Biography
Ethel Shutta launched her professional path as a stage performer toward the close of the 1920s, quickly drawing a wide audience and building a durable reputation through her work as a vocalist and dancer. During those same years she served as one of two featured singers with George Olsen’s widely popular big band, which produced numerous hit recordings and performed on radio broadcasts including the original Jack Benny Show. Her first session with the ensemble took place in 1928 and yielded a Victor release of “A Precious Little Thing Called Love.” The group’s other vocalist was male singer Fran Frey, yet Olsen’s preference for Shutta was evident; the bandleader married her around the period of their joint appearance in the Broadway musical Whoopee. The couple remained together until their late-1930s divorce, after which she wed sports writer George Kirksey.
She also appeared in the 1930s film adaptation of Whoopee, cast as Eddie Cantor’s nurse—a demanding part made busier by the hypochondriac nature of his character—and this is believed to be her only screen performance from the era. One of her signature numbers from the stage production was the buoyant “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” later interpreted with major success by Nina Simone.
Shutta maintained an active singing career and staged several striking returns to Broadway, appearing in productions in 1943, 1963, and 1971, only a few years prior to her death. Her pairing with fellow stage veteran and cabaret artist Fifi D’Orsay formed a highlight of the Stephan Sondheim tribute mounted in the early 1970s. In the 1950s she accepted character roles on television, demonstrating how effectively the polished performer could inhabit the Western setting of a Wagon Train episode.
She also appeared in the 1930s film adaptation of Whoopee, cast as Eddie Cantor’s nurse—a demanding part made busier by the hypochondriac nature of his character—and this is believed to be her only screen performance from the era. One of her signature numbers from the stage production was the buoyant “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” later interpreted with major success by Nina Simone.
Shutta maintained an active singing career and staged several striking returns to Broadway, appearing in productions in 1943, 1963, and 1971, only a few years prior to her death. Her pairing with fellow stage veteran and cabaret artist Fifi D’Orsay formed a highlight of the Stephan Sondheim tribute mounted in the early 1970s. In the 1950s she accepted character roles on television, demonstrating how effectively the polished performer could inhabit the Western setting of a Wagon Train episode.