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« Lady Gaga Shows Off Her Goodies at Heathrow | Main | Hayden's New Man »


August 21, 2009

Babs On Sale

The ex-boyfriend who discovered Barbra Streisand nearly 50 years ago and convinced her to become a singer is auctioning off three tapes he made of her earliest performances, with bids starting at $1 million.

Barry Dennen -- whose memoir, "My Life with Barbra: A Love Story," came out in 1997 -- told Page Six yesterday: "I'm a little trepidatious. I don't know what the fallout will be. I don't like upsetting Barbra, and I don't want her fans angry at me."

Dennen, reached in California, said he met Streisand, now 67, in 1959 as castmates in a bad off-Broadway play, "The Insect Comedy." Soon they were lovers and she was living with him at Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue. After hearing her sing one night while a friend strummed a guitar, Dennen says he was blown away by her talent and persuaded her to perform in public. He had her listen to the records of Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday, selected her songs and coached her on how to sing them.

The tapes include Streisand singing "A Taste of Honey" and "Two Brothers" in Dennen's apartment, with him accompanying on guitar. There's also a Sept. 17, 1960, rehearsal at the Bon Soir nightclub, where Streisand sang "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now," "A Sleepin' Bee," "I Want To Be Bad," "When Sunny Gets Blue," "Lover Come Back to Me," "Nobody's Heart" and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

Dennen said Streisand invited him to see her in "Funny Girl" in 1965, long after they'd broken up. She kept him waiting for an hour and a half before she asked for the tapes back. "I said 'No. They are the only thing I have left of our collaboration,' " he relates.

Gary Zimet -- who's conducting the auction on his Web site, MomentsInTime.com -- describes the music as "ethereal. These songs take you away." A spokesman for Streisand said, "Our lawyers are dealing with this."


Posted by Lawren at August 21, 2009 07:49 AM | Trackbacks (0)