In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

5 B A R B R A S T R E I S A N D Hollywood Jew Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, and Bette Midler are something more than celebrities; they are demi-mythic figures, heroes and heroines of mass culture; . . . they have acquired these stations not by underplaying Jewish looks, manners, and backgrounds, and not in spite of them, but precisely by exaggerating these characteristics almost to the point of iconic abstraction. They have become majority heroes by italicizing minority profiles and now reside on the “inside” without seeming to have ever left the “outside.” alan spiegel, “The Vanishing Act” Barbra Streisand’s meteoric rise to fame during the early 1960s directly paralleled Dylan’s and took place in the very same setting—New York City’s Greenwich Village. Just one year younger than Dylan, the eighteen-year-old Streisand had been living in the city for well over a year, struggling for success as a stage actress, by the time Dylan arrived in early 1961. Streisand first came to public attention singing in downtown clubs in the summer and fall of 1960, gained further notice over the next year appearing on television talk shows, and was cast for her first role in a Broadway show in November of 1961. Like Dylan, she succeeded beyond all expectations, becoming a major star in just a few short years. Dylan and Streisand were both musical prodigies with prodigious talents and ambitions, and their remarkable careers have lasted for half a century—but that’s where the similarities end. For one thing, their Jewish trajectories have been radically different, as we shall see. Further, the first several years of Dylan’s performing life have remained the most iconic of his career—he is remembered, that’s to say, by his rise to fame. 213 214 J E w H O O I N G T H E S I X T I E S Streisand, on the other hand, has had a more varied career overall, and her early years in New York City tend to be obscured by her second and third acts in Hollywood and Malibu. Hence controversial feminist critic Camille Paglia could exclaim in 2007: “Oh, Streisand! I’m such a fan of her early work. Today you cannot imagine what it was like when Streisand burst on the scene in the 1960s. There was nothing like her. . . . Barbra Streisand broke the mold, she revolutionized gender roles. How has this been forgotten?”1 We begin therefore with a consideration of Streisand’s early years, always keeping in mind how the image of the star was conditioned by multiple contexts of the early 1960s: the ethnic revival of Kennedy era America; changes in the nature of fame and celebrity; a marked generational shift in contemporary Jewish life; and perhaps most important, contemporary stereotypes of Jewish women and the emergent feminist movement. Streisand reflected many of these trends in the construction of her own persona, and American Jews responded accordingly, awarding her a unique status as an icon of American Jewish fame, an exemplary blend of Jewish chutzpah and American success. Her most ardent fans—Jewish women and gay men—saw her as the embodiment of the ugly duckling made good, the outsider who conquered the heights of Hollywood stardom and musical superstardom through sheer talent and drive. At the same time, they responded to the dualism of her aesthetic: both shlemiel and diva, self-consciously unattractive and glamorously chic, Brooklyn Jewish-whiny and the most beautiful voice in the world—moving from one extreme to the other at will. Many of her film roles highlighted this Jekyll-and-Hyde quality , exemplified most famously—and most Jewishly—by the 1983 film Yentl. In life, Streisand neither changed her name nor fixed her nose, and in turn, her singular image as an American Jewish celebrity was sealed. As the “kooky kid” from Brooklyn who became a major Hollywood player, Streisand represents the triumph of the underdog and as such, became heroine to legions of fans. As a major Jewish celebrity, she represents something more: American integration without assimilation, the persistence of Jewish identity in the open society. This chapter concludes with a look at how the Streisand image has continued to evolve in recent years, again reflecting changes in American Jewish culture overall. In considering Streisand’s rise to fame, it is worth recalling that the woman said to be “the greatest female singer of the twentieth century”2 began her career...

Share