BetteBack: BETTE MIDLER CREATED DIVINE MISS M CHARACTER AS DEFENSIVE REACTION TO CHILDHOOD AS OUTSIDER

Bette Midler created Divine Miss M character as defensive reaction to childhood as outsider.
Article from:PR Newswire Article date:December 5, 1989
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BETTE MIDLER CREATED DIVINE MISS M CHARACTER AS DEFENSIVE REACTION TO CHILDHOOD AS OUTSIDER
/ADVANCE/NEW YORK, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ — Bette Midler says she “created” the flamboyant character of the Divine Miss M as a defensive reaction to a childhood as an outsider.

Midler says in the premier issue of Jupiter that the Divine Miss M is “just a fantasy, but she’s useful at showing people what the outsider’s perspective is.”

The actress says she grew up as the third of four children in the only Jewish family in a Honolulu suburb. “To this day, I don’t know how my mother was able to raise us. She found her circumstances humiliating and didn’t want anyone to see her living like that.

“Miss M is a show, much larger than life,” says the actress. “Bette Midler is just a person with a few things to say and a few songs to sing.”

Midler plays the title role in a remake of the 1937 classic “Stella Dallas.” She says the original star, Barbara Stanwyck, overdressed. Citing a still of the 1937 Stella in a slinky evening gown, Midler explains in Jupiter, “Barbara Stanwyck was very, very endearing, but she was out to lunch with her clothes. Poor people, even if they’re sewing, don’t have the money to dress like that.”

The article says most of Midler’s movie wardrobe came from junk stores and the Salvation Army.

Jupiter is America’s first full-size, full-color astrological magazine. It is a joint venture of Hearst Magazines Division and Burda Publishing Company of West Germany.