Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand / A legendary singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker with multiple Academy, Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and even two Peabody awards to her name, Barbara Streisand is a talent like no other. In Hello, Gorgeous, celebrity biographer William J. Mann profiles the Brooklyn-born talent, focusing on her early years, honing her persona at Greenwich Village nightclubs like the Blue Angel and the Bon Soir.
Streisand lost her father at an early age and had a rocky relationship with her mother, but her natural abilities and supernatural chutzpah soon earned her the role of a lifetime: a starring role as Fanny Brice in the Broadway musical, Funny Girl.
In lush detail, Mann chronicles Streisand’s dizzying ascent from an unknown dreamer into one of the world’s most beloved superstars.
“Mann’s meticulous research and insightful analysis go deeper than any previous biography: shedding light on the formative years that shaped Streisand’s persona, debunking some myths . . . and providing a cultural snapshot of the wild and free-spirited era in which Streisand blossomed.” —USA Today
In 1960, Barbra Streisand was just a seventeen-year-old Jewish girl with plenty of talent and even more ambition. Four years later, she had taken over Broadway as the star of Funny Girl, and had three platinum albums. Everyone of a certain age remembers when the phenomenon of Barbra Streisand rewrote all the rules of stardom. In this intimate portrait, William Mann incisively illuminates the woman before she became the icon.
