Barbra Streisand speaks with President John F. Kennedy on May 24, 1963.Photo:National Archive/Newsmakers/Getty
National Archive/Newsmakers/Getty
Barbra Streisandstill remembers one of her earliest brushes with stardom, when the young singer met PresidentJohn F. Kennedyat the 1963White House Correspondents' Association Dinner— and broke a few rules of etiquette in the process.
Wearing clothing of her own design — a gray, Empire-style gown that parted down the center to reveal a cream sheath underneath — Streisand, then 21, performed three songs. She concluded with “Happy Days Are Here Again,” saying that she really felt joy having JFK in the White House, and her performance reflected it.
John F. Kennedy signs an autograph for Barbra Streisand after the White House Correspondents' Dinner on May 24, 1963.National Archive/Newsmakers
She continues: “When JFK got to me, he told me that I had a beautiful voice and asked, ‘How long have you been singing?’ I said, ‘About as long as you’ve been president.’ He laughed, and then I did exactly what we were told not to do.”
Streisand pulled out a card from the dinner and asked JFK to sign it for her mother, which he did, and when he returned it, she said, “You’re a doll.”
“I guess some people were a little surprised to hear me saying it to the president,” she writes. “Frankly, it just slipped out.”
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Decades later, in 2008, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts awarded Streisand with the Kennedy Center Honors. At the time, Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman stated: “Barbra Streisand’s trailblazing career in music, theater, films, and television is one of the most thrilling spectacles of our culture.”
She received the award at the White House from then-President George W. Bush.
Celebrate Barbra Streisand’s incredible career with the new PEOPLE Special EditionBarbra Streisand, available on newsstands andAmazon.com.
source: people.com
