See Babs’ NYC ’60s bathtub

A stunning new book of never-before-seen photos of Barbra Streisand in the ’60s, just as she became a superstar, has been published — showing the icon in a series of intimate and unusually unguarded moments. Photos taken by the late Life photojournalist Bill Eppridge, famed for his photograph of RFK after his ’68 assassination, are in the Rizzoli book “Becoming Barbra,” available for purchase April 10.

Between ’ 63 and ’66, the fotog got insight into the beginning of Streisand’s career. At age 21, she allowed him to shoot her in her Third Avenue apartment, as she washed her underwear in the bathtub, located in the kitchen. The pics include the singer meeting Coco Chanel in Paris, and touring Rome. There’s even a picture of Strei- sand and her beloved dog, Sadie, a gift from her castmates in “Funny Girl” on Streisand’s 24th birthday, which she later cloned into new pups.

“It was like a roller coaster 24 hours a day,” Eppridge said in a ’66 account of the three weeks he spent in NYC, Paris and Rome with Babs. He said he had to bribe her waiter to call him when he served her breakfast.

Eppridge’s wife and the director of his archive, Adrienne Aurichio, said it took 24 years to get the book published. “Life first sent Bill to photograph Barbra in 1963, when she was on the verge of becoming a huge star, when she was living in an apartment that was decorated with empty picture frames.” Only one picture from that ’63 assignment was published. “Once the stories were published, many of the pictures sat unseen in file cabinets for years.” She continued of Eppridge, who died in 2013 at age 75, “This is the first book of Bill’s photographs that he did not live to see published . . . It took so long because many publishers didn’t want to publish the book without Barbra’s approval.” That was the biggest obstacle, she said, because Bill, as a photojournalist, never permitted prior approval. She added of Streisand, who now prefers to be shot from only one side, “I don’t think Barbra would mind . . . the book is a beautiful tribute to her.” Streisand’s rep declined to comment ahead of seeing the book.

Eppridge wrote in the intro in ’94, “Now, we realize that in many cases, especially hers, extraordinary people have ordinary beginnings.”