The Tonight Show 1962 Appearances

Streisand / Television

The Tonight Show — 1962 Appearances

The Tonight Show has aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) for over 60 years and is the longest-running talk show on television.

In the early 1960s, Jack Paar was the king of talk television. (Barbra Streisand guested on Jack Paar’s talk show.) When Paar left Tonight in 1962, several guest hosts helmed the show between April and October 1962 while NBC searched for a permanent replacement. 

Groucho Marx was hired to host the show for the week of August 20-24, 1962. Marx was the wisecracking member of The Marx Brothers, who made a string of successful Hollywood comedies in the 1930s. In the era of television, Groucho became a television host and had his own show, You Bet Your Life. 
  • August 21, 1962 — Barbra's first appearance
    • Temporary host: Groucho Marx
    • Guests: Lillian Roth, Buddy Greco (jazz singer), Adele Kenyon (fitness expert), Henry Gibson (comic), Streisand.
    • Barbra sang “Much More”
    • Notes: Lillian Roth played Elliott Gould’s mother in I Can Get It For You Wholesale, so we must assume Roth and Streisand were plugging the musical, which opened March 22, 1962.
Groucho Marx hosts the Tonight Show in 1962.

Johnny Carson took over as host on October 1, 1962. Barbra appeared with Johnny three days later on October 4, 1962. Supporting Johnny was Skitch Henderson and his orchestra; shows were taped in color at studio 6B in the RCA Building, New York.


Like many early television shows, the video tapes of these shows were erased years ago and never archived. A Streisand fan taped the audio of some of the shows as they aired, though — yes, children, in the old days we held our portable tape recorder microphones up to the T.V. speaker and recorded shows!


Carson was very supportive of Barbra, who was at the beginning of her career. When Barbra’s first album was released in February 1963, Johnny had her on his show often to help promote it. 


On her last appearance (March 5, 1963), Barbra told Johnny, “I will never come here again.” 


Unfortunately, Barbra never appeared on Carson’s show again — although she did return to Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show in 2014.

Photo of Johnny Carson
Other Streisand Appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962 ...
  • October 4, 1962 
    • Guests: Dennis Weaver (actor), Jean Carroll (comedienne), Sander Vanocur (NBC correspondent), Streisand.
    • Barbra sang “Right As The Rain”
  • November 1, 1962
    • Guests: The Clancy Brothers (Irish folk group), Streisand.
  • November 2, 1962 
    • Guests: Beatrice Lillie (comedienne), Gloria Lambert (singer), Katharine Dunham, Shirley Ann Field, Streisand.
    • Barbra sang “Happy Days Are Here Again”
The November appearances are interesting ... according to the newspaper listings, it appears as if Streisand appeared on the show two days in a row!  The Clancy Brothers were also clients of Barbra's manager, Marty Erlichman, so the fact that they appeared on the same show with Streisand makes sense.
Newspaper ad for Tonight Show with Clancy Brothers and Streisand.

RELATED:   Barbra on The Tonight Show 1963


End /  Barbra on The Tonight Show 1962

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