Funny Girl Movie Posters, Roadshow, Featurettes, Tie-ins, Premieres

Streisand / Movies

Selling “Funny Girl”

[Streisand’s 1968 Film Debut — Continued...]

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Funny Girl paper dolls, advertising the movie.

Roadshow!

In 1967, selling the Funny Girl film was very different than the way films are ushered into movie theaters today. Funny Girl was exhibited as a “roadshow” film, meaning that it was sold much like a Broadway show: reserved-seat tickets were sold in advance, and the film was shown with an overture, intermission, and entr'acte. The Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia theaters screened the film in a special 70-millimeter print with a six-track stereo soundtrack.


In fact, Columbia Pictures took out full-page newspaper ads in July 1967 advertising the movie’s September 11, 1968 premiere — by filling out a coupon and mailing it in, moviegoers could be added to a mailing list. “It will entitle you to order your tickets in advance of the general public.” 


Columbia was also after group sales for the Streisand movie. “‘Funny Girl’ is an ideal theatre party or fund raising project” the ads declared.


After Columbia Pictures circulated the roadshow version of Funny Girl, they put the movie into “general release” where it played smaller theaters, mostly a monoaural print, and its overture and entr’acte cues were cut out so that it had a shorter running time. 


Columbia/Sony’s DVD and Blu-ray of Funny Girl restored the roadshow print, overture, and entr’acte. 

Ad for reserved seat, Roadshow engagement of Funny Girl.
July 1967 double-ad for Funny Girl early ticket sales.

Movie Program

This handsome, color program was sold at the theaters exhibiting the roadshow version of Funny Girl.


  • 8-½ x 11-¼ inches; 48 pages; color and black & white photos; Star bios; Creative Team bios; Songs; Cast & Credits
  • Written by Jack Brodsky
  • Designed by Robert Geissman
  • Produced by National Publishers, Inc.


Some of the pages from The Funny Girl Journal are displayed below ... use the arrows to navigate.

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Soundtrack Album

Columbia Records (no relation to Columbia Pictures, which presented the movie) released the soundtrack album August 1968. It was a gatefold album which unfolded to reveal an inner photo collage from the film, plus a page of liner notes by Jack Brodsky.


Sound Supervisor Warren Vincent, a Columbia Records A&R man, inherited the project. “I went to Hollywood and got all the tapes from the movie. I had to take the music off the seventy-millimeter film. Then the sound was balanced and cleaned up. After that I made up a master acetate and sent it to Barbra for her approval,” he said.


MORE ON THE ALBUM HERE

Funny Girl Soundtrack Album cover

Movie Poster, Lobby Cards, etc.

Bob Peak (American, b.1927 – d.1992) designed the Funny Girl artwork used in its promotional campaign on posters and ads. 


Peak was a commercial illustrator best known for innovative design in the development of the modern movie poster. His artwork has been on the cover of Time magazine, TV Guide, and Sports Illustrated. In 1961, Peak was named Artist of the Year by the Artists Guild of New York. He won eight Awards of Excellence and four gold medals from the Society of Illustrators, which in 1977 inducted him into its Hall of Fame.



Other Tie-Ins

A paperback novelization of Funny Girl from Pocket Books and written by Jack Pearl was sold in bookstores as a tie-in for the movie. The paperback contained a few pages of color photos. Also, a “Souvenir Folio” of Funny Girl’s songs (i.e. sheet music) was sold in music stores.


Chappell Music released a “Funny Girl Vocal Selection” — sheet music of the songs from the movie, along with black and white photos.


Omar Sharif appeared in a photo spread in the September 1968 issue of Playboy Magazine. Photographed by Mario Casilli on the actual sets used in Funny Girl, Omar wore a variety of costumes (a sheik, a prince, a cowboy) while the “Girls of ‘Funny Girl’” wore barely anything. 


And Jule Styne worked with Diana Ross and the Supremes on their Motown album Diana Ross & the Supremes Sing and Perform “Funny Girl” — released September 1968, right before the movie.


Worsted-Tex Clothes created a line of men’s suits, sportscoats and outercoats featuring Omar Sharif in the ads, posing on Funny Girl sets. “The American man doesn’t know how lucky he is,” Sharif said about Worsted-Tex. “In Europe, what ready-made clothing exists is cut on one basic body pattern, and there is only one basic fabric weight … heavy! Here, you have the happy combination of large manufacturers with full design staffs, plus tailors who know how to build a suit from the design.”


Columbia Pictures even franchised Funny Girl clothes! Some of the designers who created items for the Funny Girl label: Kate Greenaway (children’s clothing), Teal Traina (dresses and evening wear), Dan Millstein (coats and men’s suits), Mr. Gee (sportswear), Cathy Dee/La Sport (raincoats), Bianchi (bridal gowns), and Marvella (jewelry).


Columbia produced a fashion show during New York’s June couture showings and screened The Look of Funny Girl during the fancy dinner hosted at the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel.

Part of Omar Sharif's Playboy spread.

Below:  A photo gallery of “Funny Girl” promotional items, including radio spots, Korvette Department Store window, clothing line, novelization, sheet music, and the Diana Ross & Supremes album of Jule Styne's songs. The last three photos are of models wearing the franchised “Funny Girl” clothes.


Featurettes (Shorts)

Ray Stark was worried that the public would lose interest in the Funny Girl film between the time it finished principal photography and when it was released nine months later. So he and Columbia Pictures produced three featurettes (or “shorts”) — short, 20 to 44-minute one-reel films — to publicize Funny Girl in its roadshow engagement and pre-sell it to theater groups who would buy reserved tickets in advance. 


“This Is Streisand”


Running 5:30-minutes in length, this featurette used photographic stills of Streisand’s costume and makeup tests, as well as behind-the-scenes pictures to introduce “Streisand the Movie Star” to audiences. “This Is Streisand” was especially important for the European sell of the movie.


“This Is Streisand” was included on Columbia's 2001 DVD and 2013 Blu-ray of Funny Girl as a Special Feature.

Three title cards for the film short

“Barbra In Movieland”


This 10-minute featurette followed Charlie Peterson, who worked at the Hoboken, New Jersey rail station since 1929, as he interacted with the Funny Girl film crew.


Behind-the-scenes shots of Streisand, Wyler, and Ross filming “Don't Rain On My Parade” are included. Curious is an alternate take of one of Barbra's last phrases of the song.


“Barbra in Movieland” was intended to run on CBS primetime and also played in theaters before the Columbia film, Interlude.


“Barbra in Movieland” was included on Columbia's 2001 DVD and 2013 Blu-ray of Funny Girl as a Special Feature.

“The Look of Funny Girl”


Narrated by Arlene Francis, “The Look of Funny Girl” was about 8-minutes in length and showed Streisand exhibiting her film costumes, with Francis narrating about each garment.


A 1967 news article about the marketing of Funny Girl said the fashion short was made for women's clubs and merchandising tie-ins, all meant to generate advance sales for the film.


Unfortunately, this production short was not included on any home video version of Funny Girl.

FUNNY GIRL TRAILER


As far as I can ascertain, there was never a proper trailer for the Funny Girl movie.  However, after Barbra won the Oscar and the movie was re-released in 1969, there was a special trailer produced which touted Barbra's Oscar win.



“Funny Girl” Premieres

Before Funny Girl opened on both U.S. coasts, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto presented the first Samuel Goldwyn Award to Barbra Streisand and Ray Stark. Funny Girl was named the “Best Picture Made in America” for 1968 and was presented during the San Francisco Film Festival. The ceremony took place on November 3, 1968.


Next, at the National Association of Theatre Owners in San Francisco (held at the Hilton Hotel on November 14, 1968), Streisand appeared with her co-winner, Sidney Poitier, to accept the “Star of the Year” award. “It's great to be on the same platform with Sidney Poitier,” Streisand said at the event. “Ray [Stark] originally wanted to use Sidney for Nick Arnstein in Funny Girl, but we decided he looked too Jewish. So we went in another direction...”

Alioto and Streisand and the Samuel Goldwyn Award
Sidney Poitier and Barbra Streisand hold their

New York Premiere



Funny Girl premiered on September 18th, 1968 as a $100-per-ticket event at the Criterion Theatre in New York. The premiere benefitted the Mayor Lindsay's Committee on Youth and Physical Fitness. 


It was Barbra Streisand’s first movie and her first premiere as a movie star; she said she felt like a “kid with a plaything.” Streisand wore “a floor-length nude tulle gown and cape that shimmered with scattered clear iridescent sequins,” according to designer Arnold Scaasi.

Advertisement for New York World Premiere of Funny Girl, 1968.
Two photos of Streisand wearing Scaasi gown to Funny Girl New York premiere.

The New York Times reported that “the Times Square block was turned into a miniature tent city, a yellow and white striped landscape on a parking lot in the heart of the theater district [...] A song in the movie provided the inspiration for the supper menu, catered by Restaurant Associates. The chicken liver pâté was a loose translation of lyrics that mentioned ‘chopped liver’ and the sliced sirloin of beef came from the line ‘how many girls become a sinner while waiting for a roast beef dinner?’”


Funny Girl’s New York opening was covered on two television shows. Nationally, Kraft Music Hall, hosted by Don Rickles, showed a film clip of Barbra singing “Don't Rain On My Parade,” then cut to a live segment in which New York Mayor John Lindsay interviewed Barbra at the premiere.


In syndication (mostly airing the next evening on New York channels), Spangler Television produced an hour-long special from the Times Square premiere, hosted by William B. Williams. The special advertised “Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, and dozens of their friends and top-drawing celebrities.”


After the film, an opening night party was held in a tent on the grounds of the Astor Hotel.

BELOW: Click on photos from the New York premiere of Funny Girl.


Los Angeles Premiere

The Hollywood premiere of Funny Girl was at the Egyptian Theatre on October 9, 1968, sponsored by The Women’s Guild for Cedar's-Sinai Medical Center. Designer Arnold Scaasi wrote that Streisand wore his “long white llama-like shaggy-wool evening coat over a jumpsuit of bright magenta satin.”


Fran Stark planned this event and it went on without a hitch: the dinner was held in a tent across the street from the Egyptian, decorated like a “block party” on the movie’s Henry Street.


The event netted $125,000 for the Women’s Guild. 

Ad for Las Angeles premiere

BELOW: Click on photos from the Los Angeles premiere of Funny Girl.


London Premiere



Barbra Streisand flew to London in January 1969 with the Funny Girl team, including Fran and Ray Stark, Omar Sharif, and Barbra's dresser, Gracie Davidson. Their European promotion of Funny Girl had begun with a press conference at London's Dorchester Hotel.


On Wednesday, January 15, 1969, Barbra attended the European royal premiere at the Odeon Cinema, Leicester Square, London—benefitting the Invalid Children's Aid Association. Streisand greeted Princess Margaret at Claridge's, where the gala party was held after the premiere.


Streisand hobnobbed with actor Peter Sellers, Princess Margaret's husband Lord Snowdon, David Frost, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and Team Streisand: Manager Marty Erlichman and press agent Lee Solters. Streisand wore a velvet and mink evening coat with a Cossack hat.

BELOW: Click on photos from the London premiere of Funny Girl.


Paris Premiere


Streisand, Sharif and team attended the January 16, 1969 Paris premiere at the Paris Opera. Streisand was escorted by French icon Maurice Chevalier.


BELOW: Click on photos from the Paris premiere of Funny Girl.

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