On a Clear Day advertisement

Above is a newspaper ad from a return engagement of On a Clear Day in San Antonio, Texas.

A friend of mine clipped it from an old newspaper after I became a Barbra fan.

Notice the image of Barbra appears to be from the bathtub scene from What's Up, Doc? That's not Daisy Gamble's hair. Also notice Yves Montand's name is nowhere in sight. Instead co-stars Nicholson and Newhart get billing.

As much as I love this movie, it's hard to watch because of Yves Montand. Cruel yes, but it's the truth (well, my opinion anyway). Didn't Minnelli watch the dailies? Didn't anybody notice there was no chemistry between the two? I guess replacing Montand was out of the question. Too bad. Can you imagine if they did? I can visualize the headlines now: Streisand fires Montand! It would have been worth the bad press to get somebody else in there.

First Artists annual report

Cover of First Artists annual report to stockholders for 1977.

Tidbits from the report:

"This last fiscal year was the best of times for First Artists. In the past year, we have had in release one of the top twenty domestic film grossers of all time, A STAR IS BORN. STAR and Barbra Streisand's magic name produced the bulk of our earnings."

An interesting sidenote. First Artists was making development deals for television at the time. One of them is quite interesting.

"First Artists, in conjunction with ABC, is involved with the development of a comedy show called HOUSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR. The plot revolves around a duly elected President of the United States who happens to be black. It is a warm, contemporary, highly original show."

The Way We Were filming locations

Another scene at the Plaza Hotel.

Not much has changed in the background.

Hello, Dolly! at Grauman's Chinese

Greetings from Hollywood. Wish you were here.

Another vintage postcard from our family trips to California in the '70s.

Barbra Encounters of the Third Kind No. 4

My fourth Barbra concert, September 20, 2000 at the Staples Center in L.A. Since this was one of the "final four" I decided to go V.I.P. and got 7th row on the floor. And as the photos can attest to, it was worth it to be that close. The photos turned out amazingly well considering it was one of those disposable cameras. But I had good lighting, and as we all know, there's nothing without the light!

With One More Look . . .

An ad for the TV special promoting A Star is Born.

This was a rare treat back then- a syndicated one-hour special going behind the scenes to the making of the movie. I remember is airing in January of February of 1977. I got to see it twice. While a lived close to San Antonio, the Austin TV channels were also available on UHF (before cable TV was even an option in our town). I remember finding it accidently on the Austin channel first just as it was beginning. Maybe a couple of weeks later, it was shown in the San Antonio market.

It's a great special. Too bad they didn't include it as a bonus feature on DVD. Maybe they are waiting for the Blu-Ray release.

The Main Event filming location Part 1

By the time The Main Event rolled around I was a die-hard fan. I couldn't wait for this film. After all, it had been 2 years since I had seen her in a new movie (If I could only complain about waiting 2 years between movies now!). And I just knew this movie would be a big hit. How could it not be? It was the reteaming of Barbra and Ryan. It had a great disco hit song that the radio was playing all the time.

I saw the film for the first time at the Brauntex theater in New Braunfels, Texas on opening night, June 22, 1979 with a couple of friends, Philip and Larry. The theater wasn't the greatest but we didn't have to drive all the way into San Antonio. After all, gas was now 75 cents a gallon and rising weekly. Not the greatest theater to see the movie in. Eventually relented and saw it at the much bigger and better theaters in San Antonio. Don't remember how many times I saw it, not as many as A Star is Born. Last time I saw it originally on a big screen was at a drive-in in Bryan, Texas on a double feature with The Way We Were!

Carol Burnett in A Star is Born

An old newspaper clipping from the newspaper's TV guide section, obviously sometime in 1977 (why didn't I put the date on the back of my clippings?).

Naturally, I just had to watch this episode. Of course we are going back over 30 years now but all I remember is that they were "glued" to each other in this position and talked back and forth, nothing else. Anybody else have memories?

Mad about The Owl and the Pussycat

A few panels from Mad magazines satire of the film "The Owl and the Pussycat" or as they put it, The Foul and the Prissy Cats.

The first time I saw the film was on network TV (NBC, I believe). The film was censored obviously and on first viewing it was quite apparent. I remember the cuts being jumpy and her lips were moving but nothing was coming out a number of times.

During the summer of 1979 I took classes at Southwest Texas State at they were screening The Owl and the Pussycat in the student lounge. I was in for quite a shock! The film of course was uncensored and all I could remember was I felt like I was seeing the film for the first time. Too bad the DVD left out the "F" word in that one critical scene.

Mad magazine had already satirized Barbra's first 3 films in one shot with Alfred E. Newman as Barbra on the cover of that issue. They would go on to satirize, The Way We Were, Funny Lady, A Star is Born and Yentl. Don't know if they did any more after that point. I was getting too old for the magazine by then.

What's Up, Doc? at Grauman's Chinese

Vingate postcard of Grauman's Chinese theater showing What's Up, Doc?

How I would have loved to have seen it here!

Got this back in the '70s during one of our family vacations to California.

Funny Lady first time

Here's a newspaper ad promoting Funny Lady from a San Antonio newpaper- now in it's record 3rd week! I got it from my friend Larry who clipped it out of an old newspaper way back when, since I didn't become a Barbra fan until 1976. It's odd that the ad shows Barbra from the right profile. By that time it was well established she preferred being photographed on the left side. Pretty sure the images of both of them are flipped from the actual shot.

I did end up seeing it at this theater during the fall of '76 though. Before A Star is Born came out, this theater had a 3 week run of 3 of Barbra's movies. Best I recall the other two were Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! At this time I hadn't seen Funny Lady, but I had the soundtrack album, so I just had to see the movie. Since I had just gotten my driver's license I was not allowed to drive into the big city yet, so I pleaded and begged with my parent's to drive me into San Antonio to see it. By the fall of '76 Funny Lady had played out all it's screenings, so my only choice was to see it now or wait a couple of more years before it would most probably air on network TV. My parents weren't the type to make a special drive to the next county over to see a movie. It almost took an act of Congress, but I got them to take me there.

The Northstar Cinema was a nice theater back then. I believe Funny Lady was an exclusive screening at this theater until moving over into the neightborhood and second-run theaters. Notice in the warning in the box: Management does not recommend PG films for younger children! Yep folks, that's how conservative San Antonio was back then! Needless to say, this theater doesn't exist anymore.

Streis-hound

This is a rather amusing (or odd, depending on your perspective) greeting card I found back in the late '90s. The artist, Marty Ruiz, did a series of celebrity-animal cards. It's hard to tell in the scan, but the card has glitter glued to it. According to the note enclosed with the card, it is a one-of-kind miniature piece of art! With the Daisy Gamble look-alike wig and imitation Arnold Scassi outfit and the doggie Academy Award, was obviously inspired from Barbra's first Oscar.

More A Star is Born - Sun Devil Stadium

Another shot of location shooting at Sun Devil Stadium for A Star is Born. Gary Busey is to the left. Don't know who the bearded men are, but considering they are on both sides of Barbra, I'd say they are important.

[one of the readers has informed me that the gentleman with the white beard and the white hat is the director, Frank Pierson]

September 27, 2000 VIP

V.I.P. ticketholders for the September 27, 2000 concert at Madison Square Garden (one of the "final four" concerts) were given this information sheet.

On Location with Hello, Dolly!

Yes Virginia, there really is a Vandergelder's Hay and Feed.

Garrison, New York stood in for a turn of the century Yonkers in Hello, Dolly! The town was gussied up for the movie, but a few remnants remain to this day (or at least until 2004 when this photo was taken). The etched glass in the doors for Vandergelder's still exist. The building has seen better days.

On the Hello, Dolly! backlot 1976

Part of the backlot at 20th Century Fox caught fire around 1976+/- burning part of the Hello, Dolly! set. The burned area in this shot appears to be around Irene Malloy's hat shop. Hope she had insurance.

I did a little more research and found the following in The Great Movie Musical Trivia Book:

On June 21, 1977, fire broke out on the still-standing Manhattan exterior set, wrapped around the studio buildings of the Twentieth Century-Fox lot. Reported to the Los Angeles County Fire Department at 4:51 p.m., the blaze consumed a three-building section of the set in about eighteen minutes. Nine Los Angeles County fire units and one Beverly Hills Fire Department unit quickly contained the flames, which were visible from the streets outside the studio gate at Pico Boulevard and Motor Avenue. There were no injuries.

"It looked worse than it was," said the Fox Vice President of Operations, Bernie Barron, to The Hollywood Reporter. "The bulk of the 'Dolly' street, a city landmark, remains intact." There were no companies shooting on the sets, or scheduled to do so, at the time of the fire.

On the Hello, Dolly! backlot 1971

This screen capture is from a featurette about the making of The Poseidon Adventure. That's Irwin Allen in the Rolls. The Hello, Dolly! set was close to it's original condition then.

Meet the Fockers Premiere Souveniers Part 4

This scanned image is sorta hard to make out. It's a table sign from the after party. It's made of glossy thick paper. It would be folded to make a triagular sign. Probably would look better folded up in a photo. FYI, this sign is from a table of moviegoers who's last name was Focker!

This ticket is kinda rare. It's for the pre-party. Barbra did not attend. :( Did you really think she would? Only makes sense. After all, according to Rona Barrett, Barbra fears her fans!

Meet the Fockers Premiere Souveniers Part 3

Tickets from the premiere have been published elsewhere, but this one is unique. It was one of the tickets given to Blythe Danner for her entourage.

Meet the Fockers Premiere Souveniers Part 2

Ticket holders were also given "complimentary" parking. Trust me, the cost was factored into the ticket prices. But it was all for a good cause.

Meet the Fockers Premiere Souveniers

One of the souveniors I collected at the premiere of Meet the Fockers. Too bad I didn't find this card until afterward. With Little Fockers coming out next summer, I'll have to try the phone number and see if it still works. Now don't YOU try this!

Rona Barrett

Who can't forget Rona Barrett's publications?

If you grew up during the '70s, she was the gossip queen of the decade. She had a number of publications and Barbra was on the cover many times. While Barbra isn't on the cover of this one, she is featured in one of the headlines- Why Barbra Streisand Fears Her Fans!

The "special book-length bonus" is too long to publish here. But I'm including a juicy excerpt. BTW, anybody know who that guy is on the cover? He looks familiar.

Sprawled regally in a deep mahogany chair, Barbra Streisand watched the endless parade of models showing her the latest in women's fashions at the exclusive San Francisco apparel shop.

Barbra sat very still-occasionally turning her critical eye from a model and nodding her approval of a particular dress to the shop's top saleswoman.

Suddenly-and seemingly out of nowhere-one of the store's stock clerk's popped into the middle of the parade and advanced toward Barbra-eager, obviously a bit nervous, and with autograph book in hand.

Instantly-almost instictively-Barbra sat erect in the chair, clutching its arms tightly. As the young man approached the star, Barbra's face assumed an emotionless gaze that stopped the stock clerk in his tracks.

"Uh. . . ." he hemmed-and-hawwed, "Miss Streisand . . . do you think . . . I mean, could I please have your autograph?" he asked, his voice a genuine symphony of apologetic sweetness.

"Puh-leez!" barbra snarled, her face no longer blank. "I'm shopping!"

Don't ya just love it. They don't write articles like that anymore!

Song Worksheet 2006

I picked this up from the Philadelphia concert in 2006. I'm guessing this is for the conductor. It lists the song and musical cues from the concert. It's dated from 8/22/2006 and the song lineup changed before first concert (of course the lineup changed slightly during the tour).

I don't remember what the final lineup was for each of the concerts (although I know there are people out there who do). But a couple of song changes pop out. I don't remember Gentle Rain or Love is a Bore ever being sung during the tour. Anybody out there remember?