Streisand / LIVE 

The Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund is a service organization that offers health care, retirement care, and other services to entertainment industry employees and retirees in the Southern California area.

In 1971, Gregory Peck served as Chairman and as producer of its 50th Anniversary Gala. Vincente Minnelli staged the show for 5,200 people who packed the Ahmanson for the three-hour-plus event.

This was a very special night with a seemingly endless parade of top-notch performers on stage, both young and old.  Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw brought their Love Story star power to the stage when they introduced iconic Jimmy Durante, who received a standing ovation.

Mitzi Gaynor sang and danced, supported by four male backup dancers; Bob Hope joked about Sinatra retiring; Pearl Bailey sang some songs and brought the house down with “Hello, Dolly!” with a line of dancing chorus boys made up of Jack Lemmon, Sammy Davis Jr., Joe Namath, Rock Hudson, David Niven and Don Rickles; and The Fifth Dimension, introduced by Grace Kelly, sang their hits “Up, Up and Away” and “Let the Sunshine In.”

David Frost introduced Barbra Streisand and Joe Guercio conducted for her. Billboard, Variety and the L.A. Times reported that Barbra sang five songs:

 

• Somebody Come and Play
  
• On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
  
• Don't Rain On My Parade
  
• Since I Fell For You
  
• Happy Days Are Here Again / Oh, Happy Day
  

 

Variety  added that  “Miss Streisand interjected bits of humor with a teacart and supply of simulated marijuana ‘joints.’”

Barbra was performing a five-song version of her Las Vegas act, including the marijuana bit which was recorded on the Live at the Forum album.

That evening's performance also turned into a Frank Sinatra “farewell” show, as he had recently announced his retirement from the concert stage. There is some spellbinding footage of Sinatra's set in the 2015 HBO documentary, Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. (And ... Sinatra returned to live performing a few years later.)