Yoo-hoo, Loretta...It's Bette Midler!

     Loretta Ables Sayre, starring on Broadway as Bloody Mary in the classic musical "South Pacific," sent friends back in Hawaii an email that started out:

     "Guess who knocked on my dressing room door last night?"

      It turned out to be another fabulous singer/actor with Hawaii roots, Bette Midler.

      "We both graduated from Radford High School and we talked pidgin like two titas!" Loretta wrote.

       Bette, as you recall, created The Divine Miss M persona and she once said about it: "People always love a broad, someone with a sense of humor, someone with a fairly wicked tongue, someone who can belt out a song, someone who takes no guff."

        That's exactly the kind of character Loretta is playing on Broadway.

        Loretta is on leave as "the voice" of PBS Hawaii.

        Bette was born in Honolulu, to a housepainter and a housewife/seamstress. The family was one of the few whites in a Halawa housing area populated by Hawaiians, Japanese, Chinese, Samoans and Filipinos. The Midlers were also the only Jewish family. Bette has told friends that she felt like "an outsider" and that's one reason she was so fond of playing make-believe and chose a career in drama. Her school buddies remember her as "happy all the time." Bette dropped out of the UH Manoa after a few semesters and struck out for opportunities--and high-profile success--on the Mainland.

      Hawaii residents have long followed her singing and acting career, and if they didn't do this before, they certainly do so now--embrace her as "one of our own."

      The two stars and professional "broads" from Hawaii, Bette and Loretta, had fun comparing stories at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

      I wonder who else will come knocking at Loretta's dressing room door!