Actors - Ethel Merman

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	Actors - Ethel Merman

Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was a star of stage and film musicals, well known for her powerful voice and vocal range.

Personal Life

She was born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, in Astoria, Queens, New York, of a German Lutheran father and Scottish Presbyterian mother, although many people long assumed she was Jewish because of her pre-stage last name (which is common among non-Jewish Germans as well, particularly when there are two "n"s at the end of the name) along with the fact that she was from New York, New York. She was baptized Episcopalian. She used to stand outside the Famous Players-Lasky Studios and wait to see her favorite Broadway star, Alice Brady. Ethel loved to sing songs like “By the Light of the Silv’ry Moon” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band" while her adoring father accompanied her on the piano.

Merman was married and divorced four times:

Bill Smith, theatrical agent.
Robert Levitt, newspaper executive. The couple had two children; divorced in 1952
Robert Six, airline executive, 1953-1960.
Ernest Borgnine
, actor, 1964. They announced the impending nuptials at P.J. Clarke's, a legendary night spot in New York, but Merman filed for divorce after just 32 days.

Career

She was known for her powerful, belting alto voice, precise enunciation, and accurate pitch. Because stage singers performed without microphones when she began singing professionally, she had great advantages in show business, despite the fact that she never received any singing lessons. In fact, Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin warned her never to take a singing lesson after seeing her opening reviews for Girl Crazy
.

She began singing while working as a secretary for the B-K Booster Vacuum Brake Company in Queens. She eventually became a full time vaudeville performer, and played the pinnacle of vaudeville, the Palace Theatre in New York City. She had already been engaged for Girl Crazy
, a musical with songs by George and Ira Gershwin, which also starred a very young Ginger Rogers (19 years old) in 1930. Although third billed, her rendition of "I Got Rhythm" in the show was popular, and by the late 1930s she had become the first lady of the Broadway musical stage. Many consider her the leading Broadway musical performer of the twentieth century with her signature song being "There's No Business Like Show Business".

Merman starred in five Cole Porter musicals, among them Anything Goes in 1934 where she introduced "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Blow Gabriel Blow", and the title song. Her next musical with Porter was Red, Hot and Blue in which she co-starred with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante and introduced "It's Delovely" and "Down in the Depths (on the 90th floor)." In 1939's DuBarry Was A Lady, Porter provided Merman with a "can you top this" duet with Bert Lahr, "Friendship". Like "You're the Top" in Anything Goes, this kind of duet became one of her signatures. Porter's lyrics also helped showcase her comic talents in duets in Panama Hattie
("Let's Be Buddies", "I've Still Got My Health"), and Something for the Boys, ("By the Mississinewah", "Hey Good Lookin'").

Irving Berlin supplied Merman with equally memorable duets, including counterpoint songs "Anything You Can Do" with Ray Middleton in Annie Get Your Gun
and "You're Just in Love" with Russell Nype in Call Me Madam.

Merman won the 1951 Tony Award for Best Actress for her performance as Sally Adams in Call Me Madam. She reprised her role in the lively Walter Lang film version.

Perhaps Merman's most revered performance was in Gypsy
as Gypsy Rose Lee's mother Rose. Merman introduced Everything's Coming Up Roses, Some People, and ended the show with the wrenching Rose's Turn. Critics and audiences saw her creation of Mama Rose as the performance of her career. She did not get the role in the movie version, however, which went to movie actress Rosalind Russell, and an infuriated Merman was quoted as saying: "I know her sort, I can't say...but it rhymes with 'witch' and you'll find her sort in a kennel". She also insulted Russell's husband, Freddie Brisson, by calling him the "Lizard of Roz". Merman decided to take "Gypsy" on the road and trumped the motion picture as a result.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Ethel Merman ]

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Actors - Ethel Merman

Personal Life

Career

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