Babz Chula grew up in a working-class Jewish neighborhood in Jamaica, N.Y. Her father Larry was a mechanic and stock-car driver who was killed in a race when he was just 27, leaving his wife, Abby, a 24-year-old widow, to raise Babz and her brother. Abby was a booking agent for Leonard Berstein. The family settled in Los Angeles where Babz won a ...