Bette Midler (39 page)

According to Midler, as Italian-accented chat show hostess Beyondo, “Those-a boys, they are-a sooo bizarre and yet, so wonderful.”

In good Midlerian fashion,
Mondo Beyondo
ends with her singing the “Mondo Beyondo” theme song and shaking her prominently displayed breasts. Obviously, the product of the “I’ve got a video camera and a studio” kind of brainstorming, no matter what Midler put her hands on, it drew a crowd. This TV special was decidedly silly, but a frothy, no-risk bit of nonsensical fun.

Meanwhile, as Bette was filming
Big Business
, she was also busy with her own film production company. She had earned so much money for Disney that she was thrilled to have her own chance at selecting, developing, producing, and starring in her own movies, with her own production office on the Touchstone lot. The two women whom Bette brought in to work with her—Bonnie Bruckheimer-Martell and Margaret Jennings South—had been working hard to launch their first full-scale production. Bette felt very confident teaming up with both women. Bonnie once had been employed by Aaron Russo, and Bette recalled that she was very detail-conscious. Bonnie excelled in overseeing contracts and planning logistics. Margaret had previously worked for 20th Century-Fox, where she was a story editor. She excelled at finding strong scripts and coming up with story ideas.

By naming their company All Girls Productions, Bette felt she was making a strong statement. “We wanted to be liberated, but we wanted to be girls,” she explained at the time. “We didn’t want the business to perceive us as aggressive, domineering females. We thought if we had, like, this twitty title they’d give us some room” (
125
).

One of the things that frustrated Bette the most about the movie business was that everything took so long. From making major artistic choices, to putting them into action, everything seemed to move so slowly. Now that she had her own production company, she could make decisions much quicker. According to Bette, “Everyone likes to pussyfoot in this business. And we don’t want to pussyfoot. We just say, ‘Oh, that stinks. What are you thinking about?’ Then the ice is broken and it’s a relief and people can speak their minds. We’d rather have that comfort” (
125
).

She was, however, quick to add, “I have the last word because my name is above the title. But I try to be good and not abandon any idea out-of-hand and say, ‘Oh, that’s garbage!’ I try to let it develop and give it a chance to blossom—and then step on it!” (
125
).

Several of the projects that All Girls was initially considering were musicals—specifically, dramas with music. At the time there was a projected biographical film about famed Austrian actress Lotte Lenya, a film about a group of USO singers, and their proposed movie about the leader of an all-girl band: Ina Ray Hutton. Since the days of late ’70s blockbusters
Grease
(1978),
Fame
(1980), and
Saturday Night Fever
(1977), musical films had pretty much been a bust. After the Village People’s
Can’t Stop the Music
(1980) and Olivia Newton-John’s
Xanadu
(1980) proved to be expensive box-office miscalculations, it seemed that musicals were rarely ever mounted.

According to Midler at the time, she was determined to somehow make the formula of blending music and dramatic acting viable for her again, the way it was with
The Rose
. “I think people really do like them. I like the musical formula a lot. The only people who hate musicals are the studios, because they don’t know how to make them and they’re too expensive and time-consuming. My feeling is they can be made. They just have to be well-planned” (
125
).

She was also very dismayed that she was never considered by other producers for dramatic roles. After the bawdy reputation she had acquired for herself—via her stage act and her campy musical sense—she was basically looked at as a comedian. Not even her Oscar nomination for
The Rose
made people perceive her as a gifted dramatic actress. She was determined to change that. With all of these ideas in mind, Bette and her partners at All Girls set about to find the perfect picture to kick off their production company. They didn’t have to look for long.

Among the first film ideas that came to Bette and her new business associates came from a writer by the name of Iris Rainer Dart. When Iris wrote the story about the friendship of two women and called it
Beaches
, she claimed that she had done so with a clear vision of who should star in the movie. She told Midler point-blank, “I’m writing a book with a part you’d be perfect for” (
125
). She was right.

Beaches
was a project that was several years in the making. In the May 16, 1985, issue of the
Hollywood Reporter
, under a headline that read,
“Beaches
to Disney as Midler Picture,” the publication announced that the film would be directed by Lynne Litman (
Testament
). Fascinatingly, the debut hardcover edition of
Beaches
wasn’t due in bookstores until July 1 of 1985, so it was published with its film rights already optioned by Disney and earmarked for Midler. During the three years
of its development, it underwent several changes along the way, including the replacement of Litman with Garry Marshall as director.

From the very beginning, Midler was really intrigued with the story. However, she was a bit apprehensive about playing the role of C. C. Bloom as claw-her-way-to-the-top ambitious as the character in the book was written. “This character was much bigger in her personal life than I ever was,” Bette claimed. “So domineering and so pushy and so aggressive, and I’m not really like that” (
125
). Yet the story seemed like the kind of film that would appeal to her.

With that, the production rights to
Beaches
were passed on to All Girls Productions, with Disney marketing and distributing. Bette was thrilled with the idea of being very “hands on” with this project. According to her, “I wanted to be responsible for the color of the movie, what the clothes looked like and the style. But I was so anxious and nervous about picking who should play the other part. I was so afraid I would make a mistake. I don’t like being responsible for people getting or not getting jobs. It’s really creepy” (
125
).

However, “creepy” or not, if she was going to be a movie producer, and if she was truly going to be in the driver’s seat, she did have to have a hand in casting who would play opposite her onscreen in
Beaches
. Since the film is about two very different women, Midler also had to be believable on camera with the other woman. Bette was fixated on the fact that she wanted to act opposite Anne Archer. When Bette finally settled on starring in
Beaches
, one of the first people she had audition for the part was Archer. “Whenever I read the script, I had her in mind,” Bette claimed. “Anne was really, really good. And Donna Mills turned in a surprising performance. But when Barbara Hershey came in to test, you couldn’t ignore her. Her test had such a fragile quality to it. . . . But I really didn’t want to have to say, ‘I want so and so.’ It really took a toll on me” (
125
). Regardless of the emotional toll it took, finally Bette and her two partners decided to hire Barbara Hershey for the role of Hillary in
Beaches
.

The plot to
Beaches
is a perfect “women’s picture”—or, as they are now known, a “chick flick.” Two eleven-year-old girls meet on the boardwalk at Atlantic City’s beach in the 1950s. C. C. Bloom is a precocious redhead from the Bronx, with a pushy stage mother (Lanie Kazan). Hillary Whitney is an Ivy League school-bound girl from a blueblood family from outside San Francisco. The two girls remain pen pals during their growing-up years. In the early ’70s, Hillary shows up
in New York City for their first face-to-face reunion since Atlantic City. They hadn’t seen each other since childhood; C.C. (Bette) has now become a struggling actress, and Whitney (Barbara Hershey) has fled the West Coast and the clutches of her controlling and restrictive father.

Beaches
follows their very different but parallel lives through the next several years. An unlikely duo of friends—the film offered them two of the most fascinating and multilayered roles in their individual film careers. In addition,
Beaches
gave Bette a platform to sing several great songs. The mechanical-sounding techno-pop “Oh Industry” is presented as a stage piece, personifying the dehumanization of the American Worker. She also sings “Otto Titsling” (resurrected from her
Mud Will Be Flung!
album), which is used as a showcasing sample of her character’s Broadway career, and “I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today” is presented in a recording studio scene. She also sang three jazzy standards from the 1930s and 1940s: “The Glory of Love,” “Baby Mine,” and Cole Porter’s “I’ve Still Got My Health.”

C.C. and Hillary become adult roommates, vie for the same boyfriend—John (John Heard)—and forge ahead with their career goals. While C.C. is intent on launching a show business career, Hillary becomes a socially conscious lawyer.

One of the funniest scenes takes place in C.C.’s over-the-top Manhattan apartment, when Hillary comes to visit her friend who is now the star of
Sizzle ’76
on Broadway. After running on and on about herself, Bette takes a breath and says to Barbara, “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do
you
think about me?”

It became known as the movie’s most memorable line—quoted by everyone who saw the film, and several times by Bette herself—onstage and off. If one were to select the most famous line from a Bette Midler movie, that is undoubtedly it.

One of the most wonderful scenes is that between adult C.C. and her mother, Leona, on a beach in Miami. When Midler whines about the demise of her marriage and the fact that people are constantly disappearing from her life, her mother informs her that it’s because she is so demanding, that she simply wears people out. As Kazan delivers this piece of information, the look on Midler’s face is priceless.

Hillary’s marriage falls apart, and C.C.’s career falls apart, and the two estranged friends revive their friendship. When Hillary becomes pregnant, and her husband leaves her, the two friends have a new bond of comradeship. Together they face childbirth—and finally illness. As
Hillary’s illness progresses, the two old friends find themselves again on a beach.

Bette has a very funny sequence when she suddenly announces that her career is through. C. C. Bloom decides to give it all up and settle down as the wife of a successful man, Dr. Richard Milstein (Spalding Gray). Modeling her successful-doctor’s-wife outfit, Midler parades in front of her childhood friend, looking completely ridiculous in a Chanel-styled suit and an insane-looking hat. There she stood: the Suburban Miss M.

The film
Beaches
also features some very strong supporting characters. Lanie Kazan is perfect as C.C.’s pushy stage mother. And the child actor who played young C.C., Mayim Bialik, is astonishing. She looks and acts exactly like Bette herself must have appeared at the age of eleven. Also, former Harlette Charlotte Crossley and then-current Harlette Jenifer Lewis can both be seen very prominently in the “Otto Titsling” number. In addition, Bette’s longtime pianist and musical director Marc Shaiman is seen in the Hollywood Bowl rehearsal scene at the beginning of the film.

Beaches
became the showpiece of Bette’s All Girls Productions. She was listed as producer/coproducer, Bonnie Bruckheimer-Martell as the producer, and their partner Margaret Jennings South as producer/coproducer. The director they hired was Garry Marshall, who is best known for directing such hits as
Pretty Woman, The Runaway Bride
, and
The Princess Diaries
. He is also known as an actor in such films as
Soapdish
and
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
.

With Midler and her production company in creative control,
Beaches
became the ultimate showcase for her acting and singing. The entire soundtrack of
Beaches
is one Midler number after another. Although she sings a number of different tunes throughout the film, the song that really epitomizes the film is the powerful anthem of devotion that Bette performs, “The Wind beneath My Wings.” The song, which was used at a pivotal climax in the plot, went on to become the most successful song of her career. The song and the soundtrack album were both such huge hits that they literally revived Bette’s long-sagging recording career.

Produced by Arif Mardin, the
Beaches
soundtrack album is a complete Bette Midler album from start to finish. The only cut that she isn’t on is an under-two-minutes instrumental number, “The Friendship Theme.” Bette sounds great on this album. Obviously, the push to come
up with a hit single took a backseat to just coming up with a strong soundtrack of Midler songs. It had been five years since the release of her last all-singing album,
No Frills
, and it was great to have her back in the music business. She had certainly been busy in the interim—having filmed six movies back to back.

Bette had admittedly been so stung by the poor reception that her 1983
No Frills
album received that she basically stayed out of the recording studio for five years. With the soundtrack album for
Beaches
she was able to return to recording songs without actively chasing that elusive commodity—the hit single. Portraying the role of C.C. Bloom in the film
Beaches
required music to accompany the many phases of the character’s career—from jazz, to cabaret, to Broadway, to concert performances—as well as background music to underscore the twists and turns in the film’s plot.

The album opens with Bette’s version of the Drifters’ doo wop classic “Under the Boardwalk,” which is played in the film in the opening sequence when the characters of eleven-year-old C.C. and Hillary meet on the boardwalk at Atlantic City—and their lifelong friendship is formed. Her melodic singing of this classic rock & roll song sets the tone for the basis of the album’s sound: vibrant, sharp, and fresh.