BETTE MIDLER
Just a working class girl, living out her fantasies...
Nick Kent

Special thanks to Ronni Jensen for sharing this article 


BETTE MIDLER, the Divine Miss Bette Midler, is a star. Ahmet Ertegun, man of wealth and taste, and head of Atlantic Records, believes it; Aaron Russo, entrepreneur and Miss Midler's manager, believes it: the homosexual clientele of the Continental Baths in New York believe it. And, above all, Bette Midler herself believes it.

Why, isn't she this very week on the cover of the Rolling Stone? The cover of Rolling Stone for Chrissakes, and the broad has been parading her wares in front of the Big Time Media for roughly only three months.

Truth is, the lady possesses that total belief in her own talent, recognizing her strength and acknowledging her weakness, constructing an aura of total self-confidence and awareness that just dares you to break through its charismatic veneer.

I mean, here she is in her own suite at the Chruchill Hotel, hair in curlers, no make-up to embellish her plain, if animated features, pumping out all these colourful, instant quotes in such a beautiful, slightly exaggerated manner that you just get sucked up into the pleasure of it all.

Bette Midler maintains the vital balance of "artfulness" and "artifice", even in interviews.

"All these articles? I ignore them," she says, "it just goes in one ear and out the other. Occasionally l keep articles for when I'm 80, by which time my life will have deteriorated to nothing.

"You haven't seen the show, right? Well I'll tell ya, I work very fast. I mean, I love fast shows. I saw the Rolling Stones on the last tour and it was brilliant.

"I'm a theatre person and so I know what goes into a performance, and that show was a killer. And Ike and Tina Turner. I adore Tina Turner. I love to see shows that have a good pace to them. 

"My shows are long too. I'm there on stage for two solid hours with plenty of movement and variety."

She talks on. "I enjoy music - of just any kind. I can see value in just any musical endeavor, y'know. And my influences stretch way back. I was brought up on 40s music - stuff we had around the house, like the Andrews Sisters, Boswell Sisters, Bing Crosby and all these people. And Patti Page - I have a long history of Patti Page.

"Then when rock n' roll came along, l got in with the roots of rock music - rhythm n' blues and race music. I'd like to get through all kinds of music in my career. I'd like to present a show that would set people's heads swimming with all the different styles.

Was Miss Midler working towards visions as spectacular as, say, a Busby Berkeley cavalcade?

"Oh, no. I work with tacky sets. Things that are ripped up - German expressionist like. My personality is a very large one, but it's very working-class and I'm tied to it in a very affectionate way. When I progress on stage, it'll be just as a working-class girl who's living out all her fantasies."

NOW ANYONE who's spent their hard-earned coppers to indulge in the lascivious delights of Liza Minelli in "Cabaret" will know that German Expressionism is synonymous with the ultimate chic word of the 70s - decadence.

Miss Midler made her name performing to audiences who lounge around the environment of the Continental Baths, a Bohemian Twilight Zone area frequented by homosexuals. 

Did the divine Miss M, therefore, consider her appeal to be rooted in the more decadent aspects of her persona?

"Oh everyone is obsessed with decadence at the moment, because decadence is the big thing, right? In two years time it will have blown over completely, and well go onto something else.

"I'm not worried about my relationship with decadence, simply because I transcend it. I'm at once part of it, and not a part fit.

"For instance, there are some performers who are right there at the center of it. Oh, not Jagger - definitely not Jagger. He's a rare bird - he transcends it just like me, though net necessarily in the same way. I don't know if I have the capacity to have his sort of career. I'm not sure at this point whether l possess that stamina.

"I'm thinking more of Lou Reed in this sphere of decadence.  I'm not very well acquainted with his work but people tell me he's very into that sort of thing.  

"The same would hold true for David Bowie, I suppose. I've never seen him live, but I've heard his album. I think he's trying to evolve too. He's at the center of all that, but really, when times change, well all change.

"Actually I see myself as a running commentary on time, because I learnt a few years ago that everything becomes nostalgic, and everything becomes camp.

"And you always relate to certain things like they make you laugh or they make you sdd - Images, y'know.

"I mean no-one has ever sin 'Do You Wanna Dance' the way I have. No-one ever had that particular vision. But that's the way I remember the song.

"When I came back a number of years later and decided to do it, that was exactly the way I felt it had to be done - a little melancholy on the side and sort of sexy, y'know.  I also remembered 'Leader of the Pack' like that."

HOW HAD the album come together?

"Well, the choice of songs was very definitely my own.  All I can really say about that album is that I'm very glad it's over.  

"It was put together by two producers - first with one and then a group.

"I couldn't really stand on my own two feet during those sessions. I was so nervous and unsure of myself musically. I thought it came out fairly well, but the second one is going to be uh, the right one.  

"A lot of people were concerned that my first album should have been a live album. Actually the drummer in my band was absolutely infatuated with me and taped every concert that I played at the Baths.

"But I wanted to get away from my big 'live stage performance' number, and stand up for myself on more demanding musical criteria

"It was a great challenge. I mean, my stage show is unbelievable stage show. I suppose eventually that I'll make a live album.

"But I don't want just to be considered an entertainer - full stop.  I'm a born performer - I can go out and shake my tits any old time - but a born singer is something else."

Ah Miss Midler, but are you therefore a born superstar?  

"I'm a different breed.  There's never been anyone like me before. You see, I'm very accessible - I don't close myself off to my audience. We work together on equal levels.  

"That's what I have to bring to the Seventies.  I mean, I don't like meeting stars because I discover they're all just like me.  They're all human beings.

"I originally came to New York to meet Bob Dylan, and I actually got to see him during a record session. It was fabulous - I was blushing from my stomach to my hair - we had a conversation and he actually started to giggle. 

"But he was just like me.  He had to eat and perform all the functions human beings do.

"I'm most definitely a star on stage. Most definitely.  But offstage I just can't be bothered to go through all that show. Sure, it's a schizophrenic existence, but those stars that do try and live up to their on-stage persona all end up strung-out suicide cases.  That's not  going to happen to me." 

I ASKED whether the lady would like to have total image products weaved from her personality like a Warhol sketch, or her littlesesomes frame adorning a rhinestoned tee-shirt.

"Honey, it's already been done. Hey Aaron - (beckons to manager, Aaron Russo, a large amiable bear of a man dressed in denim) - bring out the tee-shirts. Hey, what size do ya want? Small, medium or large?"

And sure enough, the Divine Miss M had her very own tee-shirt design - a modestly flamboyant affair which suited her style real fine.  

Really, there's no point in trying to get around it: Bette Midler is a star, and soon you're going to have to  admit it whether you like it or not.  

Talking to her, one is left no choice but to surrender to her remarkable style - beautifully brash showbiz tongue in-cheek bitchiness and what can only be described as genuine warmth.

Just wait till she gets you in the right environment and she'll probably slaughter you with her talent.  Me, I'm a sucker for that kind of punishment.