Barbara appeared in the movie “The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart” (1970). She did get terrific exposure in this movie. In fact, she opened and closed the film.
Her role, at the opening of the film, was to exit an apartment at street level, walk to a newsstand and purchase reading material, and, at the close of the film walk back to her apartment giving the impression that the entire movie takes place in that time interval.
The movie deals with a confused college student, Don Johnson (DJ), and his exposure to sex, relationships and drugs. This was DJ’s first movie role.
Barbara shared a dressing room with him. She wore a bright red outfit, slacks and low-cut top with a bare midriff.
In the movie, DJ, high on drugs, is required to streak across a college campus (I think it was Columbia University’s campus) naked. The movie was filmed during the streaking craze.
When Barbara entered the dressing room, there was DJ wearing only a raincoat.
And yes, he flashed her. Evidently, DJ was undressed waiting for his cue to streak.
One other incident occurred during this shoot that made it very memorable. The shoot occurred on Broadway near 92nd Street on Manhattan’s Upper Westside.
I was in attendance standing amongst film crew members. The director wanted to do several takes of Barbara’s scene.
During one of the takes, everyone froze as a tall, husky black man totally stoned on drugs walked through the crowd and into the scene. To make the matter more tense, he was carrying a knife.
I don’t know who, it may have been the director, but someone shouted, “Don’t anyone move.” And nobody moved.
We just watched this fellow walk through the scene and on his way oblivious to what was going on. But everyone was ready to pounce on him had he made a threatening gesture. Barbara was really frightened. Who knows whether we would be able to stop him before he injured her?
Luckily, the filming resumed once he left the scene. Did I tell you that moviemaking is just a lot of fun?