Bette Midler: The Divine Miss M imagine...

This programme contains some strong language

I'm here with Alan Yentob from the Beeb.

LAUGHTER

This is my friend Marc,

he will be underscoring this interview,

which I think will be a first.

I don't know of an interview that's ever been underscored.

I'm sure the BBC has done it all.

That would be good. Why don't you underscore the entire interview?

-I don't want to...

-Oh, come on, bring me back.

There's no-one quite like Bette Midler.

Don't you know who I am?

Her talents took her from Broadway to pop, and then screen stardom.

Ta-da!

An outrageous, captivating entertainer,

with a soulful voice...

# God is watching us

# From a distance... #

..and a raucous wit.

My boyfriend Ernie said to me, "Soph, if you could learn to cook,

"we could fire the chef."

I said, "Ernie, if you could learn to fuck,

"we could fire the chauffeur!"

# Come on to my house, my house... #

At the age of 72, Bette is about to appear on Broadway in Hello, Dolly!

When I met her a few years ago, she invited me to spend time with her

in New York and go back to some of the old haunts that were important

stepping stones in her career...

if we can find them.

That doesn't look right, that doesn't look like it.

No, that's not it.

But this... It must have had...

This must have been the doorway.

This was the site of a club

where I did some of my greatest shows.

# I'm going to give you everything. #

Inspired by the girl groups of her youth,

Bette's making a new album with long-time collaborator Marc Shaiman.

# Mr Sandman... #

And I'll be sitting in on the sessions.

He had that show, a smash, a couple of years ago.

-Hairspray.

-Let's not...

I said Hairspray, goddamn it! OK. Anyway...

Singer, comedienne, author, dancer,

producer, actor, activist, mother -

this is the divine Bette Midler.

# Bring me a dream

# Bring us a dream. #

Is the Bette Midler I'm talking to

the same Bette Midler who's on stage?

No.

SHE LAUGHS

Thank God.

I mean, how could you live with that?

How could you be like that all day long, every day of the week?

It can be tiring, it can be tiring.

I'm afraid I have to go back to the beginning.

Oh, my goodness, the childhood, here it comes.

-Yeah.

-Oops.

It was an interesting childhood

because I was in the most beautiful place in the whole world.

I thought the whole world looked like that - I was in Hawaii.

# I saw the splendour of the moonlight

# On Honolulu Bay... #

Bette's father, Fred, was a painter in the army

and her mother, Ruth, was a seamstress.

They moved from New Jersey to Hawaii when Fred was transferred.

Ruth was an avid movie buff

and when daughter number three came along in 1945,

she named her after Bette Davis.

I grew up in a...in what they would call the projects today.

But we were not rich, we were not even middle class,

we were, like, in the bottom strata.

Growing up in a tropical paradise was colourful,

but being Jewish with east coast parents,

Bette didn't quite fit in.

It was very tough being a Jewish girl in a Samoan neighbourhood.

Everybody was Asian, there were no other haoles,

which is the Hawaiian expression for white people.

So she didn't exactly grow up in the Obama section of Honolulu.

Do you think that sense of being in a community

where there were lots of different kinds of people

was that your kind of curiosity was aroused,

so you took all that stuff in?

Oh, absolutely. Yes, I do.

And I'm grateful for it, I think it's terrific.

So where did the allure of showbusiness and singing

and all this come from?

I think I had some opportunities to sing when I was a very little girl

and I noticed that a lot of people didn't sing,

which surprised me cos I was singing louder than anybody.

Bette entered a talent show aged 11,

singing the Andrews Sisters' Lullaby On Broadway,

and she won.

The song would help define her act for years to come.

# Till everything gets hazy

# Hush-a-bye, "I'll buy you this and that"

# You hear a daddy saying

# And baby goes home to her flat

# To sleep all day... #

I noticed that they liked you if you sang and were funny

and all those kinds of things, and in high school

I worked in the library during the summer

and the librarian didn't pay me,

she gave us tickets to the community theatre.

And when I saw those people in their pink tights

and their lipstick and their rouge and their fake hair, I just...

I mean, it was all over for me.

I was, like, completely mesmerised.

It was just like Pinocchio, you know?

# Hi-diddly... # It really was!

And... I mean, I'm now, I've been at it,

I've been on in pink tights and pink lights for a long time, so...

I'm a little bit over it!

But in those days, it was...it was mesmerising.

Bette decided there and then that showbiz was the career for her,

but her father hated the idea.

My mother was a big showbusiness person.

I mean, she loved it, she was entertained by it,

she enjoyed it, she was amused by it.

My father didn't want to have anything to do with it.

My father was, "Meh..."

My father was a curmudgeon.

I think that it's something that she loved,

I think that she wanted her dad's approval

and I say that very honestly.

# It's one for the money, two for the show... #

Like teenagers everywhere, she immersed herself in music.

This was the '50s after all

and rock and roll was everywhere.

But unlike most teenagers,

Bette listened to her parents' records, too.

She loved the girl singers, always, always, always,

from The Andrews Sisters, The Boswell Sisters on.

# Crazy people, crazy people

# Crazy people like me go crazy

# Over people like you. #

They were really interesting, the Boswells.

They were from New Orleans. One girl was the piano player

and wrote all the arrangements, and they were sensational.

They're completely forgotten now and I find that so interesting

that they would have been, you know, complete... Everybody knew them

and now no-one knows them.

# It isn't the paddle It's not the canoe... #

These early girl groups would provide her

with a lifelong inspiration.

# It isn't the love dreams that bring joy to you

# It's the girl... #

The Boswell Sisters was really the first record my parents ever had

and, in fact, I recorded that,

one side of that record, for this album.

# It isn't the paddle, it's not the canoe

# It isn't the river or skies that are blue

# It isn't the love dreams that bring joy to you

# It's the girl that makes you happy and the girl that makes you blue

# You often doubt them... #

Oh, that was so great.

I've sang it every night of my life.

So you knew what you wanted to do.

-I did.

-But you weren't quite in the right place for it,

but I'm kind of interested that this notion that, one year,

you are in a pineapple factory...

Please tell me about the pineapple factory.

I worked - see, people say, "I'm not doing that."

I worked like a little beaver from the time I was 13,

but everybody did, that's what you did.

You once worked, didn't you, when you were in Hawaii,

in a canning factory, a pineapple canning factory?

-A pineapple cannery.

-What did you do?

I was the chief chunker! LAUGHTER

# Pineapple princess

# He calls me pineapple princess all day... #

You worked in the pineapple factory,

it was a dollar and a quarter an hour,

until you made enough money to do what it is you needed to do.

# Nowhere to run to, baby... #

Bette was alone and just shy of 20 years old

when she left Hawaii in 1965.

For a young woman with aspirations

of becoming a serious dramatic actress,

New York was the place to be.

She was very bright and she did very well in school,

but I think she had something that she had to get out of her

and she was never going to accomplish that in Hawaii,

so I think she had to go someplace where you could do that.

The need was so great to go and do that,

do whatever it was that I felt I had the ability to do.

And it's so interesting because I'm such a coward,

I am one of the most frightened persons I've ever...

In my life, I don't know anyone who is as scared as I am,

and yet I didn't even...

I never looked back - I got on the plane, I got there,

I booked myself into a hotel,

I started going on auditions like I knew what I was doing.

And I never...

It never occurred to me that I would get into any trouble.

I did, but I...I was fearless.

What kind of trouble did you get into?

Oh, people always get into trouble -

-you know, bad boyfriends, all that sort of thing.

-Yeah.

# In the heart of little old New York

# You'll find a thoroughfare

# It's the part of little old New York

# That runs into Times Square... #

Bette wanted to live right in the middle of the theatre district

and got a cheap hotel room near 42nd Street, just off Broadway.

42nd Street was notorious for being a kind of a hotbed for the Beats

and for people who were, you know, marginalised -

you know, junkies, winos, poets.

Weren't you, as a kid,

weren't you quite attracted to that kind of low rent...?

Well, who isn't? Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

The Honolulu of the '50s was always full of sailors hanging out

in the red light district.

Bette developed a fascination and an empathy

for the freaks at the port and for all outsiders

that would remain with her all her life.

Yes, I really was fascinated, but I think everyone is to a degree.

But that was when it was in the margins.

Now it's mainstream, so there's no more fascination.

I have no tattoos.

You went to, I suppose, endless auditions,

is that what happened?

I did go to auditions, I didn't have much luck.

I mean, I had to feel my way. I didn't know about headshots,

and I didn't know about agents, and I didn't know about...

I didn't know what the hierarchy of the auditions was,

I didn't know that certain magazines

would show you certain kinds of auditions, like porn,

but they wouldn't show you other kinds of auditions, so I had to learn that.

It didn't take me long, though.

It was a very simple business in those days.

# Sunrise, sunset

# Sunrise, sunset... #

After a year of bit parts,

Bette Midler got her big break

in 1966, when she landed a role

in one of the hottest shows in town, Fiddler On The Roof.

Is it true the casting director thought you weren't Jewish enough?

No, the casting director thought I was too short and too fat.

SHE CHUCKLES

The girl, the oldest daughter,

was supposed to be tall and lean,

and I was very little and round.

And it was interesting because the casting director called me up

the morning of the audition

and said, "I don't think you should take this audition

"because, if Jerry Robbins sees you, he won't even let you in the chorus

"cos you're the wrong type."

So I said, "Well, I came to meet him, I just want to see him."

And I hung up - I've got to take the audition -

I hung up and, of course, I was in tears

and then when I got to the audition, I was so distressed

that during the scene when the character is supposed to cry,

of course, I let loose floods of tears cos I was so stressed out

and I got the job!

And I cried every night for three years!

# Dear Yente, see that he's gentle

# Remember, you were also a bride

# It's not that I'm sentimental

# It's just that I'm terrified... #

As the oldest daughter, I was there for about three years

and that was very stressful, because I couldn't...

You're supposed to go, you know,

do the role for a certain amount of time,

and then you are supposed to move on and, you know, move up.

And I couldn't seem to move up,

and I wanted to be, in my heart, a great dramatic actress,

and I thought that I had the range for it.

I wanted to be an Anna Magnani, a type like that,

someone who had got those kinds of roles,

and that did not come easily.

And then, in the middle of all this

was all that excitement about music and rock and roll.

You just couldn't resist it, it was just wonderful.

# Hot town, summer in the city

# Back of my neck getting dirt and gritty... #

The time Bette was in Fiddler On The Roof

coincided exactly with the rock explosion of the mid '60s.

Greenwich Village, just a couple of miles south,

was the eye of the storm

and, of course, there was also the Stonewall riots

that sparked the gay rights movement in 1969

and Vietnam.

# I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound

# Everybody look what's going down... #

It was a real hotbed of all sorts of things.

It was all happening on that bus,

so I got off my bus and I moved over to the other bus.

So, from Broadway to Greenwich Village.

Yes, absolutely.

There was a big party going on

and I wanted to be part of that party.

So, in 1969, Bette gave up the idea of making a living in the theatre

and decided to reinvent herself as a new kind of torch singer.

Part retro, part utterly contemporary.

It was back to the bottom of the ladder, doing gigs for free,

hanging out with the freaks and the music makers.

You had your intellectuals,

you had your...

last vestiges of the Beatniks,

and you had hippies and you had drag queens

and you had the burgeoning gay culture

that was coming out of that whole Stonewall thing.

You would meet people that you would never have had

the opportunity to meet.

These were brand-new situations, people were mixing,

people who would never have seen each other on the streets

were suddenly, you know, getting high together and dancing

and carrying on and exchanging ideas.

It was quite a time.

# They said, "Hey, Sugar

# "Take a walk on the wild side..." #

Bette took her move into music very seriously.

She spent hours at the library listening to records

and soaking up entire decades of musical history.

I listened to the blues,

I listened to Bessie Smith, I listened to Aretha.

I listened to just about everybody.

I went back and forth and I would go on,

I would binge listen, you know,

and I picked up a lot, I picked up a bunch.

You know, I don't write, I don't write my own material

and I didn't know a lot of songwriters, so, for me,

it was hard. I had to freshen everything up all the time.

And for me, it was hard,

because I didn't know enough people whose material I could draw on.

You know, people weren't just sitting down and writing songs for me,

so it was really up to me to find the material.

# Drinking again

# Thinking of when you loved me

# I'm having a few

# And wishing... #

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Miss Bette Midler!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Fancy a pizza?

No! No, no wheat. No wheat.

This pizzeria was once the home of the legendary Improv comedy club.

In the late '60s and early '70s, it was THE place in Manhattan

to see future legends like Richard Pryor or Lily Tomlin.

But to play here, Bette had to adapt her act

and it was where she learned to mix Broadway,

the blues and burlesque.

It was a comedy club and I was one of the very few singers here

and I realised, you know, these guys are having an awful lot of fun

and you really did have to entertain, you had to be amusing.

It was just the best place for her to develop an act because

it was primarily at that point a comics' room,

although we did have singers.

So, she, smart enough to blend in,

came up with the snappy dialogue.

Now...now here's a lady who was never blue.

Her material, maybe.

She used to say...

# I believe that everyone in life should have a mission

# Making people happy is the height of my ambition

# And when I get them happy, oh, they stay in that condition... #

I worked it up and I had little impersonations that I do,

I was taking cues from what other people were doing.

So was it...? Was this a sort of Sophie Tucker moment...?

Not really, no, no, no.

I was doing a Mae West impersonation, as a matter of fact.

You know, I met your kind before.

-Why don't you come up some time?

-Well, I...

Don't be afraid, I won't tell.

-But...

-Come up, I'll tell your fortune.

And she was adorable, I loved her. I didn't know anything about her

except that she was hilarious and very sexy, but in the most

wonderfully funny way.

And she had in her world a kind of fascination for the underworld,

the same way that I did, so I really identified with her.

# Here's the key

# The room is 503

# It's not so far to climb

# Of course you are the spider's invitation to the fly

# Why don't you come up and see me sometime?

# Any time... #

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

# The sooner, the better. Oh. #

When you got your material, who was it...?

You were doing ballads, weren't you?

I was a torch singer.

I was interested in the blues and I was interested in torch songs.

Did that go down well?

Actually, surprisingly well

because I was, you know, highly emotional.

# It's not the way you smile

# That touched my heart

# Sha-la la la-la

# It's not the way you kiss that tears me apart

# Oh, oh, oh-oh

# Many, many, many nights roll by

# I sit alone at home and I cry... #

Bette Midler for me, more than anyone,

has the ability to, in a note, in one note,

convey more than an emotion, an entire place

that a person is singing -

what's happened to this person and what they're singing about.

# Baby, it's you

# Baby, it's you. #

So how do you combine the highly emotional with the extremely funny?

Oh, I turn on a dime -

also not very hard to do.

Well, quite hard to do, actually.

Not for me, not for me.

That's your thing, then? Being able to change the mood?

That was a kind of thing...

I actually didn't know I had that ability,

but I learned it in places like this, like the Improv.

Give a very warm welcome to this gal

because she is the first great superstar

at The Continental Baths.

So what more can you say? Here she is - Bette Midler!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So now, down here..

Below here in the basement was where the Continental Baths started.

Is it true that all the men wore white towels?

They wore white towels, yes, they did.

'It's very warm in here, it reminds me of Back to Bataan.

'Do you remember that movie? Oh, it was very steamy.

'Phew! I can't tell if the air conditioner is on,

'I hear something - "Ssssssss!"

'But I'm not sure that's the air conditioner, you know.'

I mean, you have people sitting in towels watching a show.

It's very weird. I mean, even the Romans really,

or maybe not since the Romans.

Nobody died, let me put it that way.

No Christians were harmed inside.

It was gay, gay, gay

and this was before there was any, like, big gay thing in the States.

They had like a...

They were all hiding their light in the closet, as it were.

And I was so completely obsessed with what I was doing,

I didn't even notice.

I mean, I could have been playing an old age home,

as long as I was... As long as I was killing, I didn't care.

And is that where the collection of work for the Divine Miss M came,

-the first album, which was such a spectacular success?

-Yes, yes.

And one of the great things about this venue

is that I did this material, I had to change this material up

every single time I worked, so I had to scramble.

I was always scrambling, but I had enough time

to learn the songs so well that they became second nature to me

and, after that, I never had the time.

And that took me a long time to realise,

that the rehearsal process was really important to me.

The actual working in front of a crowd was really, really important

to my own...what it is that I do.

# Yo ho

# Yo ho

# Boo whoo

# Boo whoo

# Boo whoo

# Boo whoo

# Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

# Track 29, well, you can give me a shine

# Mmm

# I can afford to board a Chattanooga Choo Choo

# I got my fare with just a trifle to spare... #

I was doing a Broadway show but I would run down,

I would run up to 72nd Street to the Baths and see her.

If you were female, your name had to be on the list -

there was no other way you could get in.

So there was a lot of men in towels and very steamy,

and she tore up the joint.

# Chattanooga Choo Choo

# Chattanooga Choo Choo

# Chattanooga Choo Choo

# Are you good to me? Oh! #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

An important guiding light around this time was Bill Hennessy,

a hairdresser from Fiddler On The Roof.

He wrote a lot of the bawdy jokes she told at the Baths

and was an invaluable source of advice in guiding the birth

of Bette's alter ego, the Divine Miss M.

Bill Hennessy, the late Bill Hennessy,

walked her through the tiny little dressing room onto the stage

and talked her into the Divine Miss M character,

talked, whispered in her ear and said,

"And this and this and this." "Uh-huh!"

That was all, you know, that was all that attitude.

"Uh-huh."

Is it true that this is where

the Divine Miss M came from, the name?

The name, yes, the first night I worked here,

the owner knocked on the door

and he said, "How shall I introduce you?"

And I said, "Tell them I'm divine."

And I had always been called Miss M, because my hairdresser

was one of my best friends, Mr G, Mr Gerard,

always called me Miss M.

I called him Mr G, he called me Miss M, so, "Tell them I'm divine!"

So when he got on the microphone and introduced me, he said,

"And now ladies and gentlemen, the Divine Miss M."

And there I was and, from that time on,

I was always the Divine Miss M.

Thank God!

I mean, what serendipity.

Welcome to another foul evening with the Divine Miss M.

After many a summer dies a swan,

but not when they're stuck in a turkey as big as this one.

The Divine Miss M was what she used to say

was the last of the truly trashy women.

Everything you were afraid your little girl would grow up to be,

and your little boy too.

I just couldn't stop myself from building layer upon layer

of this character

and it was a kind of a throwback character.

I would look around on 42nd Street, I would see the hookers,

I would see the drag queens, I would see people in,

you know, in flaming wigs, I would see people in tight clothes.

It was a very creative time in the city,

there was a lot of that going on, I wasn't the only one.

But I was very observant and I thought, "Ooh, I like that,

"I like that." I liked the trashiness of that.

I wanted to show you the good beneath the gaudy.

The saint beneath all this paint.

The sweet, pure, winsome little soul

that lurks beneath this lurid exterior.

It's kind of an explosion of one facet of her personality

and it works because it gives her freedom

and she gets to do what she wants to do on the stage

and she sets a tone with the audience of "This is...

"I'm free up here and so you are free out there."

And I think that was always, at the beginning,

what attracted people to her and especially gay people.

# But you got to have friends

# The feeling's oh so strong

# You got to have friends

# Yeah, to make that day last long... #

This song became the anthem.

This is the song that galvanised that audience,

brought them to tears,

because this was an audience that had been marginalised.

You know, it wasn't long after the Stonewall incident

and she recognised them and she said, "I am one of you."

You know, she was this Jewish girl in an all-Samoan neighbourhood,

her father didn't get what she did,

and so for her to shine her great big, loving, compassionate light

was such a magnificent gesture.

# Friends

# Yeah, you got to have friends

# Friends, friends, friends, friends

# Oh, friends, you got to have friends

# Oh, friends

# Oooh, friends... #

Bette's piano player in the Baths was the then-unknown Barry Manilow.

It would be the beginning of a long and fruitful musical collaboration.

She was the most talented woman I'd ever met, I'd ever played for.

The most, craziest lady that I've ever met in my life either.

I would guess, if you put crazy and talented together,

you get a superstar.

By the summer of 1970, the Improv's Budd Friedman

was now Bette's manager,

and despite not even having a record deal,

there was enough of a buzz around his new client

to get her an audition on The Tonight Show

with Johnny Carson.

In those days, Johnny could make a star overnight.

He got me an audition for The Tonight Show

and I was wearing my vintage clothes at the time

and when I got out of the town car to go to the audition,

which was at RCA, at Rockefeller Centre,

my dress ripped right across the back,

right across my butt.

And I said, "Oh, my God, Budd, Budd, give me your jacket,

"my dress has ripped, my ass is hanging out."

And I said, "Give you my jacket? What about my dignity?

She says, "What about my ass?!"

So we found some pins when we got to the Johnny Victor theatre

and they pinned her up and the rest, as they say, is history.

SHE SCATS

The Carson appearance was the first of many

and Bette Midler soon became one of his regulars.

# Oh, Chattanooga Choo Choo

# Oh, Chattanooga Choo Choo

# Oh, Chattanooga Choo Choo, won't you choo choo me?

# Chhss chhss chhss chhss

# Ch ch ch ch ch ch ch

# Chattanooga Choo Choo

# Oh, Chattanooga Choo Choo

# Chattanooga Choo Choo, won't you choo choo me?

# Home

# Oh oh oh - ba! #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

You know, I said it before, when you were first on the show,

and I mean it. I said you are going to be something to contend with,

you're going to be a big star in this business

because you are unique and you're different.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-You will.

-Thank you.

-You will.

I'm going to keep trucking.

-When it all comes together, it'll happen.

-Oh, I can't wait.

All righty, well...

Johnny Carson was great to me - he loved me, he supported me,

he called me back again and again.

He thought I was hilarious.

That first Tonight Show appearance put her firmly on the map,

but Bette's father still didn't approve.

-He wasn't really interested in what you were up to?

-No, he thought it was a terrible idea.

He thought it was a highway to hell. He just didn't approve of it.

-So even when...

-He was a completely practical man.

-When you'd done the Johnny Carson show...

-He was disinterested.

He was not interested.

-He, like... He was not interested.

-Was that hurtful?

-What?

-Was it hurtful?

Very hurtful. It was very hurtful, but I've gotten over it.

He was what he was. If it hadn't been for him,

I wouldn't be what I am and I've certainly had a lot of fun.

I've had a good run.

I mean, I have a beautiful child, I have a wonderful husband,

I love what I do, for the most part,

and it's fine.

We came to a very nice accommodation at the end.

Yeah, I gathered that, that you made up, somehow.

Yes, yes, yes.

It's good when you do that. It's best to do that.

Back in 1972, Bette had now outgrown her old manager.

We had a year's contract, it was up, and she decided...

She was being bombarded by that time.

Everyone was after her.

Aaron Russo took over,

but very soon he was more than her manager.

He became her boyfriend.

# Now it's hey, mambo

# Mambo Italiano

# Hey, mambo

# Mambo Italiano... #

He was crazy about me, you know.

He was my boyfriend for a while and then I said, "This is getting...

"It's too... I can't breathe." You know, and he...

You know, we broke up and it was hard for him to work with me,

seeing me with other guys, and it was...

very stressful.

He loved her and worshipped her and he wanted to make her a star,

and he did.

This awkward situation of ex-boyfriend as manager

would continue for several years

and, meanwhile, Bette was becoming a local phenomenon in New York

and record companies were starting to get interested.

She had a regular gig and a loyal clientele

at a club up town, and one night there proved to be

even more important than a national TV appearance.

In late 1972,

I had the opportunity of hearing

a young lady who was making a lot of noise in a little club

called Downstairs At The Upstairs.

-OK.

-So this is it, then. This is...

-This was the site of a club

where I did some of my greatest shows.

It was called the Downstairs At The Upstairs and the Upstairs At The Downstairs.

When you climbed the stairs, there was the Upstairs At The Downstairs,

and, of course, on the ground floor was the Downstairs At The Upstairs, where the bar was,

and I played about there. It was a tiny room.

And I went in one evening

and was completely knocked out by Miss Bette Midler.

This was the big breakthrough, though, this place.

-It was really huge.

-So Ahmet Ertegun...

And this was the beginning

of The Divine Miss M album, which...

Yes, he signed me,

which was a big thrill for me because I didn't think that would happen,

and yet, you know, I put it out there and it happened.

# Do you want to dance?

# And hold my hand?

# Tell me you're my lover man... #

-This...

-This is Atlantic Studios.

This was where Ahmet had his offices and now it's a wig store.

So The Divine Miss M - you recorded that here?

I recorded my first album here, The Divine Miss M,

and I recorded Bette Midler here.

I made a lot of wonderful music here, as everybody did.

I mean, Wilson Pickett,

the Stones,

Aretha...

# Lookin' out on the morning rain

# I used to feel so uninspired... #

You know, the thing that's so peculiar about us taking this walk

is that my footprint, the footprint of my life, seems to be disappearing.

You know, I mean...

These memories that I have are, you know, all gone.

When I went back to Honolulu, went back to Hawaii,

I went to see my old house one year, and my house was, like...

What was my house, was, like, 200ft below me because they had made

a freeway right where my house was, so... You see that all the time.

Didn't they ask your permission?

No, they never asked. I was so heartbroken,

but, you know, my husband has a saying,

"Nothing is permanent."

MUSIC: Chapel Of Love by Bette Midler

For her debut album, Bette had brought

an eclectic mix of old and new songs into the studio.

# That's when I fell for the leader of the pack... #

# But old people, they just grow lonesome

# Waiting for someone to say

# Hello in there

# Hello... #

The men given the tricky task of making it a cohesive whole

were soul producer Joel Dorn and her friend Barry Manilow.

And we started to make the record. I made a record with Joel Dorn,

who had made records with Roberta Flack,

who I also adored, and we hit the skids really early on,

and Ahmet came in and Barry Manilow was at odds with the producer.

It was kind of a stressful time, but...

-But that combination...

-It worked.

-That combination of Joel and Barry...

-Yes, and Ahmet...

A lot of that first album is live.

They recorded an entire album and Ahmet listened to the record

and said, "I don't get from this record what I got."

And what they finally did was put people in here,

you know, inside the booth, so she had an audience,

and they recorded it live.

# Ooh-hoo

# Standing at the end of a really long road... #

To help recreate this atmosphere in the studio,

Bette brought in her newly formed backing singers from her live show,

the Harlettes.

# Oh, friends

# You got to have friends... #

I do remember the studio atmosphere being very lively.

We were all studio singers

and Barry was a studio singer.

We all had that...

We all were familiar with that kind of levity

and Bette I don't think quite as much

because she was not familiar with that milieu.

And thank goodness Atlantic Records said,

"Gee, that's a really good way to do it," and let her be.

# And I am all alone... #

The recording studio was a whole new medium for Bette.

# ..beside me

# And my problems have always... #

Bass drum microphone.

# ..have all gone... #

We're having notes. We're going to have notes.

We're not going to have notes downstairs. You want to come? Good.

Notes, that's what we do in this...

We give each other notes.

"That was terrible! You were the pits on that number."

Kill 'em? Well, if they don't kill me first.

The Harlettes were inspired by Bette's love of girl groups.

She'd always dreamed of having her own and now she had a female chorus.

Come on, girls.

But not only were we singing backgrounds for her,

she really incorporated us into the show.

Ladies and gentlemen, a rousing hand for the semi-classical Harlettes!

Ladies!

We were her Greek chorus.

We underscored her attitude.

I'll never forget the first time I found these girls,

selling their papayas on 42nd Street.

With the support of Bette's sultry Harlettes, her performances

became known for their show-stopping dance routines.

Not only are my girls fine singers and dancers,

not only are they gorgeous and talented,

but they also think I'm God!

It was very hard work, but we laughed.

We laughed an awful, awful lot.

# He was a famous trumpet man from out Chicago way

# He had a boogie style that no-one else could play

# He was the top man at his craft

# But then his number came up and he was gone with the draft

# He's in the army now a-blowin' Reveille

# He's the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B... #

So, in 1972, while the American charts

were full of British heavy rockers like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin,

The Divine Miss M album swam against the tide, hitting the top ten.

And Bette went on to win Best New Artist at the Grammys.

Bette Midler owned the second half of the '70s.

Her second album was also a smash and her increasingly ambitious tours

were sell-outs up and down the country.

# ..bugle boy of Company B, yeah, yeah, yeah! #

She became a regular face on TV and now had her own specials.

# Ohhhh-klahoma

# Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

# And the wavin' wheat

# Can sure smell sweet

# When the wind comes right behind the rain

# Ohhhh-klahoma Every night... #

Network television was so heavy on censorship

that they were afraid of her,

and she'd had a couple of deals to do specials before

and they all fell through

because they would say, "Oh, you can't do this and you can't do that

"and you can't do the other thing."

We just said, "Ah, to hell with it. Let's just not do it."

And then this one came along, and they said,

"Well, you can do some stuff."

They were, like, being a lit bit leaner.

# ..Oklahoma! #

APPLAUSE

And there's that sequence with Dustin in that...

How did that come about?

I think my manger ran into him and said,

"Would you like to be on Bette's show?" And he said, "Sure."

And so Dustin came in and they wrote a song together

and did a number together, and it was pretty great.

And we won the Emmy for that.

# Well, how you doing?

# Gee, you're looking good

# I heard you moved from the neighbourhood

# Your mom came by

# She was singing her blues

# I'm glad you called

# I got nothing to do... #

I was so, so lucky to have him on that show.

APPLAUSE

She was mixing with movie stars and then she became one.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Rose!

# It's midnight in Memphis

# And all the boys are out tonight... #

The Rose was loosely based on the tragic life of Janis Joplin

and Bette was given the title role of self-destructive singer

Mary Rose.

SHE SINGS DRUNKENLY

Where am I?

I never know where the fuck I am!

All these fucking clouds look just alike.

Welcome to rock and roll.

-I think The Rose is a quite exceptional film.

-Mm-hm.

What I found amazing was the way you took ownership of those songs,

which is not really your canon - it's something else.

It was my wannabe canon. It was my wannabe.

I always... That's what I wanted to do.

-I really wanted to do that.

-Really?

But I never got the material.

# Oh, stay with me, baby

# Why don't you, why don't you just stay with me, baby? #

Wow.

How extraordinary was she in The Rose, and how much pathos

and how about her singing?

# Remember

# You said you always gonna love me... #

But, you know, she didn't look like the average movie star,

so it was an unconventional kind of stardom.

Well, she knew she wasn't the glamorous movie-star-looking

person and, yes, it concerned her but once she sensed how much

I appreciated her and how all I wanted was the best for her,

she surrendered and became the actress that she should be.

She just fit it, you know - her life reflected

the circumstances of the picture.

You know that phone booth scene in The Rose when she calls her parents?

Daddy?

Daddy, is that you?

Hi. Are you on the phone upstairs?

I think the difficulties she had with her father

was a significant element in her...

..being able to access her talent.

I love you.

Bye.

But I sense your own struggles and your own experience

-are very much in that film.

-Very much.

Not least the relationship with the manager, played by Alan Bates,

but Aaron Russo - at that time, you were going through

quite a difficult period with him, weren't you?

It was tough behind... Backstage, it was very tough.

And I have to give credit where credit is due.

If it hadn't been for Aaron,

that movie never would have been made,

cos he gave it to me - they gave it to me years before and I said,

"Don't bring this to me. I don't want this."

And he was the one who finally brought me around and around,

and convinced me to do it, so...

I would like to have some time to myself before I kick off.

Have you come into an inheritance or something?

No, man, I just can't dredge up the sincerity any more.

-Oh, wrong.

-No, don't tell me wrong!

Wrong! I'm fucking running the Green Bay Packers here!

-I don't care.

-OK, OK, you want out, eh? All right.

Call in the dogs, then. Piss on the fire.

She had a manager, a thug, kind of a tough guy, you know.

I remember once, one of the first days of shooting,

I was with Alan Bates,

and I was going to shoot a scene with her

and all of a sudden, I felt an arm on my shoulder.

It was her manager, this thug, who's since passed away.

He said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "Well, I'm going to talk to Bette."

He says, "No, no, no. You talk to me and I talk to Bette."

I said, "Oh, really?"

So I called the police, who were there.

I said, "I want him out of here.

"I don't want to see him until we have an answer print."

The Rose would go on to earn her critical acclaim

and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress,

so, in 1978, with the film in the can,

Bette returned to the more familiar territory of the stage

with her next big project,

and it doesn't get much bigger than a world tour.

# I am the one they call the Big Noise

# I'm looking fine and feeling sharp

# I just flew in from Winnetka, don't you know?

# I'm gonna blow this joint apart... #

This was a kind of huge endeavour, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, and a lot of things happened.

We had, you know, fist fights, drunken...

People setting fires to rooms, all that sort of thing.

Um, and it was...

But the shows were great.

This tour saw a flowering of the characters and routines

that would come to define Bette Midler for the next 30 years.

It looked incredibly ambitious, that show.

They're all very ambitious and sometimes they're really awful,

but I do it anyway because I figure,

"Hey, they're paying, they want something original,

"they want something that they've never seen before.

"Let's try some things."

One of the goofiest ideas from that time

is surely Delores De Lago, the singing mermaid.

You know, one of my favourite characters in literature

is The Little Mermaid.

I was actually in Denmark and I saw the statue.

You know, I went to the harbour to see her,

and she was just so fabulous and so beautiful,

and kind of hot in a way.

She had... The first time I did her, she had no way of getting around -

she only hopped, and it looked kind of pathetic!

And then the conversation... "Well, what do we do with her?"

And then we said, "Well, how does she get around?"

"Well, put her in a wheelchair. It's the best mode of transportation

"How else is a mermaid going to get around?"

And we said, "Well, gee, won't that offend people?"

And that, of course, was all we had to hear cos we said,

"Well, yes, but they'd be fools.

"We're not making fun of anybody - we've got a goddamn mermaid!"

# Rolling

# Rolling

# Rolling on the river

# Rolling

# Rolling

# Rolling on the river... #

I remember the first day she sat down in that wheelchair,

and she started to work it

and it jerked around backwards and forwards.

She had us rolling all over the floor.

# With one burning thought

# With your arms open wide... #

That tour, she was the only one in the wheelchair.

Then the next tour, she and the Harlettes were in the wheelchair.

Delores proved a firm favourite with the public

and became more extravagant with every show.

# ..in old New York! #

I was in... One time, they had cranked my battery up,

the battery up on my chair, and they didn't tell me,

and I couldn't get it to stop, and when I finally braked it,

it flung me out into the audience

and I landed, fortunately, in an empty seat,

right in-between the two.

Right, like this...

# Delores!

# Delores!

# Delores!

# Delores!

# D-E-L-O-R-E-S

# It's Delores! #

I told them, everybody, "I'm not putting that fishtail on anymore."

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Her comedy had to be over the top because she was a woman.

She needed all the props and all of the exaggeration

to simply create such a light that people would see her,

cos she would have otherwise been dismissed.

Would an evening be complete without a visit from Sophie Tucker?

I will never forget it, ya know!

What about Sophie Tucker?

Well, my friend Bruce Vilanch,

we used to trade barbs in the backstage,

and he always did Sophie Tucker,

not Sophie Tucker, but a character like Sophie Tucker,

and she told these terrible risque jokes

and I just picked it up.

I picked it up from him.

# Well, the man I love... #

Sophie Tucker was the American comedic actress

renowned for delivering risque songs in the 1930s.

# No-one but the right man

# Can do me wrong... #

I had seen Sophie Tucker as a child and I was a huge fan,

and her rhythms - Sophie Tucker's rhythms were just hilarious

because everything was very forceful - and so when she told you

this thing, you knew that she meant it, goddamn it.

I'll never forget it, ya know. I was terribly drunk the other night.

I woke up, there was an elephant in my bed.

I said, "Lord have mercy, I must have been tight last night."

"Well," said the elephant...

LAUGHTER

I think that she did that a lot for shock value, you know.

I think that... But there was always a cut-off point.

She pushed, pushed, pushed that envelope

but it never got into nasty-nasty.

It was just bawdy.

# Pretty legs

# Pretty legs

# Great big knockers

# Great big knockers

# But that's what sells them tickets at the door

# Yeah, yeah

# Pretty legs, great big knockers

# Honey, these are real show stoppers

# That's what keeps 'em comin' back for more... #

How did you lose what you say you had at the beginning,

which is this sort of fearfulness?

How did you lose it and become...? Gain the confidence?

I think the stage is where I live - that's my home.

THEY LAUGH

I was fearless on the stage.

I really was fearless, but, I mean, for me to cross the street

is like, "I can't do it. I can't do it."

I am just the biggest chicken in the whole world

until I get on the stage, and then I am in command.

It really is where I live.

It's my spiritual home, it's my physical home.

I understand it, I know it, I face the crowd as if they were just one

person, as if it were some old friend I hadn't seen in a long time.

Hi!

CHEERING

How ya doin'?

She's at home on stage and, by that, I mean you're at home with her.

She is a hostess of a great party and you are a guest

and she's entertaining you, and she comes out on stage

and, right away, you're pals.

I bet you didn't expect me to look...

quite...

this...

fabulous!

And how did you...?

I mean, what distinguishes you?

What made you stand out?

Partly because you were not afraid to be whoever you wanted to be...

-Yes.

-..but, secondly, because also you mixed genres.

-Yes.

-You know, so whether musically,

but also this rap that you had,

which it really kind of was.

I think it was all those things, which is maybe three things,

those things - the mixing of the genres and the talking

that I did incessantly,

which was fortunately amusing,

and the fearlessness, but more than anything

I think was the emotion.

More than anything. Over all of that was the fact

that I made people feel something.

They weren't sure what it was, but they felt.

They would come feeling... Getting ready to receive something,

and when they left they were wired.

Something had happened to them,

and that I think is what the main overriding thing is,

more than anything else.

# Some say love... #

This touching ballad won Bette a Grammy

for Best Female Performance.

# That drowns the tender reed

# Some say love

# It is a razor

# That leaves your soul to bleed... #

That's what you want - you want to make sure

the audience is fed and sated, and, when it's done, they're good.

They can move on and talk about that performance for the next week

cos something big happened,

and that's the truth of Bette's performances.

She transports the audiences because she insists

that they come along with her, because she shows up with so much.

# ..lies the seed

# That with the sun's love

# In the spring

# Becomes the rose. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Back in 1979, the world tour had ended in triumph,

but behind the scenes, the situation with Aaron had become untenable.

And we'd be doing great, and then this person would come into the room

and all the air would get sucked out of the room,

and then immediately she would become defensive.

Unfortunately, we came to a parting of the ways,

and I had to swim upstream and I had to do it by myself.

It wasn't easy and it took me years to understand the way,

how much he had actually done for me.

# Papa loves mambo

# Papa loves mambo... #

Bette was now learning to make her own decisions

and the first project was her return to film.

# He goes to

# He goes to

# She goes fro

# She goes fro... #

Sadly, Jinxed lived up to its title.

Critics said Bette looked uncomfortable in the role

and the film bombed at the box office.

So after that, it was like... We were all very sad for ourselves.

Was that because, post-Aaron, you may have thought to yourself,

"I'm going to do what I want to do now"?

Is that partly it, and somehow...?

It was partly that and it was partly the fact

that I didn't understand how long it took.

There were writers to deal with and then the studio said,

"This is not good enough - you need another draft."

Then you'd have another draft, then the writer would quit,

then you'd have to get another writer, and people just got mad.

You don't love me anymore, do you?

-I'm sick and tired of being your dishrag!

-Yeah?

-And I'm going to get even!

-Yeah? That's a threat?

-That's a threat!

But I threw myself into the deep end, and that's when the doubt

started to creep in because, all of a sudden,

these things were happening to me that I didn't understand

and I made a lot of mistakes,

especially in those first three years, that left big scars.

After Jinxed, the early '80s were difficult.

The movie had given Bette Midler a bad name

and the film offers dried up.

Moving on a few years, you meet Harry, I know,

and you get married,

and somehow I sense it changed your whole life.

Yes, it did. It refocused me.

I saw another door to walk through and I walked through it.

Fearlessly, I might add, because I married my husband after six weeks

and we're still married. But it was time, you know?

It was time. Everything was shifting and it was time.

Now Bette's personal life was working

and then she was offered a film that would revitalise her career.

She discovered she could do screen comedy and do it well.

And, in fact, Paul Mazursky was the one who lifted me

from the Slough of Despond and put me in Down And Out In Beverly Hills.

SHE SCREAMS

-What happened to the poor guy?

-He's in the hot tub.

He's still here?!

I had a big hit with that and then Disney... Touchstone,

the adult arm of Disney... I had a good long run with them.

So after a series of hits in the late '80s,

Bette Midler was again a bankable commodity in Hollywood

and soon had the clout to form her own company,

All Girl Productions.

# Oh, the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof... #

The result was the most successful film of her entire career.

# And your shoes get so hot

# You wish your tired feet were fire-proof... #

It was even your Girls company who made that movie, of course.

-Yes, that was All Girls - All Girls.

-All Girls...

Our motto, "We hold a grudge."

Bonnie Bruckheimer said that, I didn't say that.

-She was your collaborator?

-She was my collaborator.

She was a producer in our company and that was the first thing we did.

Female stars learn very soon,

when you become a star,

you learn that you want to take control of your life

and it's not unusual for them to be the initiator of projects.

We were All Girls because we didn't want to take any guff.

You can be an honorary girl,

we'll listen, but we're going to make the decisions.

# Under the boardwalk

# Down by the sea... #

Iris Rainer Dart wrote the original book

about two friends who met on the beach

and the story was developed with Bette the singer in mind.

I was the inspiration for Iris to write that character,

which was great because you always hope that if you have

a personality that's a strong public personality, you always imagine,

like in the old days, that they would write something for... Like Mae.

She wrote her own stuff because she tailor-made it to herself,

to her own abilities.

And so Iris basically did that for me, and I was really glad.

It roamed between, obviously, an area which could allow

-sentimentality to creep in...

-Yes.

..and yet there was quite a lot of edge in it as well.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

For a commercial film, it had a certain amount of bite.

-What the hell is going on here?

-Would you please lower your voice?

No, I won't. I want to know what's eating you. You have been

a total bitch ever since you came to New York.

I could say the same thing about you.

I've simply been reacting to you.

You know, give her a great role

and she'll explode right in front of your eyes.

You can be confident that that's going to happen

cos she's got the equipment.

# It must have been cold there in my shadow

# To never have sunlight on your face... #

And, of course, Beaches gave Bette her best ever selling song.

# You were content to let me shine

# That's your way

# You always walked a step behind... #

But she would kill a ballad, honey. She'd wear you down.

You'd wonder what happened. It's time for drinks.

It's time for major libation!

# Did you ever know that you're my hero?

# You're everything I would like to be... #

But remember the time you brought me Wind Beneath My Wings?

And I said, "I'm not singing that song. Are you kidding?"

And he said to me,

"If you don't sing that song, I'll never speak to you again."

# ..high against the sky... #

Beaches, with its theme of friendships lost,

touched a nerve around the world

and now Bette began to lose her friends,

and her most loyal fans, when AIDS took hold in America.

# ..the wind beneath my wings. #

To see all those aspirations, suddenly gay liberation happens

-and then, somehow, something terrible follows it.

-Yes.

I did my share. I did my part. I did what I had to do.

I buried a lot of people.

# I had some friends but they're gone

# Somethin' came and took them away

# And from the dusk till the dawn

# Here is where I stay... #

I fundraised and I did...

I did the best I could.

It was pretty wrenching. It was a pretty wrenching time.

Then, in 1992, there was another goodbye.

Johnny Carson was retiring and all of America was watching.

His last show, that Johnny did, at the end of his career,

he had Bette on.

Ah, gee, Mr Carson.

I don't want to bother you, it's just that when I heard

that you were leaving, well, it kind of broke my heart.

I mean, I can't tell you how many nights I've laid in bed,

watching you, thinking to myself,

"Should I change the colour of my toenail polish?"

She said, you know,

"They asked me to be the last guest. What should I sing?"

So I was thinking about it, and I remember I was in the shower,

and I thought, "One For My Baby, One For The Road."

I mean, I just knew. Bingo!

Light bulb! I called her, still dripping wet.

I said, "I got it - One For My Baby, One For The Road."

And for the next three weeks, it was nothing but,

"I can't sing this song. I don't want to sing this song.

"I'll sound horrible on this song. I don't have the chops to sing this song."

I was like, "Bette, please, just trust me on this one."

# We're drinking, my friend

# To the end of a sweet episode

# Make it one for my baby

# And one more for the road... #

I was in the back with my wife

and I was just crying, I was just sobbing.

# So drop another nickel in the machine... #

So then they found that incredible angle that they'd never done,

where you could see her sing and him watching,

and I'm getting chills just thinking about it now.

# For all of the years

# For the laughs, for the tears

# For the class that you showed

# Make it one for my baby

# And one more for the road. #

It was amazing to experience

and I tried not to get it...

allow it to overwhelm me,

because it could have very easily, but I was really honoured.

Now that Bette had conquered Hollywood,

she returned to New York

and decided to give something back to the city she loved.

In 1995, she founded the New York Restoration Project -

an organisation dedicated to raising funds

to regenerate disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

# I'm beautiful I'm beautiful

# I'm beautiful, damn it... #

We've built parks, we've renovated parks,

we've built a boathouse,

the first boathouse on the Harlem River in over 100 years

for community rowing.

We teach, we educate, we own 52 community gardens.

I'm really big into community gardens.

It's great, a great programme.

So is it true when you came back to New York from LA

and you saw people dropping litter

-and you looked at the place...

-Oh, my God, I flip out.

-You flipped out?

-I flip out

because, you know, we only have one planet.

You've always been someone very engaged with the world

and the things that you think matter.

I actually became engaged with the world after I had my daughter.

Really, that's when I sat up and said, "Well, my daughter's here,

"can we spruce this up a little bit? Can we fix this?"

That's because I got the sense

that it wasn't the world that I had grown up in,

which was a really sunny and bright and beautiful world.

So coming to, sort of, the recent present,

-to take on Vegas...

-Mm-hm.

That's quite something.

The biggest stage you could possibly take on,

night after night, doing it for two years.

I took it on because I wanted to see what that was like.

I knew everybody else was doing it and I wanted to do it, too.

You know, I'm very competitive that way, "I want to do that!"

So I did it and I was like, "Why is everyone doing this?

"This is so hard!" You know? It's so hard!

So I don't think I'll be doing that again.

Even though I had some wonderful, memorable evenings,

I don't think I'm going to do that again.

I think that was the toughest thing I ever did.

# Here I am, no need to search

# Up here on my feathered perch

# Sweating like a whore in church

# Boy, it's hot in here. #

Running back and forth, singing live for two hours and dancing -

everything she does is extremely physical

and she works at it,

whether it's at the treadmill or gymnasium, vocalising.

I mean, she can vocalise on the treadmill.

# Cos you know I'm on a mission of seduction

# I confess

# As the room gets hotter, we'll be wearing even less

# All the doors are bolted

# You might be here till dawn

# You can't stop the showgirl