Barbra Streisand - A Happening In Central Park

A Happening in Central Park was performed on Saturday, June 17, 1967. The concert, sponsored by Rheingold Beer, and free to the public, was held in the Sheep Meadow section of New York City's Central Park. Barbra's television sponsor, Monsanto, captured the event on videotape for airing on CBS at a later date. Barbra took a weekend off from filming Funny Girl to perform the concert. On Friday night, June 16th, Barbra and crew rehearsed until very late. Director Robert Scheerer also worked out some of his camera blocking at that rehearsal. Musically, Streisand was backed by Mort Lindsey and his orchestra. Sound engineer Phil Ramone (a Grammy Award-winning music producer for some of the biggest talents in the music industry) told Barbra Archives about his work on the Central Park concert. “We had to share the microphones between the record company’s truck and our independent truck. A spotlight was brought in, and when they lowered the back elevator off the truck that was carrying it, it cut right through the cables. You’ve never seen so many engineers with soldering guns … Not just the P.A. system was in jeopardy, but the recording system was jeopardized. About 5 o’clock that afternoon, the day of the concert, we finally got most of the cables back.” “So we never had a sound check with her or her band. The orchestra said, 'We can’t come out there with our violins and beautiful oboes. It’s too damp.' Around 5:30 or 6:00 they finally agreed. It had just started to dry up,” Phil Ramone remembered. Barbra's stage for the concert was designed by Tom John — the contemporary Plexiglass platform and stairs made it look as if Barbra was walking on air. A 200-foot track was built in front of the stage that extended into the audience. The track was utilized only for the final number, “Happy Days,” when the camera slowly moved away from the stage to reveal a mass of people — a happening! Imero Fiorentino lit the outdoor concert and praised Streisand. “I found her to be extremely cooprerative,” he said. “She was very lovely, not temperamental at all.” Fiorentino was asked by Marty Erlichman to light all the trees around the stage. “Well, that's a mammoth job,” Fiorentino explained. “To do that, we would have to ship the equipment in from Detroit, from Canada, wherever. And the cost would be phenomenal.” After the lighting director priced the cost — which was, indeed, phenomenal — Erlichman asked, “Well, how much for three trees?” Fiorentino replied, “Which three do you want?” Barbra wore a headband at Friday's dress rehearsal. (The cover of Barbra's A Christmas Album was taken that night.) Barbra tried on different gowns and worked with hairdresser Fred Glaser on alternate hairstyles. One article mentions that she considered a sequined Galanos and a flowered Brooks gown for the second act. Director Sheerer elaborated about his challenges in capturing the concert. He said, “I wanted to tape that very special thing that happens between Barbra and her audience. The only way to capture that kind of excitement is when it's happening — live. There would be no retakes.” He continued: “The hardest thing about getting this concert on tape was that there were no ground rules, no precedents to follow ... And even rehearsals wouldn't have meant all that much, except that, such as they were, they gave me a chance to establish approximately where Barbra would be standing on the stage ... how she would look in front of the cameras (I had six of them going, along with 28 microphones), how the band would sound and how my equipment would work. That was what was meant by rehearsals. The rest was flying blind, playing it by ear.” Sheerer had a 35mm camera mounted on a helicopter, and that is how he captured the serene aerial shots of New York which appear at the beginning of the T.V. special. Streisand recalled in 1991: “The forecast was rain. In addition to standard rain insurance, we tried to get mud insurance in case the rains left the park too much of a swamp for an audience. But Lloyd's of London couldn't agree on a precise definition of mud. While the rains never came, the weather was so humid that the stringed instruments wouldn't stay in tune.” Because of the lingering light in the night skies, the concert began late, around 9:45 p.m. Before Streisand took the stage, New York Parks Commissioner August Heckscher told the audience that they were the largest ever gathered for a concert in the park. “I declare this park Miss Streisand’s,” he said — and the audience shouted back “Streisand Park!” Heckscher estimated that evening that there were 128,000 people in the audience, and Streisand repeated that number during the concert. In reality, there were 135,000 people in attendance! The orderly crowd was overseen by 150 New York policemen, included 20 on horses.