INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

The footage from this appearance apparently no longer exists.  However, an audio recording made from the television broadcast does remain.  Although that recording can not be shared here on this website, below you will find a written transcript from this appearance documenting what was said and performed during this show.

And this gal right now was a guest on our show a couple of months ago, and she, as they say, broke up the place. She will be opening at Mr. Kelly's in Chicago on October 12th.  Last time she was here she sang a song from the 30's, which I think she would really have rather lived in, the 30's.

She would like to be Mae West, I think.

Yeah.  She's gonna do a song now from the 50's.  But I have a feeling it's gonna come out . . . 

Like the 30's.

Like the 30's.  I don't know why.

And she's strangely exciting.

Strangely exciting.  Ah yes.  Would you welcome, Bette Midler.

Sh-Boom
(James Keyes, Carl Feaster, Floyd McRae, Claude Feaster, and James W. Edwards)

Hey, nonny, ding, dong
Alang, alang, alang
Boom ba-da, ba-doo, ba-doo, ba-day

Oh, life could be a dream
If I could take you up to paradise up above
If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream, sweetheart

Hello, hello, again
Sh-boom and hoping we'll meet again

Life could be a dream
If only all my precious plans would come true
If you would let me spend my whole life loving you
Life could be a dream, sweetheart

Oh, every time I look at you
Something is on my mind
If you do what I want you to
Oh, wouldn't that be fine

Life could be a dream
If I could take you up to paradise up above
If you would tell me that I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream, sweetheart

Oh, let's all sing together now

Sh-boom, sh-boom 
Ya-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Sh-boom, sh-boom 
Ya-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Sh-boom, sh-boom 
Ya-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Sh-boom, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-OWWWWWWW

Every time I look at you
Whoa, something is on my mind
If you do what I want you to
Owwww, wouldn't that be just be fine

Life could be a dream
If I could take you up to paradise up above
If you would tell me that I'm the only one that you love
Life, oh life could be a dream, sweetheart

Oh let me sing it for ya

Sh-Boom, sh-boom
Ya dot-n-da-da
Boom, boom, boom-boom-boom 
Ya dot-n-da-da 
Boom, ba-boom 
Ya dot-n-da-da
Boom, ah
Boom, ah 
Boom ba-boom, ah

Ohhh, by golly!

Oh, my nerves.

Lawsy me!  Everything about you is from the 30's.

Yes.

38 . . . 39 . . . jeez!

Hello.

How are you?

I'm very well. Thank you.

Ahhh, that was a great song.

Oh, a great song. Did you like it, really?

Yes, I love that type of thing.

Ah.

Really, I like that old type of . . . what is it?

Excuse me I have to go back and sell a SERTA mattress.

Oh!

Ooooookay.

Oh, he's the lucky one.

Isn't he . . . how have you been?

I've been very well, thank you, and yourself?

By golly . . . 

So what's happening?

Not much, we're just here every night, ya know.

Yes.

How's your career going?

Oh my career is just . . . 

Zooming along?

Just zooming.  It's going at a swell, actually it's coming along very well.

Is it?

To be quite serious, yeah.  I finally got booked into a real live nightclub.

Yeah.

A real grown-up type nightclub.

We'll come back and talk about that kooky job you had before.

(Laughs) 

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

We're back. We're talking with Bette. Why do you pronounce it Bet?

Bet, why?

It's B-E-T-T-E

Well, my mother named me after Bette Davis, and that's the way she pronounced it.

She did?

My mother pronounced it.  I don't know how Bette Davis pronounces it. I suspect she pronounces it Bet. But my mother pronounced it Bet, so by God, that's what it was.

Well, that's the important thing.

Yes.

Now about this job you had. Did people believe you when you said that you were working in a steam bath somewhere?

You know, it was really amazing the response I got on the last show I was on.

Really?

Yeah, because a lot of people called me up who hadn't seen me in a number of months or so, and they said, "man, where did you get that story about working the steam bath?"
And I said, "that was not a story that's the truth."  I was really surprised at the number of people who didn't believe me.  You know, it really hurt my feelings.  I wouldn't lie. To Tell The Truth called up the place where I was working and they said, "we understand you have a girl who sings in the Bath, in the steam room."  And when they found out that I was not actually singing while the steam was going on, they lost interest.

They wanted you right in the steam?

Yes, they wanted me in the "steam room," you see.

Well, that's asking too much.

Well, that's a little much, in the ROOM!  Ya know, it wasn't enough that it was in the health club itself, it had to be in the steam room.

I think that's novel enough.

Well, whad'ya know, speak to To Tell The Truth.

Now you're going to Mr. Kelly's from a steam room, that's a pretty good jump.

Yes. (laughs)

On that road to rocket to stardom.

Is that what it is?

I don't know.

Oh my.  Well, let's hope something happens.  I'm having a good time though.

Have you ever played that kind of a club, Mr. Kelly's?

Well, I've never been in a place that is as pretty as that. I've been told that it's a beautiful room.  I played a room in Boston once, about 6 months ago.  It was one of the low points of my career, I dare say.  The money was really horrendous and it was a very miserable week for me because I had no friends in Boston.  I was utterly alone.  And the money was so bad that my manager, got me a room in this girls dormitory, the Emerson College Girls Dormitory, which would of been ok, ya know, I wouldn't of minded except that . . . 

That's where you stayed?  

That's where I stayed the whole week, but I was the only person in the whole dormitory.  Ya know, because it was like, it was . . . 

Off season?

Off season.  No, it was summer sessions.  So here I was in this ten story building, just me.

All by yourself?

All by myself.  And it was a very unhappy experience for me.  I cried for seven days.  I was so lonely.

Awwww, so that's a step up in Chicago?

Yeah, the "Y". (YWCA)

He's got you at the girls "Y"?

Yeah, he has me at the "Y" this time.

That's a good manager.

He's a Socko-Boffo manager.

Sounds like it.  "Where am I staying?"  "At the "Y"."  Are you really staying at the "Y"?

Yes, I'm staying at the "Y".

You've got to be kidding.

No, I'm not kidding.

What about a hotel?

I can't afford it man.

Really?

I don't know when I'm gonna be eating next, ya know?  I sock it away man.  You never can tell, the recession and all that stuff, times are hard.

Well, doesn't Mr. Kelly's pay . . . I don't want to inquire about your personal finances.

They're being very kind to me, but I have a number of expenses, so I have to keep my expenses to a minimum.  And I'm not ashamed, I'm not proud.

There's nothing wrong with staying at the "Y".

No.

I used to stay at the "Y".

My father always told me, "now wherever you go, you stay at the "Y" because you won't get into any trouble in the "Y"."  They don't let men in the "Y".

Is your father pretty strict?

My father is an Aries on the cusp of Taurus.

Ohhh!  No wonder you're staying at the "Y".

That is one of the heaviest cuspings you can be, 'cause it's very wiggy.  He's wonderful though, he taught me everything I know. He said, "now always save a buck." That's what he said.  I still have that buck. (laughs)

What are you gonna do after you save all this loot?

I'm gonna show it to him. And make him proud of me.

Yeah?

Yes. He comes from the old school of thinking.

Right.

I used to put him down for it, you now.  I was one of those kids who was extremely rebellious when I was an adolescent.  I put him down for everything.  Put my mother down too.  But in the past 5 years, being on my own, I have discovered that most of what they told me was good sense.

Mark Twain has a famous remark. He says, "when a a boy is 16 he can't imagine how dumb his father is, but by the time that same boy is 21, he is amazed to learn what the old man has learned in 5 years."

(laughs)

That's about what you're saying, right?

Exactly.

Alrighty, on that pithy homily, or homily pith, whatever it is, one of those . . . 

[END OF INTERVIEW]


The following is a segment from Sandy Baron's interview where Bette had another chance to interact with Johnny. We're not sure what exactly Sandy Baron was talking about prior to this moment, as that audio has not been made available to this site, if indeed it even exists. 

Yeah, it makes you attune to your body Bette.

Humm, oh yes.

Ahh, yes.  Why did you choose Bette?

I don't know John.  It's strange.

Yes it is.

I'm the only body up here . . . ooooo.

Where ya from Bette? I forgot to ask you, did I?

Yeah, we did that last time. Honolulu, Hawaii.

That's right. You worked in a pineapple factory.

That's right.

She worked canning pineapples!