Authors: Mark Bego
“We eventually left Columbia. Maybe we were even thrown off the lot—I don’t remember. When it came down to the wire,
The Rose
, as it was called by then, was the one script we’d been offered in all those years that was a real big part and a real big good part,” says Bette (
85
).
“By this time I was worn out, but I wanted to do films, I felt I had a contribution to make. Aaron called me up and said, ‘Why don’t you look at this again?’ I read it. I said, ‘These are the elements I’d like to keep: I’d like to keep this person a rock & roll singer, and I would like to keep the sorrow and a certain amount of self-hate, this constant seeking of hers for approbation. Everything else has to go.’ And that’s what they did. It’s a fine framework to hang the songs on, something to hang the character on. We did a lot of improvising” (
85
).
Director Mark Rydell has said that he was also offered the script of
The Pearl
in 1973. “I wanted to use Bette Midler, but at that time the studio didn’t appreciate my suggestion. So I passed. The script went to many directors, including Ken Russell, and finally back to me five years later with a test of Midler, which to my mind made it possible,” says Rydell (
85
).
Mark Rydell and screenplay writer Bo Goldman began revising Kerby’s original script. “At first it was more directly about Joplin,” explains Rydell. “Bo and I fictionalized it and made it into a much more personal story instead of a documentary. We wanted to reveal some of the heroism of virtuosity. There’s a price that people who are that gifted pay—a kind of deep hunger that’s hard to satisfy” (
85
).
On April 24, 1978, filming of
The Rose
began. Bette Midler, Alan Bates, and Frederic Forrest starred; Mark Rydell directed; Bo Goldman, Michael Cimino, and William Kerby wrote the screenplay, based on the story by Marvin Worth and Michael Cimino; Marvin Worth and Aaron Russo were the producers and Vilmos Zsigmond, the photographer. Music for the film was produced by Paul A. Rothchild, who had
produced Janis Joplin’s last and most famous album,
Pearl
. The film had a twelve-week shooting schedule and a $9 million budget. Filming took place in New York City and Los Angeles. The concert footage was shot at the Wiltern Theater in L. A., and the Long Beach Veteran’s Memorial Stadium was the site of
The Rose
’s final concert sequence.
According to Bette, that segment was one of the most disorienting ones to shoot. “It was really bizarre,” she explained. “It was like playing a double part or even four parts. There was me knowing that some audience were fans of mine, pretending that I was this girl, pretending that they liked the girl, and then pretending back to me. All of this pretending really showed who was who. Then, of course, the kids—even though they were fans of mine—were all dressed up in those ’60s togs. Some of them had short hair, some of them had long hair, some of them had taken acid, and some of them smoked grass. It was the strangest experience to be doing this in 1978 and all of them acting like they were in the ’60s. By the end of the day I was convinced I was in 1969!” (
8
).
One of the prime pressures on Bette was to create this singer called the Rose, bearing in mind the self-destructive nature of someone like Janis Joplin without pretending to be Joplin. The drugs, sex, and rock & roll credo and the emotional hollowness of life in the fast lane had to come through, while an underpinning of emotional vulnerability had to show.
“I didn’t want to concentrate on Janis,” said Bette. “I avoided Janis because I didn’t feel I could do justice to her. I adore her and I had seen her work live and she really changed my life. Changed a lot of people’s lives. I think women were particularly moved by her because she was aggressive and yet she seemed vulnerable. I really adored her and I didn’t want to use her to further my own particular aims. I have a certain ethical code that I try to work by. The character in the film has a little bit of everybody in it. Physically, there is a lot more of men than there is of women in it. The men tend to strut and they tend to get into the gymnastics of rock & roll” (
86
).
Mark Rydell agreed with Bette’s feelings. “Though it was never intended to be about Joplin,” he explained, “the film does embrace the spirit of those people who, like Joplin, like Hendrix, like James Dean, like Marilyn Monroe or Monty Clift, were tormented and driven to grave ends in their desperate attempts to reveal creative truth. Judy Garland is a perfect example of someone on the edge” (
85
).
According to Bette, the film required a lot of preparation. “I did a lot
of dieting and I worked in the gym a lot,” she stated. “I listened to Sam Cooke till my ears were bleeding, did a lot of reading about the ’60s, watched a few video tapes, and talked to some people. I did it all. I actually spent a good six months at it” (
86
).
One of the most important aspects of the film was the selection of music. Using Paul A. Rothchild was an inspired move. Paul listened to over 3,000 songs, chose 30 of them, and played them for Bette for her reactions. The final version of the film contains 7 of those 30 songs, and Bette brought in 3 of her own choices: “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “Stay with Me,” and “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”
Among the songs that Paul submitted to Bette was a ballad written by an aspiring actress-turned-songwriter named Amanda McBroom. The song was called “The Rose.” According to McBroom, “My manager told me it was time to write some Bob Seger-type tunes so we could get a record deal. I sat down and forty-five minutes later there was ‘The Rose.’ It was the fastest song I’ve ever written and I never changed a word. ‘The Rose’ is most unusual in that it’s just one verse repeated three times. When I finished it, I realized it doesn’t have a bridge or a hook, but I couldn’t think of anything to put in there!” (
87
). The song was to become the signature song of the film and, for that matter, of Bette Midler’s career.
The filming of
The Rose
was completed on July 18, 1978, two days under schedule. Bette had scarcely recovered from the experience when Aaron announced the dates of her upcoming world concert tour. It opened on September 11 in Seattle, Washington—a three-day domestic “dry run”—then on to London, Brighton, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Lund, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, The Hague, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, and finishing up in Sydney again on November 14, 1978.
Bette invited the girls who now called themselves Formerly of the Harlettes to accompany her on the tour, but Redd, Hedwig, and Crossley declined her offer. Then she placed a want ad in the
Hollywood Reporter
and held open auditions for a new set of Harlettes. The girls she ultimately hired for the world tour were Linda Hart, Katie Sagal, and Frannie Eisenberg.
Bette felt that she had to come up with some new gimmicks for this tour to enhance the show. It was on this tour that “Dolores DeLago—The Toast of Chicago” was born, along with her mermaid outfit and her electric wheelchair. For her entrance in her foreign concert dates, Bette
admitted that she wanted a costume that was completely unique and totally American. One day she hit upon the perfect outfit: She would enter the stage dressed as a hotdog—complete with mustard! Unfortunately, the costume was a colossal pain in the ass to put on and take off, and she stopped wearing it after the second night in Seattle. The wheelchair, the character of Dolores, and the mermaid costume, however, became staples of Miss M’s stage shows from that point forward.
Conquering England was one of the Bette’s goals. She had already had hit records in the United Kingdom—like “You’re Moving Out Today”—but the Brits had yet to experience her insanity live. On September 3, 1978 her
Ol’ Red Hair Is Back
TV special was broadcast on England’s ITV network, and from September 21 to 23 she headlined the London Palladium, as part of her first European tour. With her mermaid costume in tow, she was determined to make a splash in the British Isles, and splash she did!
London loved Bette. The critics couldn’t say enough glowing things about their first taste of Midler live and in person. The
London Evening News
raved, “With this one, dazzling, magic spellbinding show, Bette Midler conquered Britain.” The
London Times
marveled that “she received the kind of tumultuously genuine reception which only a star who is many stars in one can evoke.” And the
London Daily Telegraph
exclaimed, “Miss Bette Midler has hit London, and London will never be the same again. In a series of dazzling solo performances she has rediscovered and updated for all the essentials of great music-hall” (
8
).
During one of her London Palladium shows, Bette glanced up to the balcony to spot a huge banner that some of her fans had made that read, “We Love Your Tits.” That was all the encouragement she needed: down went her corset. There she stood in tasteful London, “nipples to the wind.” In Copenhagen, the locals loved Bette’s mermaid costume and took it as a tribute to their own famed Little Mermaid statue in the harbor. The whole tour was a roaring success, especially London and all of the dates in Australia.
As a publicity ploy, Aaron announced that during the tour, Bette would be paid in gold. An item in the business section of the July 3, 1978,
New York Times
stated that half of her $600,000 fee was to be paid upon contract signing in South African gold Krugerrands. It made a great press release, especially since the last person to make such a demand was Sarah Bernhardt, around the turn of the last century. Unfortunately, the deal did not work out, and Miss M had to settle for
standard currency this time around. “I was supposed to be paid in gold, but things got mixed-up,” she later explained (
88
).
As 1978 drew to a close, everything seemed perfect for Bette. Her first movie had been made and was in the editing and postproduction phase. She had conquered the rest of the globe on her latest tour, and her business and personal lives seemed quite happy. In fact, her confidence level was at an all-time high. According to Aaron Russo, “She’s got the best of both worlds now. She’s got Peter [Riegert] at home, who cares for her and is dedicated to her, and me at the office, who cares for her and is dedicated to her” (
81
).
Bette was indeed very much in love with Peter. According to her at the time, “Since I met Pete, my life has been kind of quiet—not too many orgies, and we’ve been staying out of the hot tub. I’ve been working on my craft. I would like to have children before my uterus falls out!” (
8
).
In January of 1979, tragedy struck when Bette’s mother, Ruth, died of cancer. “She had leukemia for a long time, cancer of the liver—and of the breast, incidentally, when I was a kid. She suffered most of her life. She just thought I was ‘it!’ She thought I was so funny and so adorable; she just loved all the excitement. She used to say I was the only thing that brought her joy,” said Bette (
8
).
The year 1979 was obviously going to usher in several changes in her life, some of them good, some of them not so good. With the sudden death of her mother, Bette decided that it was time to take control of her life. She was so determined to find happiness that in February she decided she could do without several large complications in her life: namely, Aaron Russo. There was never a contract between the two of them, and as far as she could see, he had served his purpose. He had made her a “legend” in her own time, and he had to go.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” she explained. “I felt that what he was doing for me professionally wasn’t worth what he was doing for me personally. I couldn’t sleep. I was in a state of anxiety all the time because I never knew what he was going to pull on me next. It was either, ‘I’m dying of leukemia’ or ‘I’m carrying guns because they’re out to get me. You’re all that’s left!’ It was a lot of mind control. I was going to say ‘mind fucking,’ but I don’t think it’s an attractive term for a lovely lady to use. And always, of course, there was drama—much, much drama. Eventually, I outgrew my need for drama. At a certain point, when you’re 32 or so, you just no longer require the raving. You start enjoying
pleasant days where there is no drama, where instead you have a little food and some pleasant conversation about wine and books” (
30
).
When
The Rose
was released in November of 1979, audiences saw several scenes where Rose fights with her manager, Rudge (Alan Bates). There are those who felt that those scenes bore a startling similarity to Midler’s real-life experiences with Russo. According to one of her business associates, “They were fighting constantly, and [in 1974] she wanted to give up the business completely. That’s where the whole thing in
The Rose
came from: ‘I want to take a year off!’ There is a lot drawn from her story. The firing scene, where the manager fires her—that happened. The psychological subtext of that
IS
the Bette and Aaron story” (
35
).
Midler was later to underscore those comments by stating, “Our relationship was so much sicker than anything in that film. Aaron was very protective of me—in his way. He made a lot of enemies on my behalf. You see, we had a personal relationship at the beginning of everything, and when our personal relationship floundered, it tainted our professional relationship. I was so dumb; I didn’t think that’d happen. He was so overbearing, and he kept me very isolated, kept the bad stuff away from me and a lot of the good stuff, too. For a long time I never saw people backstage, never read anything about myself, never had fun. He would have a magazine article about me in his hand as I was going on stage, and I’d say, ‘Oh boy, lemme see that!’ But he’d say, ‘I don’t want you to read it now or later. It’ll only upset you.’ Long, long afterward, I would find out it said bad things about HIM, not me!” (
8
).
While
The Rose
was in production, Aaron took credit in the press for steering Bette into the film. He told the
New York Times
, “I wanted her first film to be a role that only Bette Midler could play. I mean, who else could play ‘The Rose?’ Liza Minnelli? You know what I’m saying?” (
89
).