Barbra Streisand. Singer. Actress. Director. Activist. And, for one Chicago-area man, cottage industry.
Lounge singer-turned-entrepreneur Anthony Andrich has turned his love for the entertainment world’s premier renaissance woman into a small but bustling business enterprise.
His mail-order business specializes in supplying fellow devotees with what he calls “Barbrabilia”–the albums, singles, posters and hard-to-find flotsam and jetsam of Streisand’s almost 35-year show-biz career.
The quarterly magazine he launched last September–also christened Barbrabilia–has just been picked up by Tower Records for distribution at its stores around the world.
And he recently hosted “Barbra: The Convention” at the Willowbrook Holiday Inn, drawing Barbraphiles from as far away as Germany and Australia. Next on Andrich’s to-do list: The Barbrabilia Barbra Streisand Fan Club, which he hopes to launch this fall.
It’s an impressive list of accomplishments for a businessman who runs his empire from the basement of his parents’ house in Arlington Heights.
“Right now it’s not that profitable, but it does well enough that it’s what I can be doing ,” says the 33-year-old Andrich. “Basically, the memorabilia business takes care of itself, so I end up spending all my time on the magazine.”
Andrich’s life hasn’t always revolved around Her. Growing up on Chicago’s West Side, he couldn’t tolerate the Streisand TV specials that his mother adored. At the time, he was more enthralled by science fiction than by Broadway divas. But that all changed when his parents tried to take him to see “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
“The movie was sold out, so we went to see `Funny Girl’ instead. I didn’t want to see this stupid movie with the dumb music,” Andrich remembers. “But during her first number, my jaw just dropped. That was the beginning of it all.”
The film sparked twin passions in Andrich. He developed a love for performing, and he would eventually become good enough to sing at the top jazz venues around town. Though he became a fixture at the south suburban Sabre Room and even opened for Tony Bennett once, he eventually lost his lust for the limelight.
“I made it to one level and just never made the next step,” he says with a hint of regret.
His other passion–Barbra Streisand–hasn’t faded with time, of course. He started buying Streisand merchandise soon after seeing “Funny Girl,” gradually amassing the huge collection that today rests in his parents’ house, “downstairs in the vault.” It includes more than 1,000 rare 45s, about 100 posters and such curios as a tiny golden chair presented to a Columbia Records executive to celebrate the sales of the “Funny Girl” soundtrack album.
It was The Tour
But Andrich’s love for all things Streisand didn’t turn entrepreneurial until after the touchstone of every true fan’s life: The Tour.
In late 1993 and early ’94, Streisand went on tour for the first time in more than 20 years. True believers went to as many performances as they could, fearing that the concerts would be their stage-shy idol’s last.
Today fans brandish the number of shows they saw like the chevrons on a sergeant’s arm. Andrich saw her seven times: twice in Las Vegas, three times in Detroit, once in New York and once in Anaheim, Calif.
His devotion saddled him with a credit card debt that he’s still paying off, but he has no regrets. Not only did he get to see his hero perform in person, but he also won himself a certain kind of immortality. Rent the video of Streisand’s performance in Anaheim and listen for the man who shouts, “You take our breath away!” after the song “Lazy Afternoon.” Yes, Andrich will tell you proudly, that was he.
The market was there
At the concerts, Andrich was surprised by the size, diversity and disposable income of Streisand’s fan base.
“My friends and I noticed how the concert merchandise was selling like crazy,” he recalls. “I knew there were mail-order places that specialize in movie posters and collectibles, and I knew some were doing all Frank Sinatra stuff or all Beatles stuff. I thought it was time for someone to do that for Barbra.”
Andrich created the magazine as a way to reach Streisand fans starving for more merchandise. He started Barbrabilia with 67 initial subscribers and a simple editorial policy: “If Barbra should ever see the magazine we’d like her to say, `Oh, this is fine.’ “
Though the focus was originally on Streisand memorabilia and not the woman herself, that has changed. In addition to the exhaustive inventories of Barbrabilia, the magazine also features updates on Streisand’s projects and activities, retrospectives on her early career, reviews of Streisand-related books and more. The mix of collectibles and fannish musings has won the magazine a growing audience. By the summer issue, the number of subscribers was up to 400. And circulation is set to jump again, thanks to the new agreement with Tower Records.
Andrich originally got his magazine stocked at the Tower on Clark Street by employing a little Streisand-style chutzpah: He just walked in and gave a copy to Rozanne Turner, the store’s magazine buyer.
“I was interested because we carry another magazine about Streisand called All About Barbra, which does really well for us,” Turner said.
Turner took 10 copies of Barbrabilia. They sold out almost immediately. Then she got 10 more, and those sold, too. Knowing a good thing when she saw it, Turner hooked Andrich up with Tower’s head office in Sacramento. A deal was struck, and now Andrich sends 350 copies of the magazine to Tower to be distributed at all its stores.
That’s a real coup for a small, fan-based magazine. But perhaps it’s more important to Andrich for another reason. “It was great to see the look on face when he realized that this magazine I put out is going to be sold at Tower Records.”
Though Andrich is the guiding force behind Barbrabilia, he magnanimously shares the glory of its success with his staff. Volunteers from across the country feed him articles and news items. He even has a foreign correspondent in London who keeps him updated on Streisand’s comings and goings on the continent.
“We’re all having a good time working on it. That’s what makes it work,” Andrich says. “I have a whole new group of friends now. The phone bill is unbelievable.”
Convention a crowd-pleaser
Many of Andrich’s far-flung friends met face-to-face for the first time at the convention in Willowbrook. More than 150 people came together for two days of listening to, watching, discussing, dissecting and celebrating Barbra Streisand.
Vendors dominated one meeting room, their tables covered with Streisand singles, CDs, posters, lobby cards, pictures, paintings and whatnot. (One vendor even dared to display an issue of a less-than-savory men’s magazine because of its claim to have a “Barbra Streisand Nude!” pictorial.) In another meeting room, the faithful huddled together to take in an all-day video retrospective of Streisand’s movies and TV appearances.
The convention featured a special guest, too. Not Streisand, though there was much prayer for a miracle. Instead it was Streisand biographer James Spada who put in an appearance, reading from his newest book (“Streisand: Her Life” , which will hit stores in early October) and answering questions from the crowd.
The day after the convention ended, an exhausted but exhilarated Andrich proclaimed it a huge success. “There were still people shopping after midnight when we were . They wouldn’t have gone home if we would have stayed,” Andrich says. “Everyone was asking, `When is it going to be held next year?’ The only negative thing I heard was from people who wished it was longer.”
Attendance far surpassed Andrich’s expectations, and the resulting “Barbra frenzy,” as he put it, meant that the memorabilia vendors went home with their wallets full. Andrich estimates that the fans dropped as much as $12,000 at the dealers’ stands. He made a little more than $5,300 himself on memorabilia sales.
A personal thank you
But Andrich says his own profit is less important than the chance to give something back to Barbra. Money raised from registration fees, an auction, a raffle and the sale of licensed merchandise will be handed over to the Streisand Foundation, an organization founded by Streisand to support the liberal causes she champions. Andrich estimates that the donation will top $10,000. He hopes to hand the check to Streisand personally, along with a plaque with a special message: “In recognition of your integrity as an artist and your compassionate human spirit, we, the people, salute you.”
Would the mercurial Streisand take part in such a ceremony? Probably not. But it wouldn’t be fair to Andrich to say it’s impossible. After all, when it comes to Barbra Streisand, he has already displayed a considerable gift for turning dreams into reality.
For more information on Barbrabilia–the magazine, the merchandise and the club–call 708-603-3407.
