Bette Midler . . . Face of the 80's 
David Wigg

Special thanks to Ronni Jensen for sharing this article


"There is no one to describe me," sings BETTE MIDLER, in opening her stage act. 

True, you certainly need a vivid imagination for she is a bizarre performer.

A busty 5ft 1in, she trips about the stage for two-and-a-half hours at Concorde speed, chattering non-stop.

She acts as if she's a broad on the town, with crude dialogue to match her posturing language that brought numerous complaints when she appeared at the London Palladium, but then you shouldn't take grandma to see Bette.

This comedienne from Hawaii via New York's Continental Turkish baths is deliciously outrageous, with a camp humor full of sexual innuendo. She swamps you with her thrusting personality.

Both Michael Parkinson and Bruce Forsyth found her more than a handful when they tried to interview her on their programs. Forsyth ended up chatting to her lying flat on the ground, while she almost succeeded in debagging Parkinson for a glimpse of his knees. At least, that was the excuse given.

But Miss Midler doesn't care if she shocks. She revels in being risqué. Deliberately, she thrusts out her generous bosom as the trash-with-flash girl. The Divine Miss M.

"You're gonna like this," she ordered on New York audience, "because I shake my tits a lot!"

You soon gather Miss Midler is proud of her bust which, because of her tiny stature makes her look top heavy.

At 33, she has become the biggest attraction in contemporary entertainment in America since Barbra Streisand. And she has just made her first major film which is certain to win her an Oscar nomination.

The film is simply called "The Rose" and will have its European premiere at the Midem Music Festival, Cannes, this month (January).

Miss Midler gives a brilliant performance of a tortured Janis Joplin type and a composite of a few other tragic Rock stars of the 'sixties. Reliving all their vulnerability, pain and despair, as they became victims of the Rock circus.

Janis Joplin once told me: "I'd rather live 35 full years than 70 empty ones." 

Sadly, her fame only lasted three years because at 27 she was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel room. She had drunk a quart of tequila rum, and shot a large dose of heroin into her vein.

Miss Midler was more strong-willed.

"I was able to keep clean of that scene in the 'sixties when everyone seemed to be pill-popping, snorting or injecting things into their arms. But I knew many who were hooked and went under."

She doesn't sing Joplin songs in the film, but several 'sixties numbers, which Warner Bros. are releasing on an album. Her version of "When A Man Loves A Woman" sends shivers down the spine.

She co-stars with Alan Bates, who plays her razor-sharp manager. In the film they have a brutal love-hate relationship.

It all ends tragically with her recognizing too late the value of genuine love. Instead, she obliges between the sheets with any male who will light her cigarette and her young body is eventually destroyed by all the drink and drugs she pumps into herself.

Her death scene was filmed before an audience of 12,000 extras.

"All those people screaming and shouting - it was the biggest rush I have had in my life," giggled Miss Midler. "I thought I was going to heaven. The adulation was wonderful." 

She was born a somewhat plain daughter of a Jewish painter from Honolulu. It was her movie-mad mother who named her Bette Midler after Bette Davis.

It was later she became 'The Divine Miss M'.

"I think one night I just said, 'I am divine, so call me The Divine' and from then on that was it.  Anyway, honey, you know I am," she teased.

Unperturbed by the fact that she would never score on her looks - she has a nose shaped like a boomerang - the raunchy Miss Midler was determined to break into show business. She arrived in New York when she was 19, financing the move on a bit part in the film 'Hawaii'.

"I wanted to be a great lady of the stage like Ethel Barrymore or Helen Hayes. I knew what I wanted and I just went and got it." 

She would do almost anything to get noticed - even sing in a Turkish bath.

After a year in the city she had got herself into the chorus of "Fiddler On The Roof" on Broadway. Then a girl playing a small role decided to leave the show and Miss Midler was right there word perfect ready to take over.

But it was while singing at New York's Continental Turkish baths that she came to be noticed by the record bosses. It also led to her teaming up with Barry Manilow, who accompanied her on piano.

"I couldn't resist Bette, she was too talented," he said. "Those days were educational. I became a man from the experience. It was sink or swim with Bette for me. I decided to swim."

Their combined effort went so well that Bette invited him to be her musical director, arranger, conductor and pianist. His own major breakthrough as a solo artist came in 1971, unbilled and unannounced, he came on stage and opened the second act of Bette's show during a U.S. tour.

Bette now shares her life with American actor Peter Reigert. Before that she had a love affair with her manager, Aaron Russo. On reflection, she now considers that relationship destructive.

"He felt that every time I worked it should be an event, so I would only work about once in every two years, and it was like doing a come-back every time. It drove me mad."

She loves the British and says so in her forthcoming book on sex, "Travels From A Broad". And she is full of praise for our British television because she can say what she wants without anyone shutting her up.

I would like to see anyone dare try!
 

Finally, one already well-established superstar performer makes her film debut. She is, of course, Bette Midler who is The Rose - a version of the life of Janis Joplin - is the stuff of which Oscars are made. With the absence of Liza Minelli and the default of Diana Ross and Barbra Streisand (the Main Event was something of a happening) La Midler may just well be what Hollywood and the rest of the world has been waiting for..