The Jack Paar Show (1961)
Several of Barbra Streisand’s first television appearances were on local or syndicated shows.
Barbra’s first appearance on television was in 1961 on The Jack Paar Show. Orson Bean sat at Paar's desk that evening. He introduced and interviewed Barbra. Barbra sang “A Sleeping Bee” wearing a burgandy damask dress. After the commercial break (and after changing into a black dress) Streisand sang “When the Sun Comes Out.” Then she sat down with Bean and guests Phyllis Diller and Gore Vidal for a talk-segment.
Barbra said this about appearing on The Jack Paar Show and her gratitude to Orson Bean:
I had worked with him in a night club. He asked me to appear on the ‘Tonight’ show on April 5, 1961, while he was the substitute host. If it weren’t for him, I might never have gotten any television program.
That particular night was an exciting one for the entire Streisand family. My brother’s wife had a baby, and my mother didn’t know whether to go see her first grandchild or watch me on television. Luckily, she was able to do both.
Luckily for Streisand fans, a black-and-white kinescope of Barbra's first television appearance still exists (the show aired in color). (In early television, before videotape was used, Kinescopes were the standard method of creating a permanent record of a television broadcast. Kinescopes were created by placing a motion picture camera in front of a television monitor and recording the image off the monitor's screen while the program was being aired.)
Barbra was invited back to appear on the Paar Show—again with Orson Bean as stand-in host—on May 22, 1961.
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