There is a general consensus that a book with the most pages is not by Tolstoy but Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time – coming in at 4,215. Barbra Streisand’s just released autobiography, My Name Is Barbra (Viking) is over 900 pages and three pounds – of which each word and photograph is illuminated by Streisand’s personal reflections. Her extraordinary career is chock full of EGOTS (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards), memorable singing stints and acting roles in movies like Hello, Dolly!, The Owl and the Pussycat, Yentl, The Way We Were, A Star is Born and The Prince of Tides - of which recollections are included. But perhaps her greatest attribute is a vocal quality that sounds like a fine, old Stradivarius.
Simply put, what comes out is a fusion of soulful, smooth, sassy, nuanced layers of luscious resonance – a voice that could easily transition into works of Puccini, Alban Berg or Jennifer Higdon. And she transitioned into that genre with the album Classical Barbra where art songs include Schumann’s Mondnacht, Fauré’s Après un rêve and Schubert’s An Sylvia. (1976/2013 remaster on CBS Masterworks).
But Streisand is the diva of pop or contempo music and her book is a compilation of events that begin with a Brooklyn upbringing and desire to be an actor from the age of seven. Her style of writing abounds in chapters of clever, sometimes self-deprecating humor, theatrical insight, tell it like it is happenings and candid vulnerabilities which are often peppered with Yiddish expressions, quotes from writers like George Bernard Shaw and comments that describe being into Zen Buddism until she lost the book, a chauffeur who was canned because he washed socks in her apartment sink and her quip, “I don’t find myself that fascinating. That’s why I eventually stopped therapy.” While a comedic aspect of the book is ever present, its essence reveals a personality that is so unique, it’s hard to imagine a musical world without her.
Streisand’s memoir provides an invaluable peak into the pop music scene of the late 1950’s on when luminaries like Lena Horne, Marvin Hamlisch, Dustin Hoffman, Dom DeLuise and Elliott Gould (a former husband and father of beloved son Jason) were emerging and when audiences flocked to Danny Thomas, Dean Martin, Mary Martin, Chita Rivera, Carol Burnett and Lauren Bacall. She describes with detail and candor guest appearances at nightclubs like the Bon Soir in New York, Hungry i in San Francisco, Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, the Caucus Club in Chicago, the Judy Garland Show, her own television specials called My Name Is Barbra and The Ed Sullivan Show where she instructed the host about the correct pronunciation of her last name, apparently a reoccurring problem.
Streisand says that being cast in Funny Girl in 1963 changed her life as the 21 year-old skyrocketed from a notable performance in the quirky musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale to the cover of Time and Life magazines, a spread in Vogue and international stardom. She shares revealing tidbits about affaires d’ amour, luminaries like Marlon Brando and Pierre Trudeau, life with longtime husband James Brolin, working relationships with management, producers, record companies, directors such as William Wyler and Jerome Robbins and an entourage of Hollywood elite, royalty, US presidents and movie stars. Throughout a career that in some ways mirrors the vaudevillian Fanny Brice rags to riches success story reflected in her interpretation of Funny Girl on Broadway and the 1968 movie, she mentions a preference for upbeat songs or ballads based on emotions that both she and audiences can relate to. As such, her repertoire includes new arrangements and signatures like Cry Me a River, People Who Need People, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Evergreen and Happy Days Are Here Again.
That Streisand mentions she can’t read music is astonishing but not surprising, since her approach to melody seems guided by pitch and texture she hears with inner ears (that are apparently buzzing with tinnitus) and communicates to composers, arrangers and conductors. Streisand’s book also offers a kind of anatomy of a career in the theater and motion pictures, based on her own experiences in getting to the top which reminds me of the song My Way, made famous by Frank Sinatra. She doesn’t hesitate to mention her strong-willed, highly creative, outspoken and sometimes confrontational nature that could clash but also add invaluable suggestions based on instincts that insure a play, musical, recording or performance is a hit. She muses about early studies at the Yeshiva Academy of Brooklyn and Erasmus High School, spending hours visiting museums, reading literature, going to acting classes to learn about The Method, auditioning for roles and a tendency to ask enumerable questions about the craft whatever the situation – all in preparation for a career as singer and actor.
Streisand is the first to admit that she is unusual and has been the recipient of reviews that heaped kudos on her voice and sometimes wry comments about her looks and fondness for vintage clothing – which she often bought at thrift shops before being able to afford Bergdorf Goodman or a contemporary couturier. She says, “I had already been told by several people that I should get a nose job and cap my teeth. I thought, Isn’t my talent enough?..Besides, how could I trust anyone to do exactly what I wanted and no more?” Some reoccurring themes in the book include revelations about a mother-daughter relationship, attraction to fine art in paintings of Klimt, Matisse, Modigliani and Schiele (of which she owns two of his watercolors), antique furniture, fashion and interior design, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s tenth symphony, Maria Callas, humanitarian and political causes and food favorites like a chicken sandwich with mayonnaise on soft, white bread, rice pudding without raisins, McConnell’s coffee ice cream – cuisine to be found at a diner which for her remained the ultimate despite visits to many high-profile restaurants.
Streisand’s modest early years were spent in a cramped Brooklyn apartment with her mother and brother, as her father, an erudite professor, passed away when she was quite young, then shared for a while with her mother’s beau and half-sister. Teenage years were often spent looking for the right and affordable place to stay or share until she moved from a pad above a seafood restaurant into a spacious apartment with Elliott Gould. She eventually made the Los Angeles area her home.
Reading My Name Is Barbra is a little like diving into a bag of potato chips. Once you start eating it’s difficult to stop until the bag is empty. Her book may serve as a sound bite for generations of fans. In the Prologue she writes, “For forty years, publishers have been asking me to write my autobiography. But I kept turning them down, because I prefer to live in the present rather than dwell on the past. And the fact is, I’m scared that after six decades of people making up stories about me, I’m going to tell the truth, and nobody is going to believe it.” No worries.