The Belle of 14th Street was taped April 26—29, 1967 at CBS Studio 41 in New York. Cast and crew worked fast and hard to get the special “in the can” in one week.
The cast received three days of rehearsals before VTR (video tape recording) began.
Sunday, April 23rd: The Beef Trust girls worked with choreographer Ted Simons on The Tempest until 2:00 p.m. (their roles in the Shakespeare segment were ultimately cut from the show). Streisand, Jason Robards, Lee Allen, and Susan Alpern then assembled to work on “We're Four Americans” from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The rest of Sunday was spent rehearsing and blocking various components of The Tempest scene.
On Monday, April 24th (Barbra's birthday!) John Bubbles rehearsed with choreographer Ted Simons first; from noon to 1:00 p.m., the Beef Trust girls, Jason Robards, and Simons rehearsed “Apple of My Eye.” Streisand arrived at 1:00 p.m. to practice “We're Four Americans”—lyricist Lan O'Kun was in the hall observing. The majority of the afternoon (till 6:00 p.m.) was spent choreographing the Beef Trust girls. Meanwhile at Columbia Records studios, Bubbles pre-recorded his song from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Streisand and Robards recorded music for The Tempest at another Columbia Records studio until 6:00 p.m. Streisand returned to the rehearsal studio from 9:00 p.m. to midnight to do more rehearsing for The Tempest with Jason Robards.
The morning of Tuesday, April 25th was reserved for a technical meeting till 11:00 am. John Bubbles rehearsed/blocked his number at 11:00 am, followed by Jason Robards and the Beef Trust Girls. More pre-recording was done back at Columbia Records in the afternoon: “Apple of My Eye” at 2:30 p.m. and “Four Americans” at 3:30 p.m. The entire cast was “on call” at noon—with a special note on the call sheet: “EVERYONE ON CALL UNTIL MIDNIGHT.”
Barbra Streisand worked with vocal coach Maurice Jampol during The Belle of 14th Street. Almost ten years later he told The Pittsburgh Press, “Streisand lost her voice when she had her baby. So her manager dug me up to help get her voice back into shape quickly. She had lost the top and bottom parts of her voice. I don't know exactly how it happened. But I figured she might have lost some of the tension in her belly. We had to rebuild that part of her voice that she lost, and I thought she did the job for CBS beautifully.”