Bette Midler

Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Jewish parents Fred Midler and Ruth Midler

Early Life
Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Jewish parents Fred Midler and Ruth Midler, a housewife and seamstress. She grew up in the neighborhood of Aiea, in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she studied at the Radford High School. After high school, she attended the University of Hawaii but dropped out after three semesters.

Career
Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film Hawaii. She studied theatre at HB Studio under Uta Hagen. She landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen's Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children's play by day and an adult show by night.[18] From 1966 to 1969, she played the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. After Fiddler, she joined the original cast of Salvation in 1969.

She began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the Ansonia Hotel, in the summer of 1970.[1] During this time, she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first album in 1972, The Divine Miss M. It was during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album Bathhouse Betty, Midler 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."

Midler starred in the first professional production of the Who's rock opera Tommy in 1971, with director Richard Pearlman and the Seattle Opera.