Springtime was an important time for Barbra Streisand's early career as her first TV appearance (Jack Paar, 1961); two Broadway shows; two TV specials; and her Oscar for Best Actress (Funny Girl) all occurred in March or April. The first of her TV specials aired on April 28, 1965. Titled "My Name is Barbra", it coincided with the release of her album by the same name.
The special was shot in black & white and featured no guests, just Barbra. Amazingly, the hour-long telecast was jam-packed with 27 songs (actually, less than an hour when taking commericals into account). The special was critically acclaimed, won three Emmy Awards, and was followed in 1966 by her next special "Color Me Barbra" , which would be another tour de force.
Forgive some of our gay elders if they look askance when the younger generation gushes about seeing the likes of Cher, Barbra or Madonna in concert. This may be because, in their minds, they saw the concert, i.e. Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall. This wildly acclaimed performance took place on Sunday, April 23, 1961.
Judy's career had been somewhat fallow since the mid-1950's when she appeared in A Star is Born in 1954. She and her managers decided 1961 would be the year for a comeback. After all, she still had quite a reservoir of goodwill from fans to tap into - and she was saddled with debt. Her Carnegie Hall concert was part of a larger tour that went on during April and May. (In addition to the concert tour, she also landed a small, but pivotal, role in the movie Judgment at Nuremberg, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.) In May she returned to Carnegie Hall for another sold-out performance, and then in July she performed at the Forest Hills Tennis Club.
Judy's live concert album won five Grammy Awards and was the nation's #1 album for 13 weeks. The following year she starred with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in an acclaimed TV special. Due to its ratings success CBS decided to give Judy her own variety show the following year. Unfortunately, it lasted just one season, largely because it had the misfortune of being scheduled opposite Bonanza. Still, Judy was back!
45 years later out singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, who wasn't even born until 1973, gave the very same concert at Carnegie Hall on two nights. He seemed to have much fun as Judy did - and the audience was almost as adoring - but the reviews weren't nearly as glowing. Here, below, is his version of Judy's San Francisco.
The phrase "on the down low", or the DL, refers to men of color who, while not identifying themselves as being gay, have furtive sex with other men. This slang was picked up by the media about 10 years ago and it picked up steam a few years later with articles in TIME, The Village Voice and the New York Times Magazine. Then Oprah introduced it to her viewers during an episode of her show that first aired on April 14, 2004.
Of course, while the DL may be a black construct, men with wives and girlfriends who sneak off to have sex with other men is hardly limited to blacks. It's been explained that the term was coined because of an aversion many black men have to being labeled gay. (Based on the black men I've known, quite a generalization.) Apparently, in the minds of these men, having sex with a man isn't the same thing as being gay, which they equate with being effeminate. (I wonder if a similar term has been coined in Arabic for Muslim men?)
Today, thanks to online chat rooms and the iPad app Grindr, sneaking off for a quickie has never been easier or more tempting. (Fooling around in the steam room at the gym is so 20th century.) Wives and girlfriends would surely be freaked if they knew, as a result of these new means of communications, the extent to which husbands and boyfriends play around with gay guys before work, during lunch and after work.
However, it's hardly a new phenomenon. In the book Gay Manhattan, which talks of gay life in the first half of the 20th century, author George Chauncey revealed that it wasn't uncommon for a straight blue collar guy to have a gay acquaintance on the side to get him off (without reciprocation) whenever their wives weren't able to provide for all their sexual needs.
1964 was an outstanding year on Broadway. It began with the opening of Hello, Dolly! and at the end of the year, Fiddler on the Roof got the 1964-65 theater season off to a rousing start. And in between the two was Funny Girl, which opened on March 26, 1964. 21-year-old Barbra Streisand starred, but it had taken a while for her name to come up during casting discussions. Before she was approached, one singer whose name was tossed around was Eydie Gorme; however, she would consider the role only if her husband, Steve Lawrence, was cast in the role of Nicky Arnstein!
Despite receiving eight Tony nominations, Funny Girl went home empty-handed as Hello, Dolly!was the big winner, with ten. However, Barbra would win an Oscar as Best Actress for the movie version, which came out in 1968. (It was the top grossing film of the year.) And when Hello Dolly! was made into a feature film in 1969, it was Streisand who was cast in the title role, not Broadway Dolly's!Carol Channing. (This was also Channing's fate when Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was made into a movie in 1953 and Marilyn Monroe was chosen over her, despite Channing's acclaimed performance in Blondes on Broadway.)
I've also published posts about other Broadway openings:
Now a single woman, and starring in her own variety show, 29-year-old Cher was in the midst of Version 3 of her career. (V1 was as a singing duo with Sonny in the mid-1960's; V2 began in 1971 with their CBS variety show). Her "emancipation" warranted a TIME Magazine cover story* and this glamorous cover from the mid-March 1975 became an instant classic. (And since then Cher's career has continued its iterations, including Hollywood Cher; Disco Diva Cher; Infomercial Cher; and Retirement Tour Cher.)
*Cover date of 3/17/75 but on newsstands March 11.
Four months after Cher's TIME cover Elton John would get one of his own as well. Other gay icons bestowed with covers have included Liza Minnelli (1972)*, Linda Ronstadt (1977), Madonna (1985) and Bette Midler (1987). But none compare to Cher's in terms of "Wow!" factor (OK, Rondstadt's sultry cover comes close).
*Surprisingly, while Liza merited a cover story her even more iconic mother never had one.
The acclaimed Judy Garland special, "Once in a Lifetime", aired on February 25, 1962. Her guests were Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. (What a sight to see Sinatra sing while puffing away on a cigarette!) The show was a prelude to Judy's regularly scheduled Sunday variety show on CBS that began in the fall of 1963. However, it had the misfortune of being scheduled opposite Bonanza on NBC and would last just one season.
Sex and the City aired Sunday nights on HBO for six seasons and its final episode aired on February 22, 2004. And despite HBO being in fewer than 25% of U.S. households, it was nonetheless a national event. (No doubt every HBO household had at least ten friends over that night to watch.) I didn't become a regular viewer until the show's last three years when I finally subscribed to HBO. (One aspect of the show I especially liked was the many scenes shot in my West Village neighborhood.)
Two lines I best remember from this episode involved Miranda (played by Cynthia Nixon). The first was when her housekeeper, Magda, walked into the bathroom and watched Miranda gently bathing her husband Steve's addled mother (played by Anne Meara). She put her hand on Miranda's shoulder and said to her "You love" - a beautiful moment.
Later, Carrie's girls were so upset by how Carrie's fiance Petrosky (played by Mikhail Baryshnikov) was treating her in Paris that when "Big" asked them whether he should pursue her there, Miranda (who despised him) looked at him intently and said "Go get our girl".
Even before the final episode I found the whole Carrie-Petrosky relationship tedious. (Truth be told, Carrie was my least favorite character.) Instead, what I found most touching was the relationship between Samantha and Smith. Another beautiful moment in this episode occurred when Smith surprised Samantha by returning early from a business trip to be with her (she was going through chemo treatment for breast cancer).
To this day anytime I see someone walking a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, the breed of dog Charlotte owned, I say to myself "Elizabeth Taylor", the name she chose for the dog. Also, every time I see a can of Green Giant Lesueur peas I think of Samantha handing a can of them to a priest she was trying to seduce (for a food drive) and saying "They're Lesueur, they're the BEST".
Five years later a SATC movie was released during the summer and was a big success. A sequel came out the following summer but wasn't as well received and grossed less than half of the first (but still more than $150 million worldwide).
Few well-known personalities have died of AIDS at such a young age as graffiti/pop artist Keith Haring, who was 31 at the time of his death on February 16, 1990. And with the exception of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele, who died in their late 20's, no other accomplished artist was younger at the time of his death as Haring. But he accomplished a lot during his career in the 1980's and was known worldwide. He left behind an estate worth $25 million.
I remember seeing Haring's curious "creature graffiti" on the walls of the Sheridan Square/Christopher St. subway station in 1981 when I moved into Manhattan. His art was playful and otherworldly with a touch of forboding. (Not only was he known for his art but for social activism as well.) The style evoked that of the Incas and Mayans. His work has appeared on T-shirts, exterior and interior walls, postcards, greeting cards and CD covers. Many books have been published about his life and work including Keith Haring: Life for Art as well as a number of documentaries including Universe of Keith Haring.
Three other noted pop artists died in the three years preceding Haring's death (pictured, from right to left): In 1987 Andy Warhol died at age 57 (complications after surgery); Jean-Michael Basquiat died in 1988 at 27 (heroin overdose) and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe died of AIDS complications at the age of 44 in 1989.
On Valentine's Day 1962, 32-year old First Lady Jackie Kennedy gave a televised tour of the White House. It aired on CBS and NBC (and on ABC a number of days later). In addition to discussing the renovations and redecorating she was overseeing, the program also served as a lesson in U.S. history as Jackie told anecdotes about a number of the presidents. This broadcast marked the first time a First Lady had been given TV airtime.
My first exposure to the special was in college in 1976 when it was shown on Friday "movie night". I was so surprised by Jackie's soft voice, peculiar accent and her almost childlike demeanor. However, there was charm in her youth and the simplicity of her presentation. And her outfit resembled something First Lady Michelle Obama might wear today (especially the flats).
This special was incorporated into the storyline of an episode of Mad Men during its second season (in 2008). It amused me because it showed the show's various female characters entranced by the broadcast - as well as closeted gay character Sal (played by out actor Bryan Batt) who seemed more excited about watching it than his girlfriend!
Now this is what a TV special is supposed to be! On February 12, 1975, a Wednesday night, CBS pulled off quite a coup when Cher hosted a gala telecast with Bette Midler and Elton John as her guests (comedian Flip Wilson too) - three fledgling superstars together on network TV. They were all about the same age - Midler was just 29, Cher 28 and Elton was one month from turning 28. Cher, however, was clearly the veteran as she'd been in the public eye since she and Sonny married and had a #1 song with I Got You Babe ten years earlier.
Among tonight's performances Cher sang Bennie & the Jets with Elton and did a "Trashy Ladies Medley" with the Divine Miss M. But perhaps the highlight was their medley of Motown hits (e.g. Proud Mary,Ain't No Mountain High Enough) shown in the following clip:
According to Nielsen the special got a 29.5 household rating/49 share and 40 million tuned in. (Get Christie Love! was one of the shows that aired opposite it!)
