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\n\t\tefore she was an acclaimed actress, comic, and vocalist, Midler was a young teen living in Hawaii and dreaming of the stage. At 14, she had a short-lived career in community theater. It involved being hired and then immediately fired for \u201chamming it up\u201d so much that she drew attention away from the lead actress. The lesson was a swift one: You can\u2019t upstage the star. So, Midler decided to become one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tNow 80, Midler has three Grammys, two Tonys, three Emmys, four Golden Globes, and a history in the entertainment industry so storied that she genuinely can\u2019t remember it all. But she tells Rolling Stone that even at this point in her career, there\u2019s still a direct line between who she is now and that young girl desperate to be a star. \u201cI fell in love with film. I love Technicolor more than life. Now, everything\u2019s pink. Don\u2019t get me started,\u201d she says. \u201cBut [film], it was otherworldly. It was like having died and gone to heaven to see this lighting. I was captured by it. I was taken hostage by it. I was stage-struck.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Rolling Stone\u2019s Last Word column, Midler talked about the gigs, auditions, and storied feuds that took her from dreamer to entertainment legend.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was the moment you thought acting might be for you?<\/strong> \n\tWhen did you have an inkling you could make a living at it? \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\tIn the early Seventies, you started performing at the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in New York. How did that come about? <\/strong> \n\tI had a very small band. And then the guy that played at the baths, he went on the road with someone else. I was terrified, because I didn\u2019t know what I was going to get. And the owner of the baths said, \u201cI have someone else for you.\u201d And it turned out to be Barry Manilow. He became my band leader. He was brilliant, he knew every song ever written. He got all the jokes, he got all the serious songs. He understood every single thing that I was trying to do, every note.<\/p>\n \n\tAs a young woman in show business, how did you look out for yourself? \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tHow did the gay community influence your later albums, like 1998\u2019s Bathhouse Betty?\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tHow did it feel, then, to witness that community ravaged by the AIDS epidemic? <\/strong> \n\tDo you think that experience is why you\u2019re so direct about calling out the government<\/a> now \u2014 including President Trump<\/a>? \n\tWhat are some roles that you wish you hadn\u2019t turned down?<\/strong> \n\tWhat\u2019s the first lavish purchase you made with showbiz money?<\/strong>
<\/strong>The first time I ever saw a show, I was about 14 years old. I was helping the librarian of my school collate books. She didn\u2019t pay us, but she gave us two tickets to see a show. It was [Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s] Carousel. The curtain went up, and the lights went on, and I just couldn\u2019t believe what I was seeing. I never forgot it. I wanted to be up there in the light.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I went to college as a drama major, but only lasted about a year. I was cast in [the 1966 film] Hawaii, with Max von Sydow and Julie Andrews, and they brought me to L.A. along with a bunch of other locals. And I thought, \u201cOh, I can manage this.\u201d I earned enough money on that movie to move to New York. I started going to auditions on Broadway, and I got into Fiddler on the Roof.<\/p>\n
One day, I got a call from my old acting teacher. He asked me if I wanted to sing at the baths. And I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s the baths?\u201d When I was in Fiddler, I was working for $200 a week and I had asked them for a $25 raise, and they said, \u201cNever.\u201d He told me what [the baths] paid, and I dropped everything. I put the show on in the gay bathhouse. I would be my most outrageous self. When I went on the stage in front of all those gays, they threw their hands up and screamed. And it was great fun. We went from 30 people in the house\u00a0 to hundreds. Because it was such an odd venue, and transgressive in those days, we were a huge hit.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I got a very aggressive manager named Aaron Russo. He thought I was the greatest thing, and he just pushed, pushed, pushed on my behalf. I never met anybody like him, and I was so grateful. We were a team. I was really not a schmoozer. I was a reader. So he did all that socializing \u2014 and he knew his drugs, which I actually couldn\u2019t do. My body was too sensitive. That went very well until it didn\u2019t go very well. Things between us got very feisty because he wanted 50 percent. I\u2019m dumb, but I\u2019m not that dumb. I know 50 percent means half, and I didn\u2019t think that was fair. Sure, he was doing the schmoozing, but I was doing the sweating in high heels. So I said, \u201cAbsolutely not. You\u2019re fired.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll tell you something, [gay people] are some of the most fun people in the whole world \u2014 aside from the Australians, of course. After I started doing community theater, the chorus would go out afterwards, and they would take me with them to see these drag acts. It was completely wholesome and joyous. So I have never had any terror or fear or aversion to gay people. They\u2019re part of my family.<\/p>\n
That was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. I must have lost 200 people that I knew, many close friends I\u2019d have drinks with, or I\u2019d share jokes with. I\u2019m talking about all levels of intimacy, and they\u2019re just gone. It\u2019s funny, the older I am, the angrier I get \u2014 the cruelty of it, that the government didn\u2019t do anything. Five hundred thousand people were dead before they did anything. It\u2019s unconscionable.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I lived in New York during Donald Trump\u2019s [rise], and everyone in the city felt the same way about him. Everybody knew his game, and everybody thought he was hilariously dubious. Everybody just thought he was a joke. The jealousy that emanates from every pore of this guy is uncontrollable. Part of growing up is learning to control yourself. And [Trump] has never learned to control himself. Now we\u2019re reaping the horror of a person who is out of control. So why do I feel like it\u2019s my duty? Because I know what the truth is. When I see someone who\u2019s not just undeserving, but incompetent, it infuriates me.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I turned down Misery. I [didn\u2019t] think I wanted to have it on film that I cut off someone\u2019s foot, because audiences identify the actor with the event. My husband still says I\u2019m a damn fool. And I turned down Sister Act because I said, \u201cMy fans don\u2019t want to see me in a wimple.\u201d And Whoopi [Goldberg] said, \u201cBring on the goddamn wimple.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>It must have been shoes. When I was a kid, I had one pair of saddle shoes I wore year after year after year until my feet got too big for them, and then I got another pair. So, I coveted high heels. I started collecting heels and vintage clothes. As far as a huge purchase, I think it was my house. I bought it in 1980, and I\u2019m still there.<\/p>\n