Bette
Midler
 Bette
Midler grew up in Hawaii, where her parents Fred and Ruth had
moved in the early 1940s from Paterson, New Jersey.
The family subsisted on the modest income Mr Midler made
painting houses and doing civilian work for the US Navy.
Ruth, meanwhile, escaped their threadbare circumstances
through a consuming interest in Hollywood films and movie
fanzines.
She went so far as to name all three of her daughters after
her favourite screen stars: Judy (after Garland), Susan (as in
Hayward) and Bette (in tribute to Davis).
By the time Bette graduated from high school (she was class
president and valedictorian), she had earned a reputation as a
first-rate clown, a second-rate amateur shoplifter and a fledgling
folk singer as part of a female vocal trio called The Pieridine
Three.
A bit-part in a production of James Michener's Hawaii strengthened
her hunger for the spotlight, and she departed Hawaii in 1965
with $1000 in savings.
At length she arrived in New York and took a room in the
Broadway Central Hotel, begged for bit parts on and off the
Great White Way and survived by doing filing at Columbia
University, selling glove at Stern's department store and go-go
dancing at a bar in Union City, New Jersey.
Through a series of breaks she ended up with a three-year run
in the Broadway production of Fiddler On The Roof,
first as a member of the chorus, then as the eldest daughter
Tzeitel.
Deciding to concentrate on her singing, she made her solo
debut at Hilly Kristal's old club (before he opened CBGB's). She
was booked on The David Frost Show and The Tonight
Show and engaged at Manhattan's Continental Baths
for sixteen weeks.
In the space of only two years, she went from a camp curiosity
at the Continental Baths to breaking it big with her debut
album, The Divine Miss M (1972). Produced by Barry
Manilow, the album was released by Atlantic Records, and
reportedly sold 100,000 copies in the first month.
It contained songs she featured in her stage act, such as the
Andrews Sisters' Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, the Dixie
Cups' The Chapel Of Love, and the Shangri-La's The
Leader Of The Pack. Manilow was the pianist on most of the
tracks, and he was Midler's accompanist and musical director for
three years in the early 1970s.
Bette became the brightest new star in the music industry. It
should have lasted - but it didn't.
Tackling contemporary classics (Beast Of Burden),
soul standards (When A Man Loves A Woman) and - most
famously - show tunes, Midler demonstrated that an irrepressible
personality does not guarantee musical prowess.
With interpretations ranging from the ersatz to the
toe-curling, Miss M often demonstrated that, unshackled from her
brassy stage persona, her actual vocal talent is quite limited.
In the 1980s, Bette concentrated on making movies and finally
found her niche in Down and Out In Beverly Hills and Ruthless
People.
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