Act I
My Name is Barbara
I'm Late
Make Believe
How Does the Wine Taste?
Kid Again/I'm Five
Sweet Zoo
Where is the Wonder?
People

Act II
I've Got the Blues
Second Hand Rose
Poverty Medley: Plenty of Nothin'; Brother Can You Spare a Dime; Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out; Best Things in Life Are Free

Act III
When the Sun Comes Out
Why Did I Choose You?
Lover, Come Back to Me
Funny Girl Medley: You Are Woman; Don't Rain on My Parade; Music That Makes Me Dance
My Man
Happy Days Are Here Again

Barbra Streisand made news in 1964 when CBS Television announced a ten-year, $5 million deal with the singer to star in several television specials. MORE >>

With Barbra the only talent in front of the cameras, her manager Marty Erlichman hired a top-notch team to support her behind the scenes as rehearsals began in January 1965. “I was concerned with artistic control only,” Barbra said. “I wanted to produce my own shows and now I can and nobody - not sponsors or advertisers or anyone - can interfere. The people like Dick Lewine, Joe Layton, Dwight Hemion and Marty Erlichman - they are on my team. They're for me and what I want to do.”

She was working concurrently on Broadway, doing eight shows a week of FUNNY GIRL. Barbra also planned to deliver an album (later, two) to Columbia Records to coincide with the broadcast of the special.

On Sunday, March 21, 1965 (her day off from FUNNY GIRL) Barbra taped the Bergdorf Goodman scenes. Director Dwight Hemion recalled that “because the first floor was lined with mirrors, the segment was a nightmare to light.”

Halston was retained to create the hats that Streisand wore in the fashion sequences at Bergdorf's department store.

Bergdorf’s resident designer, a Hungarian named Emeric Partos, created several furs for use in the fantasy shopping sequence. He wrapped Barbra in a $15,000 Somali leopard coat with a black leather belt. For “Brother Can You Spare A Dime,” Partos fitted her with white mink knickers. When Barbra stomps on her coat during the finale, she is stomping on Canadian wild mink. “I used to hate mink,” she told the press. “But now I appreciate it for its solidity. I really didn’t like boa scarves as much as they say I did. I like simple elegance, neat.”

"My Name is Barbra" continued taping segments on April 12 and 14 in a CBS soundstage a few blocks from FUNNY GIRL's Winter Garden Theater.

Eric, a Streisand fan, attended the concert taping. He told "The Barbra Archives":

"I got the tickets through the fan club I had joined. Since I was such an early member, and it had to be one of the first, if not still the only, Barbra Fan Club at the time, they seemed to have an inside track on lots of things.

"The taping for "My Name is..." was at least 2 hours. It was a smallish TV studio, so I don't think there could have been more than 200 people, if that much. It certainly was a very enthusiastic audience: literally everyone there could have only been there through a keen interest in Barbra (or their date!) I remember an announcer telling us what we could expect, like telling us what we were about to see on the monitors, and that we should applaud and otherwise react like a good audience.

"The only thing that wasn't pre-taped for the Bergdorf sequence was the VERY end, where you see her at a kettle drum, singing "...because the Best Things In Life Are Free!" They taped that bit live in front of the audience. I do believe it took more than one take, and she lip-synched.

"I remember only being able to see parts of her through all the cables and cameras and monitors, so the only way to see ALL of her was to, indeed, look at the monitor. It was like being at a Barbra concert. There was an elation that we had not only been part of our idol's historic first tv special, but that she delivered such a tour de force it was clear we had witnessed something truly sensational."

Another fan who was there at the studio taping of the concert segment remembered,

“Our group was in the first row, because Marty Erlichman wanted our reactions [applause and cheers] to be prominent on the soundtrack ... There was a rehearsal taping in the afternoon, which was much better than the evening taping that was aired. The evening taping lasted close to four hours. At the end we were practically the only people left in the theater. There was a problem with the closing credits being in just the right place. Barbra had to do "Happy Days Are Here Again" about 12 times.”

Related Articles:

• 1965 Newspaper Article on Barbra's Clothes Design >>

Barbra in her 1986 home video introduction to the special

Barbra filmed a "commercial" for her first television show. It's a curiosity ... and the official story behind it has yet to surface. (Email me if you know more about it!)

However, from best guesses and several people who've contributed their thoughts (and screen captures!) about it, "The Barbra Archives" has spotlighted the Chemstrand commercial here.

It was common practice for a corporation to sponsor a show. Barbra's sponsor was Chemstrand (which later merged and became Monsanto). Chemstrand manufactured fibers which were used in rugs and action-wear. They paid for Barbra's special and received on-air mention (which was edited out of the home video versions of Barbra's specials but was included during the actual airings in the 1960's.)

The commercial, which was probably not shown on network tv, but, instead, was most likely a promotional piece meant to be shown internally at Chemstrand. Perhaps it was shown at a Chemstrand convention.

In it, Barbra addresses the camera directly. She is in her "Funny Girl" dressing room (or a set meant to suggest that!). She speaks about her upcoming television special, "The Barbra Streisand Show" then tells the viewers about how she and Elliott have been choosing carpet for their new home. She rattles off some Chemstrand carpet brand names (which looks like they had to dub because of the tongue-twisting chemical names — "nacrylic fibers" ??)

At the end of the promo, the camera focuses on Barbra's dressing room door and she says, "Roll out the carpets."