He inherited the largest Barbra Streisand collection in the world.

Countless versions of Barbra Streisand currently occupy six storage lockers in the Coachella Valley. There, sandwiched between corrugated metal walls and heavy layers of dust, the star's iconic profile adorns thousands of items, ranging from posters and record covers to clocks and nesting dolls.

No wonder Streisand is everywhere: she has sold 68.5 million albums throughout his career and is one of the 24 people who have completed an EGOT. He is currently promoting his new memoir, “my name is barbara”, and infiltrating homes through the news, public radio, late night televisionand plenty of journals.

But these Barbras, those of the desert, are part of the personal collection of Louis Papalas.

Lou, who discovered Streisand in 1963 on “The Mike Douglas Show,” has spent the past 60 years purchasing a host of items related to the iconic entertainer. But when Lou died earlier this year, his youngest daughter, Mara, inherited what is known as the world's largest collection of Streisand memorabilia. Although Mara recently cataloged more than 12,000 items, the estimated size of the collection ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 articles over the years.

“For 20 years I knew, 'I'm going to have to take care of this,'” Mara said, as we sat inside one of Lou's old storage units. “It's not me, but I understand it. I understand your dreams of genius, cut, brilliance, cut.

Lou and his wife lived in West Bloomfield, Michigan, but enjoyed dividing their time between Michigan and Palm Desert, California. In 2010, after the death of a close friend's parents, Mara also moved to California.

Living closer to her parents than her two sisters, Mara decided to quit her job when her father's health began to decline. And after her death, managing Lou's collection became her full-time job.

As someone who is not a Streisand fan, Mara has no interest in keeping the collection. Although she appreciates her father's love of collecting, she also inherited the hefty monthly bill for her six-unit storage unit.

“This expense and stress doesn't sit well with me,” he said with a smile.

Nine months after Lou's death, Mara has almost everything organized and labeled. One unit doubles as her office, with a few remaining Streisand posters hanging on the walls. At the end of the aisle are shelves, drawers and boxes labeled with subcategories or unique names: “concert wines,” “rare 45s,” “funny pregnant doll.”

Antique Barbra Streisand champagne and wine bottles are part of the Papalas collection.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“These catalogs are $25 to $50 each and I have boxes and boxes and boxes,” Mara said as we moved to the next unit, pointing out stacks of magazines that Streisand appeared in over the years. “These are very good. They're all Barbra Streisand mosaics, they're all different. “They're pretty funny, there's a whole box of them coming from England.”

As he raised the metal door of each unit, he recited the contents inside. While some items are labeled, such as a miniature-sized piece of Streisand's house, painted coral and removed after the January 17, 1994, earthquake, many things had to be identified by Mara and friends of his father.

“This is a score; These are just cuts; posters rolled up here; journals; posters; roadshows; These are framed album covers that he displayed,” she said, pointing to different sections. “Journals; more records; books; memorable things; programs; CD; VHS; stack dolls. There is a surprise box with a Barbra inside; a Fabergé-style egg.”

While Mara was auctioning off some items in Julian — including the dress Streisand wore in her 1965 television special, “My Name Is Barbra” — hopes she won't have to sell everything individually.

“I just have no interest in getting on eBay,” he said. “I want someone to buy this entire collection and then do something with it.”

Lou's dream was to create a nonprofit Barbra Streisand museum and performing arts center, but it's not hard to think of the many things an eclectic millionaire could do with a collection of this size. Mara hopes one superfan will buy the entire lot to create anything from a Streisand museum to a bed and breakfast with movie-themed rooms.

“I feel like I'm sitting in a cutting-edge market niche. Someone could do something really great with this and I would love it and [my dad] “I would love to,” he said. “But I don't believe that someone is me, because I don't have love for them. I have the love of him.”

Born in 1946, Lou discovered Streisand when he was 17 and instinctively began his collection by keeping magazine clippings about her in a dresser drawer. He often spoke of being amazed by Streisand's beauty, talent and candor, but as his stash of “Barbrabilia” grew, he made it abundantly clear that his love of collecting was stronger than actual fanaticism. of the.

An Italian reissue of “My Name Is Barbra” is just one of Papalas' many Streisand vinyls.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“I'm not driven to meet her, although I would be delighted,” he told Riverside's Press-Enterprise in 2005. “She is very uncomfortable with worship.”

His drawer expanded as he bought magazines and attended concerts over the years, but his collection really took off in 1999, when he discovered a website called eBay.

“I started bidding daily, averaging at least 3 purchases per day,” Lou wrote on your eBay profile at a point.

And as his collection grew, some of Lou's dreams began to come true. He saw Streisand perform live for the first time in 1994 and began displaying her collection after retiring from Ford Motor Co. in 2002.

A few years later, he began running a barbershop at night in Palm Springs. On lucky nights, Lou would change the sign to read “Barbra Shop,” inviting people inside to see busts of Babs, movie posters, record covers and other jewelry.

“I think we all met Lou on eBay,” said PJ Miller, a friend of Lou's for more than 20 years. “He was always pushing. He was consistent; he was there every day, every month, every year.”

Miller and Lou first spoke in 2002, when she cold called him to wish him luck with an event she was organizing for Streisand's 60th birthday in Detroit. caucus club. Although Miller was calling from Phoenix, Lou wanted his fellow collector and superfan to feel included.

“He says, 'I know you can't be here, but I'll make you feel like you are,'” she recalled. “And about two weeks later, I get this big cardboard box full of napkins, confetti, programs, pictures and balloons.”

Soon, she began traveling to Palm Desert every few months to help him organize his collection. Although she estimates the collection has 25,000 or 30,000 items, Miller is completely confident that Lou's is the largest Streisand collection in the world.

“I've talked to a lot of other collectors and they have a lot of larger items, but not as many,” Miller said. “Lou went to the heart of the matter and collected lobby cards, clippings and magazines: the little paper items that are lost in floods, in fires, thrown away and become more and more valuable as time passes. the years. “

But instead of selling her purchases for a profit, Lou often held on to her items or gave them away to other Streisand lovers.

“He sold pieces, but I think he gave away a lot more than he sold,” Miller said. “He would go to these fan events with a box of t-shirts, and no one left without a Lou t-shirt.”

Over the years, he had the opportunity to display parts of his collection at exhibitions in the hollywood museumhe Bernardo Jewish Museum and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, among others. After his exhibition at the Hollywood Museum, Lou was invited to one of Streisand's concerts in Arizona, where he was led backstage.

“When I met Barbra, she put her hand on her hip, looked me right in the eye and said in her best Brooklyn style, 'So where are you?' [sic] Get all my stuff?'” Lou recalled in an interview.

Through collecting, Lou also became a de facto expert on all things Streisand. In 2022, he was even accredited on Streisand’s album “Live at the Bon Soir” for sharing memories with her team.

Perhaps Streisand would be interested in buying back the collection herself. Although Mara says she's talked to some people on Streisand's team, she's not sure if they'd want to buy it from her. Streisand's team did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

But of course, it's difficult to assign a price to Lou's collection. Donating everything to a nonprofit is always an option, but Mara and her family hope to recoup some of the costs that went into collecting and housing all of these items.

“I have worked very hard throughout this year. A huge amount of money has been spent on storage over the years; A huge amount is spent on shopping,” Mara said.

Although no one in his family is completely sure how much Lou spent on his collection over the years, Mara said they generally estimate it cost him around a million dollars. But when it comes to calculating the current value of all these items, it's difficult to pin down specific details for such a large collection.

“People have told me I need to evaluate it,” Mara said. “But appraisers want between $80 and $300 an hour. AND [with] “For the amount of hours it would take to do this, I can't afford an appraisal.”

A signed and framed copy of Streisand's 1974 album, “Butterfly,” is one of the few pieces Mara keeps in her own home.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The list of items she will keep for herself is short and sentimental: two signed albums, one with a note to her father, and a caricature of Lou sandwiched between Streisand and Omar Sharif in “Funny Girl.” Maybe some things will go to Lou's family and friends who also love Streisand, but Mara hopes someone buys the entire collection before she returns to work in February. (Anyone interested can contact Mara via email or 760-229-7472.)

While it will be a relief to get rid of the cost and effort of maintaining her six storage lockers, she knows it will also mark the beginning of a new phase of grief.

“I'm going to feel very strange because [the collection] when I no longer have it. This is your playground. That was the joy of her: she loved it here,” Mara said as we sat in Lou’s old office chairs.

“I always have to see this as a blessing, no matter what,” he added. “It has given me a good distraction; He has given me the opportunity to try to make him proud.”