The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
#1The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 12:51pm
William Mann is a terrific writer. His book on William Haines led to a reevaluation of Haines's work and his life. If you havent read it - do so. He manages to make Nancy and Ronald Regan almost sympathetic. (I kid you not).
His Katherine Hepburn bio is simple a revelation and definitive in every respect. His Elizabeth Taylor biography is luminous.
Mann has decided to now focus on the early life of Barbra Streisand. From birth to the night she wins the Oscar for "Funny Girl".
576 pages and that won't even cover from the age 28 onward.
http://www.amazon.com/Hello-Gorgeous-Becoming-Barbra-Streisand/dp/0547368925/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339087207&sr=1-3
"There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up." - Billie Holiday
Updated On: 6/7/12 at 12:51 PM
#2The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 12:53pmOh, God. Do I hafta read it?
#2The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 12:59pm
What Mann is going to do is chart Streisand's stardom as a means to describe how that stardom changed the entertainment business forever.
It will be a biography but also a take on the world of entertainment before and after B.S.
"There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up." - Billie Holiday
#3The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 1:02pmSo the whole thing will be B.S.?
#4The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 1:24pm
Yes...full of b.s.....
and I'm wrong. The book ends with the closing night of "Funny Girl" on Broadway.
It will be the most detailed look into Streisand's early days and it's affect on popular culture that we are ever going to read.
"There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up." - Billie Holiday
#5The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 1:26pmI hope there are at least two chapters devoted to her time as an usher. She speaks so highly of it, I'm fascinated to know her thoughts on jobs dealing with the public.
#6The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 2:16pm
Will she ever write her memoirs?
'There are three sides to every story. My side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently'
-Robert Evans-
#7The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 3:02pmAfter all these years, this is one thing Anth and I agree on: William Mann is a wonderful writer, and this should be one of his best books ever.
#8The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 5:10pm
I've read all his books multiple times, PJ. Something tells me we agree on other things as well but what's the fun of that...HA!
The Hepburn book is simply one of the greatest biographies of an entertainer I have ever read (It ranks with "Garbo" by Barry Paris and "Brando" by Peter Manso as revisionist and detailed to the point of minutia - just like I like it).
I think what Mann is going for is that without Barbra - everyone from Midler to Madonna to Gaga and Adele would have had to invent.
There was a "norm" for stardom. A normal way of looking, speaking, singing, behaving.
Barbra broke and destroyed "the norm"!
I actually had a chance to speak with Mann, briefly, and suggested he tackle Alain Delon one day because THAT'S a story waiting to be told...
"There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up." - Billie Holiday
#9The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 5:44pmI'm glad he didn't take your advice!
#10The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 6:44pmI heard his next book will be about Joanna Kerns.
#11The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/7/12 at 11:45pm
The book will probably sell OK until the holidays. If you want to get the book cheap, then buy it as of December 26.
Come on. Does anyone really care about this sort of book? Mann will do a few interviews with the gay press and that is it.
And Barbra will never do her memoirs. She would have to be honest about herself and she will never go down the stoney end to admit she is/was a bitch.
Do you know what happens when you let Veal Prince Orloff sit in an oven too long?
#12The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/8/12 at 10:41am
PJ, You don't like Alain Delon? (LOL)!
and I only gave him the suggestion about 6 months ago so who knows??
"There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up." - Billie Holiday
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#13The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/8/12 at 6:08pmSpoiler Alert: She's a little driven and kind of myopic.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#14The definitive Streisand biography arrives Oct 12, 2012!
Posted: 6/9/12 at 1:32am...says The New York Times.
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