Even now, Barry Manilow recalls his first appearance in Las Vegas.
It didn’t go well.
“It was horrible,” he says in a phone chat.
Manilow was Bette Midler’s conductor, piano player and arranger in the early days of both entertainers’ careers. Midler was a favorite of Johnny Carson, who headlined at the Sahara’s Congo Room from 1964 to 1980, during breaks from “The Tonight Show.” Carson invited Midler to open for him during a run in 1972.
“She was doing so well, the word of mouth was so great, she was a wonderful talent and funny, so she opened for him,” Manilow recalls. “And she died there. They just hated her. They were offended by her dirty jokes, they didn’t know what song she was singing, they didn’t understand what she looked like. Then Johnny would come out and tell them how wonderful she was.”
