Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann; January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer. Known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and her leading roles in musical theater,[1] she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage."[2] She performed on Broadway in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly!
Ethel Merman
February 15, 1984 (aged 76)
Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum, Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
- Actress
- singer
1930–1982
2
She is also known for her film roles in Anything Goes (1936), Call Me Madam (1953), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Among many accolades, she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Call Me Madam, a Grammy Award for Gypsy, and a Drama Desk Award for Hello, Dolly!
Merman introduced many Broadway standards, including "I Got Rhythm" from Girl Crazy, "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "Some People" and "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy, and the Cole Porter songs "It's De-Lovely" (from Red, Hot and Blue), "Friendship" (from Du Barry Was a Lady), and "I Get a Kick Out of You", "You're the Top", and "Anything Goes" (from Anything Goes). The Irving Berlin song "There's No Business Like Show Business", written for Annie Get Your Gun, became Merman's signature song.
Early life[edit]
Ethel Merman was born on January 16, 1908, in her maternal grandmother's house in Astoria, Queens, but she later insisted that the year of her birth was 1912. She was an only child.[3] Her father, Edward Zimmermann, was an accountant with James H. Dunham & Company, a Manhattan wholesale dry-goods company, and her mother, Agnes (née Gardner) Zimmermann, was a schoolteacher. Edward Zimmermann had been raised in the Dutch Reformed Church and his wife was Presbyterian. Shortly after they married, they joined the Episcopal congregation at Church of the Redeemer, where their daughter was baptized. Merman's parents were strict about church attendance and she spent every Sunday attending morning services, Sunday school, afternoon prayer meetings, and evening study groups for children.[4]
Merman's parents insisted she have an education with training in secretarial skills, in case her entertainment career failed. Merman attended P.S. 4 and William Cullen Bryant High School (which later named its auditorium in her honor), where she pursued a commercial course that offered secretarial training.[5]
She was active in numerous extracurricular activities, including the school magazine, the speakers' club, and student council, and she frequented the local music store to peruse the weekly arrivals of new sheet music.[6] On Friday nights, the Zimmermann family took the subway into Manhattan to see the vaudeville show at the Palace Theatre, where Merman saw Blossom Seeley, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, and Nora Bayes. At home, she tried to emulate their singing styles, but found her own distinctive voice difficult to disguise.[7]
After graduating from Bryant High School in 1924, Merman was hired as a stenographer by the Boyce-Ite Company. One day during her lunch break, she met Vic Kliesrath, who offered her a job at the Bragg-Kliesrath Corporation for a US$5 increase above the weekly $23 salary she was earning, and Merman accepted the offer.[8] She eventually was made personal secretary to company president Caleb Bragg, whose frequent lengthy absences from the office to race automobiles allowed her to catch up on the sleep she had lost the previous night when she was out late performing at private parties.[8] During this period, Merman began appearing in nightclubs, first hired by Jimmy Durante's partner Lou Clayton. At this time, she decided the name Ethel Zimmermann was too long for a theater marquee. She considered combining Ethel with Gardner or Hunter, which was her grandmother's maiden name. Her father strongly disapproved of these considerations, so she abbreviated Zimmermann to Merman to appease him.[9]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
During a two-week engagement at a club in midtown Manhattan called Little Russia, Merman met agent Lou Irwin, who arranged for her to audition for Archie Mayo, a film director under contract at Warner Bros. He offered her an exclusive six-month contract, starting at $125 per week, and Merman quit her day job, only to find herself idle for weeks while waiting to be cast in a film. She urged Irwin to cancel her agreement with Mayo; instead, he negotiated her a better deal allowing her to perform in clubs while remaining on the Warner Bros.'s payroll. Merman was hired as a torch singer at Les Ambassadeurs, where the headliner was Jimmy Durante; the two became lifelong friends. She caught the attention of columnists such as Walter Winchell and Mark Hellinger, who began to give her publicity. Soon after, Merman underwent a tonsillectomy, which she feared would damage her voice, but after recovering, she discovered it was more powerful than ever.[10]
While performing on the prestigious Keith Circuit, Merman was signed to replace Ruth Etting in the Paramount film Follow the Leader (1930), starring Ed Wynn and Ginger Rogers. Following a successful seven-week run at the Brooklyn Paramount, she was signed to perform at the Palace for $500 per week. During the run, theater producer Vinton Freedley saw her perform and invited her to audition for the role of San Francisco café singer Kate Fothergill in the new George and Ira Gershwin musical Girl Crazy. Upon hearing her sing "I Got Rhythm", the Gershwins immediately cast her, and Merman began balancing daytime rehearsals with her matinee and evening performance schedule at the Palace.[11] Merman introduced the songs "Sam and Delilah" and "Boy! What Love Has Done to Me!" as well as "I Got Rhythm" in the show.[12]
Girl Crazy opened on October 14, 1930, at the Alvin Theatre, where it ran for 272 performances.[13] The New York Times noted Merman sang "with dash, authority, good voice and just the right knowing style", and The New Yorker called her "imitative of no one."[14] Merman was indifferent to her reviews, prompting George Gershwin to ask her mother: "Have you ever seen a person so unconcerned as Ethel?"
Autobiographies[edit]
Merman co-wrote two memoirs. The first, Who Could Ask for Anything More? (1955), was published by Doubleday & Co. and written with the assistance of Pete Martin.[74] The second, Merman (1978), was published by Simon & Schuster and written with George Eels.[75]
Later life and death[edit]
Merman became forgetful with advancing age, and on occasion, had difficulty with her speech. At times, her behavior was erratic, causing concern among her friends. On April 7, 1983, she was preparing to travel to Los Angeles, to appear on the 55th Academy Awards telecast, when she collapsed in her apartment. Merman was taken to Roosevelt Hospital (Mount Sinai West), where doctors initially thought she had suffered a stroke. After undergoing exploratory surgery on April 11, she was diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma.[76] The New York Times reported that she underwent brain surgery to have the tumor removed, but it was inoperable and her condition was deemed terminal (doctors gave Merman eight and a half months to live).[76][77] The tumor caused her to become aphasic, and as her illness progressed, she lost her hair and her face swelled.[78][79] According to her biographer Brian Kellow, Merman's family and manager did not want the true nature of her condition revealed to the public.[77] Merman's son, Robert, Jr., who took charge of her care, later said he chose not to publicly disclose his mother's condition because she strove to keep her personal life private. He stated, "Mom truly appreciated [her fans'] presence and their applause. But you shouldn't attempt to be personal—she drew lines, and she could cut you off."[78]
Merman's health eventually stabilized enough for her to be brought back to her apartment in Manhattan. On February 15, 1984, 10 months after she was diagnosed with brain cancer, Merman died at her home at the age of 76.[80] On the evening of Merman's death, all 36 theaters on Broadway dimmed their lights at 9 pm in her honor.[81][82] A private funeral service for Merman was held in a chapel at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on February 27, after which Merman was cremated at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel.[83][84] In accordance with her wishes, Merman's remains were given to her son Robert Jr.[76] Merman was interred in the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, next to her daughter Ethel.
Upon her death, Merman left an estate estimated to be worth $1.5 million (equivalent to $4.4 million in 2023) to be divided between her son and two grandchildren.[85]
On October 10, 1984, an auction of her personal effects, including furniture, artwork, and theater memorabilia, earned over $120,000 (equivalent to $352,000 in 2023) at Christie's East.[86] The 56th Academy Awards, held on April 2, 1984, ended with a performance of "There's No Business Like Show Business" as a tribute to Merman.