My husband, daughter and I
was the key to the door out of
moved out of the apartment building
Brooklyn."
before Barry did, and he made a point
After high school he entered City
of coming over to say a sincere good-
College of New York, lasting only a
bye. Knowing that I was a writer, he
couple of semesters until he trans-
also made. a point of saying he would
ferred to the New York College of
grant me an interview anytime.
Music. He landed a job in the CBS
"Just let me know whenever you
mailroom and married his high school
have a publication interested," he said
sweetheart, though the marriage lasted
with a warm smile, "and I will gladly
less than a year.
talk or meet with you."
He broke into show business when
Over the years, I have tried repeat-
a director he met at CBS asked him to
edly ro get an interview with him
sing in his Off Off- B roadway show
but to no avail. Dozens of faxes and
The Drunkard. His next stinr was
phone calls to publicists but no grant-
musical director for a production of
ing of an interview.
The Pajama Galne.
Nonetheless, it's been hard not to
For a brief rime, he lived in Detroit
follow Barry's sensational career. A com-
with friend and aspiring musician
poser, producer, and entertainer, Rolling
Jeanne Lucas, a University of Michigan
Stone magazine crowned him "the
graduate from Dearborn. While collab-
showman of our generation."
orating on songs, they landed a job
In the nearly three decades
since we were neighbors, Barry,
53, the once gawky and inse-
cure Jewish kid from New York,
has received a Grammy, Emmy
and Tony Award and has been
nominated for an. Academy
Award.
In reflecting on his road to
stardom, he once told People
magazine that he "shlepped up
the ladder of success."
He \vas born in Brooklyn,
N.Y., as Barry Alan Pincus to
working-class parents, a Jewish
mother, Edna Manilow, and an
Irish father, Harold Kelliher,
who wanted to give his own
mother's 'maiden name to his
son. Barry's parents divorced
when he was 2. He was raised
Barg Manilow: Early in his career, he "was
in Brooklyn by his mother and
turned
off by Judaism for many years, believing in
his grandparents, Esther and
the simple concept that i f l wasn't good, God
Joseph Manilow, both Russian
would punish me." As he became more relaxed
immigrants.
with success, he learned to become more generous
He credits his grandparents
with others, "which is what Judaism is all about."
with teaching him Jewish tradi-
tions and sending him to
Hebrew school. He changed his name
performing at Paul's Restaurant and
to Manilow a few weeks before
Lounge in downtown Detroit.
becoming a bar mitzvah.
Perhaps Manilow's biggest break
"The name Pincus bothered my
came when he went on tour with
mother," he has said. "There was no
Bette Midler as her arranger-accompa-
Pincus in our family. She had gone
nist. During one of her performances,
back to being called Manilow when
he sang his "Could It Be Magic?" and
she divorced my father. Grandpa was
earned his first standing ovation.
the last Manilow male, and if he were
From there, music moguls took
to die, so would the name."
notice, and he began to cut his own
Barry started playing the accor-
records and headline at arenas around
dion at 13. When he became a
the country. Before long, he catapult-
teenager, his mother bought him a
ed into superstar status.
piano, and he began writing songs
Yet despite the fame, Manilow has
on it by age 17.
had his ups and downs. According to
It was that piano, Manilow writes
People magazine, in the early 1980s he
in Sweet Life (McGraw-Hill), his auto-
tired of all the pressure and hid our in
biography published in 1987, "that
his Bel Air, Calif, home. "I chained

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8/6
1999

Detroit Jewish News. 99