75th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
OCTOBER 7-10

             

BARBARA McNAIR is a Super-talented Superstar ... a young, vital, bright and beautiful lady who is the first black woman numbered among the World's 10 Most Beautiful Women by the International Society of Cosmetologists. Singer, Nightclub Entertainer, Star of Motion Pictures and Television, Authoress, Tennis Enthusiast and Avid Skier, BARBARA McNAIR is a brilliant and creative human being who gives herself totally to everything she does.

Her rise from small supper clubs to the most famous nightclubs of the nation was swift and sure. Her roles in musical and dramatic television are critically acclaimed.

From her first co-starring role opposite SIDNEY POITIER in the Mirisch Company production for UNITED ARTISTS, "THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS!", BARBARA McNAIR has been internationally recognized as a great actress deeply committed to her art.

Between films, Miss McNair headlines at many of the country's most prestigious night clubs... the Persian Room at New York's PLAZA HOTEL, the COCOANUT GROVE in Los Angeles, and the RIVIERA and THUNDERBIRD HOTELS in Las Vegas.

And she is in constant demand for television, displaying her incredibly versatile ability on "MOD SQUAD", "THE SONNY & CHER SHOW", "THE TOM JONES SHOW", "THE DINAH SHORE SHOW", and "THE GLEN CAMPBELL GOODTIME HOUR".

The demands on her time are such that Barbara recently moved from her rustic and comfortable hideaway in San Francisco to Las Vegas.

Barbara was born in Chicago, but was raised in Racine, Wisconsin, where the McNair family moved when she was three years old. Her musical talent was evident right from her first school years, and she entered all available amateur singing contests, traveling to other cities in competition and "almost always" winning.

Her Father, a foundry worker, and her Mother, a housekeeper at an institute for mentally retarded children (both are now retired), decided after consulting her teachers that Barbara should continue on with some formal musical training. She consequently majored in music at UCLA (one of her classmates was CAROL BURNETT), but after a year she decided that experience was always the best teacher.

Barbara headed for New York.

She moved into the YWCA, got a secretarial job with the National Federation of Settlements to pay the bills, and began to try to establish herself as a singer.

A series of free auditions at a variety of New York nightclubs finally paid off when Max Gordon of the Village Vanguard offered her a job. Barbara accepted happily, but she kept her steno pad and her shorthand job just in case. But soon she had an agent, was tagged for a week's stint on "ARTHUR GODFREY'S TV SHOW" and received a bushel-basketful of telegrams from the folks back home in Racine.

The steno pad was at last tossed aside for good when Barbara signed for an engagement at the PURPLE ONION in New York.

Right after that Barbara made her Broadway debut in "THE BODY BEAUTIFUL", a musical which, though short-lived, brought her a great deal of critical acclaim. Soon she was hostess of her own TV variety show, "SCHAEFER CIRCLE", on New York television. Her initial recording contract was with CORAL RECORDS for whom she made a hit record, "BOBBY". Later, she signed with NAT KING COLE'S SIGNATURE RECORDS, and in 1966 she became a MOTOWN recording artist.

In 1962, she took over the DIAHANN CARROLL role in RICHARD ROGER'S Broadway hit, "NO STRINGS", first in New York and then on a successful national tour opposite HOWARD KEEL.

Her fine acting ability was vividly demonstrated during this tour, and Barbara began being tapped for straight dramatic roles in TV shows such as "THE ELEVENTH HOUR", "HOGAN'S HEROES", and "DR. KILDARE", in between guestings on shows with ED SULLIVAN, DEAN MARTIN, DANNY KAYE and numerous others.

Motion pictures remained the last . . . and most desired . . . world for Barbara to conquer. But it was Barbara's own great performance that turned the picture into a boxoffice sensation. •

June 1988 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 11