Marty Erlichman, the talent manager who discovered Barbra Streisand as an unknown nightclub singer and guided her career for more than six decades, died October 31 in Los Angeles at age 97, according to a New York Times obituary. Erlichman signed Streisand as her personal manager in May 1961, before she had released a record or appeared in a film, and remained her manager for the rest of his life, negotiating every recording, theater, film, television, merchandise and concert contract she made.
Beyond Streisand, Erlichman produced her 2006-2007 world tour and her 2000 millennium concert, served as executive producer on all of her television specials, and produced the film "For Pete's Sake." He also produced "Coma" (1978), "Breathless" (1983) and several "Ernest" films, and won an Emmy and a Peabody Award as executive producer of "Barbra Streisand: The Concert." His client list beyond Streisand included the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem — he is credited with putting the Irish folk group in the Aran sweaters that became their visual trademark — as well as Bob Crewe, Chevy Chase, George Foreman and the "Where's Waldo?" licensing franchise.
Born in Brooklyn in 1929 and a graduate of Drake University, Erlichman built a career defined above all by its length: a single artist-manager relationship that outlasted most entire record labels, spanning Streisand's rise from Greenwich Village clubs to one of the best-selling recording artists in American history. Industry obituaries and career retrospectives have consistently pointed to the duration and stability of that partnership as unusual even by the standards of a business known for volatile, short-lived management relationships.
No immediate details on survivors or funeral arrangements were available. Tributes from the entertainment industry are expected in the coming days, reflecting a career that, while largely conducted out of the spotlight, shaped one of the defining artist careers in American entertainment.