Ethel Merman

Actress

  • Born: January 16, 1908
  • Birthplace: Astoria, New York
  • Died: February 15, 1984
  • Place of death: New York, New York

Brassy and loud, Merman’s voice dominated Broadway musical theater from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. Composers Cole Porter and Irving Berlin wrote specifically for her powerful voice, and she introduced many of their most important hits.

The Life

Ethel Merman was the only child of bookkeeper Edward Zimmermann and his wife Agnes Gardner. Raised in Long Island, Merman sang at age three and first performed in public at age five, joining her amateur pianist father wherever she could. Regularly taken to the Palace vaudeville theater, she learned from singers whose voices could fill theaters long before microphones were invented. Her parents nurtured her talent, but they insisted that, for financial security, she have a steady job. She took a high school secretarial course, learning skills and attitudes that sustained her throughout her career. Self-disciplined, she regarded the theater as simply a job, handling her own correspondence and taking stage directions in shorthand. She was prompt, knew her material, gave consistent performances, and was intolerant of unprofessional behavior.

While holding secretarial jobs, Merman performed wherever she could find work, sometimes commuting late at night across New York City. By 1927 she had abridged her name to Ethel Merman, and she was well-known enough to be pictured on sheet music. Singing at the Little Russia nightclub, she attracted an agent who introduced her to composer George Gershwin. Her Broadway success thereafter was meteoric. She was less successful in Hollywood, where her vitality and her lack of conventional glamour generally relegated her to secondary roles. Of films made from her Broadway successes, she starred only in a much changed Anything Goes and, almost two decades later, in Call Me Madam.

In 1970 her last stage performance was as Dolly Levi in the final months of the long-running Hello, Dolly!, a role originally written for her. She sang in concert from 1975 on, and she appeared frequently on television. Merman was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor ten months before her death on February 18, 1984.

The Music

Merman entered the stage, faced the audience, and sang—every note, word, and gesture communicating her energy and her delight in performing. Although her voice was untrained, it filled even the largest theater without amplification. Her vocal range was limited, estimated at about an octave and a half, but her voice was clear and her enunciation impeccable, She could communicate clearly even the wordiest of lyrics, as, for example, in Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top.” She possessed remarkable breath control, with the ability to sustain decibel levels; in George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” from 1930’s Girl Crazy, she held the “I” for at least sixteen measures, electrifying the audience. Her flawless timing and rhythm allowed her to sing counterpoint songs: “Anything You Can Do,” sung with Ray Middleton in Annie Get Your Gun (1946) and “You’re Just in Love,” with Russell Nype in Call Me Madam.

Early Works. Originally hired simply to sing in Girl Crazy, Merman’s role expanded as her comic gifts were recognized. At that time, she was so unaware of the importance of a theatrical hit that, to Gershwin’s amazement, she failed to read reviews. She played club dates during the run of the show, and she filmed short films at the Paramount lot near her home in Astoria, Long Island.

In her next two shows, however, she introduced some of Cole Porter’s most famous hits. In Anything Goes, she played evangelist-turned-nightclub hostess Reno Sweeney, singing four of the show’s major numbers: “I Get a Kick out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “Anything Goes,” and “Blow, Gabriel, Blow.” In these early shows, she played a brassy, streetwise woman with tremendous vitality and, especially in Panama Hattie, courage. She appeared with comedians Bob Hope (Red, Hot, and Blue), Jimmy Durante (Red, Hot, and Blue and Stars in Your Eyes), and Bert Lahr (Du Barry Was a Lady).

Annie Get Your Gun.Merman believed that show finally established her importance on Broadway, allowing her wider scope as an actress. She played historical sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who toured in William F. Cody’s “Buffalo Bill” Wild West shows. Here, Merman belted out Irving Berlin’s “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” but she also played a country woman, singing “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly” and “I Got the Sun in the Morning,” and a woman vulnerably and tenderly in love, singing “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” and “They Say It’s Wonderful.” Gypsy.Musical-theater historian Ethan Mordden described Merman’s Gypsy performance as among the greatest in musical-theater history. Based on Gypsy Rose Lee’s book Gypsy: Memoirs of America’s Most Famous Stripper (1957), it starred Merman as Rose, a monstrous stage mother who ruthlessly controls her two daughters, Lee and future actress June Havoc, and who is determined to propel them into theatrical success. Although Merman compared Rose with William Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, she also communicated Rose’s vulnerability, neediness, and longing in the most nuanced performance of her career. Rose dominates her daughters, but, in Merman’s earthy portrayal, she is also someone who, trapped in what she perceives as a futile, life-wasting existence, reaches out for recognition. The show ends with “Rose’s Turn,” during which, her dreams fractured, Rose mentally disintegrates as she sings.

Musical Legacy

Merman’s career spanned Broadway’s golden age, and by the time of Gypsy, fewer Broadway and Hollywood musicals were being produced and popular music was being directed to a younger, more fragmented, audience. Merman’s voice, however, lives on in recordings and films, including those made of her television appearances. She worked with many of the top entertainment stars, from Jimmy Durante, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope to Barbra Streisand, Johnny Carson, and the Muppets. Her importance was recognized with a Tony Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972 and the Pied Piper Award, from the American Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1982. She won a Tony Award in 1950 for her performance in Call Me Madam and a Golden Globe Award in 1953 for her performance in the film version. She was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1982. Other performers have recorded her songs and sung her roles, but her performances remain the standard against which the others are measured.

Principal Works

musical theater (singer): Girl Crazy, 1930 (libretto by Guy Bolton and John McGowan; music by George Gershwin; lyrics by Ira Gershwin); George White’s Scandals, 1931 (libretto by George White, Irving Caesar, and Lew Brown; music by Ray Henderson; lyrics by Brown); Take a Chance, 1932 (libretto by B. G. De Sylva and Lawrence Schwab; music by Nacio Herb Brown and Richard A. Whiting; lyrics by De Sylva); Anything Goes, 1934 (libretto by Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse; music and lyrics by Cole Porter); Red, Hot, and Blue, 1936 (libretto by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse; music and lyrics by Porter); Du Barry Was a Lady, 1939 (libretto by Herbert Fields and De Sylva; music and lyrics by Porter); Stars in Your Eyes, 1939 (libretto by J. P. McEnvoy; music by Arthur Schwartz; lyrics by Dorothy Fields); Panama Hattie, 1940 (libretto by Herbert Fields and De Sylva; music and lyrics by Porter); Something for the Boys, 1943 (libretto by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields; music and lyrics by Porter); Sadie Thompson, 1944 (libretto by Howard Dietz and Rouben Mamoulian; music by Vernon Duke; lyrics by Dietz); Annie Get Your Gun, 1946 (libretto by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields; music and lyrics by Irving Berlin); Call Me Madam, 1950 (libretto by Lindsay and Crouse; music and lyrics by Berlin); Happy Hunting, 1956 (libretto by Lindsay and Crouse; music by Harold Karr; lyrics by Matt Dubey); Gypsy, 1959 (libretto by Arthur Laurents; music by Jule Styne; lyrics by Stephen Sondheim); Hello, Dolly!, 1964 (libretto by Michael Stewart; music and lyrics by Jerry Herman).

Principal Recordings

albums:Songs She Has Made Famous, 1947; Merman in Vegas, 1963; Merman Sings Merman, 1972; Ethel’s Riding High, 1975; The Ethel Merman Disco Album, 1979.

Bibliography

Flinn, Caryl. Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. This important biography separates fact from rumor and legend, analyzing the latter in terms of cultural attitudes and prejudices. Includes a discography, a list of stage appearances, and a filmography.

Kellow, Brian. Ethel Merman: A Life. New York: Viking, 2007. This biography is written in a popular style, and it lists major awards and Broadway, film, and television appearances.

Mark, Geoffrey. Ethel Merman: The Biggest Star on Broadway. Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, 2006. Popular biography with extensive lists of radio, television, film, recording, and Broadway performances with some commentary.

Mordden, Ethan. Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950’s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. This resource contains glowing references to Merman’s Gypsy performance.