Bette Midler: Sweet on Marijuana

Bettle Midler performs "Marajuana" in 1999.

Singer/actress Bette Midler's marijuana advocacy dates back to the '70s.

According to Very Important Potheads, "Midler famously planned to put a joint underneath every seat of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles for her New Year's Eve show in 1975/76, to celebrate California's pending decriminalization law. Her staff had purportedly rolled 1,800 joints before word leaked out and she was talked out of the magic moment by her lawyers and the L.A. district attorney. Instead she dropped her top at midnight."

In 1976, Midler's version of the reefer-jazz classic "Sweet Marijuana" was released on Songs for the New Depression (titled "Marajuana" on the album). The song was written in 1934 and originally performed by Gertrude Michael as a Mexican-themed dance number featuring a chorus of topless women in the film Murder at the Vanities. Julia Lee updated the song and renamed it "Lotus Blossom."

MIdler turned 80 on Dec. 1.

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Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom

Publisher of CelebStoner.com, former editor of High Times and Freedom Leaf and co-author of Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness.