#BornThisDay: Gay In, Bette Midler - The WOW Report

Contents:

• WATCH RARE FOOTAGE OF BETTE MIDLER PERFORMG A GAY BATHHOE
• BETTE MIDLER ON HER GAY FANS AND HER ADVICE FOR DRAG QUEENS LOOKG TO PAY TRIBUTE
• BETTE MIDLER Q&A: THE GAY INTERVIEW
• BETTE MIDLER ON GAY CULTURE: 'IT'S SORT OF ORDARY NOW'
• PHOTO: BETTE MIDLER AND BARRY MANILOW – GAY PRI 1973
• #BORNTHISDAY: GAY IN, BETTE MIDLER

WATCH RARE FOOTAGE OF BETTE MIDLER PERFORMG A GAY BATHHOE

Bette Midler has for a long-time been a gay in, but you probably haven’t seen this performance she did 1971. Appearg at New York’s Contental Baths, a gay bathhoe, Midler jok: “This is my 800th farewell appearance here at the Contental. The Dive Miss M ma her name a gay bathhoe.

This is the moniker she first ed while workg at a gay bathhoe Manhattan lled the Contental Baths — where, F.

BETTE MIDLER ON HER GAY FANS AND HER ADVICE FOR DRAG QUEENS LOOKG TO PAY TRIBUTE

As the "world's most fluential gay club" (via The Guardian), the "nt" bathhoe was often equented by stars like Aled Hchck, Mick Jagger, and Andy Warhol. Bette Midler has enjoyed a sizable gay fan base sce the early years of her legendary reer, and now, the Dive Miss M says "never occurred" to her not to stand up on behalf of the muny.

"I had been the theater for a long time, om the time I was a young person, and I'd always known gay people -- and they were jt, like, gay people! "You didn't thk of them as beg different, although lookg back on my high school years, I thk there were a lot of people my high school -- this is so many years ago; this is 50 years ago -- who probably were gay and didn't ever talk about . Before You GoGay Ins: 25 Divas Embraced By Gay CulturePopular the CommunyYou May Like.

The film, 1979’s “The Rose, ” turned the Hawaii native’s dreams, and her nights performg for half-naked gay men at a New York Cy bathhoe, to a legendary and unniably fluential reer mic – the tle song is one of her biggt hs – and film.

BETTE MIDLER Q&A: THE GAY INTERVIEW

Later rol would clu parts “Beach, ” “Hoc Poc” and “The First Wiv Club, ” all of which go down as gay cult classics. That you’re a gay in. I remember that I had a lot of iends the gay world.

You mentn havg lots of gay iends then, but I’m sure there’s no shortage of them your life now. Of urse I have a lot of gay iends. I will say that the old days when all of this was all so unrground, the excement the gay muny now about gay marriage and g above the ground, olr people (mt) thk, “Wow, look how far the gay muny has e by stickg together and toughg out.

” You know, gay marriage, beg able to adopt children, beg part of the mastream as opposed to always beg sub rosa – mt be so fascatg and such a strong validatn. You’ve really seen the evolutn of the gay rights movement. You were at the foreont of when you got your start, so where do you thk – or where do you hope – the gay movement is head?

BETTE MIDLER ON GAY CULTURE: 'IT'S SORT OF ORDARY NOW'

I’m not gay so ’s kd of hard for me to answer that qutn.

I jt thk ’s jt fantastic for the gay muny.

Where do you stand on the new wave of gay ins?

PHOTO: BETTE MIDLER AND BARRY MANILOW – GAY PRI 1973

I thk that the gay muny has always liked a certa type, and there are plenty of those around.

But Ale is now nsired a gay in, and I’ve heard you’re a fan of hers. "Midler says rerdg the album was a fun, nostalgic trip that left her longg for the goln age of not only the girl groups who fluenced her over the years, but also the gay fans who supported her throughout her reer. "The extreme characters you ed to see the Village the old days, you jt don't see them anymore, and I really do miss them bee there was a feelg I ed to get that people were exprsg themselv the most elaborate of ways, " she says of the flamboyant fans who were among the re followg she gaed durg her time sgg the Contental Baths, a gay bathhoe, durg the summer of 1970.

"Now the [gay muny] has kd of gone mastream.

#BORNTHISDAY: GAY IN, BETTE MIDLER

""It ed to be the love that dare not speak s name and now 's the love that won't shut the fuck up, " she jok, stoppg to let out a long lgh before addg, "but serly, the great thg about the gay revolutn is that has bee ordary and I'm happy to see how far 's e and to see the muny be more at peace wh self and, I want to say, more homogenized. Even beg nsired a gay in -- which was somethg that ed to be whispered and bandied about -- has bee sort of mastream, and that's a good thg.