Gay icon Own Kind of Music" and "Different") and free love. Her music was later featured in the acclaimed gay film "Beautiful Thing" (1996), adapted from the play of the same name. Singer and actress Bette Midler became recognized as a gay icon in the 1970s. After performing on Broadway, Midler began performing at the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist Barry Manilow, who produced her first major album "The Divine Miss M" (1973). "Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days [singing at
Bette Midler section read "Litter Removal Next 2 Miles, Bette Midler." The location was so prominent that it became fodder for her 1993 guest appearance on the "Simpsons" episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled", where she is seen picking up trash along a stretch of highway she has adopted, and causes car crashes for drivers who deliberately litter. In 1995, she carried the same idea to the east coast, adopting a section of the Long Island Expressway and Bronx River Parkway. Midler founded the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) in 1995, a non-profit organization with the goal of revitalizing neglected neighborhood parks in economically