Barbra Streisand: Memories

Barbra Streisand born Barbara Joan Streisand, April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn N.Y. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and joined the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club. Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with the then-unknown Joan Rivers. Streisand's first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Jack Paar, in 1961, singing Harold Arlen's A Sleepin' Bee. Streisand became a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series hosted by Mike Wallace. In 1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first appeared on Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962. Streisand returned to Broadway in 1964 with an acclaimed performance as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced two of her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade". Streisand has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with the Columbia Records label. Her early works in the 1960s (her debut The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are considered classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her slow version of the normally uptempo Happy Days Are Here Again. Barbra Streisand has also become an author of books with her title My Passion which was released in 2010.