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 film "Hawaii" as an extra, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff. Midler married artist Martin von Haselberg on December 16, 1984, about six weeks after their first meeting. Their daughter, Sophie von Haselberg, who is also an actress, was born on November 14, 1986. Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film "Hawaii". She landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen's Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965, "Miss Nefertiti Regrets" and "Cinderella Revisited", a children's play by day and an adult show by night. From 1966