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| re: Did Barbra fill the theatre with sound naturally or was there amplification in 1964? nm | |
| Posted by: Amiens 10:45 am EDT 08/08/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Did Barbra fill the theatre with sound naturally or was there amplification in 1964? nm - AlanScott 08:54 am EDT 08/08/22 | |
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| Alan, do you (or does anyone) know where these body mics on Streisand and Martin were situated on their bodies or costumes? Not that I doubt that they wore them, but I can't recall ever seeing evidence of the mics in production photos. Were the mics really that tiny and able to be placed so far from their mouths that they wouldn't be seen? I saw Streisand in Funny Girl when I was a teenager but could have easily missed spotting her mic. I had been a precocious young fan since her first album and was disappointed to see her more or less "walk through" the first numbers in the show, before I even understood the term. She finally came alive singing People and was then, as expected, brilliant throughout the rest of the show. Also, those bagels hanging from Private Schwartz's belt were even there in the original production, painted red, white and blue. I think they can be glimpsed in color photos (I still haven't seen the revival). |
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| re: Did Barbra fill the theatre with sound naturally or was there amplification in 1964? nm | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:11 pm EDT 08/08/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Did Barbra fill the theatre with sound naturally or was there amplification in 1964? nm - Amiens 10:45 am EDT 08/08/22 | |
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| I think body mikes back then were always on the costumes, usually in the chest area. They were relatively easy to hide in the costumes or to be made to seem part of the costume. In her autobiography, Martin says that even though she was fairly flat-chested until she was 50, she still had to try to flatten her breasts as Peter Pan. So she wore a girdle with the legs cut off and she "pulled it on upside down," over her shoulders. She wrote, "The cut-down girdle was also handy for holding the microphone, because all during the 'I'm Flying' number I was sailing so high into the wings that the sound wouldn't come down unaided. I had a mike which slipped into a little green pocket where the girdle and I met at the top. The batteries for the mike were attached to my harness by a belt at the back, and I used it only during the flying ballet." It may be that some performers who were body mikes in performance did not wear them at photo sessions. |
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| Fascinating! | |
| Posted by: Amiens 07:41 pm EDT 08/08/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Did Barbra fill the theatre with sound naturally or was there amplification in 1964? nm - AlanScott 07:11 pm EDT 08/08/22 | |
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| Thanks for your response, Alan. I find it so interesting that whatever the mikes were like back then, they were apparently very successfully hidden. How distressing that modern mics have been so readily accepted as something we're "not supposed to see" yet are often glaringly evident on too many foreheads. Clearly, the sound designers won the battle over the costume and wig designers. And not be argumentative, but there are so many production photos of Streisand in FG, and her gowns for People, You Are Woman and Music That Makes Me Dance are all quite low cut in the neck line.....can it really be those photos are all from staged photo shoots where the mikes could be removed? That's still a bit of a mystery to me. |
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| re: Fascinating! | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 11:13 pm EDT 08/08/22 | |
| In reply to: Fascinating! - Amiens 07:41 pm EDT 08/08/22 | |
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| She's still with us...someone should ask her lol. | |
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