More Early Bette Midler

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/13/08 at 11:32pm

1977.

"Empty Bed Blues," by the "late, great and eternally overweight Miss Bessie Smith."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_tsv_obxAE

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 11/14/08 at 12:32am

I sure do love me some Bette!!! Thanks, PJ!!!

[tazber]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:16pm

LOVE IT!!

Thanks!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:18pm

What happened to my post?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:20pm

More from 1977:

"Bang You're Dead":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHy2nBd3cy0


The incredible "I Shall Be Released":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWy4kIE3IcE

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:22pm

Love It!!!!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:29pm

I'm confused. In 2003, didn't Bette Midler say:

"Should gay people be allowed to marry? That's a really good question. I think -- I'm a really big believer in all the civil rights that everyone else has. I believe in gay people sharing the civil rights. I believe that they're entitled to them. I believe they're entitled to the insurances. I believe they're entitled to all those things...All that stuff, yes. As far as marriage is concerned, I come from a -- you know, doesn't seem to be hurting anybody. You know, I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I'm a married woman. You know, I mean, I've -- I took vows. I took civil vows, though. I did not take religious vows. And so I...So I -- you know, and when it comes to religion, I don't really know what to say because I'm -- I'm in my tribe, and I try to be a good Jew, but on the other hand, I don't know what the -- how people feel. My feeling is, Well, who's it really going to hurt? But then, if you're a religious person, you're get all knocked out because of the things that...
It's a real dilemma, but I think it's a dilemma to a lot of people. I don't think it really hurts anybody. I think -- I think -- to tell you the truth, my -- my -- many, many, many of the homosexual men that I know -- I can't speak for the women because -- the way I feel -- the women, they can look at each other from across a crowded room, and suddenly, they're mates for life. You know, they -- you know, they'll go out for a Coke, and they'll just be, you know, move in, and that'll be the end of it. But gay men, they like to -- you know, they like to move around. They like to have -- you know, they're -- that's part of it. That's part of the fun of being a gay man. So if they're married, does that mean they're not going to cheat, they're only going to be with one...It's very interesting. I'm really wondering how -- what that commitment is going to be about."

So why isn't this post titled "More IMBECILIC FORMER COKE ADDICT Bette Midler"?

The Transcript Updated On: 12/10/08 at 02:29 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:42pm

To quote Addison DeWitt, "You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point."

[madbrian]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:44pm

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:00pm

I'm confused too, Joe. I missed the part where Bette compared gay marriage to bestiality.

Look, I'm sure most gay men would like Bette to have given a resounding endorsement. But this was 5 years ago, and it's also clearly a questioning, exploring response.

A lot of people's ideas have evolved since then. I would be curious to hear what she would say now.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:44pm

Actually, Bette gave an interesting interview to Ann Stockwell in The Advocate in March 2008, in which she said that she really had to re-think the issue after that Larry King show. The gay men she knew in the 1970s were staunchly against marriage and for free love. The sea-change in gay marriage took her by surprise, the same it too many of us gay men who came of age during that time equally by surrpise.

===

ADVOCATE: Let’s about same-sex marriage. How are you feeling about the issue now? Because there have been hurt feelings—people feeling you weren’t on their side.

MIDLER: It’s interesting. I have some gay friends who are for it, some gay friends who are against it. And I just feel like it’s evolving and it’s probably going to come to fruition, and it’s probably going to be just fine. I think it’s going to be fine. I think people should be able to commit themselves to the people that they love. I have no problem with it whatsoever.

ADVOCATE: It’s great to hear you say that....What you’re saying is going to be greeted with a lot of happiness, because in that interview with Larry King, you had to think it over. You were conflicted.

MIDLER: I did have to think it over. These are enormous, just gigantic seismic shifts. People don’t like change. People have to get used to it. They have to process it. They have to weigh it. You don’t just rush off and say, “I’m going to marry that guy.” You just don’t do it. A grown-up person analyzes it, hears it, processes it, and makes a decision. You come to a conclusion after you’ve thought it over, and you really -- I’m not so quick. I’m still singing songs from the ****in ’40s! [Laughs] Give it a rest! Come on! I’m slow! [Both laugh]

But gay people changed, of course, much faster than everybody else did and suddenly wanted this thing. I mean, I’ve known gay people, I’ve been around people and loved them and have been my dear friends and buried ’em and, you know, all that. But this is like a shift that nobody even—nobody saw that coming.

ADVOCATE: A lot of gay people didn’t see it coming.

MIDLER: And they still don’t see it coming. They think about their own parents and what their parents’ relationship meant to them, and they’re looking around saying, Is that what I -- ? Am I imitating that? How is it possible that I would be imitating that? And which part of it am I using, and which part of it am I discarding? These are seismic shifts, and I think for people to get upset or salty is really bad behavior. I’m not casting stones or anything, or calling anybody to task or anything. I just think -- Rome wasn’t built in a day. [Imitating a baby] “I want it, I want it now!” Well, you can’t have everything right now. You have to give people a chance to get acclimated to it.

ADVOCATE: You expressed concerns about whether gay men could make a commitment to monogamy. To me, that sounded as though you were thinking of the gay men you met in the Continental Baths. Now, years later, gay people are saying, “Of course we can commit to monogamy.”

MIDLER: Well, gay men are not monolithic. They’re not all just one thing. None of my friends are monogamous [both laugh], but other people can be. No, I know a few couples who have been together for a long, long time. I know a lot of people who don’t choose to be. Ultimately, everyone’s relationship is made by themselves. There are no rules or regulations that say, This is how it has to be. Two people -- they make up what the parameters of the relationship will be. Even when society tries to say what it’s supposed to be, people chafe against it and change the rules to suit themselves.
Winning Bette : The legendary Bette Midler holds forth on art, illusion, marriage, kids, and the eternal lure of Las Vegas.