Ethel Merman

Ethel Merman stood out as the foremost American musical theater star of her era, originating parts across 13 Broadway productions from 1930 through 1959 while making occasional stage appearances until 1970. Her piercing, clearly articulated voice suited an age when performers had to project without microphones to reach the farthest seats, which endeared her to top composers and led her to premiere enduring numbers by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. Because the musical stage then dominated American popular music, her Broadway fame quickly translated into work across nightclubs, recordings, motion pictures, radio, and television, though she devoted the majority of her four-decade career to live theater.

She sang from childhood and performed at military camps throughout World War I. After high school she took a secretarial job yet steadily developed nightclub and vaudeville bookings. In September 1930 she achieved vaudeville’s peak by headlining the Palace Theater in New York, but she was already shifting toward legitimate theater and opened in a supporting role in the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy on October 13, 1930. Her rendition of “I Got Rhythm” drew strong notice, and the production ran 272 performances before closing on June 6, 1931. During that run she continued club dates and filmed shorts at Paramount, then made her feature debut in Follow the Leader, released in December 1930.

On September 14, 1931, she appeared in the next edition of George White’s Scandals, introducing “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries”; the revue played 202 performances and closed March 5, 1932. She cut a test version of that song for RCA Victor on October 1, 1931, yet her first commercial release came at a Victor session on September 29, 1932, with Irving Berlin’s “How Deep Is the Ocean?” Subsequent sessions for Brunswick in 1934 and 1935, Liberty Music Shop in 1939, and Decca in 1940 yielded occasional sides drawn mainly from her stage and screen material.

Her third Broadway vehicle, Take a Chance, opened November 26, 1932, and featured her delivery of “Eadie Was a Lady”; it lasted 243 performances until July 1, 1933. That September she traveled to Hollywood for co-starring roles opposite Bing Crosby in We’re Not Dressing and Eddie Cantor in Kid Millions, both issued in 1934. Footage of her singing “It’s the Animal in Me,” originally shot for the former film, later appeared in The Big Broadcast of 1936.

Returning east, she scored her biggest success to date in Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, which opened November 21, 1934, ran 420 performances, and closed November 16, 1935. Among its highlights were “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” and the title song. She departed before closing to honor film commitments, again pairing with Cantor in Strike Me Pink and with Crosby in the screen version of Anything Goes, both released in 1936. Back in New York she starred in another Porter show, Red, Hot and Blue!, which opened October 29, 1936, played 183 performances, and closed April 10, 1937; its score included “Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor” and “It’s De-Lovely.”

She then signed with 20th Century-Fox and completed three 1938 releases—Happy Landing, Alexander’s Ragtime Band (which incorporated vintage Irving Berlin numbers), and Straight, Place and Show—marking the end of her sustained Hollywood period. At thirty, lacking conventional screen glamour, she recognized that her voice assured top billing on Broadway instead. She therefore returned east for Stars in Your Eyes, with songs by Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields; it opened February 9, 1939, ran 127 performances, and closed May 27. On December 6 she opened in Porter’s DuBarry Was a Lady, which ran 408 performances until December 12, 1940. Before that closing she began yet another Porter musical, Panama Hattie, on October 30, 1940; it achieved her longest run to that point with 501 performances and closed January 3, 1942.

She married theatrical agent William Jacob Smith in 1940 and divorced him the following year, then wed newspaperman Robert Daniels Levitt; their son, Robert Daniels Levitt, Jr., was born July 20, 1942. On January 7, 1943, she returned to Broadway in Something for the Boys, singing more Porter numbers; the show ran 422 performances until January 8, 1944. That year she made a brief appearance in the all-star film Stage Door Canteen and reached the Billboard singles chart for the first time with “Move It Over” on RCA Victor.

Her daughter Ethel Levitt arrived on August 11, 1945. Her tenth Broadway musical, Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, proved her greatest triumph. Opening May 16, 1946, it depicted sharpshooter Annie Oakley, ran 1,147 performances until February 12, 1949, and she remained for the entire engagement. Among its songs were “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly,” “They Say It’s Wonderful,” “Anything You Can Do,” “I Got the Sun in the Morning,” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” The Decca original-cast album climbed to number two, and the recording success prompted her own network radio series, The Ethel Merman Show, in 1949. She also signed an exclusive Decca contract and charted several 1950–51 duets with Ray Bolger: “Dearie,” “I Said My Pajamas (And Put on My Pray’rs),” “If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake,” and “Once Upon a Nickel.”

On October 12, 1950, she opened in Berlin’s Call Me Madam, which ran 644 performances until May 3, 1952, earning her a Tony Award. Because RCA Victor held cast-album rights while she remained under contract to Decca, the label substituted Dinah Shore for a competing RCA version, while Merman recorded with Dick Haymes for Decca; her edition reached number two and the duet “You’re Just in Love” entered the singles chart. Although she had not filmed in years, the matronly role of Sally Adams suited her, and she starred in the 1953 screen adaptation of Call Me Madam; its Decca soundtrack reached number five.

She next marked television’s rise with appearances that included the two-hour Ford 50th Anniversary Show broadcast live on CBS and NBC on June 15, 1953. Her longtime rival Mary Martin joined her for an extended duet released by Decca. After television versions of Anything Goes (opposite Frank Sinatra) and Panama Hattie, she appeared in the lavish 1954 musical There’s No Business Like Show Business, again drawing on Berlin songs and co-starring Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor, Donald O’Connor, Johnnie Ray, and Marilyn Monroe; the Decca soundtrack peaked at number six. She wrapped her Decca exclusivity with the double-LP retrospective A Musical Autobiography, blending earlier cast tracks with new 1947 and 1955 studio recordings.

Her twelfth Broadway show, Happy Hunting, opened December 6, 1956, ran 413 performances until November 30, 1957, and yielded an RCA Victor cast album. Seeking a stronger vehicle, she found it in Gypsy, based on the early life of Gypsy Rose Lee. As the driven stage mother Mama Rose she delivered “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and the climactic “Rose’s Turn,” songs by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim. The production opened May 21, 1959, ran 702 performances until March 25, 1961, and she completed both the full Broadway run and a nine-month national tour. The cast album reached number 13 and remained on the chart more than two years. She had hoped to repeat the role in the 1962 film version but lost it to Rosalind Russell.

At fifty-four she stepped away from the weekly Broadway grind and resumed live performances, making her Las Vegas debut in October 1962; the engagement was captured on the Warner Bros. LP Merman in Vegas. She also re-recorded signature numbers for the Warner Bros. release Merman: Her Greatest! Guest television spots and supporting film roles in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and The Art of Love (1965) followed. On May 31, 1966, she returned to New York in a 20th-anniversary revival of Annie Get Your Gun, intended for five weeks yet extended to 124 performances before closing November 26; the new RCA Victor cast album charted, and a television adaptation aired March 19, 1967.

She toured nationally in Call Me Madam during the late 1960s and made her final Broadway appearance as the eighth actress to star in Hello, Dolly!, beginning March 28, 1970, and closing the production on December 27, 1970. In her sixties she worked less often, offering occasional film cameos in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) and Airplane! (1980). She revisited her catalog on the British LPs Merman Sings Merman (London Records, 1972) and Ethel’s Riding High (Decca, 1975), surprised listeners with a new studio-cast Annie Get Your Gun for London Phase 4 in 1973, and released The Ethel Merman Disco Album on A&M in 1979. She continued sporadic concerts, appearing at Carnegie Hall as late as 1982. Two years afterward she succumbed to a brain tumor at age seventy-six, her standing as the preeminent female Broadway star of the twentieth century firmly established.