"Did you miss me?" "I missed you too ya know."

"I gotta fill halls to capacity and I gotta do it now".... and so she did...

   BETTE MIDLER TAKES RADIO CITY
   BY STORM by Paul Gettner..Associated press

NEW YORK-Bad sign: The curtain for Bette Midler's six week engagement at Radio City Music Hall has a schlmaltzy pink rose on a field of blue, surrounded by white polka dots.
Is it too late? Has the raucous, naughty Divine Miss M been hopelessly homogenized after too many years in Hollywood, working for walt Disney?
     Then the curtain lifts and four scantily clad female heralds appear. Music begins, another curtain parts and there she is, suspended high above the stage in front of a giant sun, splendid in gold lame.
It's the same old Bette.
     I bet you didn't expect me to look quite this fabulous," she said in greeting her opening-night audience. "I bet you were expecting a beefier person".
     Thus began 1½ hours of seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm. Midler-who hasn't toured in 10 years-retakes the stage like she never left, bolting out the ballads like Wind Beneath My Wings" and "From a Distance" and "The Rose" but the show stoppers were "Delta Dawn", which she delivered in rousing gospel style; and a torrid blues number, "Stay With Me", from her first movie, "The Rose". She also acted out "Roses Turn" from "Gypsy". She was bouncing through the lighthearted numbers, cracking jokes old and new, strutting about and striking poses like the veteran voguer she is.
     The star-studded audience-including Lauren Bacall, k.d. lang, Chuck Norris, Mary Tyler Moore,Joan Collins, Calvin Klein, Cyndi Lauper, Mike Wallace were jumping up and standing up for standing ovations half a dozen times.
     Watching her alone on the stage, singing that last number with such intensity and emotion, it was easy to forget how much she's changed since she first recorded it. "I have crossed the line into family entertainment," she laughed at one point. "I work for the big bucks."
     Midler set the record at Radio City Music Hall selling 30 shows, playing to 176,220 people. The biggest thing ever in new York City. They gave her an all diamond ring!! In the 80"s she became one of Hollywood's most powerful female stars and remains so.
     But Midler proved she's still the "fierce ruling diva" her loyal fans came to love 25 years ago.
     The evenings comedy highlights were Soph the bawdy spinster and Delores Del Lago, a mermaid in a wheelchair.
     "What a way to make a living", she said to the audience. Then she, the Harlettes and four other mermaids launched right into a brief rendition of "New York, New York" from their wheelchairs.

"An outrageous, captivating entertainer, Bette Midler combines in one talent a soulful voice, the raucous wit of Mae West, and the comedic skill of Lucille Ball."

"Bette takes every song and turns it into an experience". "I could watch her sing forever.".Mark Rydell

Bette Midler Back On The Road

"Finally, utimately..I want to do , what it is that I do, not what somebody else does. That really is what drove me back on stage."..Bette

"Bettes instinct, talent and guts have vaulted her from obscurity to the top of the entertainment business and one of the most sought after stars in the world today".-George Mair

"Some audiences you want to take home and live with they're so fabulous."-Bette

Fan Quote-"My husband is my heart and bette is my soul". Diana the outcast!!

Bette Midler is back at 47-


She has the same old pep.

By LIZ SMITH
Last July and August
I was working in a largely deserted New York. Most sane people having departed on vacation. I was hard up for news to fill my syndicated column, but it was encouraging that the telephone never stopped ringing. The only trouble? Nobody was calling with news, Everyone who had ever heard of me was ringing to beg for tickets to the Bette Midler Show, "Experience the Divine," which would open for an unprecedented thirty performances at Radio City Music Hall on September 14th.
Never in my years as an entertainment writer had such a ticket-brokering position been forced upon me. My gynecologist wanted eight tickets, my hairdresser threatened suicide if I didn't come though, my friends--even Barbara Walters--called, pleading.
I have a little clout, but not enough to produce forty-four tickets, which was the total asked for before I started answering the phone with "No, I can't get them".

"Gotta sing, gotta act, gotta wear the right shoes"-Bette

"Her show like her career is a triumph of attitude".

"Never underestimate the power of a woman."
"In food or in life, order is everything"-Bette

"I don't take anything., I'm high on life"-Bette

"Once Bette owned the bathhouses, now she owned the world."-George Collins

I am 48 yrs old and the mother of two children. I have 2 diseases that keep me in bed most of the time. BUT once I found SEARCH and put in BETTE MIDLER and you sent me to all those Bette sites it has been wonderful. Now I have many BETTE things. I love Bette with all my heart. I have her pictures in my room framed and when I look at her smiling face it always cheers me up and makes me feel good. She is just so human and down to earth and WOW what an entertainer. She is the BEST! There will never be another BETTE.
- Laura Perry

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