In May 1961, a journeyman talent manager, Martin Erlichman, entered a subterranean Greenwich Village nightclub to see a comedian friend’s show. The opening act was a 19-year-old singer he had never heard of. But from the young woman’s first notes at the microphone, he was captivated.
“She sang five songs,” Mr. Erlichman recalled, “and I got chills from all five.”
The singer’s name was Barbra Streisand. And the moment she finished her act, Mr. Erlichman rushed to the dressing room to inquire about her representation. She had a manager, she said, but Mr. Erlichman gave her his card anyway. A few months later, Ms. Streisand asked him to renegotiate a $150-a-week gig in Detroit; he got her $200, plus dinners.
That was the start of one of the longest-lasting and most successful management relationships in the entertainment world, with Mr. Erlichman having served as Ms. Streisand’s personal manager since 1961, aside from an interruption of about a decade in the 1970s and ’80s.
Mr. Erlichman died on Saturday in Los Angeles, said Ken Sunshine, a spokesman. He was 97.
“I truly thought he would live forever,” Ms. Streisand said in a statement. “In my eyes, he was simply indestructible — always by my side, through everything. He can never be replaced, and I will be forever grateful for his friendship, loyalty and unwavering support.”
Over a seven-decade career that began in the folk-music world of New York in the 1950s, Mr. Erlichman served as the manager for a range of celebrities. His clients included the sweater-clad Clancy Brothers folk singers, the comedians Chevy Chase and Joan Rivers, and the boxer George Foreman.
Mr. Erlichman also produced films like “Coma” (1978), starring Michael Douglas, and Richard Gere’s remake of “Breathless” (1983). He also had a hand in the lowbrow “Ernest” comedy hits in the 1980s, starring Jim Varney.
But the short, owlish Mr. Erlichman was by far best known as Ms. Streisand’s negotiator, protector and seemingly constant companion.
Mr. Erlichman was by her side in May 1963 when she met President John F. Kennedy at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and she broke protocol by asking the president for an autograph. (Mr. Kennedy obliged, with a smile.)
Later that year, Mr. Erlichman was a witness at Ms. Streisand’s wedding to Elliott Gould in Carson City, Nev.
And in 1969, Mr. Erlichman was with her at the chaotic New York premiere of her film “Hello, Dolly!,” where fans crashed through a police barricade and a paparazzo struck Mr. Erlichman with a camera, leaving him bloodied — to his client’s horror.
“I was screaming, ‘Where’s Marty? You’ve got to help Marty!’” Ms. Streisand recalled in her memoir.
Martin Lee Erlichman was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 13, 1929, to a family with Russian Jewish roots.
According to “The Label: The Story of Columbia Records,” a 2007 book by Gary Marmorstein, when Goddard Lieberson, Columbia’s jet-set president, was negotiating with Mr. Erlichman in 1962 to sign Ms. Streisand, he would sometimes call Mr. Erlichman’s mother’s house in search of Mr. Erlichman — and found that his mother spoke only Yiddish.
Mr. Erlichman graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and as a young man, took a job as a clerk at CBS Radio. By the late 1950s, though, he was involved behind the scenes of the burgeoning folk-music world in New York. He managed the singer Josh White as well as the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem, who became as well known for their strapping harmonies as for the cream-colored Aran sweaters they wore onstage.
By the time Mr. Erlichman began working with Ms. Streisand in 1961, she was a hit on the national cabaret scene, and had appeared on “The Tonight Show.” But she had boundless ambitions as an actress, and Mr. Erlichman assured her that her goals were within reach.
According to her book, Mr. Erlichman told her: “If you’re as good an actress as you are a singer, then there’s no stopping you. I just saw you do comedy, drama. You made me laugh, you made me cry. I think you have a big career ahead of you … records, television, theater, movies.”
In early 1962, Ms. Streisand was in the cast of a Broadway musical, “I Can Get It for You Wholesale,” which had music and lyrics by Harold Rome, and a book by Jerome Weidman. She had a small role, a secretary named Miss Marmelstein, but she stole the show each night and was nominated for a Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical.
Columbia released the cast recording for “Wholesale,” though for months Mr. Lieberson had been reluctant to sign Ms. Streisand as a recording artist.
“She wasn’t singing commercial songs,” Mr. Erlichman told The New York Times in 2022. “Executives,” he added, “they’re frightened to break new ground.”
Mr. Erlichman arranged for Mr. Lieberson to see a midnight performance by Ms. Streisand at the Blue Angel club in New York City. According to “360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story,” by the historian Sean Wilentz, Mr. Lieberson then told Mr. Erlichman, “It takes a big man to admit a mistake, and I made a mistake.”
Columbia signed Ms. Streisand in October 1962, and gave her full creative control. For her first session, she went that November to the Bon Soir, the underground nightclub where Mr. Erlichman had first seen her the year before. But Columbia shelved the tapes of her recordings there, and instead booked a studio session in early 1963 that became her debut, “The Barbra Streisand Album.” (The earlier recording was not released until 2022, as “Live at the Bon Soir.”)
In the coming years, Mr. Erlichman was part of negotiating major deals that helped make Ms. Streisand one of the biggest stars in the world.
In 1964, she signed a $5 million contract with CBS for a series of TV specials over the next decade. In 1973, Mr. Erlichman made a rare appearance in one of those specials, “Barbra Streisand … and Other Musical Instruments.” Wearing a tuxedo, Mr. Erlichman stood stiffly upright as the Washing Machine Player during a tongue-in-cheek number, “The World Is a Concerto,” with supposedly avant-garde instruments like sewing machines and food blenders.
He also served as the executive producer of Ms. Streisand’s tours and concert appearances, including the opening in 1969 of the Las Vegas International Hotel. (Days after she completed her engagement that July, the second performer took over: Elvis Presley.)
In the mid-1970s, Ms. Streisand began a relationship with Jon Peters, the producer of “A Star Is Born” (1976), in which Ms. Streisand starred with Kris Kristofferson. Around the time of that film, Mr. Peters replaced Mr. Erlichman as her manager.
By then, Mr. Erlichman was already working with George Foreman, and producing films. By 1986, he had reconnected with Ms. Streisand and again become her manager.
“She and I jumped right into it like there had been no gap,” Mr. Erlichman told Billboard magazine in 1986.
One of their first projects upon reuniting was “One Voice,” a benefit concert performance filmed and recorded at Ms. Streisand’s home in Malibu, Calif., that was broadcast as a concert film by HBO that December and released as an album in 1987.
In the years since he returned to manage her, Ms. Streisand released five No. 1 albums and went on five major tours, with ticket prices that often tested the high mark of the industry, but which always sold out.
Mr. Erlichman is survived by his wife of 52 years, Miko Mayama Erlichman; their son, J.J. Erlichman, a tour and production manager; and four grandchildren.
His business relationship with Ms. Streisand was close, but in her memoir, the singer said she liked to keep her personal and business affairs separate.
“Marty’s been with me over 60 years, but we rarely socialize,” she wrote. “I’ve never even been to his office.”
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