Marty Erlichman, the manager who discovered Barbra Streisand and helped shape her career for more than 60 years, has died at 97. Streisand said last month that she had wished him a happy 97th birthday, making the news of his death a blunt end to a partnership that changed both of their lives.
For readers looking up Marty Erlichman now, the reason is simple: he was the person who first saw Streisand before she became a star. He later negotiated her recording, theater, film, television, licensing and concert agreements, and executive produced 10 of her TV specials, from My Name Is Barbra in 1963 to Barbra: The Music… The Mem’ries… The Magic! in 2017. He also shared Emmys with Streisand for Barbra: The Concert in 1995 and Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments in 1974.
The story starts with a club appearance, when Erlichman went to see Phil Leeds perform and saw an eighteen-year-old Streisand open the show. He later recalled hearing her sing five songs and getting chills through all of them. He told her then that if she was as good an actress as she was a singer, there would be no stopping her, and he could already see records, television, theater and movies ahead of her.
That instinct mattered quickly. Streisand later called him about a Detroit club engagement that paid $150 a week. Erlichman flew there at his own expense, worked out a deal that raised her pay to $175 and included dinners, and proved to the club owners that he believed in her before he was even officially representing her. Streisand later said they never even had a contract, even though he managed her for more than 60 years.
He also moved beyond management and into production, first with For Pete's Sake in 1974, the film directed by Peter Yates and sandwiched between The Way We Were and Funny Girl in Streisand's career. From there he kept coming back to the work that defined their relationship: the specials, the concert films, the tours, the deals. Streisand said he was trying to convince her to go on tour and promised to be there every step of the way.
What remains unresolved is not his place in her career but the private mechanics of it: a relationship that lasted for decades on trust, instinct and loyalty rather than paperwork. Streisand called him the greatest manager ever, and in her words he was simply indestructible. With his death, the person who discovered her is gone, and the career he helped build is left with one less witness to its beginning.
