CBS Television bought and converted the Hammerstein Theater to what would be known as CBS-TV Studio 50. There,
The Ed Sullivan Show and many others would videotape episodes. In 1993 it was purchased and converted into David Letterman’s home for many years.
For
My Name is Barbra, the Ed Sullivan Theater was utilized for the opening segment (‘Much More’), the portion of the show before Bergdorf Goodman’s department store, and for the concert segment.
For those fans in attendance — most were invited by the Streisand fan club — the taping was presented like a mini-Streisand concert. The baby picture of Barbra, the first shot of the T.V. show, was on the stage, poster-size and sitting on a painter's easel, according to Fred, who attended the taping. Streisand sang ‘Much More’ live for the audience (and cameras).
After that, a movie screen was lowered and the audience was shown the childhood segment (probably up-converted to film).
Next, Streisand performed the monologue about the button to the live audience. Again, a movie screen was used to show the fans in the audience the Bergdorf Goodman section, which had already been taped on location.
Streisand returned to the stage to lip-synch to “the best things in life are free” and tried to match her movements of beating the drum to the pre-recorded soundtrack.
Christopher, another Streisand fan who was at the taping, recalled: “Synchronizing the kettle drum roll and those few lines of song required take after take after take, and was very frustrating, though it does not show in the finished segment.”
The
concert portion of
My Name Is Barbra was taped on April 14, 1965.
“The taping for
My Name is Barbra was at least 2 hours,” Eric recalled. ”I
don't think there could have been more than 200 people, if that much. It certainly was a very enthusiastic audience: literally everyone there could have only been there through a keen interest in Barbra (or their date!) I remember an announcer telling us what we could expect, like telling us what we were about to see on the monitors, and that we should applaud and otherwise react like a good audience.
Christopher also remembered the hard work Streisand and crew put into the show, especially the last, tricky shot:
“‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ was sung live,” he said. “Unfortunately, the placement of the closing credits and breakaway shot required some reworking due to technical reasons. So, the number was sung live over and over and over again, until it was decided that Barbra would be on the far right of the screen, and the triple break-away shot was finally decided upon, etc. By the time the final version of the song was complete—there are some people who will never admit it—but they walked out on Barbra Streisand singing live. I can't be sure, but I'm thinking the song was done perhaps seven times or more, with wait time for playbacks. Here the frustration does show in the final product. Look at her face after the last note!”
