Feb. 16, 1976 review: A night and then some with Bette Midler

 

My Buffalo News colleague, columnist Sean Kirst, shot me an email the other night asking what were the most memorable concerts in the late, great Century Theater, which was demolished in the late 1970s after a regime of rock shows under the aegis of Harvey & Corky.

          To give my brain cells a bump, I took a quick dive into newspapers.com, which now offers access to every Buffalo News that rolled off the presses from 1880 onward. To my chagrin, I immediately saw that I missed a lot of stuff in my earlier explorations of the microfilm files at now-abandoned One News Plaza. Here’s the first one that caught my eye. 

Feb. 16, 1976

A Valentine Designed by Bette

           Bette Midler puts on a Valentine’s Day concert at the New Century Theater (“What’s so new about this dump? I bet Mae Bush played this room.”) and it comes out like Rhoda’s wedding. There’s times you wonder whether it’s going to happen at all.

          First doubts set in right before the scheduled 7:30 p.m. start. There’s that marquee: “Bette sold out.” And there’s that line of fancy folks stretching back for half a block. Songs for the New Depression? How about “Baby, It’s Cold Outside?”

          Second doubts build up during the half hour after the scheduled 7:30 p.m. start. Downstairs they mutter about the vague odor of disinfectant. If this were a smoking crowd, they’d cover it up. Upstairs in the balcony, it’s the heat.

          Third doubts are inspired by the band. That harp of theirs suggests they might wear tuxedos. After all, the ushers are wearing tuxedos. But the musicians are the scruffiest folks in the house – a pit band that looks like the pits.

          Further doubts come after the show’s started. It’s the middle of the first half and Midler’s talking more than she’s singing. In Detroit, they say, she did only seven songs. Here she can get cheers from certain seating sections by simply mentioning the word “Toronto.”

          Suspense rides on the collision course between the curtain and the unfolded folding fan on top of the set Midler uses to mock the lounge stylings of one Vicki-Eydie. A cityscape screen drops across the stage and a 15-minute intermission is declared.

          Success finally arrives with the repeat of the Vicki-Eydie exit. This time there’s no snags. The cityscape drops to reveal Midler in the paw of a huge purple King Kong, crooning “Lullabye of Broadway.” This was to have been her first-half closer, only Kong wouldn’t work before intermission.

          Midler gets furious backstage, it’s reported, but the show goes on in the spirit of vaudeville, Valentine’s Day, the full moon (which gives rise to an impromptu doo-wop “Blue Moon”) and Sophie Tucker, whose jokes Midler retells.

          Aside from the mischievous mechanics of the thing, the show is a sassy, fun-filled spectacle from the moment Midler in bloomers pops out of a bed singing her old theme song, “Friends,” until she belts it again three hours later in a bicentennial finale, in which she appears as the Statue of Liberty.

          The Harlettes, Midler’s sleazo backup trio, and the dressed-down pit band are rehearsed to the point where the show is second nature to them. To Madame Midler, the Harlettes are particularly well-oiled servants.

          “I have these recurring nightmares where I’m trapped in an act that’s not of my own design,” she announces at one point. Perhaps it was a case of too much design.

          For Sunday night’s show, King Kong and the rest of the props were working properly and the crowd was more responsive, but Midler’s local-color jokes had a double twist, what with seven members of her touring company out on bail after police arrested them on cocaine and marijuana charges.

          With ever a touch of a propos, she added one number she hadn’t done Saturday: “Am I Blue.”

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IN THE PHOTO: Bette Midler with King Kong.

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FOOTNOTE: Next to this review, there’s another story. The police were a lot more forthcoming about the details of their arrests in those days.

7 From Midler Tour

Arrested in Drug Raid 

          Drug activity seen by police in a third-floor room of the Holiday Inn, 620 Delaware Ave., from an adjacent parking ramp led to the arrest early Sunday morning of seven members of singer Bette Midler’s touring company.

          The suspects, including four musicians and three production personnel, were released on bail in time for Miss Midler’s second concert Sunday evening in the New Century Theater.

          Lt. Erwin Swain and Police Officer William Fahey of the Franklin Street Station were checking the top level of the parking ramp about 1:45 a.m. on a car-theft investigation when they looked across to the Holiday Inn.

          Through a window, Lt. Swain said he could see a man “holding what appeared to be marijuana.” The man pulled the drapes shut when he saw the officers, police said.

          The precinct officers and four members of the Narcotics Squad raiding two adjoining rooms a short time later and seized quantities of cocaine and marijuana.

          Charged with felonious possession of cocaine and marijuana were:

          Louis Volpicella, 29, of the Bronx.

          Ira Williams, 23, of New York City.

          Francisco Centeno, 19, of New York City.

          David Henel, 28, of Lititz, Pa.

          Police said they found a half-ounce of suspected cocaine and more than eight ounces of marijuana in the room with the four suspects.

          In the second room, police said they found about a pound of marijuana on a bed and less than an ounce of cocaine among personal belongings.

          Charged with misdemeanor possession of cocaine and felonious possession of marijuana were:

          Richard Stanton, 26, of Ann Arbor, Mich.

          Eric Martell, 22, of Des Moines, Iowa.

          Patrick Lynes, 21, of Lancaster, Pa.