Arms
  • My Funny Valentine
  • Ask Yourself Why
  • My Buddy/How About Me
  • What About Today?
  • My Man
  • Jingle Bells?
  • Punky's Dilemma
  • My Melancholy Baby
  • Second Hand Rose
  • Happy Days Are Here Again
Additionally (and alternately), Barbra performed two medleys during her International Hotel shows...

Dolly Medley

  • Hello, Dolly!
  • Before The Parade Passes By
  • So Long Dearie
  • Hello, Dolly! / Before The Parade Passes By
  • When You Gotta Go / In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning

Clear Day Medley

  • Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here
  • He Isn't You
  • What Did I Have That I Don't Have
  • On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)
  • Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair?
Streisand on stage at the International Hotel 1969

“If there were night club Academy Awards, and if I were the Academy, I would now present the 1969 award for Female Singers to Barbra Streisand ... The incomparable Miss S. was in her fifth night in the brand new International Hotel when I reviewed her concert and, believe me, the motion picture Academy Award winning beauty — and that she is — sure has the feel of the hall! 


“Stunning as an Egyptian princess, her opening ‘How can I follow that!’ exclamation, anent the magnificent overture, was purely rhetorical ... She starts on high, with songs from her hit Broadway musical/motion picture ‘Funny Girl,’ and there is the crystalline tonal clarity, the lyric feeling, the expressive face, the miraculous modulation — yes, there is Streisand! Her peerless program includes new songs, notably one titled, I think, ‘What About Today?’ that’s exciting as a racing motor, inimitably Barbra interpretations of such standards as ‘Funny Valentine,’ ‘Jingle Bells,’ (you heard me!) with ersatz snow falling, her classic ‘Happy Days Are Here Again,’ a show-stopping ‘My Man,’ and — my favorite — a segment devoted to songs in her up-coming ‘On A Clear Day You Can See Forever’ film, bridged by her delightful delineation of the picture’s plot. These are only some of the highlights. For all of them, in an all-time Las Vegas show thrill, see and hear Barbra Streisand at the International.”

... Mary Rettig, Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine , July 12, 1969.

The International Hotel TV Show

Ed Sullivan and Barbra Streisand
Ed Sullivan brought his cameras to tape a special segment with Barbra for his CBS TV show. Sullivan taped his part in front of the live audience. He introduced Barbra; she sang a medley of songs from Hello, Dolly!; then Sullivan came back on stage and congratulated Streisand. Ed Sullivan and the Dolly medley were shown September 28, 1969 on the opening show of his 23rd season. [A clip of Barbra singing “On A Clear Day” was shown on 1970's Entertainer of the Year Awards, too.]

Under the supervision of Sullivan's executive producer Bob Precht, Barbra's entire Vegas show was taped for a possible one-hour television special for the 1970 television season. She performed for the cameras and an invited audience of Las Vegas entertainers at 2:15 a.m. on Monday, July 28th.

Precht told the press that he turned over the tapes to Barbra's manager, Marty Erlichman, who would seek a television deal for the footage.

The potential Streisand television special was shelved and never released.

In 1973, Marty Erlichman offered a possible explanation for the abandoned show: “The reason we didn't do any special for CBS for a long time was because of my running battle with Mike Dann,” Erlichman explained about Dann—who was senior vice president in charge of programming at CBS. “He never believed in Barbra as a talent. His idea for her was to put her in a special with Dick Van Dyke and Andy Griffith ... The last special we did was Central Park and it was right before her film career took off. We had it in the can and Mike Dann scheduled it to air on Sept. 12, 1968. Funny Girl was set to open on Sept. 18, 1968 and I begged him to air the special after the movie opened because it would be a more important event for CBS and Barbra. He wouldn't do it and I swore we wouldn't do anything for CBS until Mike Dann was out.”

Fans have been patiently waiting to see Streisand Live at the International Hotel for years. Audio of Barbra's closing number (“When You Gotta Go / Wee Small Hours of the Morning”) was included on Streisand's box set, Just For the Record. And on her 2016 concert tour, footage from the show was used in the opening montage.

“... I had thought and said that the engagement began badly, with Miss Streisand conveying a cool aloofness which was no help to the new-room problems (bad sound) or to a program I found too talky and underweighted with familiar material and change of pace.

But word from the desert persisted that much had changed and the engagement had become the time of triumph it should always have been. I came over to hear, and the reports were true enough.

The room's acoustics had been solved and Peter Matz's arrangements for the 36-piece orchestra came through with a crisp and balanced clarity. The talk between numbers had been sharply trimmed and what Miss Streisand had to say was brief and wryly funny. And even though she was fighting a bad sore throat which gave her trouble on a couple of high notes and in some soft passages, her concert, 17 songs long, was a scintillating display of her gifts.”

... Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times , August 5, 1969.

Streisand dressed in Scaasi gown
One of the outfits Streisand wore at the International was a jeweled gown by Scaasi, with pillbox hat. 

Arnold Scaasi described this creation in his book Women I Have Dressed (and Undressed):

I began to search for fabrics that would be different from the usual glitz one saw on Las Vegas stages. One day the Gil sisters arrived at my salon with the most beautiful and luxuriously beaded saris from their native India. The fabrics were gorgeous in the extreme—four-yard lengths of chiffon (the usual amount of fabric used in a classic sari costume) that had borders on three sides of contrasting color, completely embroidered in gold tiny sequins and beads. Down the center of these marvels ran different designs, also heavily embroidered.

[...] We had a tall pillbox made of each fabric that Barbra placed on the back of her head, with her hair swept up underneath. In profile she did look like Queen Nefertiti. The shapes of the gowns were always contemporary, nothing India about them—sleeveless small tops with full skirts that were sheer and moved gracefully across the stage. She felt comfortable in them and the dresses were perfect for what was becoming the “Streisand look.”

Use the arrows to navigate the slideshow of photos of Barbra Streisand at the International Hotel ...

End / The International Hotel
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