Color Me Barbra (1966)
In January 1966 Barbra started working on her second television show, to be taped in color and titled, appropriately, Color Me Barbra.
First stop, Philadelphia’s Museum of Art with three brand new Marconi color cameras. New York’s Metropolitan Museum denied permission to tape Color Me Barbra in their facility, but Philadelphia’s Museum of Art allowed the television crew to tape the show in January 1966.
Streisand had pre-recorded the museum songs the day before. With Peter Matz, she spent nearly 8 hours in the recording studio in New York and picked the takes she thought were best, all in preparation for the next day's shooting in Philadelphia.
Barbra wrote about the taping, “As soon as the museum taping began, two of our new Marconi cameras gave out. There were no replacements. That left us with only one for the whole opening section. The second act was done in a studio filled with circus animals. Chaos threatened again — the lights were hell on the penguins, a lion broke out of its cage, and a baby elephant roared so loud that a nearby llama nearly suffered a heart attack.”
The concert segment at the end of Color Me Barbra was taped at CBS Broadcast Center on 57th Street in New York. Streisand fan club members were recruited to be in the audience at the studio for the taping.
Barbra’s hectic schedule allowed her to tape only in the evening. Unsatisfied with the concert segment, Barbra asked to tape some of the songs sans audience. But, minus the audience, the audio “ambiance” did not match, so a screening was arranged at the old Ed Sullivan Theater, where fan club members were recorded applauding and reacting to the segment in order to capture the live element of the sound.
Eric, a Streisand fan club member at the time, shared his memories with The Barbra Archives:
When she made her only appearance at the audience taping for Color Me Barbra, the audience went a little nuts. We were told by the announcer that she would not be performing, so people were shouting out ‘We love you!’ and the like. I shouted out ‘Recite a poem!’ (don’t ask me why, but that’s what I shouted out), and she just said, in her inimitable style (of the time), ‘Mary had a little lamb...’ and that was all for the poem. We all went crazy!”
The ‘Column Set’ vs. The ‘Staircase Set’
There are some stills and behind-the-scenes photographs from the concert segment of Color Me Barbra that suggest two versions were filmed on two entirely different sets. It's also possible that the alternate set was only used for publicity stills, and Streisand was photographed singing.
Please note the major differences between the photos above and the concert still from the broadcast version below. First, the set (above) had columns in the background. Also there appear to be various multi-colored, carpeted risers that Streisand stood on. Finally, please observe that Streisand's dress above was far fuller than the straighter dress she wore below. It looks like they tailored it to give Barbra a sleeker look.
This is a curious discovery. Did Streisand and crew film the entire concert on the “column set” first, then decide they didn't like the footage? If so, the next assumption would be that set designer Tom John quickly drew up plans for the “staircase set” and Streisand and crew returned to the studio a few days later to re-film all the songs.
The ‘Dress Rehearsal’
The Museum of Television and Radio in New York has what is labeled on the slate at the very top of the videotape “Dress Rehearsal”. This copy of Color Me Barbra has the complete Chemstrand opening (which was edited out of the 1986 home video version) and does not have the video insert edits of the guillotine during “Minute Waltz” (instead, in this version you see Barbra in one camera shot the whole way through with no cut-aways.) During the opening monologue of the circus segment, the studio audience sounds more “natural” and not like a clap-track.
Most importantly, at the end of the concert when Barbra hits the last note of “Starting Here, Starting Now,” her note is not audio compressed and pushed to the background. Instead, the note is above the music and it is complete and powerful.
Dennis Fotia, who contributed this information to The Barbra Archives website, believes this “dress rehearsal” version of the special was most likely a first edit, probably for CBS or Chemstrand to see before they did the minor changes that were in the final broadcast version edit.
“Color Me Barbra” Promotional Items
The soundtrack album contained a fold-out, color insert with many fabulous photos:
Chemstrand, the sponsor of Streisand's special, produced a handsome program:
