Barbra Streisand, 1942

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An award-winning singer, actress, director, composer, and philanthropist. The highest-selling female recording artist of all time and the most decorated recording artist in history.

Barbara Joan Streisand was born in Brooklyn, NY, to a Jewish family. When she was a year old, her father had died, and her mother had struggled financially, working as a low-paid bookkeeper. Streisand received her early education in Jewish institutes. She was a shy child, been rejected by other children because of her looks, and spending much of her time watching TV and going to the movies. At 13, while on vacation at the Catskills, Streisand and her mother, a soprano in her youth, recorded songs on tape. That was the first time that she thought of herself as an artist. In the following year, after watching her first Broadway play, The Diary of Anne Frank, she decided to become an actress. She began to explore the profession, reading plays, acting theories, and biographies of stage actresses. At 15, she got her first job in the business as backstage assistance at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village.

At 16, after graduating from Erasmus Hall High School with honors, Streisand moved by herself to the Theater District, sleeping with friends while trying to get roles on the stage. At 18, Streisand won a talent contest at the Lion nightclub and started to sing at clubs in the area. During that time, she began to develop her stage persona, creating emotional characters, working on her singing range, and speaking to the audience between songs. In 1962, after two years of performing in various nightclubs, Streisand landed her first role in a Broadway production, playing Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. It got her the first Tony nomination and her first husband, Elliott Gould. Their marriage lasted for 6 years, and they had a son together.

Becoming an immediate sensation, Streisand made her first television appearance on The Tonight Show, and later on The Judy Garland Show and The Garry Moore Show, where she sang for the first time her signature song “Happy Days Are Here Again.” In 1963, Streisand released her first album, the Barbra Streisand Album, for which she won three Grammy Awards. In the following year, she returned to Broadway, playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, a role she played again in the movie adaption in 1968, receiving an Academy Award for her performance. During the 60s and 70s, Streisand established her status as a multi-talented performer, releasing a series of award-winning albums, such as Stoney End, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, and Guilty, while starring in various box-office hits, including Hello, Dolly!, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Way We Were, and A Star Is Born. In 1972, she founded the Barwood Films production, making her directorial debut in the movie Yentl in 1983, for which she became the first woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director. She continued to produce, direct and star in the films The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces.

In 1985, Streisand released The Broadway Album, which reached No. 1 in the Billboard chart for three weeks, earning her quadruple platinum and her 8th Grammy award for Best Female Vocalist. Between 1986 – 1991 she released three more albums, including a four-disc box set, Just for the Record. For many years, Streisand avoided live performance, but in the 90s, she returned to the stage. Started as a two-night New Year’s event, her show turned into a multi-city tour with ticket prices reaching $1,500, making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history and earning her five Emmy awards. At the age of 55, after almost 10 years, Streisand released an album of new songs, titled Higher Ground, once again reaching the top of the Billboard chart and earning her two Grammy nominations. In 2004, after a leave of 8 years, Streisand returned to film acting in the movie Meet the Fockers. She continued to appear in various guest roles in many TV shows and TV specials, recording soundtracks and releasing singles and records, including her 2018 protest album, Walls.

Streisand uses her fame and fortune to promote political and social causes, raising millions of dollars through live performances. She donated a building to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gifted $5 million to the Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and with the Streisand Foundation she founded in 1988, she contributed more than $16 million to organizations that promote the preservation of the environment, civil rights, women’s issues, civil liberties, and nuclear disarmament.

Throughout her career, she has recorded 50 studio albums and 10 live records. She appeared in 19 films, directed 3 movies, and produced approximately 30 projects. She received 52 gold albums, 31 platinum albums, and 13 multi-platinum albums, becoming the most decorated recording artist in history.

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“Myths are a waste of time. They prevent progression.”

“Myths are a waste of time. They prevent progression.”

Fun Facts

  • As a high school freshman, she joined the Choral Club, where she sang with her classmate, Neil Diamond.
  • Her mother never supported her career.
  • As a teenager, she used to sing on the stoop in front of her apartment building, and soon, she was invited to perform at weddings and events of her neighbors.
  • She has a fear of performing live.
  • She cloned her dog, Samantha.
  • 1960, She dropped the second “a” from her first name, changing "Barbara" to "Barbra."
  • She is one of the few entertainers to receive an EGOT – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.
  • She has been married twice and has a son from her first marriage.
  • In 1969 she dated Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
  • She performed the song “Happy Days Are Here Again” for three presidents - John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton.

Awards

  • 7 Grammy awards, 2 Academy Awards, 13 Golden Globes Awards, 5 Emmy awards, and a Tony award (1970)
  • Awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1976)
  • Distinguished Merit Award by Mademoiselle (1964)
  • The Israel Freedom Medal (1968)
  • Pied Piper Award by ASCAP and Prix De L'Academie Charles Cros (1969)
  • The National Medal of Arts (2000)
  • Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame four times
  • The Humanitarian Award (2004)
  • A medal from the French Legion of Honour (2007)
  • The Presidential Medal of Freedom (2015)

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Category: Music, Philanthropy, and Theater & Cinema
Tags: Actress, Composer, Director, NYC Women, and Singer

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Abby-Aldrich-Rockefeller-WWP
Arts

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1874-1948

A socialite and philanthropist. The co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and its biggest donor.

Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Her father was a Republican senator, and she grew up traveling back and forth between Rhode Island and Washington, DC. She was educated by a Quaker governess till she was 17 years old, and then attended Miss Abbott’s School for Young Ladies in Providence. During her upbringing, she was introduced to socialite and political circles, and at 19 years old, she made her official social debut. The following year, she embarked on an extensive European tour, where she visited many museums and art galleries and began to sharpen her skills as an art collector. At 20 years old, she met John Davison Rockefeller Jr., the son of the businessman and philanthropist John Davison Rockefeller Sr. After five years of courtship, the couple married at a big society wedding. The young Rockefellers settled in NYC, first in 13 W. 54th Street in Manhattan and later in 10 W. 54th Street. Rockefeller was a philanthropist in the heart, and she devoted herself to various charities. She donated money to the girl scouts, chaired the Auxiliary 336 of the American Red Cross, was a member of the Young Women’s Christian Association National Board, and served as chairman of different committees of the organization. In 1918, Rockefeller was chosen to chair the Housing Committee of the War Work Council, in which she worked for the improvement of living conditions for working women. She later applied the concept to the employees of Standard Oil – her husband’s family firm, purchasing land and building homes for the workers as well as a Community Center that included a clinic, nursery school, gym, and even a bowling alley. In 1925, Rockefeller revived her love for art and began collecting paintings and drawings mainly of contemporary American artists as well as European modernists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Within a few years, she converted part of the room in her 7th floor Manhattan apartment into a gallery, where visitors could view the art on display. In 1929, alongside Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, she co-founded the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC – the first museum in the US devoted entirely to the modern movement. Rockefeller held several positions in the museum management team, from treasurer to Vice-President and Vice-Chairman, as well as served in its committees. She pushed for establishing the museum’s film library and for the War Veterans’ Art Center – a rehabilitation program for WW2 veterans through art. Rockefeller’s dedication to art expanded outside of MoMA; she donated art pieces to other institutes, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Met Cloisters, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Ludwell-Paradise House at Colonial Williamsburg. She passed away after suffering a heart attack at the age of 73. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Ada Louise Huxtable WWP
Arts

Ada Louise Huxtable, 1921-2013

An architecture critic and a writer. Received the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Born Ada Louise Landman in NYC, an only child in a middle-class Jewish family. Growing up in Manhattan, Huxtable loved strolling along the streets, fascinated by its building, such as the Grand Central Terminal, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. She studied art at Hunter College, graduating magna cum laude, and then architectural history at NYU Institute of Fine Arts. At the time, she worked in Bloomingdale’s furnishings department, where she met her soon-to-be husband, Garth Huxtable. In 1946, at 25, Huxtable landed a job as an assistant curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. After five years, she left her job to study Italian architecture in Italy for a year. Upon her return, she began writing as a contributing editor for various art and architectural journals. At the age of 37, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship, in which she examined the structural and design advances of American architecture. In 1963, 42 years old Huxtable was hired as the first architecture critic at The New York Times, a position she held for almost 20 years. In her column, she wrote about new and old buildings, threatened buildings, and bad-designed buildings. She also mentioned emerging architects, architectural trends, movements, and exhibitions. Huxtable encouraged the everyday readers to look at buildings from a new perspective, not as an assembly of bricks and pilasters but as a public statement with history and meaning. Raising awareness of the city’s heritage, the urban environment, and civic engagement, she set the tone for modern architecture criticism, for which, at the age of 49, she was the first-ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In 1981, at the age of 60, Huxtable received a MacArthur grant that allowed her in-depth research on subjects she was interested in, such as the development of the skyscraper, the negative impact of postmodernism building, and preservation vs. modernity. At 76, she returned to writing for the public as an architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal, publishing columns for the next 15 years. Throughout her career, Huxtable was involved in various committees, serving as a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Architectural Selection and Building Design Committees for the Getty Center, Getty Villa, and as a Jury member for The Pritzker Architecture Prize. She published more than 10 books on architecture, including “Kicked a Building Lately?,” “Goodbye History,” “Hello Hamburger,” and a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. Huxtable died in NYC at 91. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Adena Friedman WWP
Economics & Finance

Adena Friedman, 1969

A businesswoman, the president and CEO of Nasdaq, the first woman in this position and to lead a global exchange.

Born Adena Robinson Testa in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her BA in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts and an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. In 1993, at the age of 24, she married Michael Cameron Friedman. In that same year, she joined Nasdaq as an intern and soon began moving up. In her first 18 years at Nasdaq, Friedman served in various positions, such as marketing manager, head of data products, head of corporate strategy, and Chief Financial Officer. In 2011, at 42, Friedman left Nasdaq to join Carlyle Group, a private investment firm in Washington DC. There, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director. After three years, she returned to Nasdaq as president and Chief Operating Officer. In 2017, in addition to her role as president, 48 years old Freidman was appointed CEO of the Nasdaq. The first woman in this position and the first woman to lead a global exchange. She oversees the company’s business segments, focusing on efficiency, product development, expansion, and growth. Under her leadership, Nasdaq transformed into a leading global exchange and technology solutions company, operating across six continents. In addition to her work in Nasdaq, Freidman is also a member of several boards. Among them are – the board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the board of FCLTGlobal – a non-profit organization that works on ways to encourage long-term investing, and the board of Greater Washington, DC. A Chapter of Junior Achievement – a non-profit organization that supports teens in their way to financial independence. Freidman often speaks about women in leadership positions, advocating for mentoring and creating career opportunities for women in the financial industry. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-WWP
Politics & Leaders

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 1989

Democratic Socialist politician, the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx borough of NYC to a Puerto Rican family. Her political tendencies were recognized from a young age, and in high school, she participated in the National Hispanic Institute’s Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session and later served as its Secretary of State. She attended Boston University, graduating cum laude with a BA degree in international relations and economics. While studying in college, she was an intern in Senator Ted Kennedy’s section of foreign affairs and immigration issues. As the only Spanish speaker in the office, she was the one to assist the families who were separated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After college, Ocasio-Cortez returned to the Bronx and worked at the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute, as well as a community organizer, a waitress, and a bartender, helping her mother with fighting a Foreclosure on their home. In 2016, she was a volunteered organizer at Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. She became active with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, traveling across the country speaking to the communities that have been affected by the change of drinking water in the area. The encounter with the local activists inspired her to work for her community. Not long after, she received a call from Brand New Congress, recruiting her as a progressive candidate for the congressional district election. In April 2018, still working as a waitress, Ocasio-Cortez launched her primary campaign for NYC’s 14th congressional district election – the first person in 14 years to challenge Joe Crowley’s seat in US congress. Under the slogan “The Courage to Change,” she organized an all-volunteer grassroots campaign and did not take corporate donations. With a strong social media presence, she defeated her opponent by almost 15%, becoming the youngest woman ever to serve in the US Congress. Arriving at the House of Representatives with millions of followers on social media, Ocasio-Cortez was appointed by her colleagues to give them social media lessons. In congress, she runs on a progressive platform. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a loud advocate for social policies, such as abolishing ICE, universal healthcare, gun control, cancellation of student debt, tuition-free public college and trade school, criminal justice reform, and ending the privatization of prisons. She is also promoting climate policies, and together with Senator Ed Markey, she introduced the “Green New Deal” – a plan to switch to renewable energy sources for the entire country to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
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