I'm The Greatest Star

I grew up listening to my mom's music. I was always "borrowing" her albums and she would always be asking me where they were. Frank Sinatra was her favorite. But she loved Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole and show tunes, lots of show tunes. And I loved it too, more than any of my brothers and sisters. My mom also loved to watch musicals and would tell me which ones I would like and she was always right. As much as my mom didn't want me to go into show business, she was probably the most influential without meaning to be.

I think she saw Funny Girl on Broadway? I have to ask my aunt about that, but she saw the movie before I did and told me to go see it, she told me I was going to love it, which I did. I remember the theater it played in, the Dyker on 86th Street and I was hooked from the song "I'm the Greatest Star", which became my song. I sang it all the time, my friends and family have heard it a million times. My mother always asked me to sing it at family parties. And I wasn't shy about getting up and doing it. And as much as I'm far from shy these days, I just haven't sang that song in years. I had entered talent shows on vacations (not any with prizes) but that was always my song. And the orchestra never knew the song. I tried to explain it. I told them you know, it's mostly "shtick" (routine, gimmick). They somehow put a beat to my routine and it came out great. No comparison the great Barbra by any means. But when I saw that movie I was hooked on show business even more than I already had been. That song was something I wanted to go out and sing in the streets. Which maybe I didn't but as I said, I sang it everywhere for everyone.





My friend Jules gave me a book about the real Fanny Brice, quite different from the movie. She was an amazing woman, fought her way from the bottom and made a great career for herself. She had a radio program, The Baby Snooks Show. A character she created that grew into one of the most popular radio programs of the time. Shtick. She had a funny voice and just did weekly routines.

I love doing different voices, that would have been a fun career, one I never thought of growing up, but do now. I know it's never too late, I just still am not sure what I want to be when I grow up!

My friend Tara laughs every time I answer the phone when she calls. I don't realize it, but she says I always say "hello Tara" in a silly voice, different all the time. It started because I was imitating our friend Pat. Pat had a problem with words with the letter "R". She called Tara "Tava". My named sounded like Tricia but it still wasn't exactly how everyone else said it. When she was pregnant with her first child she was thinking about naming the baby Sarah if she had a girl. We cracked up. The poor girl would grow up thinking her name was "Sava". Thank goodness Pat had two boys, no "Rs" in either names!

When I was in high school I was not one of the music director's favorite students. Just a bit of a trouble maker...where angels go, trouble follows...just the way it goes, not everyone is going to like you. In my junior year, as part of the chorus, I had two small lines in our show "Babes in Arms". I wanted to make those lines stand out. I wanted to stand out. At dress rehearsal I asked the director if I could wear these funky glasses I had and also speak in a high pitched dimwit kind of voice. She agreed but warned all the cast that if they laughed during rehearsal I would have to go back to doing the lines straight. She said everyone had to "act" like I always talked like that, nothing to laugh at. She was an awesome music teacher, very professional and had instilled that in all of us. Our shows may have been on a little stage, nothing fancy, but we were great, our art teacher also awesome, put together sets that were beyond anything I had seen before. She has her own studio on Staten Island now, with art classes for all ages, you can have kids parties there and she designs great centerpieces and amazing designs for all kinds of parties. Check out her website www.siwizard.com or visit the store - The Wizard of Art, 253/55 Nelson Avenue, Staten Island, New York.

I remember my parents being so impressed with our shows. Not just because their daughter was in the show, they honestly said they were pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed themselves. The music teacher, Mrs. S., would not accept anything but perfection. My two lines were a hit, people paid attention to me, I stood out. Even when I was singing in the chorus in the background, people were watching me, what would the kooky chic do next.



In case you can't tell, I'm the nerdy looking chic on the left in the red and white shirt and red bows in my hair.

In high school I also created two characters, Marvin and Petunia. I was Petunia and one of my best friends, Barbara, was Marvin. We copied from "The Carol Burnette Show". Both Carol and Tim Conway had characters where they played really old people, walking really slow and talking funny. Barbara and I started performing Marvin and Petunia skits at one of our Coffee Houses we used to have at our high school. Get togethers where students and teachers would play guitars and sing and put on skits. They were great nights. After that first night, Marvin and Petunia became very popular. Barbara, not wanting to be an actress, but absolutely nuts like me, unfortunately way nuttier than me, but that's a story for another day, she was so nervous the first night we were going to perform, almost didn't go on stage and somehow I talked her into it. She was great, just got right into the character, not thinking about the audience at first, but then she heard the laughter, everyone was really enjoying what we were doing and she lost the jitters and played to the audience. She got that feeling when you perform, it's such a high!

Here I am in Jamaica at one of my talent shows singing "I'm the Greatest Star". The next day lots of staff and guests were calling me Barbra. A super nice compliment! They were also calling my sister Linda, Gloria, all week when we were there. At the time Linda worked as a bank teller and a woman named Gloria who she worked with, wrote her name on absolutely everything. Her stapler, her stool, her tape dispenser, just anything that she could write her name on, she did it. Linda's friend at work ( still her friend), Ellen, changed the words to the song "Gloria". "Gloria, you got your own stap-a-ler, you got your stool too..." It was a funny song. When Linda told us the story we just started calling her Gloria and the staff did too. I remember one of the last days we were there she was trying to explain to one of the staff that her name was really Linda, not Gloria. He didn't believe her. Why would she be Gloria all week and now she's saying her name is really Linda. I'll always think of Linda as Gloria from our trip to Jamaica.

And then on my cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico. A great vacation with my friends Irene and Patti. We had another roommate, a nice girl I worked with. We had all gone out for drinks a few times and planned the vacation and got along but once we were on the trip she was all into rules and regulations. So angry that we missed breakfast every morning when meanwhile we were just going to bed at breakfast time. We made up a song about throwing her overboard. We wouldn't do it! Really! But we sang the song throughout the cruise.

The cruise was filled with kids just graduating from college. We assumed the cruise was their gifts for graduation, especially since a bunch of them were thrown off at the first port of call. I don't think if they paid all that money for a cruise they would have been in any situation to get them thrown off, what do you think?! Then there was a much older crowd, and honestly more our style as we were in our 30s. We had all our meals at the same table with the same table mates. Ours were two older couples and they were great company, we got along, all of us loved wine with dinner and took turns buying a nice bottle of wine to share with the table (all except the one we wanted to throw overboard!) We played Bingo with them one night and even that was fun, big prizes and Irene won. I visited California a few years later by myself and went to dinner with one of the couples, I can't even remember their names, I can see the faces when I think about them. Just some more great people that have passed through my life.

Also Dennis Johnson "DJ" and his wife were on the cruise, both just about our age too. (Dennis played basketball for the Boston Celtics, among other teams). We socialized quite a few times during the cruise and of course I invited them to come see me perform and they did. They were a great couple and Dennis would tease Patti and me as we were shorter than his 12 year old son. I have a picture of Dennis, Patti and me somewhere in my collection of pictures and cards. We look like the munchkins in the Wizard of Oz standing next to Dorothy. Dennis sadly passed away in 2007, way too young. He was really a nice guy, I'm glad to have met him. May he rest in peace.

When I performed on the cruise I followed an act by the cutest little girl named Britney, she was about 9 or 10 years old. She was a pro, had a costume and her own music on tape. Three times they messed up starting the tape, she started and stopped when the music was off and stood calm and ready to start again and like I said it was three times. Her act was great, she sang and tapped danced, a natural. And I had to follow this cutie. I was off partying with my friends all day and night and didn't have time to go to the rehearsal. I quickly told the orchestra what I was doing, my shtick, and they were awesome, coming up with some background music that fit in perfectly. I did my best to make them forget about cute little Britney and give this girl from Brooklyn a chance to show them her stuff. Trust me, I can't sing at all like Barbra, not then, not now. But I have her chutzpah (hutzpah), that's nerve in Brooklynese (actually Yiddish)!

At this age I may not have the chutzpah to sing in public like I used to, but I have it in ways I never did in my 30s and 40s. My 50s so far are awesome. I feel the most comfortable in my skin, in myself, than I ever did. And though I'm not as tough in ways that I should be, I still have a little of that Brooklyn chutzpah in me and the older I get the more of that is coming out of me.

I'm still the greatest star!