October 3, 2023 • 35 mins
Though Bette Midler has performed on the largest theatrical stages, sung to the grandest audiences, and appeared in beloved films from The Rose to Hocus Pocus, “The Divine Miss M” still gets nervous before her shows. It’s because of this persistent fear that the Grammy, Emmy, and Tony award-winner so dutifully prepares herself for each and every act, no matter the medium and the size of the crowd. She believes this vigilance—an “alertness”—has allowed her to realize the murky vision of success she came to New York City with in the late 1960s. On this week’s episode of Table for Two, Midler sits down with host Bruce Bozzi to reflect on her five-decade career in show business, including recollections of an early gig as a bathhouse singer, her first forays into Hollywood, and the realities of working in entertainment as a woman before the turn of this century.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, everyone, thanks for pulling up a chair today on
Table for two. I could not be more excited to
be here in New York City. It is a glorious day,
and I could not be more excited to be at
Via Carota, my favorite downtown West Village Italian joint.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm very anxious. This is exciting.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We are having lunch today with a woman whose body
of work is absolutely stunning. It's immense, it's diverse, it
spans decades. She is an award winning super talent, and
she gives back to our city, to our country. She
(00:48):
has a voice that she is not afraid to use.
She is next level.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I'm going to have the eggs. That sounds great.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Chappole's I think I think I have. I need a
little proces, so like maybe to cut your to pepe.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Have some carbs. I'm talking about Bette Midler.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Can you believe that we're having lunch.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
With Bette Midler today? So sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Grab a glass of rose, grab a salad, because today's
lunch is really extra special. So thanks for joining again.
I'm Bruce Bosi. This is my podcast Table for two.
I'm really excited we can all have lunch today.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Today, Today, we're here a very nice restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
You love it too, Oh my goodness, I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I was having lunch with middle of the waiter Michael.
I believe it's like, oh yeah this, yeah, She's like,
you know, it's like.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, I come here all the time. The food is
really good.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What do you like here?
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Well?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I love the Aaroncini I am a real fan of that,
and I love all the pastas. But the real star
for me, I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm close to
is the lettuce salad, which is sensational.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's next level.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
It is it really is, it really is.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's next level.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So sometimes they give me a Cafe Correto espresso with
well you're Italian, you know, with Fanny Bronca, and you're
just like floating through the rest of the day.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Like when we spoke, you know, first of all, receiving
an email from you is one of the most exciting
but one can get.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And it was like, we're not going to be doing
day drinking today. It was normally I say pull Uprose.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I respect that, thank you, But you were in
New York early what was and I happened to think you.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You know, you came to New York in the late sixties.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I came in sixty five, sixty five, so mid sixties,
mid sixties. I was nineteen. What was I thinking?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I mean, I think, what's so amazing about that
you're that period? To me is you came in sixty
five and you really hit.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Thirty I did road like.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I mean, I know you studied at HB. I know
you studied with Udah Hagen. I know you were on
Fiddler on the Roof. I know you stayed there. I
know that, I know it nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
You know, my whole, my whole.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I do see thee Yes, I want what I wanted.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I mean, I just like I relighted it so many times.
I wish I had a different story to tell you.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Because.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Wow, the talent, the drive. So what was sixty five
to eighty for you? And like, what was this city
like for you? Because you were.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Doing an interesting question, that's a really interesting question. First
of all, it was a much smaller city. It was lower.
All these high rises didn't exist. There were skyscrapers, but
they were I ventured. I have to say. They were
kind of human scale. You were awed by them, but
you weren't like, oh my god, what is that you know,
(03:56):
like you are.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Now so horrible fifty city street building.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yes, anyway, it was human scale, and the people were
very They were speedy, they were bustling, but they weren't unfriendly.
They were they could be kind at times. It was
it was a very kind of down at heel city.
It wasn't spruced up, it wasn't buff It was very rugged.
(04:20):
It was pretty dirty. Yeah, I mean I was there
for the minute John Lindsay became the mayor. The garbage
workers went on strike, but I mean like the minute
and bom boom, they lowered it, so the garbage piled up.
Then the subway went on strike. Then I mean there
(04:42):
was like a just a perfect storm of horror. And
I was here. I was nineteen, maybe I was, you know,
by I turned twenty in December, and I just took
it like it was this was just normal, even though
I had never seen anything like it in my life.
I just said, well, this is the way it is.
I don't know, I don't know what you're going to
So I had a couple of jobs. I worked at
(05:03):
Le Mama I worked in children's shows. It was a
very rugged Like I said, rugged, and it was.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
It was rough.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It was rough, but it was kind of exciting because yeah,
it was very it was kind of exciting. There was
a lot of stuff going on. There was a lot
of ferment. You know, there was Dylan, and there was
everything that was going on in music and the Beatles
and the Stones and the Andy Warhole was out and
Edie Sedgwick was here and all the Warhole group were downtown.
(05:36):
And for some reason, he was kind of like a
lynch pin. I felt that he was a lynch pin.
I've said for years, gee, I'm sorry he's gone, because
there was something about him that drew people like a
magnet to the city. So there was all this sort
of wild behavior, not just wild behavior, but people who
(05:58):
are artists, who wanted to be to have a career
in art, or people who had something to say. There
was it felt like, I don't want to say Berlin
in the twenties, but maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I think maybe maybe definitely.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, there was a lot of acting out. It wasn't
It wasn't. You didn't feel unsafe, right, you didn't. You
never felt unsafe. It was some of it was shocking.
Some of it was eyebrow raising, but you never felt unsafe.
So it was fun. I have to say it was fun.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I think it was.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It was a lot of fun, especially if you were young,
because that's what that's what it was all about. Those
kids have come of age.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You didn't have to be rich.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You didn't have to be rich exactly. It didn't have
to be rich as long as you had something going on,
something that was attractive in some way, either you had talent,
or you look great, or you dressed greater. You weren't
afraid to put yourself out. Yeah, and it was that
it was for you. For for a young person, it
was very exciting.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I mean you could have a dime in your shoe
for a phone call and a quarter in your pocket
for a cup of coffee.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And it was and I mean that decade now I
was nine, ten eleven, but it was like see Lea Bruce,
Like I was out on the streets going to visit
my friends and doing things. Like you said, it was
with all the graffiti and all this stuff. It was
there's an element, but it was it was okay.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yeah, well it was people sort of making their mark, right,
if that's what it was. See me, you know, see me,
see me, see me. I'm here too.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I love asking and I love knowing. When you felt
you were.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Seen, well, I think it was when I felt my
I was seen was seen or my scene well.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Both because both are very interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
So like when you know when someone's like, oh people
see me for who I am, Like, was there a
moment that you're like that you experience.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Something that you're like, oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I think that. I think it was probably the first
time I had one of those epiphanies that people who
work in this arena sometimes have when they're they have
a song or something a piece of art that they've
made or performed where they suddenly have an out of
body experience and it causes other people to applaud wildly.
(08:36):
So that happened to me, not once, but several times. Yeah,
it did. And I suddenly realized after fit, when I
after I was done there and I started working on
my own suddenly I was my own boss, which is
I mean, when you're your own book, there's nothing like art,
there's nothing like me. Yeah, So here I was, I
(08:57):
was my own boss, and I was paying my own rent,
and I was doing my own thing and people liked it.
And I think it was the late sixties, like sixty eight,
sixty nine, right, and then it carried through into the seventies.
I was I did. I was a solo act from
about sixty late sixty eight till about seventy, the early seventies,
(09:21):
and then maybe at nineteen seventy I found Barry Manilow.
I found or that he was given to me, was
assigned to me by the Manual and the Baths. I
think the Baths I would have to say in this
long career that I've had, now that it's been you know,
one hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I'm still standing.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Helping John Elton.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
John has it wrong. It's not I'm still It's not.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
That I'm.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Right, And I do have to say I do have
to say that they were great to me. When I
got that gig of the Baths, it was three hundred
dollars for the weekend. This was more money than I
ever heard of in my life. You know, I was
working in Fidder for two hundred dollars a week for
a couple of years, and when I asked for a raise,
they refused me. I asked for a twenty five dollars raise,
and they refused to give me a twenty five dollars days.
(10:09):
Of course, I got very bitter. That was the beginning
of bitter.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Bey, bitter, bitter Betty, Yeah, bitter.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, thank you for joining us on table for two.
(10:41):
Today we're having lunch with Bette Midler. By the nineteen seventies,
bet Star was on the rise. She began the decade
performing in the Continental Baths, a gay bath house in
the basement of the Ansonia Hotel on the Upper West Side,
and by the end of the decade she had moved
to Hollywood. Her journey to mainstream six US was not
(11:01):
as smooth as I presumed. In the seventies, there was
a lot of joy, and there was there was and
you were what was what did you notice in that room?
Besides the obvious of why the men were there, Well,
it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
In the room so much because they were. There were
unwritten rules in the room. So and everyone in those
days was very sort of circumspect. People were very respectful.
They were very respectful. They this was a surprise for
them to come and see an entertainer in the in
their space, and they were thrilled, and they were especially
(11:40):
thrilled with my act because I have always sort of
catered to my crowd. That's something that's like show biz
one O one. You read the room. You have to
read the room, and you have to sort of tailor
your work to the room. And it's great, it's great fun,
but it's a lot of its improvised, and a lot
of it's written in ahead of time, just so that
(12:01):
you have some guideposts. So they were so happy that
I was making jokes about them and their situation and
their life and this and that, and they couldn't have
They were enchanted, enchanted. So I mostly noticed that they
were enchanted. I mostly noticed that because I'm a complete narcissist,
and so I was thrilled. And I never expected it
(12:24):
to lead anywhere. I really didn't really, No, I didn't
expect it to lead anywhere. I thought, this is you know,
it's a weekend gig. I'm going to pay the rent
in one weekend. Oh my god, Because in those days
you could live The rent was three hundred dollars a
month for like four rooms, and you were living like
a king on three hundred dollars Can you imagine, can you.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Imagine it's artist like yourself at that age.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yes, that's why New York was so Yes, it was
so vibe, vivacious, so vibrant because it was cheap. The
and I remember very well when the artists took over,
when they passed the law that said that artists could
live in those lofts downtown town before so and I
(13:12):
had a boyfriend who did that. He bought he got
a loft on Spring Street and it cost him, like,
I don't know, thirty thousand dollars for this gigantic you know,
fifteen hundred square feet. But there was nothing. There was
no grocery store, there was no there was nothing. There
was no bakery, there was no butcher, there was nothing,
no dry cleaner, nothing. And I lived down there with
(13:32):
him for on and off for a few months.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I mean, I have to say, like, you hit it
at what I think is the sexiest.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Time to have hit it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You were young, you were talented, You have the gig
at the bath house.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
You know, it's it was the moment.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
To it absolutely was.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
There's no one like you, bet and there really isn't.
There's nobody that has the body of work and the
ability of talent that I had ever experienced, and the
effect that not only you've had on me listening to
your music, seeing your shows, seeing your movies. So the
(14:22):
seventies ago, when there's a little small world, you're nineteen
seventy nine The Rose Right, Mark Roydell, whose grandson is
my son in law coincidentally, Yeah, married Brian's daughter Billy.
Oh that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know, it's just weird.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And for those listening Mark Roydell directed, you know that
in The Rose Right, you give this performance that's I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I remember being in the movie theater.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
I was, you know, probably just about to be fourteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I mean it was like, so here you are, you
win a Golden globe, You're you're you're in the seventies
in this like incredible way, and you've had all this,
you know, the characters, you developed, all the rite, and
then you do something that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Which part which one? Which time was?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I So, I mean you go to Hollywood and become
a huge movie store, comedic movie store, and own Disney.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I mean right, Well, it wasn't exactly as easy as
all that. Okay, I had a big hit with Rows,
and then I had a bunch of duds, and they're
not very forgiving out there. But I was on my uppers.
I mean I had I couldn't get arrested. I had
two pictures. I had the Divine Madness, which is a
very odd picture we made in the we made in
Pasadena during a hurricane. And I had jinxed With, which
(15:41):
was hideous, hideous, horrible, and the director and I didn't
see eye to eye on anything. It's raining, No it isn't.
I mean, it was like that. So I was kind
of untouchable. But unbeknownst to me, there were a number
of other untouchables out there too. One of them was
Nick Noldy and the other one was Richard drive This
And so Mike Eisner, in his wisdom, he had just
(16:03):
taken over the Disney Studios and he had we wanted
an adult imprint, so he created Touchstone. That he created
touchdowne in his first picture was was down and out
in Beverly Hills, and he wanted the cheapest names he
could get, and that was yours, yours truly and those
two other windings. So so we start we we we
(16:28):
made that picture.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And we had a lot of fun and it was
a great picture.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
We had a lot of.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Fun that then begins a series of movies that begins
a whole decade that's tremendous for you.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
What was that decade?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
That was?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
What was Who was bed like?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
In that? Happy? Really really happy? Because when I started,
I came to be an actress. I came to New
York to be an actress or an actor, whatever you
want to say. And I wasn't really very clear about
what it meant. I wasn't clear. I just had a
kind of a fuzzy, muzzy vision of myself in a
(17:15):
cloud of glory. You know. I didn't really know what
it meant. I didn't know what the work was. I
hadn't had much training, in fact, almost none, but I
had this, like I said, I had this light that
I and that I kept walking to. So when I
got there and when I wound up at Disney, which
and no one was more surprised than I was, really,
I mean, I was so shocked because my act was
(17:38):
anything but family friendly. I mean I was dumbfounded. Oh
you want me, But I wasn't about to say no
because it was in a way my vision kind of changed.
I didn't I loved singing, and I loved performing live.
But I think for the for the idea of permanence,
that you want your work to live on there washing
(18:00):
like film, there's nothing there is. Yeah, So I switched quick,
switched over, switched gears and said I'm here now, So
this is what I'm going to do. And then Decade
was fantastic. We had a we have the first all female.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Production company you did.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We did it was called All Girl Productions. And because
we were all girls, and our motto was we hold
a grudge. That's bond. That was Bonnie Bruckheimer, my partner.
That was, Yeah, I love we hold a grudge excellently.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Did you find because now you're.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Oh, there was made your blow back.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I was going to say, you are now at a
time where women are not actresses, are not getting paid properly.
Your movies might be like, were you in a very
misogynistic time?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I think in the world, were you in it?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I didn't feel it. I didn't feel it. I had
never felt it my whole life. Really, I had never
felt it. I had never felt It's only now that
I realized that funny. I mean, I always sort of
watched it, but I never really judged it as like
this gigantic, monolithic case of misogyny. I never really judged it.
(19:10):
I just thought, oh, that's the way the world is.
I didn't think it could be changed. It's just the
way it was. So then I realized there was a
whole bunch of people saying we're going to change this.
That was a real eye opener.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, that's the twenty twenty now of looking back, which
isn't isn't it interesting? I mean, you find yourself now
looking back on the twenty twenty of life. Is there
anything that you're like, the clarity that you know, you go,
oh wow, I didn't see that at the time, or
I didn't know to feel that, or maybe I wouldn't
(19:46):
have done that.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Oh incessantly. You mean, do I have any regrets? I
regret everything, every moment of my life. Regrets. I have
a few. I have so many regrets. But I have
to say say, even though I have regrets, I I
also give myself the opportunity every now and again to
(20:08):
look back and be proud, you know, to say, but
you know, it was big, it was a big thing,
and now I'm sort of outside of it because I'm
a woman of a certain age, and I feel like
a lot of it is behind me, because when you
get to be seventy seven, a lot that you have
more in back of you than you have in front
of you, and a lot of times you don't. You
never lift your head to see it. You never stop
(20:31):
to smell the rose. As corny as it sounds, you're
just so busy plotting ahead that you don't really know
what's going on around you. And it's only when you
stop and assess the damage or the success that you
realize what you went through. And I started to do
my archive forgive me for oh really, yes, I'm putting
my archive together. I mean, I know that sounds much
(20:53):
fancier than it really is. I'm putting all.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
My It's very important.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
It is kind of important because and I got horrorly depressed.
I got horribly depressed. I really did. I almost had
a nervous breakdown over it because I had to look
back and I had to so anyone who's listening who
knew me, then I really apologize. I mean it. You
know who you are, I mean you really? Yeah. Because
I had letters, I had old love letters, I had
(21:20):
I had checks, I had bills, I had scripts I had,
I mean, and it was, like I said, it was
a lot. It was a big life, and it was
a lot of people that I met that I that
passed in my vision that I didn't notice turned out
to be wonderful people that I ignored. And I just
I did some things wrong. I did a lot right,
(21:41):
but I did a lot wrong. So I got really depressed.
I did well.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I mean, I think you have to be careful to
not be too hard.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Yes, exactly, And that is a real that's something that
everyone should learn. That's bred in the bone. If your
family was hard on you, you're going to be hard on
your cells.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
The archive thing, so is the intention to sort of
just put it all together and just you know, keep
it in the family.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
No, No, I'm going to give it to someone. I
haven't really figured out someone who can either you know
you and if there's anybody who wants to write books
or whatever, they'll have access to all that. The truth
is now I'm thinking, oh maybe not the truth is
it was I was, you know, it was swamping me.
There's so much of it, and I just wanted to
(22:28):
get get it out of my vision, out of my line.
At my Sightline.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Was it all storage or someplace it's.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Been in storage. Yeah, it's been in storage for years.
So it's you know, it's like a cloud hanging over
your head.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It's like when you want to clean a cloud.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
You know, downsizing, baby, downsizing.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
It's freedom.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
It's freedom sort of, yes, but first you have to
before you give it all away, you have to go
through it.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It's like when you lay all your clothes down and
then you don't want to do it anymore, right, and
it just sits in your closet.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Because someone just put it away. I think it's you're
you're giving the world a gift.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Welcome back to Table for two.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Bett is, of course an acclaimed actress and singer, but
she is also a prolific philanthropist. Every Halloween, she throws
a star studded benefit called Hulloween to raise money for
her New York Restoration project. The ny RP restores and
preserves green spaces around New York City. I'm honored to
be a part of the event this year, and I'm
(23:45):
curious why Halloween, What was the moment because not a
lot of people have you have.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
This anal retentive quality.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, no, it's the I'm tired of seeing something, I'm
gonna do something about it. Most people just drive on
the highway and see the garbage bag.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I can keep going. What was that moment and the
journey to get you here?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
And me being a green god in Halloween, which I'm
excited about.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I wish it was. I wish it could make it less,
make it more fanciful or more elaborate than it is.
It was really simply people really are sleepwalking. People do sleepwalk.
And I've always prided myself on the fact that I'm alert,
I'm awake, I'm awake, and when I see something going
on that I don't like, it's not just me, it's
(24:37):
everybody around me that's that's being blighted by the blight.
So I just I decided I had to do something
about it, and I did, and I think it's great.
The one thing that I'm really really proud of in
my environmental career is the fact that I raised awareness
at a time when nobody, very few or very few
(24:58):
people were saying this is all we can't do this. Yeah,
and now it's everywhere and everyone is aware of it.
But I don't see I see movement. Like last night
I saw PBS a story about fisherman's gear that goes
missing in the sea. These lobster traps that are now
made of steel. They used to be made of wood
and plastic ropes that used to be made of sizal
(25:21):
that would disintegrate. Now they don't, and they trap wildlife
in them. And you see these pictures of these little
birds you know who tour trapped in these cages. It's
just it's devastating. It's devastating. But I wanted to do
something about it. So I set my mind to it.
And I had a great partner in those days, a
(25:41):
guy named Joe Popello, and he was just he was
a little fireball and a little fireplug, wouldn't take no
for an answer. Knew everybody in the city, and we
started on this journey together and it's still going strong
thirty years later.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
So how did Halloween become the holiday to have this
huge benefit and to raise you know, awareness and money
and make the change.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Well, it was a couple of things. So it was
a couple of things. I once played a witch and
this was a very popular character that I played, and
it seemed to fit. And I also was encouraged by
the board that I got together for this nonprofit to
do a to do an event, and I had never
(26:38):
done an event. I had never done a party. I'd
never I mean, I'm like such a homebody. I don't
do anything. I just go home, I read a book,
I had some pasta, I watched TV, I go to bed.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
I don't think people really realize what an introvert and
what I think kind of shy person that you are.
And I've gotten to know you very casually, and we've
been in the same room. But it's the energy and
it's so interesting because of the two yes and you
were and that you love to read, which I know about.
(27:10):
And Brian and I were talking about you last night
and he was thinking, you're best. Very She's a huge reader,
she's very smart, she's very shocky.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
She's an introvert. People don't realize it's true.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
I had I'm an introvert and my big parties are
the ones that I throw on the stage. That's the
other me. And I love her. I love her, but
I couldn't be her off stage. She is an exhausting
I just can't do this day and night. So I
have those outlets where I'm completely out to lunch, and
(27:42):
then I have my real life where i'm you know,
I'm just like a regular person. And when I say regular,
I mean I just do what everybody does. I love
to cook, I love to eat, I love to put
her around the house. I love to you know, clean
out my closet. Blah blah. Everybody says the same thing. Anyway.
So I played a witch, and that was a very
(28:02):
popular characteris It wasn't popular when it first came out,
but it got a cult following, and somehow or other
it became a gigantic hit many many years late after
its release. So people loved and I said, oh that's good.
And I and I wanted to do an event. And
I had had all these books on ballroom balls, the
artist ball, the drag ball, this ball. I mean, I
(28:27):
had no idea that people were such party givers because
I never went to any of those. So I put
my thinking cap on and I came out out with Halloween.
And you know who said huloween? Mick Jones from Foreigner said, oh,
you should call it. I wanted him to be the
first act. He said, oh, you should call it Hulloween.
And I said, I'm gonna that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Isn't that great?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It's really great.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I mean, I know you're not going to give anything
up about what you're gonna wear.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
No, no, no, no no. I would never give him anything.
What are you gonna war?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
What is?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
It's a kind of a fractured fairy tales? Yes, so
it's give me an exact fairy tales and dead time
stories so you you can think of all the great
fairy tales use you know, the great figures in literature
with of course, with knives, stabs or bullet holes or
you know, bleeding out out of your ears.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, right, Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
So I ran and said, Zach posing two nights ago
and I was like, well, I have a question for you.
He goes, don't ask me to create a halloween. It's
like you read in my mind. And I said, Zach,
I'm not, I know, maybe like a concept. He's like, concepts.
I love, I could do concepts. How he knew that?
That's where I was going to go. I mean, like
(29:42):
the gumption on me, like who do I think I am?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
That is hilarious. The fact that he knew what you
were going to say before you said crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I started to laugh. And I know that Jordan Roff
is involved and he's going to be judging him.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I know one's going to kill it like that.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I'm afraid judge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I mean honest, I'm.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
If I were an attendee, I would be nervous about
Jordan because he really does kill it.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
He goes all out, all out.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I've had such a wonderful time today talking to bet
about her many accomplishments and her life in New York City.
She has made a lane for herself and found so
much success over the years. Before we go, I want
to know to someone who seems so fearless, ever get
nervous as we sort of wrap up our lunch together
(30:35):
and God, this it was really.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Such a dull. Oh my gosh, I can sit across
from you all for the rest of my life. You're
so sweet and so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh my gosh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Was there a moment ever in your performing career that
you were scared that you were about to go and
do something that you were like, oh wow, I'm really.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Scared, like step on the stage. Oh of course you
seem so.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
There are sometimes when you're next level strong. Well you
know that, someone said to me recently, in fact, you
over prepare. And I realized that the reason I overprepare
is because that gives me confidence. If I'm not prepared.
The only the times that I'm most terrified are when
I'm not prepared. When I don't, I'm not really sure
(31:27):
about what I'm going to say, or what I'm going
to do, or what I'm going to sing. But if
I'm if I'm rehearsed, if i'm if I'm up for it.
You know, if I'm ready, then I'm i zum. It's
like a rocket going off. So that's fantastic. But I do,
I do, I do get terrified. I don't have that
kind of crippling stage fright that has dogged a couple
of friends, some friends of mine. But I yet. But
(31:49):
I think that might be a function of agent. Might
be around the corner. Who knows. But anything can happen
one day at a time, one foot in front of
the time, starts with one step. I know all the mantras. Anyway,
this has been so great. I'm so I have to say,
I just have to give a plug for my organization.
We are n y r P and Bruce Boxy is
(32:10):
our Green God this year, and Clive Davis is one
of our honorees, and Christina Blakeslee is our other. We
have some honorees and we have Chloe she's going to
be singing yes, And Dion Warwick is going to sing.
Clive Davis is our one of our honorees and she
is going to sing two songs.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
And she's divine and he's divine.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And everybody everybody's designed divine design and.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
You have design, everyone's designed Miles Frost.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I do have Miles Frost. Yes, that's very proud of
super Yes, he is.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
It's going to be a super fun I think.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
It's going to be a great night. I will probably
I may come as Rapunzel, but I don't know. I
may come as Lady Godiva. Oh and that's something you
really want to see.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
It will come as Eve.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
There's some of them have been so much fun. You know,
Michael Gores and Lancephere were are costume judges. They're not
here this year, so Jordan Roth is taking over. And
they went used to go all out. They did. They
went all out, and we have had some of the
most hilarious and fantastic entertainers. We had Stevie Wonder, we
had Elton John, we had Stevie Nicks, we had Sheryl Crow.
(33:16):
I mean huge, huge, choog choog chooge. All people who
really want to make you know, want to give us
a hand, give the environment a hand. So it's been great.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I think people as we wrap, what you're doing is
again building and maintaining community parks gardens like thousands of them.
You know you're doing something so incredible. But if I
can end on one note, that is your body of work,
your immense talent, the joy and what you've given to
(33:47):
the world, you know, in our lifetime.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And it could bring me to tears because I've sat
in dark movie theaters, I've sat in state and I've
been the recipient of your passion, and thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Thank you, and thank you for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Wonderful and I'll.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
See you on October twenty seventh. October twenty seven, Thanks.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Everyone for pulling up a chair.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Table for Two with Bruce Bosie is produced by iHeart
Radio seven three seven Park and Air Rail. Our executive
producers are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two
is researched and written by Bridget arsenalt Our sound engineers
are Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf. Table for two's LA
production team is Danielle Romo and Lorraine Verrez.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Our music supervisor is Randall poster.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Our talent booking is by James Sarkin.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer,
Alison Kantor Graber, Jody Williams, Rita Sodi, and the team
at Via Cororoda in Manhattan's West Village. For more podcasts
from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen into your favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
M m
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Hm
Hey, everyone, thanks for pulling up a chair today on
Table for two. I could not be more excited to
be here in New York City. It is a glorious day,
and I could not be more excited to be at
Via Carota, my favorite downtown West Village Italian joint.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm very anxious. This is exciting.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We are having lunch today with a woman whose body
of work is absolutely stunning. It's immense, it's diverse, it
spans decades. She is an award winning super talent, and
she gives back to our city, to our country. She
(00:48):
has a voice that she is not afraid to use.
She is next level.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I'm going to have the eggs. That sounds great.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Chappole's I think I think I have. I need a
little proces, so like maybe to cut your to pepe.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Have some carbs. I'm talking about Bette Midler.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Can you believe that we're having lunch.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
With Bette Midler today? So sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Grab a glass of rose, grab a salad, because today's
lunch is really extra special. So thanks for joining again.
I'm Bruce Bosi. This is my podcast Table for two.
I'm really excited we can all have lunch today.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Today, Today, we're here a very nice restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
You love it too, Oh my goodness, I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I was having lunch with middle of the waiter Michael.
I believe it's like, oh yeah this, yeah, She's like,
you know, it's like.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, I come here all the time. The food is
really good.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
What do you like here?
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Well?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I love the Aaroncini I am a real fan of that,
and I love all the pastas. But the real star
for me, I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm close to
is the lettuce salad, which is sensational.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's next level.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
It is it really is, it really is.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's next level.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So sometimes they give me a Cafe Correto espresso with
well you're Italian, you know, with Fanny Bronca, and you're
just like floating through the rest of the day.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Like when we spoke, you know, first of all, receiving
an email from you is one of the most exciting
but one can get.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And it was like, we're not going to be doing
day drinking today. It was normally I say pull Uprose.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I respect that, thank you, But you were in
New York early what was and I happened to think you.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
You know, you came to New York in the late sixties.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I came in sixty five, sixty five, so mid sixties,
mid sixties. I was nineteen. What was I thinking?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, I mean, I think, what's so amazing about that
you're that period? To me is you came in sixty
five and you really hit.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Thirty I did road like.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I mean, I know you studied at HB. I know
you studied with Udah Hagen. I know you were on
Fiddler on the Roof. I know you stayed there. I
know that, I know it nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
You know, my whole, my whole.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I do see thee Yes, I want what I wanted.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I mean, I just like I relighted it so many times.
I wish I had a different story to tell you.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Because.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Wow, the talent, the drive. So what was sixty five
to eighty for you? And like, what was this city
like for you? Because you were.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Doing an interesting question, that's a really interesting question. First
of all, it was a much smaller city. It was lower.
All these high rises didn't exist. There were skyscrapers, but
they were I ventured. I have to say. They were
kind of human scale. You were awed by them, but
you weren't like, oh my god, what is that you know,
(03:56):
like you are.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Now so horrible fifty city street building.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yes, anyway, it was human scale, and the people were
very They were speedy, they were bustling, but they weren't unfriendly.
They were they could be kind at times. It was
it was a very kind of down at heel city.
It wasn't spruced up, it wasn't buff It was very rugged.
(04:20):
It was pretty dirty. Yeah, I mean I was there
for the minute John Lindsay became the mayor. The garbage
workers went on strike, but I mean like the minute
and bom boom, they lowered it, so the garbage piled up.
Then the subway went on strike. Then I mean there
(04:42):
was like a just a perfect storm of horror. And
I was here. I was nineteen, maybe I was, you know,
by I turned twenty in December, and I just took
it like it was this was just normal, even though
I had never seen anything like it in my life.
I just said, well, this is the way it is.
I don't know, I don't know what you're going to
So I had a couple of jobs. I worked at
(05:03):
Le Mama I worked in children's shows. It was a
very rugged Like I said, rugged, and it was.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
It was rough.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It was rough, but it was kind of exciting because yeah,
it was very it was kind of exciting. There was
a lot of stuff going on. There was a lot
of ferment. You know, there was Dylan, and there was
everything that was going on in music and the Beatles
and the Stones and the Andy Warhole was out and
Edie Sedgwick was here and all the Warhole group were downtown.
(05:36):
And for some reason, he was kind of like a
lynch pin. I felt that he was a lynch pin.
I've said for years, gee, I'm sorry he's gone, because
there was something about him that drew people like a
magnet to the city. So there was all this sort
of wild behavior, not just wild behavior, but people who
(05:58):
are artists, who wanted to be to have a career
in art, or people who had something to say. There
was it felt like, I don't want to say Berlin
in the twenties, but maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I think maybe maybe definitely.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, there was a lot of acting out. It wasn't
It wasn't. You didn't feel unsafe, right, you didn't. You
never felt unsafe. It was some of it was shocking.
Some of it was eyebrow raising, but you never felt unsafe.
So it was fun. I have to say it was fun.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I think it was.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It was a lot of fun, especially if you were young,
because that's what that's what it was all about. Those
kids have come of age.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
You didn't have to be rich.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You didn't have to be rich exactly. It didn't have
to be rich as long as you had something going on,
something that was attractive in some way, either you had talent,
or you look great, or you dressed greater. You weren't
afraid to put yourself out. Yeah, and it was that
it was for you. For for a young person, it
was very exciting.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I mean you could have a dime in your shoe
for a phone call and a quarter in your pocket
for a cup of coffee.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And it was and I mean that decade now I
was nine, ten eleven, but it was like see Lea Bruce,
Like I was out on the streets going to visit
my friends and doing things. Like you said, it was
with all the graffiti and all this stuff. It was
there's an element, but it was it was okay.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yeah, well it was people sort of making their mark, right,
if that's what it was. See me, you know, see me,
see me, see me. I'm here too.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I love asking and I love knowing. When you felt
you were.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Seen, well, I think it was when I felt my
I was seen was seen or my scene well.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Both because both are very interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
So like when you know when someone's like, oh people
see me for who I am, Like, was there a
moment that you're like that you experience.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Something that you're like, oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I think that. I think it was probably the first
time I had one of those epiphanies that people who
work in this arena sometimes have when they're they have
a song or something a piece of art that they've
made or performed where they suddenly have an out of
body experience and it causes other people to applaud wildly.
(08:36):
So that happened to me, not once, but several times. Yeah,
it did. And I suddenly realized after fit, when I
after I was done there and I started working on
my own suddenly I was my own boss, which is
I mean, when you're your own book, there's nothing like art,
there's nothing like me. Yeah, So here I was, I
(08:57):
was my own boss, and I was paying my own rent,
and I was doing my own thing and people liked it.
And I think it was the late sixties, like sixty eight,
sixty nine, right, and then it carried through into the seventies.
I was I did. I was a solo act from
about sixty late sixty eight till about seventy, the early seventies,
(09:21):
and then maybe at nineteen seventy I found Barry Manilow.
I found or that he was given to me, was
assigned to me by the Manual and the Baths. I
think the Baths I would have to say in this
long career that I've had, now that it's been you know,
one hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I'm still standing.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Helping John Elton.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
John has it wrong. It's not I'm still It's not.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
That I'm.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Right, And I do have to say I do have
to say that they were great to me. When I
got that gig of the Baths, it was three hundred
dollars for the weekend. This was more money than I
ever heard of in my life. You know, I was
working in Fidder for two hundred dollars a week for
a couple of years, and when I asked for a raise,
they refused me. I asked for a twenty five dollars raise,
and they refused to give me a twenty five dollars days.
(10:09):
Of course, I got very bitter. That was the beginning
of bitter.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Bey, bitter, bitter Betty, Yeah, bitter.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, thank you for joining us on table for two.
(10:41):
Today we're having lunch with Bette Midler. By the nineteen seventies,
bet Star was on the rise. She began the decade
performing in the Continental Baths, a gay bath house in
the basement of the Ansonia Hotel on the Upper West Side,
and by the end of the decade she had moved
to Hollywood. Her journey to mainstream six US was not
(11:01):
as smooth as I presumed. In the seventies, there was
a lot of joy, and there was there was and
you were what was what did you notice in that room?
Besides the obvious of why the men were there, Well,
it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
In the room so much because they were. There were
unwritten rules in the room. So and everyone in those
days was very sort of circumspect. People were very respectful.
They were very respectful. They this was a surprise for
them to come and see an entertainer in the in
their space, and they were thrilled, and they were especially
(11:40):
thrilled with my act because I have always sort of
catered to my crowd. That's something that's like show biz
one O one. You read the room. You have to
read the room, and you have to sort of tailor
your work to the room. And it's great, it's great fun,
but it's a lot of its improvised, and a lot
of it's written in ahead of time, just so that
(12:01):
you have some guideposts. So they were so happy that
I was making jokes about them and their situation and
their life and this and that, and they couldn't have
They were enchanted, enchanted. So I mostly noticed that they
were enchanted. I mostly noticed that because I'm a complete narcissist,
and so I was thrilled. And I never expected it
(12:24):
to lead anywhere. I really didn't really, No, I didn't
expect it to lead anywhere. I thought, this is you know,
it's a weekend gig. I'm going to pay the rent
in one weekend. Oh my god, Because in those days
you could live The rent was three hundred dollars a
month for like four rooms, and you were living like
a king on three hundred dollars Can you imagine, can you.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Imagine it's artist like yourself at that age.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yes, that's why New York was so Yes, it was
so vibe, vivacious, so vibrant because it was cheap. The
and I remember very well when the artists took over,
when they passed the law that said that artists could
live in those lofts downtown town before so and I
(13:12):
had a boyfriend who did that. He bought he got
a loft on Spring Street and it cost him, like,
I don't know, thirty thousand dollars for this gigantic you know,
fifteen hundred square feet. But there was nothing. There was
no grocery store, there was no there was nothing. There
was no bakery, there was no butcher, there was nothing,
no dry cleaner, nothing. And I lived down there with
(13:32):
him for on and off for a few months.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I mean, I have to say, like, you hit it
at what I think is the sexiest.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Time to have hit it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You were young, you were talented, You have the gig
at the bath house.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
You know, it's it was the moment.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
To it absolutely was.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
There's no one like you, bet and there really isn't.
There's nobody that has the body of work and the
ability of talent that I had ever experienced, and the
effect that not only you've had on me listening to
your music, seeing your shows, seeing your movies. So the
(14:22):
seventies ago, when there's a little small world, you're nineteen
seventy nine The Rose Right, Mark Roydell, whose grandson is
my son in law coincidentally, Yeah, married Brian's daughter Billy.
Oh that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know, it's just weird.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And for those listening Mark Roydell directed, you know that
in The Rose Right, you give this performance that's I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I remember being in the movie theater.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
I was, you know, probably just about to be fourteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I mean it was like, so here you are, you
win a Golden globe, You're you're you're in the seventies
in this like incredible way, and you've had all this,
you know, the characters, you developed, all the rite, and
then you do something that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Which part which one? Which time was?
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I So, I mean you go to Hollywood and become
a huge movie store, comedic movie store, and own Disney.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I mean right, Well, it wasn't exactly as easy as
all that. Okay, I had a big hit with Rows,
and then I had a bunch of duds, and they're
not very forgiving out there. But I was on my uppers.
I mean I had I couldn't get arrested. I had
two pictures. I had the Divine Madness, which is a
very odd picture we made in the we made in
Pasadena during a hurricane. And I had jinxed With, which
(15:41):
was hideous, hideous, horrible, and the director and I didn't
see eye to eye on anything. It's raining, No it isn't.
I mean, it was like that. So I was kind
of untouchable. But unbeknownst to me, there were a number
of other untouchables out there too. One of them was
Nick Noldy and the other one was Richard drive This
And so Mike Eisner, in his wisdom, he had just
(16:03):
taken over the Disney Studios and he had we wanted
an adult imprint, so he created Touchstone. That he created
touchdowne in his first picture was was down and out
in Beverly Hills, and he wanted the cheapest names he
could get, and that was yours, yours truly and those
two other windings. So so we start we we we
(16:28):
made that picture.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And we had a lot of fun and it was
a great picture.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
We had a lot of.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Fun that then begins a series of movies that begins
a whole decade that's tremendous for you.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
What was that decade?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
That was?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
What was Who was bed like?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
In that? Happy? Really really happy? Because when I started,
I came to be an actress. I came to New
York to be an actress or an actor, whatever you
want to say. And I wasn't really very clear about
what it meant. I wasn't clear. I just had a
kind of a fuzzy, muzzy vision of myself in a
(17:15):
cloud of glory. You know. I didn't really know what
it meant. I didn't know what the work was. I
hadn't had much training, in fact, almost none, but I
had this, like I said, I had this light that
I and that I kept walking to. So when I
got there and when I wound up at Disney, which
and no one was more surprised than I was, really,
I mean, I was so shocked because my act was
(17:38):
anything but family friendly. I mean I was dumbfounded. Oh
you want me, But I wasn't about to say no
because it was in a way my vision kind of changed.
I didn't I loved singing, and I loved performing live.
But I think for the for the idea of permanence,
that you want your work to live on there washing
(18:00):
like film, there's nothing there is. Yeah, So I switched quick,
switched over, switched gears and said I'm here now, So
this is what I'm going to do. And then Decade
was fantastic. We had a we have the first all female.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Production company you did.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We did it was called All Girl Productions. And because
we were all girls, and our motto was we hold
a grudge. That's bond. That was Bonnie Bruckheimer, my partner.
That was, Yeah, I love we hold a grudge excellently.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Did you find because now you're.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Oh, there was made your blow back.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I was going to say, you are now at a
time where women are not actresses, are not getting paid properly.
Your movies might be like, were you in a very
misogynistic time?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I think in the world, were you in it?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I didn't feel it. I didn't feel it. I had
never felt it my whole life. Really, I had never
felt it. I had never felt It's only now that
I realized that funny. I mean, I always sort of
watched it, but I never really judged it as like
this gigantic, monolithic case of misogyny. I never really judged it.
(19:10):
I just thought, oh, that's the way the world is.
I didn't think it could be changed. It's just the
way it was. So then I realized there was a
whole bunch of people saying we're going to change this.
That was a real eye opener.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, that's the twenty twenty now of looking back, which
isn't isn't it interesting? I mean, you find yourself now
looking back on the twenty twenty of life. Is there
anything that you're like, the clarity that you know, you go,
oh wow, I didn't see that at the time, or
I didn't know to feel that, or maybe I wouldn't
(19:46):
have done that.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Oh incessantly. You mean, do I have any regrets? I
regret everything, every moment of my life. Regrets. I have
a few. I have so many regrets. But I have
to say say, even though I have regrets, I I
also give myself the opportunity every now and again to
(20:08):
look back and be proud, you know, to say, but
you know, it was big, it was a big thing,
and now I'm sort of outside of it because I'm
a woman of a certain age, and I feel like
a lot of it is behind me, because when you
get to be seventy seven, a lot that you have
more in back of you than you have in front
of you, and a lot of times you don't. You
never lift your head to see it. You never stop
(20:31):
to smell the rose. As corny as it sounds, you're
just so busy plotting ahead that you don't really know
what's going on around you. And it's only when you
stop and assess the damage or the success that you
realize what you went through. And I started to do
my archive forgive me for oh really, yes, I'm putting
my archive together. I mean, I know that sounds much
(20:53):
fancier than it really is. I'm putting all.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
My It's very important.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
It is kind of important because and I got horrorly depressed.
I got horribly depressed. I really did. I almost had
a nervous breakdown over it because I had to look
back and I had to so anyone who's listening who
knew me, then I really apologize. I mean it. You
know who you are, I mean you really? Yeah. Because
I had letters, I had old love letters, I had
(21:20):
I had checks, I had bills, I had scripts I had,
I mean, and it was, like I said, it was
a lot. It was a big life, and it was
a lot of people that I met that I that
passed in my vision that I didn't notice turned out
to be wonderful people that I ignored. And I just
I did some things wrong. I did a lot right,
(21:41):
but I did a lot wrong. So I got really depressed.
I did well.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I mean, I think you have to be careful to
not be too hard.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Yes, exactly, And that is a real that's something that
everyone should learn. That's bred in the bone. If your
family was hard on you, you're going to be hard on
your cells.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
The archive thing, so is the intention to sort of
just put it all together and just you know, keep
it in the family.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
No, No, I'm going to give it to someone. I
haven't really figured out someone who can either you know
you and if there's anybody who wants to write books
or whatever, they'll have access to all that. The truth
is now I'm thinking, oh maybe not the truth is
it was I was, you know, it was swamping me.
There's so much of it, and I just wanted to
(22:28):
get get it out of my vision, out of my line.
At my Sightline.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Was it all storage or someplace it's.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Been in storage. Yeah, it's been in storage for years.
So it's you know, it's like a cloud hanging over
your head.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It's like when you want to clean a cloud.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
You know, downsizing, baby, downsizing.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
It's freedom.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
It's freedom sort of, yes, but first you have to
before you give it all away, you have to go
through it.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It's like when you lay all your clothes down and
then you don't want to do it anymore, right, and
it just sits in your closet.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Because someone just put it away. I think it's you're
you're giving the world a gift.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Welcome back to Table for two.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Bett is, of course an acclaimed actress and singer, but
she is also a prolific philanthropist. Every Halloween, she throws
a star studded benefit called Hulloween to raise money for
her New York Restoration project. The ny RP restores and
preserves green spaces around New York City. I'm honored to
be a part of the event this year, and I'm
(23:45):
curious why Halloween, What was the moment because not a
lot of people have you have.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
This anal retentive quality.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, no, it's the I'm tired of seeing something, I'm
gonna do something about it. Most people just drive on
the highway and see the garbage bag.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I can keep going. What was that moment and the
journey to get you here?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
And me being a green god in Halloween, which I'm
excited about.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I wish it was. I wish it could make it less,
make it more fanciful or more elaborate than it is.
It was really simply people really are sleepwalking. People do sleepwalk.
And I've always prided myself on the fact that I'm alert,
I'm awake, I'm awake, and when I see something going
on that I don't like, it's not just me, it's
(24:37):
everybody around me that's that's being blighted by the blight.
So I just I decided I had to do something
about it, and I did, and I think it's great.
The one thing that I'm really really proud of in
my environmental career is the fact that I raised awareness
at a time when nobody, very few or very few
(24:58):
people were saying this is all we can't do this. Yeah,
and now it's everywhere and everyone is aware of it.
But I don't see I see movement. Like last night
I saw PBS a story about fisherman's gear that goes
missing in the sea. These lobster traps that are now
made of steel. They used to be made of wood
and plastic ropes that used to be made of sizal
(25:21):
that would disintegrate. Now they don't, and they trap wildlife
in them. And you see these pictures of these little
birds you know who tour trapped in these cages. It's
just it's devastating. It's devastating. But I wanted to do
something about it. So I set my mind to it.
And I had a great partner in those days, a
(25:41):
guy named Joe Popello, and he was just he was
a little fireball and a little fireplug, wouldn't take no
for an answer. Knew everybody in the city, and we
started on this journey together and it's still going strong
thirty years later.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
So how did Halloween become the holiday to have this
huge benefit and to raise you know, awareness and money
and make the change.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Well, it was a couple of things. So it was
a couple of things. I once played a witch and
this was a very popular character that I played, and
it seemed to fit. And I also was encouraged by
the board that I got together for this nonprofit to
do a to do an event, and I had never
(26:38):
done an event. I had never done a party. I'd
never I mean, I'm like such a homebody. I don't
do anything. I just go home, I read a book,
I had some pasta, I watched TV, I go to bed.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
I don't think people really realize what an introvert and
what I think kind of shy person that you are.
And I've gotten to know you very casually, and we've
been in the same room. But it's the energy and
it's so interesting because of the two yes and you
were and that you love to read, which I know about.
(27:10):
And Brian and I were talking about you last night
and he was thinking, you're best. Very She's a huge reader,
she's very smart, she's very shocky.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
She's an introvert. People don't realize it's true.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
I had I'm an introvert and my big parties are
the ones that I throw on the stage. That's the
other me. And I love her. I love her, but
I couldn't be her off stage. She is an exhausting
I just can't do this day and night. So I
have those outlets where I'm completely out to lunch, and
(27:42):
then I have my real life where i'm you know,
I'm just like a regular person. And when I say regular,
I mean I just do what everybody does. I love
to cook, I love to eat, I love to put
her around the house. I love to you know, clean
out my closet. Blah blah. Everybody says the same thing. Anyway.
So I played a witch, and that was a very
(28:02):
popular characteris It wasn't popular when it first came out,
but it got a cult following, and somehow or other
it became a gigantic hit many many years late after
its release. So people loved and I said, oh that's good.
And I and I wanted to do an event. And
I had had all these books on ballroom balls, the
artist ball, the drag ball, this ball. I mean, I
(28:27):
had no idea that people were such party givers because
I never went to any of those. So I put
my thinking cap on and I came out out with Halloween.
And you know who said huloween? Mick Jones from Foreigner said, oh,
you should call it. I wanted him to be the
first act. He said, oh, you should call it Hulloween.
And I said, I'm gonna that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Isn't that great?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It's really great.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I mean, I know you're not going to give anything
up about what you're gonna wear.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
No, no, no, no no. I would never give him anything.
What are you gonna war?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
What is?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
It's a kind of a fractured fairy tales? Yes, so
it's give me an exact fairy tales and dead time
stories so you you can think of all the great
fairy tales use you know, the great figures in literature
with of course, with knives, stabs or bullet holes or
you know, bleeding out out of your ears.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, right, Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
So I ran and said, Zach posing two nights ago
and I was like, well, I have a question for you.
He goes, don't ask me to create a halloween. It's
like you read in my mind. And I said, Zach,
I'm not, I know, maybe like a concept. He's like, concepts.
I love, I could do concepts. How he knew that?
That's where I was going to go. I mean, like
(29:42):
the gumption on me, like who do I think I am?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
That is hilarious. The fact that he knew what you
were going to say before you said crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I started to laugh. And I know that Jordan Roff
is involved and he's going to be judging him.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I know one's going to kill it like that.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I'm afraid judge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I mean honest, I'm.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
If I were an attendee, I would be nervous about
Jordan because he really does kill it.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
He goes all out, all out.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I've had such a wonderful time today talking to bet
about her many accomplishments and her life in New York City.
She has made a lane for herself and found so
much success over the years. Before we go, I want
to know to someone who seems so fearless, ever get
nervous as we sort of wrap up our lunch together
(30:35):
and God, this it was really.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Such a dull. Oh my gosh, I can sit across
from you all for the rest of my life. You're
so sweet and so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh my gosh, thank you.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Was there a moment ever in your performing career that
you were scared that you were about to go and
do something that you were like, oh wow, I'm really.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Scared, like step on the stage. Oh of course you
seem so.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
There are sometimes when you're next level strong. Well you
know that, someone said to me recently, in fact, you
over prepare. And I realized that the reason I overprepare
is because that gives me confidence. If I'm not prepared.
The only the times that I'm most terrified are when
I'm not prepared. When I don't, I'm not really sure
(31:27):
about what I'm going to say, or what I'm going
to do, or what I'm going to sing. But if
I'm if I'm rehearsed, if i'm if I'm up for it.
You know, if I'm ready, then I'm i zum. It's
like a rocket going off. So that's fantastic. But I do,
I do, I do get terrified. I don't have that
kind of crippling stage fright that has dogged a couple
of friends, some friends of mine. But I yet. But
(31:49):
I think that might be a function of agent. Might
be around the corner. Who knows. But anything can happen
one day at a time, one foot in front of
the time, starts with one step. I know all the mantras. Anyway,
this has been so great. I'm so I have to say,
I just have to give a plug for my organization.
We are n y r P and Bruce Boxy is
(32:10):
our Green God this year, and Clive Davis is one
of our honorees, and Christina Blakeslee is our other. We
have some honorees and we have Chloe she's going to
be singing yes, And Dion Warwick is going to sing.
Clive Davis is our one of our honorees and she
is going to sing two songs.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
And she's divine and he's divine.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And everybody everybody's designed divine design and.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
You have design, everyone's designed Miles Frost.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I do have Miles Frost. Yes, that's very proud of
super Yes, he is.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
It's going to be a super fun I think.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
It's going to be a great night. I will probably
I may come as Rapunzel, but I don't know. I
may come as Lady Godiva. Oh and that's something you
really want to see.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
It will come as Eve.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
There's some of them have been so much fun. You know,
Michael Gores and Lancephere were are costume judges. They're not
here this year, so Jordan Roth is taking over. And
they went used to go all out. They did. They
went all out, and we have had some of the
most hilarious and fantastic entertainers. We had Stevie Wonder, we
had Elton John, we had Stevie Nicks, we had Sheryl Crow.
(33:16):
I mean huge, huge, choog choog chooge. All people who
really want to make you know, want to give us
a hand, give the environment a hand. So it's been great.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I think people as we wrap, what you're doing is
again building and maintaining community parks gardens like thousands of them.
You know you're doing something so incredible. But if I
can end on one note, that is your body of work,
your immense talent, the joy and what you've given to
(33:47):
the world, you know, in our lifetime.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And it could bring me to tears because I've sat
in dark movie theaters, I've sat in state and I've
been the recipient of your passion, and thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Thank you, and thank you for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Wonderful and I'll.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
See you on October twenty seventh. October twenty seven, Thanks.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Everyone for pulling up a chair.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Table for Two with Bruce Bosie is produced by iHeart
Radio seven three seven Park and Air Rail. Our executive
producers are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two
is researched and written by Bridget arsenalt Our sound engineers
are Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf. Table for two's LA
production team is Danielle Romo and Lorraine Verrez.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Our music supervisor is Randall poster.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Our talent booking is by James Sarkin.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer,
Alison Kantor Graber, Jody Williams, Rita Sodi, and the team
at Via Cororoda in Manhattan's West Village. For more podcasts
from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen into your favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
M m
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Hm
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