Just out., November 03, 1995, Page 26, Image 26

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9 1999 ▼ Ju«t out
INTERVIEW
S pada
on
scon COLLECTION
»v
B arbra
BOB
Best-selling—and openly gay—celebrity biographer
James Spada tells the truthy the whole truth and
nothing but the truth
▼
by Daniel Vaillancourt
I
n / 965, 15-year-old Janies Spada discovered the many splendors o f Barbra Streisand
as he watched the sta r’s inaugural television special, “My Name is Barbra, ” in his
fa m ily ’s Staten Island li ving room. It was love at first sight—and sound. In 1974, Spada
published his own freshman effort, Barbra: T he First D ecade— T he F ilm s and C areer
o f Barbra Streisand, hi 1981, his second treatise on Barbra, Streisand: The W om an and the
Legend, hit the bookstores. With Crown Publishers’ Nov. I release « /S tre isa n d : H er Life,
Spada investigates his favorite subject fo r a third time.
When Crown editor Betty Prashker originally
suggested Spada revisit Streisand, the author
thought, “Oh, dear, I don’t know if I want to do a
third book on Barbra.” But Spada— who has writ­
ten acclaimed biographies of Bette Davis, Robert
Bedford, Grace Kelly and Peter Lawford—con­
sidered the proposition carefully. ‘T he more I
thought about it, the more I liked the idea,” he
says. “ It had been 12 years since my last book on
Barbra, and a lot had happened since. I’d never
donea full-fledged, in-depth biography of Barbra;
the [other two| had been coffee-table books. So I
started to really like the idea. I’m very glad Betty
came up with it, and I’m very glad I agreed to do
it.”
Based on more than 2(X) interviews with the
star’s friends, relatives and colleagues— and con­
taining 40 chapters in six parts, an epilogue,
source notes, a filmography, an annotated discog­
raphy, a bibliography and 32 pages of pictures—
Streisand: Her Life (536 pages, almost three
years in the making) is the ultimate Book of
Barbra.
In an interview, Spada opened up about his
quest to have the last word on the Streisand
legend.
What makes yours the definitive biogra­
phy?
I think two things. One is the thoroughness and
the amount of new material. The other is the
accuracy. I’ve tried very, very hard to be accurate.
There’s been an awful lot of misinformation about
Barbra in other books.
I’d never even heard of before. I had a lot of
foreign material—tapes of foreign interviews
she’d given over in Holland and France and
England, and a lot of print interviews over in
Europe. Barbra tends to be much franker— and so
do Elliott (Gould) and Jon [Peters], I found out—
when they give interviews over there. Maybe they
think people in America won’t read them, so they
can say whatever they want to. [Laughs.]
I ’ m very proud of a number of interviews I did,
especially with her aunt Molly, who has never
been interviewed before. I was really thrilled to
think I was talking to Emanuel Streisand’s sister.
It was always in the back of my mind that I had
to give people something new. It made my job a
lot more difficult; it was a very draining book to
do. But I didn’t think there was any other way to
do it. 1 mean, why bother if I didn’t do that?... I
think it made for a better book in the long run.
Where did you find new material?
I had to do an awful lot of digging. I found very
obscure interviews Barbra had given early in her
career, back in 1962. in Men’s Digest, something
The research alone must have been ex­
hausting.
It wasn’t easy, but it was a little easier— and
possible— for me because I do have a very large
Many Streisand biographies are still in
print— most notably Randall Reise’s 1993 Her
Name is Barbra. Why another Barbra bio so
soon?
Well, not to be immodest, but I think that my
book is the definitive book. I have a lot of infor­
mation that no one else has had. It’s a very
accurate hook, and I just think someone like
Barbra deserves a definitive treatment, which I
don’t think she’s gotten before— including from
myself.
Streisand in 1962
“/ think that my book is the
definitive book. I have a lot of
information that no one else has
had. It's a very accurate book,
and I just think someone like Barbra
deserves a definitive treatment. ”
James Spada
network of Streisand fans. I know a number of
fans who collect everything they can about Barbra.
1 had several fans who were very, very helpful to
me, opening up their collections and saying, “I
have this interview from Holland when she was
promoting Yentl over there." They’d make a copy
and then I’d have that. Someone like Randall
Reise, who did a very thorough job of research,
just didn’t have that kind of access.
You’ve been following Streisand’s career
for over 30 years— literally almost from the
beginning. What continues to captivate you
about her?
Would like to thank all of you who participated in THE BIB BW! lillOWBBl 35 on October 28th!
Because of your support we were able to donate $4,000 from the night’s proceeds:
$2,000 to
O ur H o u se &
$2,000 to
F r ie n d s
of
P eo ple W
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