1028 North Rush Street
Chicago, Illinois
June 11—30, 1963
Mister Kelly’s, situated in the heart of Chicago’s Rush Street café belt, hosted a variety of comedians, singers, and musicians. It was a venue that the Chicago Tribune deemed “a supernova in the local and national nightlife firmament.” Performers at Mister Kelly’s appeared on “a very small stage in the front,” comedian Bob Newhart recalled, “and then it’d be like four tables deep and 20 tables wide. It was an oddly laid-out room, but it worked. People were right there. It was like you were in somebody’s living room.”
Artists entered the stage from the kitchen and the whole place held about 200 people. Admission during Streisand’s run was $2.50 plus drinks.
The nightclub’s name was borrowed from its original manager, Pat Kelly, but it was owned and operated by brothers Oscar and George Marienthal. Arlyne Rothberg was Mister Kelly’s in-house talent booker who first spotted Barbra Streisand at the Bon Soir in New York. “I came in and said, ‘I just loved you, you’re great,’” Rothberg remembered. “I told her why I was in New York and what I was looking for, that Kelly’s was so great … ‘Why don’t you come and work there? It’d be great.’”
The Barbra Streisand Album was already out, and on June 3, 6, and 7, 1963 Barbra recorded the songs for The Second Barbra Streisand Album, due to be released in August. Her first album was moving up the Billboard Album Charts, climbing from #30 to #17 and higher. Streisand had also made some high-profile appearances on television as a guest on The Dinah Shore Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Arriving shortly after her successful run at New York’s Basin Street East, Streisand received a warm welcome to Chicago from Irv Kupcinet (or “Kup”) who wrote a column for the Chicago Sun-Times. Kup called Streisand “fantastic” – and that’s the quote that was put on Mister Kelly’s marquee.
Streisand also visited Kup’s television show (The Irv Kupcinet Show) on June 15, 1963 to publicize her gig at Mister Kelly’s. To date, no archival footage of this performance has surfaced, although she most likely sang a song or two.
In his newspaper column, Kup revealed that Julia Meade and Gale Gladstone, two actresses starring locally in a show called Mary, Mary attended Barbra’s opening night, as did actress/singer Margaret Whiting.
Streisand was accompanied by a house trio at the jazz club and comedian Jackie Vernon opened for her. His act was charming, and Vernon had a self-deprecating humor. Most Generation Xers will know Jackie Vernon as the voice of Frosty the Snowman in the animated Christmas television special.
A Streisand fan was there at one of Barbra’s shows at Mister Kelly’s. Leonard Riordan told Barbrabilia magazine he and his wife were seated right by the stage. Riordan said, “She walked out in a sophisticated pale grey gown, cut low enough to show just the right amount of cleavage and gorgeous skin. And what a show! I can still remember the hair standing up on the back of my neck. As the show ended, she came to the foot of the stage to exit, the risers were rather high, so she looks right at me, smiles and says, ‘Kind sir, would you please help me down?’ With that, she reached out her hand with those loooong nails, and I helped her down, and she again smiled and thanked my wife and I.”
Streisand’s engagement at Mister Kelly’s was an unqualified success. The Chicago Tribune’s Herb Lyon reported there was a line to get into the joint one night and people were waiting in the rain. “They’re only waiting for maybe some reservation cancelation!”
Outside of her success at the nightclub, Barbra studied Italian and ballet during her days in Chicago. She told writer Lawrence Grobel, “I could never understand performers who just sang at night and did nothing else.”
Streisand also met hairdresser Chicago-based Fred Glaser, who would style her hair until 1969. "We were introduced by Arlyne Rothberg, who booked the acts for Mr. Kelly's,” Glaser said. “Arlyne mentioned that I was the best hairdresser in Chicago, and Barbra and Marty were very interested. They asked who some of my clients were. I told them Doris Duke, Paulette Goddard, Carol Channing, names like that. I invited Barbra to visit my place on Rush Street. Marty said they didn't have much money, but if things went well, he'd take care of me.”
It was in Chicago, then, that Streisand started sporting her new, sleek hairdo, cut just above the shoulders.
PHOTO: Barbra Streisand in 1963 as she signs copies of her new album. According to Arlyne, she tried to help Streisand with the task by signing some of the albums herself but, unfortunately, signed the rising star's name as: Barbara Streisand. A mistake Arlyne said she never made again.
... Chicago Tribune, “Tower Ticker” by Herb Lyon
Quotes from Streisand’s Mister Kelly’s Reviews:
Chicago Daily News, “On Barbra’s Bandwagon” by Sam Lesner, June 15, 1963
Barbra Streisand is a 21-year-old kook from Brooklyn who was obviously born to be in show business. Appearing now at Mister Kelly's, she is vocally a cross between a sweet-voiced canary and a whooping crane, but she's sparkling and fresh.
Chicago American, “Popular Songs Unusually Sung” by Charlie Dawn, June 13, 1963
Miss Streisand is the young songstress who has done a Broadway show, made numerous featured personal appearances on television network shows, and now is capturing the fancy of Chicagoans in Mister Kelly's on Rush street.
She opened her first engagement in Mister Kelly's this week and judging by the crowds who have gathered to hear her—early and late— her 3-week showing will be a hefty winner!
For those who seek unusual treatment in song presentation, Miss Streisand is the answer. And for those who merely want entertainment the answer is the same.
With Peter Daniels as accompanist, Barbra unfolds many fine songs, all dressed in Streisand style. "Cry Me A River," the way she does it, sort of makes you forget about Johnnie Ray who introduced the number. And "Happy Days..." takes a new stance in the Streisand program.
Among other winners this comely lady presents are "Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home," "Keeping Out of Mischief Now," "Who Will Buy?" and "Down With Love."
With singing — and performing — talent like this, it's no wonder Mister Kelly's is doing a bang-up business!
Chicago Tribune, “Barbra Spells That Way, but She Sure Sings Right” by Will Leonard, June 16, 1963
Aside from demanding that her front name be spelled that way, Barbra Streisand is a very interesting 20-year-old. Vocalwise, that is. Her voice is different and exciting, not so much because of an unnatural, mechanical edge [almost any singer can affect such a gimmick], as because of its nervy, unabashed, kidding-on-the-square tone. Her advance publicity brubles with items like, “David Merrick adores her” and “She's very extraordinary,” gushes Truman Capote. That's almost enough to unsell a man who likes to wait and see, but when Merrick's adoration and Capote's gushing have sizzled down, one still has the impression of a young lady who pitches old songs with a new curve and proffers new songs of fresh flavor with a faint, quaint suggestion of the caustic. Can't recall having heard a newcomer quite like her [...]
The cover image of Barbra’s album People was taken while Barbra was in Chicago. Streisand told the Chicago Tribune in 2019 her remembrance that “when I first came here, I was enchanted by how beautiful the beach was. So one night after the show at Mister Kelly’s, I went with a photographer, who had been hired to shoot a magazine article about me, down to (Oak Street) beach. We took a bunch of shots there, and then we waited for the spectacular postcard-ready sunrise. I loved the mood and memory of that early morning shoot so much that about a year later, when I was looking for a photo for the cover of my ‘People’ album, I chose one of the pictures from that beach shoot.
“The funny thing is though, I picked one with my back to the camera. Some people at the label thought that was a terrible idea. So it was a sweet little victory when ‘People’ won the Grammy Award for Best Album Cover. So, I like to think that Chicago has always brought me good luck!”
Below: A photo gallery of Barbra Streisand at Mr. Kelly's, Chicago ... Click the arrows to navigate.
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End / Mr. Kelly's Chicago 1963
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