Crystal Palace
4240 Olive
Gaslight Square
St. Louis, Missouri
April 17 — May 8, 1961
Gaslight Square in St. Louis, Missouri, was a thriving entertainment district—the Greenwich Village of the Midwest. Live jazz, beat poetry and restaurants were teaming with bohemians. Jay and Fran Landesman established The Crystal Palace in 1958. Jay had an eye for talent and booked many up-and-coming performers at the Palace, including Lenny Bruce, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Woody Allen, Phyllis Diller, the Smothers Brothers and Dick Gregory.
Barbra Streisand played The Crystal Palace for four weeks in 1961. Owner Fran Landesman wrote a song with the Crystal Palace's house pianist Tommy Wolf that Barbra would end up performing in the 1960s, “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most.”
(Below: Inside the Crystal Palace; and views of Gaslight Square)
Barbra was second on the bill to the Smothers Brothers ... who she would later appear with on The Judy Garland Show. It’s said that Barbra dated Tommy Smothers briefly around this time.
The St. Louis newspapers wrote that Barbra was a “chic singer with vocal prowess unusual for a girl of 18.”
End.
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