The former blue-collar worker from Ohio with the prominently jutting ears became the 'King of Hollywood', a title based on his being the leading male box office attraction throughout the 1930s. The dashing, mustachioed image of Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind" (1939) remains indelibly associated with the name Clark Gable, but before his "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" made screen history, Gable (with the aid of his MGM publicist Howard Strickland) had already established a distinctive screen persona as the virile, lovable rogue whose gruff facade only thinly masked a natural charm and goodness.

American entertainer Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, HI, to the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. After dropping out of a drama class at the University of Hawaii, she took a tiny role in the 1966 film Hawaii, playing a seasick boat passenger. Training for a dancing career in New York, Midler made the casting rounds for several months before finally winning a chorus role, and then the featured part of Tzeitel, in the long-running Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. In the early 70's Bette signed with Atlantic records, producing her 1972 platinum debut, The Divine Miss M.