They say we look a like…..
For years I have heard from reviewers and fans and even when I did the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson that I was really a dead ringer for the amazing and fabulous, Bette Midler.
I was always very pleased because she is such a great artist, so expressive and with her heart on her sleeve and feisty. “F### em if they can’t take a joke….” used to be the perfect answer when people tried to get the best of her in her early days…..
Roddy McDowall who was a sterling and deeply gifted man and astonishing actor of Hollywood legend, a true gentleman and a great friend. He arranged for Bette and I to meet when she opened her show at the Radio City Music Hall. I was ushered back by the hysterical and wonderful Bruce Vilanch and he bowed deeply saying, “You must be that Opera Gal…”
My sister and I went backstage with him singing my name as we arrived and the whole room fell silent when we stood next to one another…. I think they were waiting for one of us to go “POOF” and disappear……and I do have to say, close together, we are the same height, and our faces are similar. Her husband smiled wickedly like he thought it was too fun, and even then a little Sophie attached herself to my leg when I came in and was so friendly and sweet.
I was truly blessed to have met her, and noticed that even more, from “a distance” we really looked a lot alike. She gave a great show and knocked us out of our seats.
So now the clip. 2001 was an awful scary time. The boats of the police and Coast Guard would be on patrol and were visible only by their little blue lights, up and down all night in the harbor. I watched them and they gave me a sense of someone keeping us safe…. as my view from the 38th floor could see clear to the George Washington Bridge and out on my terrace, well, the whole city was visible from the Statue of Liberty to the the World Trade Center. I had watched those two splendid towers fall that cool September morning that will live in infamy. It felt like we were part of a movie. Never saw anything like it. Hope we never do again.
It meant a lot the solidarity of the world, the feeling of togetherness that permeated every where here.
In Yankee Stadium, God bless that Grand old Lady…..they held a service to remember and comfort all the families of all who had lost their life so bravely. My firehouse, right next door, with all my great friends in Rescue 1, all of them never made it back. So here is Bette, heart on her sleeve, Patriot, and amazing singer giving comfort in the only way she can in her magnificent way.
“The Wings beneath My Wings”…..
I was so strengthened by her, and so very proud of my “look-a-like” …….she is something special.
