Mister D: Ms. Kirsty worked very hard on this transcript and sent some scans from a magazine article, too. You can try to read and look at all of it be clicking here…Thanks so much Kirsty for all your time!
Premiered April 6 8:30pm on FOX8
Simply Divine, Australia
April Foxtel Magazine
Not many superstars get their show biz start entertaining in gay bathhouses, but Bette Midler is not your average superstar. This month the Divine Miss M returns to Australia after 26 years with her Kiss My Brass tour. The three-hour show features Midler’s famous characters and songs including “The Rose, and THAT song from Beaches.
Molly Meldrum caught up with Midler in New York to talk about her trip Down Under for FOX8
It’s been 26 years since you came to Australia. What you’ve done since then is nothing short of astonishing. Going back, did you ever imagine you would achieve everything you have?
Well, actually I did. That’s generally how you achieve a goal to picture what it is you want to do. I had pictured it and I was very lucky. I had a couple of mis-steps along the way but it turned out I achieved my goal. I didn’t know when I got there – what the reality of the dream was – but yes, my dream came true.
I remember you knew all our ockerisms (?) and Australian slang, and came out on stage and told them to the audience.
All the worst ones! I think they were some of the biggest laughs I ever got in my whole life. I’ve never heard people scream like that over silly words. It was unforgettable.
Do you do that for all your shows?
Every show I play. You ask the cab driver what’s going on and they’ll always tell you. There’s always some kind os terrible scandal, some kind of political corruption, or someone everybody despises and people can’t wait to tell you about it.
You’re like the hairdresser.
I am the hairdresser? I ask the hairdresser.
Is it true your mother named you after Bette Davis?
I’ve been saying that for my whole life, so I hope it’s true. She told me that.
Did you ever meet her?
I did. Mean! Mean, mean, mean, mean, mean. I can’t even watch a movie with her in it. In her home life she was probably okay, but to me she was horrible, that’s my memory of her.
Your first job was in a pineapple factory. Is that why you like pineapples so much?
I love pineapples because I’m Hawaiian, and I grew up in a pineapple culture. Pineapple and sugarcane ruled in agriculture. That was the job people elbowed each other out of the way to get. It paid a dollar and a quarter and hour, can you believe that?
You were also a go-go dancer.
That was the most fun I ever had in a job, but I have to tell you the pineapple factory was great too. I sang at the top of my lungs every day, ‘coz nobody could hear you, the noise was so loud. And when you don’t have to relate, all you’ve got to do is look at your pineapple, that’s pretty fabulous.
Where did you get that walk?
I think it’s just the walk of a small person on very hight heels just trying to keep balanced!
When one looks at the Madonna’s of the world…
There’s only one Madonna.
There is, but you were breaking rules before anyone else.
I was wearing corsets before Madonna was even wearing thongs.
Did you ever get into trouble [for pushing the boundries]?
I can’t say that I did. My Father was really upset, but other than that nobody else cared.
You performed on Fiddler On the Roof.
That really was a dream come true…I wanted to be a dramatic actress and it was a good way to get my foot in the door. So doing the job was fantastic, but then I couldn’t get out of it.
You also did Tommy.
For one year, and I got the worst review of my life for my “unappetising mammaries.” I’m like “how does he know?” I wasn’t naked. Only half naked.
Then there was the Divine Miss M.
You know, could we skip over the last 30 years Molly and start with last year? Do I have to relive every single moment? Go online. (this didn’t make it onto the TV interview)
Just briefly, where did the Divine Miss M come from?
I was always the Divine Miss M. Since I was in sixth grade, I’d say “you know I am divine.” It was my Tallulah Bankhead impersonation when I was 12 years old. I don’t know where that came from; too many black and white movies. Too many Bette Davis movies.
Okay, Beaches.
Beaches? (she repeats it back to him in an Australian accent and smiles) Beaches…It’s a great film, marvelous flim, tears and all that. I still get tears when I watch it.
Out of that , the song Wind Beneath My Wings had been done so many times before, but you made it your own. Since then it’s got a life of its own.
It started its life out as a theme song in a movie and it’s suddenly become the theme song to everyone else’s life. I never expected it to happen and I count myself blessed, but I am also glad it’s the type of song that can carry all that weight. It’s a well-constructed song, such a beautiful song, and it’s a rare thing to hear expressed in a song.
Tell me about the tour you’re bringing to Australia, Kiss My Brass.
Well, it has a full rhythm section, it has a beautiful set based on Coney Island, hilarious jokes, some topical humor. It’s a big production, it’s a real show. It’s not just sitting there singing, there’s a lot more to it. It’s full of light and color and dancing. I think it’s my most beautiful show.
Do you still like performing?
I enjoy my time on stage. I love my crew, I love my girls, the crew are like family, they really are, and I really like that. The travelling I don’t like.
I’m so excited that you’re bring the tour to Australia. Australia has altered.
Oh really? [laughs]
Seriously, it has. There’s Sydney and there’s Adelaide and there’s Brisbane. There’s also Melbourne. Like Ava Gardner who called Melbourne the end of the world when she did On The Beach, you called Melbourne the…end of the world. I can’t wait to show you Melbourne – you’ll love it.
I love Australia. I want to go to New Zealand.
No, you’re going to stay in Melbourne, it will serve you right. I’ll handcuff you to the Yarra.
I can’t wait, it’s going to be fabulous.
FOR THE BOYS…Midler talks candidly about the mend in her life beginning with her husband, Martin Von Haselberg
Martin Von Haselberg:
He’s a great father, a great artist and he gave up a lot. I was on radio and said he thought of me as his deity and people didn’t know what that word was. They thought he was saying “daisy”, so that’s what he calls me now. I’m his daisy. Isn’t that sweet?
Woody Allen:
He made me laugh as hard , or harder that anyone I’ve ever encountered.
Mick Jagger:
I saw him at the Golden Globes the other day and he looked better than anybody else there, and funnier too.
Peter Allen:
I knew Peter well; great songwriter, heart of gold, a lovely, lovely man. I was so sad when he died. I saw Hugh [Jackman] in Boy From Oz, another Australian. But you know what, it’s bizarre to have lived that long that you have a friend they’ve made a musical about.
Danny DeVito:
We were only in Ruthless People together for two minutes. We had one scene where I pushed him off the…but everyone thinks we were in it together, we weren’t. But he’s divine. A great director and a great friend.
