Bette Midler On Her Parents: “Both my parents are very strong. There’s nothing wishy-washy about them. My father was a painter for the Navy and we lived in a real funky house, just like the one in that play “The Effect of Gamma Rays.” My father had machinery ”“ all over the place ”“ he had 27 lawn mowers ”“ and my mother always had a stack of sewing up to the ceiling. She named me after Bette Davis, which she thought was pronounced “Bet.” I did too until I got to New York.” (Newsweek, 1973)
