- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEthel Agnes Zimmermann
- Height5′ 5½″ (1.66 m)
- Born in the Astoria section of Queens, New York City, Ethel Merman surely is the pre-eminent star of 'Broadway' musical comedy. Though untrained in singing, she could belt out a song like quite no one else, and was sought after by major songwriters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Having debuted in 1930 in "Girl Crazy, " she is yet remembered for her marvelous starring appearances in so many great musicals that were later adapted to the silver screen. Among the film versions, Merman herself starred in Anything Goes (1936) and Call Me Madam (1953). That wonderfully boisterous blonde, Betty Hutton, had the Merman lead in both Red, Hot and Blue (1949) and Annie Get Your Gun (1950). Besides Betty Hutton, other Merman screen stand-in roles include Lucille Ball, (in Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)), Ann Sothern, (in Panama Hattie (1942)), Vivian Blaine (in Something for the Boys (1944)) and Rosalind Russell (in Gypsy (1962)). (Russell could never render Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne's "Everything's Coming Up Roses" the way the immortal Merman did, over and over again.) Ethel Merman's lifetime facts: her dare of birth, was on Thursday, January 16th, 1908 & her life expired on Wednesday, February 15th, 1984. Thursday, January 16th, 1908 & Wednesday, February 15th, 1984, differ 27,789 days, equaling 3,969 weeks & 6 days.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Bill Takacs <kinephile@aol.com>
- SpousesErnest Borgnine(June 27, 1964 - November 18, 1964) (divorced)Robert Logan Forman Six(March 9, 1953 - December 20, 1960) (divorced)Robert Daniels Levitt(December 18, 1941 - June 10, 1952) (divorced, 2 children)William B. Smith(November 15, 1940 - October 1, 1941) (divorced)
- ChildrenEthel Levitt
- The song, sung in her inimitable way, "There's No Business Like Show Business"
- Powerful belting mezzo-soprano vocal range
- Elaine Stritch was once a stand-by for Ethel Merman for the musical "Call Me Madam". In her one woman show "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty", Stritch told a story illustrating Merman's showmanship and attitude: One night, while performing the song "Can You Use Any Money Today", a drunken audience member kept calling out to Merman while she performed, annoying both the audience and Merman herself. Finally, Merman got to the last line of the song, hit the first three notes, and then stopped the song. She then walked off the stage, through the wings, down the stairs and into the audience. She got to the drunken man, yanked him out of his seat, dragged him up the center aisle and through the doors that led out of the theater and literally threw the man out into the street. She then walked back into the theater, down the center aisle, up the stairs, through the wings onto the stage, got to dead center and hit the final note of the song as if nothing had happened.
- She loved Christmas so much that she kept her Christmas tree up year-round.
- Thrice-wed Merman married twice-wed Ernest Borgnine in 1964. The couple separated just 11 days after the wedding and Borgnine filed for divorce on October 21, charging extreme mental cruelty. They had announced their impending nuptials at the legendary New York night spot P.J. Clarke's, but Borgnine, who was riding high as the star of McHale's Navy (1962) at the time, said the marriage began unraveling on their honeymoon, when he received more fan attention than she did. The competitive Merman was left seething. "By the time we got home, it was hell on earth," Borgnine recalled in a 2001 interview. "And after 32 days I said to her, 'Madam, bye'." Merman filed a cross-complaint shortly thereafter charging Borgnine with extreme cruelty. She was granted a divorce on November 18, 1964, after 22 minutes of testimony. Borgnine went on to marry a fourth time, but Merman remained single after her divorce. In her 1978 biography, she devoted a chapter of her autobiography to the marriage: It consisted of one blank page.
- Merman was trained to be a secretary, could take shorthand and was a proficient stenographer and typist and supported herself in clerical jobs until she was successful in show business.
- One of Merman's last appearances was a hilarious cameo in 1980's Airplane, in which she played a patient in a military mental ward who "thinks he's Ethel Merman." When the angle cut to that patient's bed, Merman sat up and sang "Everything's coming up roses" from her Broadway hit Gypsy.
- [on 1959, when she was nominated for a Tony Award for "Gypsy" but had lost to Mary Martin in "The Sound of Music"] You can't buck a nun.
- [in 1930, on the show that made her a star, George Gershwin's "Girl Crazy"] In the second chorus of "I Got Rhythm", I held a high C note for 16 bars while the orchestra played the melodic line--a big, tooty thing--against the note. By the time I'd held that note for four bars, the audience was applauding. They applauded through the whole chorus and I did several encores. It seemed to do something to them. Not because it was sweet or beautiful, but because it was exciting. Few people have the ability to project a big note and hold it. It's not just a matter of breath; it's a matter of power in the diaphragm. I'd never trained my diaphragm, but I must have a strong one. When I finished that song, a star had been born. Me.
- [on Mary Martin] She's okay, if you like talent.
- I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them.
- I don't want to sound pretentious, but in a funny way I feel I'm the last of a kind. I don't mean that there aren't some girls out there somewhere who are just as talented as I was. But even if they are, where will they find the shows like "Girl Crazy", "Anything Goes", "Annie Get Your Gun", "Call Me Madam" and "Gypsy"? They just don't produce those vehicles anymore.
- Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948) - $20,000
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