Bennington Banner
Midler Wows Hasty Pudding, gets award
By WAKREN TALBOT
February 19, 1976
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (UPI) – Bette Midler wowed them at Harvard‘s Hasty Pudding theatrical club.
The club honored her with its 2Gth annual “Woman of The Year” award and presented her with a spherical, gold-plated pot, “It is my first time here in Cambridge,” she told the men and women of Harvard gathered in the Hasty Puddy theater off Harvard Square. “I must say that I don’t now why I got all dressed up to get a crock.”
The redheaded singer, dressed in a slinky, light green gown with a long green scarf flowing down her back, kept the audience laughing with some off-color jokes and gestures. At one point, a man wearing a gold lame bra joined her on stage.
The award is bestowed on a woman entertainer whom the club members feel best demonstrates “great artistic skill and feminine–qualities.” Previous winners include actress Valerie Harper and Katherine Hepburn, singer Carol Charming, and comedienne Carol Burnett.
Prior to receiving the award, Miss Midler was paraded through the streets of Cambridge in a vintage Rolls Royce.
Miss Midler said she called the student newspaper office when she first learned about winning the award in order to learn more about the city. “I tried to put my finger on the pulse of Cambridge, and I found there was no pulse,” she said.
“I accept this award gratefully and with no humility at all,” she said.
She then sang a song. “This is one of my really naughty numbers, and why not, it really seems appropriate,” she said.
She left the stage with a revealing twirl of her skirts.
The Hasty Pudding Club, established in 1845, is the nation’s oldest dramatic organization. Each year, it presents original musical satires written and performed by” Harvard undergraduates.
