Barry Manilow was born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943 at Beth Moses Hospital. Barry is the son of Harold Pincus and Edna Manilow Pincus. Edna proclaimed her son the most beautiful baby you had ever seen. Edna mother Esther hated her son-in-law Harold so she called him a monster. Hence Harold the Monster. So two years after Barry was born Edna divorced Harold the Monster. Barry and his mom moved in with his grandparents Joseph and Esther Manilow. When Barry was little he use to dance around the room in his dippers. By the time Barry turned seven his family rented an accordion for him to play. Because that's what all Italian and Jewish kids learned to play. Barry wasn't half bad at the accordion. When Barry turned thirteen three things happened. One he got braces. Two he got a step-dad named William Murphy. Third he got a spinet piano. Barry had a choice to make live with his grandparents or his parents. Barry chose the latter and ended up sleeping in a closet. Barry also had two cool friends. Fred Katz and Larry Rosenfield who he hung out with. Barry went to Eastern District HS. Barry also met this raven haired beauty named Susan Deixler. Soon after high school Barry and Susan got married. They were married one year and four months when they divorced. As Barry said the music was coming out of his ears. Plus Barry had just become friends with a guy named Bro Harold who worked at the Thirteenth street theatre. Bro had Barry put a score to a melodrama called The Drunkard and off Broadway production. Barry knew Susan wanted a nine to five husband which Barry was not. So Barry moved back to Brooklyn from Manhattan. He settled in to a studio in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. However soon after he moved in so did his parents. Barry figured his mother just couldn't let go of her twenty-four year old baby boy. So he just went with the flow so to speak. Barry decided to get a sofa sleeper which allowed him a place to sleep at night. Also loads of room during the day. Barry figured by living in Brooklyn he could save some buck towards an apartment in Manhattan. Barry had quit his day job at CBS-TV in New York. He took on the job of vocal coaching. As Barry said "If the check cleared I was there." He vocal coached for Lorna Luft Judy Garland's daughter as well as many others. Plus he played piano in lounges ad piano bars throughout Manhattan. One time Barry went into a restaurant where he meet Bruce Howard Sussman a waiter. Barry and Bruce hit it off right from the start. They both realized they wanted to write musicals for Broadway. So by golly that's what they were going to do. Be Broadway songwriters like Bernstein and Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter and many others. They started by going to theatre workshops at night while still keeping their day jobs. Around the same time Barry and Bruce met Ron Dante a jingle singer who introduced them to a guy who was looking for jungle writers. Barry and Bruce got commercials for Chevy, Dodge, Polaroid cameras, Comet, Pepsi, KFC, Mickey D's, State Farm insurance, Dr. Pepper as well others. Barry wasn't half bad as a singer so he actually sang on a few of them. At least it paid the rent, bills and groceries.
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