Moray told the Detroit News in 2000, “We'd always invite Barbra over to the table, and we'd feed her,” he said. On air, she thanked her Detroit friends Dick Sloan and Bernie Moray for clothing her. “After singing ‘Taste of Honey’ with piano I realize it doesn't work - can't touch ‘yours’ - please do me a favor (said with a Yiddish accent) & write out your guitar chords?”ĭuring her Caucus Club gig, Barbra flew to New York to appear on The Jack Paar Show (hosted by fill-in host Orson Bean). In postcards to Barré, Barbra wrote about her act. ‘Lover, Come to Me’ does very well here and I'm trying to find an up song like that, Barré - if you have another minute or two would you look through my stand dance guide for something to replace ‘Lover’ ?” Barbra finished the letter with a P.S.: “I haven't been late once!” Most of the time it's very noisy when I sing and I have a lot to learn about functioning under these conditions. I do four shows a night and the place is a restaurant and not meant for entertainment. This place is good for trying out new material. They start their meters at 40 cents and it's 10 cents each click. They want to hold me over here, but I don't know if I will stay. It's fun! Yesterday I did two radio shows which were a ball. Barbra wrote about her Caucus Club experience: “After ‘opening’ to an audience of eleven glass clattering, chattering people, I was going to come home on the next train.” She continued, noting the positives of the experience: “I like living in a hotel. First she revealed she was writing the letter while waiting for a matinee performance of the British comedy team Flanders & Swann, who were appearing at Detroit’s Shubert Theatre in the middle of a 12-city U.S. In a letter to her friend Barry Dennen (who was spelling his first name “Barré” at the time), she explained her Detroit experience. The Detroit nightclub definitely gave Barbra her first taste of life on the road outside the comfort zone of New York. Barbra added “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” from the Broadway musical The Fantasticks to her repertoire. So I was 18 years old, and I was giving her a list of songs to get the sheet music to, some-you know, Harold Arlen, I loved Harold Arlen.”īarbra, was housed at Detroit's Hotel Wolverine at Elizabeth Street, one block east of Woodward Avenue during her run at the Caucus Club, staying in room 308, according to her correspondence. Years later, in 2013, Streisand confessed: “I just found the letters that I wrote my mother when I was 17, 18, my first job away from New York City after the Bon Soir. “She went to see Mae West and she went horseback riding and took her first driving lessons.” “She was like a ten-year-old in Detroit,” said her friend Bob Schulenberg to biographer René Jordan. She was going to do whatever it would take to make it.” She'd work in front of a mirror, developing her performing style. I cannot say she was not one of the most ambitious girls I'd ever met. When Streisand returned to Detroit to perform concerts in 1994, Caucus Club pianist Matt Michaels told a journalist his memories of Barbra in 1961: “We worked three or four hours every day until we had a repertoire going. By the time she left Detroit, she knew 80 songs.” [Note: this sounds like a publicist's exaggeration.) She looked me right in the eye and said, ‘‘I’m a fast learner.’ Matt rehearsed her until eight, when he had to go to work. I asked how she was going to learn seven or eight numbers by nine that night-her first show. Ross Chapman, publicist for The Caucus Club, remembered what he described as the near fiasco of hiring Streisand: “We told her she had four spots to do at the Caucus and she'd need at least 11 numbers. He knew what we were looking for in youngsters to work the Caucus Club. He said, ‘I’ve just heard a girl at an amateur show at Bon Soir and I think she'd be good for you.’ I have a lot of faith in Arthur’s taste. Les Gruber, a restaurateur in Detroit, recalled, “Back in early 1961, Irvin Arthur, a New York agent called me. Aso around that time, Barbra secured a talent agency and agent (Irvin Arthur of the Associated Booking Corporation). Streisand-18 years old at the time-began working with a manager (Ted Rozar) in November 1960 (they signed a three-year contract). The Caucus Club, located on the ground floor of the Penobscot Building in Detroit, had dark paneling and brass sconces.
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