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According to Joel Samberg ("The Jewish
Book of Lists", copyright 1998), Bette Midler
is listed under the category of "The Rockers and the Poppers." He writes,
Bette Midler (1930- ) Boogie woogled her
way from Hawaii to cabarets to Top 40 and
then rose to even greater heights on screen. She was one of Tevya's daughters on Broadway and the Last Mama Rose on
TV, and she also has two Grammys beneath her wing.
Shown below is a Yiddish Guide to Bette Midler:
"ambitsyez" (ambitious)
Midler's women are pushy, ambitious, often
selfish, but they are generous in spirit,
always ready to laugh, and fearless in their
contact with life.
"bafrayen" (to liberate)
Since 2000, Midler has been working on films that highlight the woman's perspective. She produced "Divine Secrets
of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" in 2002. This film
was based on the book about a group of non-comformist girlfriends ("di meydlekh")
in Louisiana. She also played a major role
in "The Stepford Wives," a remake of the
1975 "gender war" thriller, in which the town's men replace their "liberated" wives
with a group of obedient robotic look-alikes.
"bal-tsdoke" (philanthropist)
Midler is a philanthropist. In 1995, she
founded the New York Restoration Project,
which plants trees, maintains community
gardens, and cleans up public spaces in the
city's lowest-income "shkheyneshafts"
(neighborhoods). She put up $250,000 of her own money to save community gardens on the lower East Side.
"bine" (stage)
From 1966 to 1969, Midler was on "di bine"
(the stage) playing the role of Tzeitel in
"Fiddler on the Roof."
"bod" (bathhouse)
In the summer of 1970, Midler began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the city. She wore gold lame
gowns, garter belts, toreador pants, and
platform shoes. She commented on her
time performing there:
"Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride."
In the late 1990s, she released her album, "Bathhouse Betty."
"bruder" (brother)
Midler's only brother was mentally retarded. The family never put him away in an institution, even though they were told to do so. Her father taught him to read and count and be an independent
soul.
"bukh" (book)
"Bette Midler: Still Devine" was written by Mark Bego.
As a welcome-to-Vegas gift, Midler's husband bought her the entire Penguin Classics LIbrary. The floor-to-ceiling book- shelf in her dressing quarters was stuffed with several hundred of the 1,082 titles. "I'm reading Chesterton right now. The Man Who Was Thursday. I thought I'd start light," said Midler.
"durkhfaln" (fail/to not succeed)
When asked about the feeling-- the sting-- of the failure of her 2000 sitcom, called "Bette," she replied, "Very, very much
so. What I intended was Entourage. What
I got was nothing."
"eytse"(advice)
Midler told her daughter, "If you ever go into the movie business, I'll never speak to
you again."
"grin" (green)
In Midler's shows, she's less likely to be
green, and more likely to favor shades of
blue--as in bawdy material.
"haldz" (throat)
Midler (Miss Dion) is concerned about
Vegas Throat. Doctors now say that Vegas
Throat is caused by the low desert humidity and dust particles in the air. People told Midler about a product called Las Vegas Mix Spray, and she bought two years' worth. She also refused to go anywhere in the casino without a scarf around her "nakn" (neck). She was worried
about drafts.
"khasene" (marriage)
Midler married Martin von Haselberg on
Dec. 16, 1984, roughly six weeks after meeting him for the "ershter" (first) time.
The wedding took place in Las Vegas and
was performed by an Elvis impersonator.
"khinukh" (education)
Midler majored in "drame" (drama) at the
Univ. of Hawaii, though she only attended
three semesters.
"kol" (voice)
Midler lent her voice to the animated character, Georgette, a snobbish poodle
in Disney's "Oliver & Company." From 1975
to 1978, she also provided "dos kol" (the
voice) of Woody the Spoon on the PBS
educational series, "Vegetable Soup."
"komish" (comical, funny)
In "Beaches" (1988), Midler plays a
Bronx-based Jew who blends comedy and
pathos, egotism and vulnerability. She plays the brassy C. C. Bloom (Cecelia Carol
Bloom), who finally reaches diva status as a
performer by the end of the movie. One
quote:
CCBloom: I, uh [pause] I'm playing a prison
guard on death row.
John Pierce:
I know, I did the casting.
CCBloom: Well, I thought I'd have a better
part.
John Pierce:
Not yet.
CCBloom: But this isn't me.
John Pierce:
Well [pause] *Act* like it is.
[smiles]
CCBloom [turns to leave]
He hates my hair.
"korb" (basket)
Middler has offered her followers a $300
Bathhouse Betty Gift Basket ("For a clean that's devine, when you're feeling dirty").
"A gantse metsie" (a great bargain)..
"krankayt" (illness)
In 1980, Midler's movie career went from
a spectacular "onheyb" (beginning) to a seemingly disastrous end. Her movie, "Jinxed" (1980) was exactly that. By her own admission, Midler experienced a mental breakdown. Rest, therapy, and contemplation--a decided contrast to her usual style and behavior--restored her spirit.
"lebn" (life)
Midler appeared on "The Nanny" in the
aptly titled episode, "You Bette Your Life."
"lift" (elevator)
Midler says that some people try to become
very grand and marry up. She said, "But you know, ultimately, when I ride the
elevator with the housekeepers, I know that I'm one of them."
"loyn" (wages)
Midler refers to Las Vegas as "Lost Wages."
When she first appeared there, opening for
Johnny Carson at the Sahara, the audience
couldn't care less about the act. "They just
didn't know what to make of me. They
didn't understand ("farshteyn") why they
had left the gambling tables."
(New York Magazine, Mar. 24, 2008)
"milyon" (million)
Midler released her debut album, "The Divine Miss M" in Dec. of 1972 and it became a million-selling Platinum-certified album.
"mishpokhe" (family)
Midler, AKA "The Divine Miss M," was the
daughter of seamstress/housewife, Ruth
(nee Schindel) and "malyer" (house painter), Fred Midler, who worked at a Navy base in Hawaii.
Her parents were from Paterson, New Jersey, and moved to Honolulu before Midler was born. In an interview with Jack Matthews, she said that her parents had a very hard life. It might as well have been the depression. They were very poor.
"musey" (museum)
At the opening of the new Philadelphia
Jewish Museum, Bette Midler, Jerry Seinfeld, and Barbra Streisand came together to celebrate their ancestry with
2,000 other extremely "raykh" (wealthy)
people. Celebrities, politicians, and big
donors paid $1,500 to $5,000 each for a
sit-down "mitog" (dinner). The "musey"
is dedicted to the 350 years of Jeish history
in America.
"oylem" (audience)
In 2003-2004, Midler toured the U. S. in her
new show, "Kiss My Brass" to sell-out audiences. Midler says that "every audience
is different. Some audiences you don't like.
Some audiences you want to take home and live with, they're so fabulous."
(Source: Jack Mathews interview)
"redn" (to talk)
Midler was voted "Most Talkative" in the
1961 School Hoss election and in her Senior
Year, "Most Dramatic."
"royt" (red)
Ol' Red Hair is Back. In 1977, Midler's first TV special, "Ol' Red Hair is Back" premiered.
It went on to win the Emmy Award for
Outstanding Special - Comedy - Variety
or Music.
"royz" (rose)
In 1979, Midler was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best "aktrise" (Actress)
for "The Rose." She starred as a hard-living, ill fated rock "zinger" (singer).
"shmeykhl" (smile)
In school {Hawaii] Midler felt like an
outsider. She was the only white in school,
as she later recalled, and she was Jewish.
Neither she nor her classmates knew what
it meant. Bette wisecracked that she thought it had something to do with boys.
Witty responses, quick retorts, and a ready
"shmeykhl" (:smile) became her defense
against unpleasant home and school
realities. She was elected class valedictorian.
"shtiferish" (naughty)
This headline appeared in The New York
Times on March 3, 2008:
"NAUGHTY-NICE MISS M
SETS UP SHOP IN SIN CITY"
According to Charles Iserwood's theater review, he describes the truly colossal Colosseum stage (Las Vegas) as 120 feet wide. He writes, "...the diva ascends from under center stage atop an enormous pile of Louis Vuitton luggage ("bagazh"). Ms. Midler, trim in a silver sequined pantssuit, her hair is a nimbus of tight blond curls."
"shvester" (sister)
Midler turned down the lead role in 1992's
"Sister Act," which instead went to Whoopi
Goldberg.
"teater" (theater)
In 1974, Midler received a special Tony Award for her contribution to B'way with
"Clams on the Half Shell Revue" at the
Minscoff Theater.
"televisye" (television)
In June 2009, Midler appeared on the Bravo
TV show, "My Life on the D-List" with Kathy
Griffin.
"reybn" (to scrub)
"My idea of superwoman is someone who
scrubs her own floors." Quote
"taynen" (to argue)
After a reported long-standing feud with
Barry Manilow, the two joined forces for
the first time in years in 2003 to record
"Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney
Songbook."
"tuchter" (daughter)
Midler's only daughter is Sophie, who is
named after Sophie Tucker, the red-hot mama.
"velt' (world)
In 1985, Midler was a performer on USA for
Africa's fund-raising single "We Are The
World."
"vitsik" (witty)
Midler jokes about the fact that she is a
Jewish woman married to a German and
readily identifies herself as a Jewish outsider in a Christian world. She clearly
believes that her Jewishness adds to her
witty understanding of a confusing "velt"
(world).
"yam-krank" (seasick)
Middler appeared in the film, "Hawaii"
(released in 1966) as an extra, playing a
seasick passenger.
"zind" (sin)--as in Sin City
Midler has a Vegas show titled, "Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On" at the
Colosseum at Caesar's Palace.
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