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Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 - February 15,
1984) was a star of stage musical|stage and film
musicals, well known for her strident voice and
comic acting.

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) combined with her
being from New York City. She was raised an
Episcopal Church in the United States of
America|Episcopalian

Merman was married and divorced five 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), in 1964. Merman filed
for divorced after 32 days.)
* Jason Mulgrew, (Marketeer), in 1966.  Merman was
offended by an inappropriate joke his friend made.

She was known for her powerful (belting) alto
voice, exact enunciation, and accurate pitch.
Because stage singers performed without
microphones when she began singing professionally,
she had great advantages in show business.

She began singing while working as a secretary.
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 Gershwin|George and Ira
Gershwin. 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
theatre|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
(song)|There's No Business Like Show Business".

Merman starred in four 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.  Porter provided
Merman with a fantastic duet with Bert Lahr,
"Friendship", the first of one of her famous type
duet "can you top this" songs she became famous.  

In Panama Hattie, Porter wrote Merman famous
"name-dropping" songs including "Give Him the
oo-la-la" with lyrics that went, "If President
Roosevelt would like to rule-la-la...he better
teach Eleanor to oo-la-la..." 

Another type of song Merman made famous were
counterpoint songs provided for her by Irving
Berlin.  Merman sang "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. 
In Call Me Madam, Merman won the 1950 Best Actress
Tony Award for her performance as Sally Adams.

Merman's ultimate performance was as Rose in
Arthur Laurent's Gypsy where she played Gypsy Rose
Lee's mother.  Merman introduced "Everything's
Coming Up Roses", "Some People", and ended the
show with wrenching "Rose's Turn" gaining standing
ovations for her work.  Ironically, Merman lost
the Tony Award to Mary Martin, who was playing
Maria in The Sound of Music (play)|The Sound of
Music.  "How can you beat a nun?" philosophized
Merman.  The competitiveness notwithstanding,
Merman and Martin were friends off stage and
starred in two musical specials on television.

Merman retired from Broadway in 1970 when she
appeared as the last Dolly Levi in  Hello, Dolly!
(play/movie)|Hello Dolly, a show initially written
for her.  No longer willing to "take the veil" as
she described being in a Broadway role, Merman
preferred to act in television specials and
movies.  Despite having a reputation for a salty
tongue, and having introduced ribald Cole Porter
lyrics, Merman was known to dislike theatre fare
in the 1970s like "Oh Calcutta" for being lewd.

After being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1983,
Merman died in 1984.

Merman co-wrote two volumes of memoirs, "Who Could
Ask for Anything More" in 1952 and an additional
volume in 1979.

==Theatre performances==
*1930 Girl Crazy
*1931 George White's Scandals
*1932 Take a Chance
*1934 Anything Goes
*1936 Red, Hot and Blue
*1939 Stars In Your Eyes
*1939 Du Barry Was a Lady
*1940 Panama Hattie
*1943 Something for the Boys
*1944 Sadie Thompson (replaced in previews)
*1946 Annie Get Your Gun
*1950 Call Me Madam
*1956 Happy Hunting
*1959 Gypsy: A Musical Fable|Gypsy
*1966 Hello, Dolly! (play/movie)|Hello, Dolly!
(replacement)
*1966 Annie Get Your Gun
*1975 A Gala Tribute to Joshua Logan
*1977 Together on Broadway (Mary Martin & Ethel
Merman)

==Film performances==
*1930	Follow the Leader (film)|Follow the Leader 
*1930   The Cave Club
*1931	The Devil Sea
*1931	Roaming 
*1932	Let Me Call You Sweetheart 
*1932	You Try Somebody Else
*1932	Time on My Hands
*1932	Old Man Blues 
*1932	Ireno 
*1933	Song Shopping 
*1933	Be Like Me
*1934	We're Not Dressing 
*1934.	Kid Millions
*1936	The Big Broadcast of 1936
*1936	Strike Me Pink
*1936	Anything Goes (movie)|Anything Goes 
*1938	Happy Landing
*1938   Alexander's Ragtime Band
*1938   Straight, Place and Show 
*1943   Stage Door Canteen
*1953   Call Me Madam
*1954   There's No Business Like Show Business
(movie)|There's No Business Like Show Business
*1963   It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
*1965   The Art of Love
*1967   Tarzan and the Mountains of the Moon
*1968   Around the World of Mike Todd
*1971   Journey Back to Oz (voice)
*1976   Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
*1978   A Salute to American Imagination
*1979   Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
*1980   Airplane!
*1981   Something a Little Less Serious

==Television performances==
*1953 The Ford 50th Anniversary Show
*1954 There's No Business Like Show Business
*1954 Anything Goes
*1958 Panama Hattie
*1961 Merman on Broadway
*1962 The Lucille Ball Show (2 appearances)
*1963 The Judy Garland Show (2 appearances)
*1965 An Evening with Ethel Merman
*1966 Batman (as "Lola Lasagne")
*1967 Annie Get Your Gun
*1967 That Girl
*1967 The Carol Burnett Show
*1970 Evening at Pops
*1972 S Wonderful, 'S Marvelous, 'S Gershwin
*1975 Match Game PM
*1976 The Muppet Show
*1977 The Love Boat (5 episodes)
*1978 A Special Sesame Street Christmas
*1985 Judy Garland: The Concert Years (archival
footage from The Judy Garland Show)

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 - February 15,
1984) was a star of stage musical|stage and film
musicals, well known for her strident voice and
comic acting.

She was born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, in Astoria,
Queens|Astoria, Queens, New York, of a German
American|German Lutheranism|Lutheran father and
United Kingdom|Scottish
Presbyterianism|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 raised an Episcopal Church in the
United States of America|Episcopalian.

Merman was married and divorced five 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), in 1964. Merman filed
for divorced after 32 days.
* Jason Mulgrew, (Marketeer), in 1966. Merman was
offended by an inappropriate joke his friend made.

She was known for her powerful (belting) alto
voice, exact 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.

She began singing while working as a secretary.
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 Gershwin|George and Ira
Gershwin, which also starred a very young Ginger
Rogers (19 years old) in 1930. 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 theatre|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 (song)|There's No Business Like Show
Business".

Merman starred in four 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. Porter provided Merman
with a fantastic duet with Bert Lahr,
"Friendship", the first of one of her famous type
duet "can you top this" songs she became famous.  

In Panama Hattie, Porter wrote Merman famous
"name-dropping" songs including "Give Him the
oo-la-la" with lyrics that went, "If President
Roosevelt would like to rule-la-la...he better
teach Eleanor to oo-la-la..." 

Another type of song Merman made famous were
counterpoint songs provided for her by Irving
Berlin.  Merman sang "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. 
In Call Me Madam, Merman won the 1951 Best Actress
Tony Award for her performance as Sally Adams.

Merman's ultimate performance was as Rose in
Arthur Laurent's Gypsy where she played Gypsy Rose
Lee's mother. Merman introduced Everything's
Coming Up Roses, Some People, and ended the show
with wrenching Rose's Turn, gaining standing
ovations for her work. She did not get the role in
the movie version, however, which went to movie
actressRosalind Russell, and Merman was quoted as
saying that "her (Russell's sort)... belongs in a
kennel", and also insulted Russell's husband,
Freddie Brisson by calling him the "Lizard of
Roz". 

Ironically, Merman lost the Tony Award to Mary
Martin, who was playing Maria in The Sound of
Music (play)|The Sound of Music. "How can you beat
a nun?", philosophized Merman.  The
competitiveness notwithstanding, Merman and Martin
were friends off stage and starred in two musical
specials on television (unfortunately the two
shared something else in common -- they would both
die of cancer-related illnesses at the age of 76).

Merman retired from Broadway in 1970 when she
appeared as the last Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!
(play/movie)|Hello Dolly, a show initially written
for her. No longer willing to "take the veil" as
she described being in a Broadway role, Merman
preferred to act in television specials and
movies. Despite having a reputation for a salty
tongue, and having introduced ribald Cole Porter
lyrics, Merman was known to dislike theatre fare
in the 1970s like "Oh Calcutta" for being lewd.

After being diagnosed with a malignant brain
tumour in 1983, Merman collapsed and died several
weeks after surgery at the age of 76 in 1984; she
had been planning to go to Los Angeles to appear
at the Oscars that year.

Merman co-wrote two volumes of memoirs, "Who Could
Ask for Anything More" in 1952 and an additional
volume in 1979.

==Theatre performances==
*1930 Girl Crazy
*1931 George White's Scandals
*1932 Take a Chance
*1934 Anything Goes
*1936 Red, Hot and Blue
*1939 Stars In Your Eyes
*1939 Du Barry Was a Lady
*1940 Panama Hattie
*1943 Something for the Boys
*1944 Sadie Thompson (replaced in previews)
*1946 Annie Get Your Gun
*1950 Call Me Madam
*1956 Happy Hunting
*1959 Gypsy: A Musical Fable|Gypsy
*1966 Hello, Dolly! (play/movie)|Hello, Dolly!
(replacement)
*1966 Annie Get Your Gun
*1975 A Gala Tribute to Joshua Logan
*1977 Together on Broadway (Mary Martin & Ethel
Merman)

==Film performances==
*1930	Follow the Leader (film)|Follow the Leader 
*1930   The Cave Club
*1931	The Devil Sea
*1931	Roaming 
*1932	Let Me Call You Sweetheart 
*1932	You Try Somebody Else
*1932	Time on My Hands
*1932	Old Man Blues 
*1932	Ireno 
*1933	Song Shopping 
*1933	Be Like Me
*1934	We're Not Dressing 
*1934.	Kid Millions
*1936	The Big Broadcast of 1936
*1936	Strike Me Pink
*1936	Anything Goes (movie)|Anything Goes 
*1938	Happy Landing
*1938   Alexander's Ragtime Band
*1938   Straight, Place and Show 
*1943   Stage Door Canteen
*1953   Call Me Madam
*1954   There's No Business Like Show Business
(movie)|There's No Business Like Show Business
*1963   It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
*1965   The Art of Love
*1967   Tarzan and the Mountains of the Moon
*1968   Around the World of Mike Todd
*1971   Journey Back to Oz (voice)
*1976   Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
*1978   A Salute to American Imagination
*1979   Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
*1980   Airplane!
*1981   Something a Little Less Serious

==Television performances==
*1953 The Ford 50th Anniversary Show
*1954 There's No Business Like Show Business
*1954 Anything Goes
*1958 Panama Hattie
*1961 Merman on Broadway
*1962 The Lucille Ball Show (2 appearances)
*1963 The Judy Garland Show (2 appearances)
*1965 An Evening with Ethel Merman
*1966 Batman (as "Lola Lasagne")
*1967 Annie Get Your Gun
*1967 That Girl
*1967 The Carol Burnett Show
*1970 Evening at Pops
*1972 S Wonderful, 'S Marvelous, 'S Gershwin
*1975 Match Game PM
*1976 The Muppet Show
*1977 The Love Boat (5 episodes)
*1978 A Special Sesame Street Christmas
*1985 Judy Garland: The Concert Years (archival
footage from The Judy Garland Show)

== External links ==
* http://www.musicals101.com/mermbio.htm