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| charles rammelkamp |  | 1. Famous “I was just seventeen in the Navy on shore leave,” Bill reminisced, running the razor around my ears, “and Streisand was still a nobody. “We were at the Bon Soir Club in the Village. My buddies couldn’t stand her, though I’d raved. They walked out, shaking their heads, to meet some girls at the USO.” Streisand had the spotlight shone on Bill after his friends walked out. “‘Hey, Sailor,’” Bill imitated Streisand’s Brooklyn accent, as if he had a mouthful of bubblegum, posing with an insouciant hand on his hip, “‘where your friends goin’?’” “‘And you ain’t got a date?’ she demanded. ‘Come on up here.’” Streisand sat in Bill’s lap, crooned “I Want To Be Bad” into his adolescent ear. Years later, after she was famous and Bill a hair stylist in Manhattan, he designed a wig for Streisand, in New York filming scenes for The Way We Were. “That scene where she meets Redford in the bar, and he’s drunk? That’s my wig she’s got on. My claim to fame.” 2. La Vie Enchanté “After the Navy, when I was with Air Traffic Control down at Friendship Airport,” Bill reminisced, snipping the volunteers from my bald pate, the antennae-like strands blooming from the hard rock of my skull, “I used to fly out to Vegas free. It was fantastic. I went to all kinds of shows, saw most of the big name stars: Caught Sinatra at the Sands, along with Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior; Don Rickles at the Sahara Lounge; Andy Williams, the Lennon Sisters, Cher, Paul Anka, George Burns at Caesar’s Palace. Streisand at the International, just off the Strip.” Rattling off the names like Olympian gods, Bill moved on to the weeds in my ears and nostrils, the furry caterpillars of my eyebrows. Listening to such pure passion, I couldn’t help but wonder why he’d left such a glamorous-sounding job. Something told me it wasn’t the sort of question I could ask him pointblank – a dark secret he’d never reveal. “There you go,” Bill declared, taking the apron from around my shoulders, shaking it like a matador his cape, leaving me in suspense. | |
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