AN APPRECIATION OF BARBARA McNAIR by A. Scott Galloway Barbara McNair was a gutsy, unpredictable, multi-talented and beautiful Black star during the unsettling transitional decade of the `60s. So stunning was Barbara that in 1969 she was voted among The World’s Ten Most Beautiful Women by the International Association of Cosmetologists. As a triple-threat darling of television, film, Broadway and pop recordings, she definitely benefited from doors opened by classy women of color who came before her. But as a star that peaked in her mid-30s - during the late `60s years of flower power, free love, women’s rights and civil rights - she also proved a bit more daring and controversial in some of her career and life choices. Though her glory years were long behind her when she passed away last Sunday at age 72 from throat cancer (a severe sentence for one who made her living as a singer), for those who remember her brightest shining hours, she sure was somethin’ to behold. Barbara Joan McNair was born in Chicago’s Cook County Hospital, but her family moved to Racine, Wisconsin during the Depression. Her father was a foundry worker and her mother was a housekeeper at a facility for mentally challenged children. Her mother put her on piano lessons early, but Barbara gravitated toward singing, later performing in local shows and talent contests. Her favorite singers were jazzy/pop divas Sarah Vaughan (Black) and June Christy (White). After high school, she journeyed west to California to study music at UCLA. She stayed in the home of Ulysses Griggs who presided over the Holy Methodist Church (on Adams Blvd). The family often awoke to the sound of Ms. McNair singing in the morning. Quite the party animal, Ms. McNair still managed A’s and B’s in her course work. However, the bright lights of Broadway (make that the hard knocks of New York) were calling and after a year, Barbara headed east in search of her big break. After making ends meet doing secretarial work, Barbara’s first pro gig was a short stint at the Village Vanguard in 1957. She couldn’t get over people talking, smoking and clinking glasses throughout her act. She also won the amateur hour at the Apollo and a coveted spot on the highly influential Arthur Godfrey Show. Then while performing at the Purple Onion club, producer Dick Camor approached her to join the Broadway show The Body Beautiful. She later toured with the company of Richard Rodgers’ No Strings in 1963 (taking over for Diahann Carroll). She became a cabaret and nightclub sensation, winning fans at high-toned establishments such as Mr. Kelly’s in Chicago, The Silver Slipper in Las Vegas, Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe, The Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles and the Persian Room of the Hotel Plaza in Manhattan. Ms. McNair once claimed that back home in Racine there were only 20 Black people, but she never encountered racism there. It was only after getting out in the world, particularly the auditions and club circuit of show business, that it reared its ugly head. But she learned to cope, for instance, performing in one Miami hotel yet staying at the Roberts Hotel with all the other Black talent and having “a grand ol’ time!” It was after seeing Barbara on a TV show that Maria Cole, wife of the great Nat “King” Cole, suggested that her husband cast her in his traveling musical I’m With You – an association from which she learned even more about all aspects of show business for Blacks in the era. Early in her career, she recorded several singles for the Coral label, including a minor pop rock ditty titled “Bobbie.” But on the heels of her triumphant run in No Strings, she was signed to Warner Bros. Records where she recorded two albums arranged by the great Ralph Carmichael: I Enjoy Being a Girl (with liner notes penned by a gushing Mel Torme) and The Livin’ End. Material ranged from show room standards like “The Best is Yet to Come” and the challenging “Irma la Douce” to come-hither froth such as “What Are You Afraid Of” and “I’ve Got Your Number.” She continued to wow new sets of fans with her many television appearances on hit shows hosted by Dean Martin, Steve Allen, Jack Parr and the peerless Ed Sullivan. But it was after an appearance on the more youthful Hullabaloo rock program that Berry Gordy, Jr. approached her about bringing a touch of class to his then swiftly-ascending Motown empire. With dreams of dollar signs from the mature and moneyed “middle of the road” (MOR) demographic, Gordy signed McNair and Billy Eckstine...though Ms. McNair once swore he said it was to the company’s “Opera Dept.!” Interestingly, Barbara’s first single for Motown was one she co- penned titled “You’re Gonna Love My Baby,” followed by the now highly collectible Northern Soul ditty “Baby A-Go-Go” (original 45s of which sell for up to $400). Her fine debut Lp for the company, Here I Am(1966), was highlighted by a dramatic rendering of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s “My World is Empty Without You” (complete with kettle drums), the sexy bass-driven “Steal Away Tonight” and the Smokey Robinson-penned title track “Here I Am Baby.” No hits ensued and by the time Motown finally released a second Lp, ,The Real Barbara McNair (1969), she was making fresh inroads to the worlds of film and television. She made her big screen debut in If He Hollers, Let Him Go (1968), in which she played the nightclub singer/girlfriend of an escaped prisoner (Raymond St. Jacques). The picture featured a frisky love scene between a nude McNair and St. Jacques that was pre-promoted with a 5-page spread in Playboy dubbed “The Reel Barbara McNair” – a controversial move for a black star in 1969. Emboldened by the changing times, McNair stated in the interview, “This picture really socks it to all those other film makers who wouldn’t allow love between a black man and woman. People are looking for a more honest approach to life, and that includes a more honest approach to the body.” One other trippy film followed (the psychedelic indie Venus in Furs w/ Doug McLure for which she also sang the theme), but McNair remains best remembered for her roles in 1969’s Change of Habit (as a nun assisting a clinical physician played by Elvis Presley), and especially 1970’s They Call Me Mister Tibbs (as wife of police detective Sidney Poitier) and its sequel The Organization (1971). On television, along with guest appearances on hit shows such as Mod Squad, Mission: Impossible, I Spy and McMillan and Wife (progressively cast as Rock Hudson’s ex-girlfriend), McNair starred in two programs: The Circle and her very own syndicated The Barbara McNair Show (a half hour variety program that featured guests such as Johnny Mathis, B.B. King and Bob Hope (the latter with whom she performed SRO shows in Vietnam). She was the first black female ever to host such a show. One other album of note was released in 1969 on the Audio Fidelity label titled More Today Than Yesterday, featuring arrangements by African American conductor Coleridge Taylor Perkinson and highlighted by the Perkinson-penned “I Can Tell,” Jim Webb’s “Didn’t We,” “Love Has a Way (Theme from Goodbye Columbus)” and “I, Capricorn.” The seventies saw a decline in work for McNair. Her career suffered when in 1972, she was accused of heroin possession after she signed for a package delivered to her dressing room. She was later cleared of the charge, but the damage had already been done. And after her husband/manager Rick Manzie was murdered in their Las Vegas living room in 1976 (allegedly mob-related), things really got quiet. McNair continued to make periodic television appearances on programs such as The Jeffersons and The Redd Foxx Show, and had a recurring role on the soap opera General Hospital. She was a favorite on the cruise ship circuit and once did fundraising on behalf of the Tuskegee Airmen in Palm Springs. And in 2005, she opened for comedian Bob Newhart on selected dates. An athletic and competitive woman who enjoyed life, McNair played tennis and skied for recreation. Two years before her death, Ms. McNair released her final limited edition CD, "Here’s to Life" (with The Andy Howe Trio) through her and her husband Charles Blecka’s own B.C. Entertainment company. I reviewed this 14-song CD in Urban Network noting the top-choice and eclectic nature of the repertoire, McNair’s still heart-wrenching voice and, in particular, the numbers “Autumn Leaves” (Ms. McNair’s all-time favorite piece), “Come Back as a Song” and the CD-closing title track. I also reviewed her final Los Angeles concert on March 8, 2005, at Catalina Bar & Grill, a bittersweet yet triumphant engagement that was part of Michael Konik’s then-new “Tasty Tuesdays” series. Back in 2000 during a forum hosted at the Lucy Florence Coffee House in Leimert Park by Lillian Lehman, Ms. McNair stated that she would like to be remembered as having opened some doors…as Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge had done before her. Barbara McNair is survived by her sister Jacqueline Gaither, her fourth husband Charles Blecka, nieces and nephews. (Note: Ms. McNair’s Here’s to Life CD is still available on her official website, www.barbaramcnair.com |
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