Read Ethel Merman: A Life Online
Authors: Brian Kellow
Anything Goes
(Paramount, 1936)
P
RODUCER
: Benjamin Glazer
D
IRECTOR
: Lewis Milestone
C
AMERA
: Karl Struss
C
AST
: Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman (as Reno Sweeney), Charles Ruggles, Ida Lupino, Arthur Treacher, Grace Bradley, Margaret Dumont
Happy Landing
(20th Century Fox, 1938)
D
IRECTOR
: Roy del Ruth
W
RITERS
: Milton Sperling, Boris Ingster
C
AMERA
: John J. Mescall
C
AST
: Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman (as Flo Kelly), Cesar Romero, Jean Hersholt, Billy Gilbert, the Raymond Scott Quintet
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
(20th Century Fox, 1938)
D
IRECTOR
: Henry King
W
RITERS
: Kathryn Scola, Lamar Trotti (adaptation, Richard Sherman)
C
AMERA
: J. Peverell Marley
C
AST
: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman (as Gerry Allen), Jack Haley, Jean Hersholt, Helen Westley, Paul Hurst, Ruth Terry, John Carradine
Straight, Place and Show
(20th Century Fox, 1939)
D
IRECTOR
: David Butler
W
RITERS
: M. H. Musselman, Allen Rivkin (additional dialogue, Lew Brown), based on a play by Damon Runyon and Irving Caesar
C
AMERA
: Ernest Palmer
C
AST
: The Ritz Brothers, Richard Arlen, Ethel Merman (as Linda Tyler), Phyllis Brooks
Stage Door Canteen
(Sol Lesser–American Theater Wing–United Artists, 1943)
D
IRECTOR
: Frank Borzage
W
RITER
: Delmer Daves
C
AMERA
: Harry J. Wild
C
AST
: Cheryl Walker, William W. Terry, Marjorie Riordan, Lon MacAllister, Margaret Early, plus many guest stars, including Ethel Merman, Katharine Cornell, Katharine Hepburn, Helen Hayes, Ina Claire, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Judith Anderson, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Aline McMahon, Harpo Marx, George Raft, Tallulah Bankhead, Gertrude Lawrence, Gypsy Rose Lee, Virginia Grey
Call Me Madam
(20th Century Fox, 1953)
P
RODUCER
: Sol C. Stegel
D
IRECTOR
: Walter Lang
W
RITER
: Arthur Sheekman
C
AMERA
: Leon Shamroy
C
AST
: Ethel Merman (as Sally Adams), George Sanders, Donald O’Connor, Vera-Ellen, Billy DeWolfe, Walter Slezak, Ludwig Stossel, Lilia Skala
There’s No Business Like Show Business
(20th Century Fox, 1954)
D
IRECTOR
: Walter Lang
W
RITERS
: Phoebe and Henry Ephron (Lamar Trotti, story)
C
AMERA
: Leon Shamroy
C
AST
: Ethel Merman (as Molly Donahue), Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe, Johnnie Ray, Hugh O’Brian, Richard Eastham, Frank McHugh, Rhys Williams, Lee Patrick
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
(Stanley Kramer–United Artists, 1963)
P
RODUCER
/D
IRECTOR
: Stanley Kramer
W
RITERS
: William and Tania Rose
C
AMERA
: Ernest Laszlo
C
AST
: Spencer Tracy, Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman (as Mrs. Marcus), Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, plus many guest stars, including Jimmy Durante, Jerry Lewis, Don Knotts, Joe E. Brown, ZaSu Pitts, Ben Blue, Paul Ford
The Art of Love
(Universal, 1965)
D
IRECTOR
: Norman Jewison
W
RITER
: Carl Reiner, from a story by Richard Alan Simmons and William Sackheim
C
AMERA
: Russell Metty
C
AST
: James Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer, Angie Dickinson, Ethel Merman (as Madame Coco la Fontaine), Carl Reiner
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
(Columbia, 1976)
P
RODUCER
: David V. Picker
D
IRECTOR
: Michael Winner
W
RITERS
: Arnold Schulman, Cy Howard
C
AMERA
: Richard H. Kline
C
AST
: Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Teri Garr, Phil Silvers, plus many guest stars, including Richard Arlen, Milton Berle, Janet Blair, Joan Blondell, Yvonne De Carlo, Alice Faye, Rhonda Fleming, Dick Haymes, Dorothy Lamour, Virginia Mayo, Ethel Merman (as Hedda Parsons), Ann Miller, Louis Nye, Walter Pidgeon, Aldo Ray, Ann Rutherford, Rudy Vallee, Henny Youngman
Airplane!
(Paramount, 1980)
P
RODUCER
: Jon Davison, Howard W. Koch
E
XECUTIVE PRODUCERS
: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
D
IRECTOR
: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
W
RITERS
: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
C
AMERA
: Joseph F. Biroc
C
AST
: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Joyce Bulifant, plus many guest stars, including Howard Jarvis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barbara Billingsley, Ethel Merman (as Lieutenant Hurwitz)
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
Ethel Merman was a frequent guest on all manner of variety and comedy series, talk shows, and game shows. What follows is a list of selected appearances only.
Thru the Crystal Ball,
CBS, 1949
Texaco Star Theater,
NBC, 1949
Toast of the Town,
CBS, 1953
The Colgate Comedy Hour: The Ethel Merman Show,
NBC, 1954
The Colgate Comedy Hour: Anything Goes,
NBC, 1954
The Best of Broadway: Panama Hattie,
CBS, 1954
The Shower of Stars: Show Stoppers,
CBS, 1955
The Toast of the Town,
CBS, 1955
Person to Person,
CBS, 1955
The Chevy Show,
NBC, 1955
GE Theatre,
episode, “Reflected Glory,” CBS, 1956
The U.S. Steel Hour,
episode, “Honest in the Rain,” CBS, 1956
The DuPont Show of the Month,
NBC, 1957
The Perry Como Show,
NBC, 1957
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show,
NBC, 1958
The Frank Sinatra Show,
ABC, 1958
The Eddie Fisher Show,
NBC, 1958
The Ed Sullivan Show,
CBS, 1959
Ford Startime: Ethel Merman on Broadway,
NBC, 1959
The Bell Telephone Hour: The Four of Us,
NBC, 1960
Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall,
NBC, 1960
GE Theatre: The Gershwin Years,
CBS, 1961
The Bob Hope Show,
NBC, 1962
Vacation Playhouse: Maggie Brown
(unsold pilot), CBS, 1963
Lincoln Center Day,
CBS, 1963
The Red Skelton Hour,
CBS, 1963
The Judy Garland Show,
CBS, 1963, 1964
The Bell Telephone Hour: The Music of Cole Porter,
NBC, 1964
The Lucy Show,
episode, “Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing,” CBS, 1964
The Lucy Show,
episode, “Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show,” CBS, 1964
Kraft Suspense Theatre,
episode, “’Twixt the Cup and the Lip,” NBC, 1965
What’s My Line?,
CBS, 1965
The Mike Douglas Show,
syndicated, 1965
The Dean Martin Show,
NBC, 1965
I’ve Got a Secret,
CBS, 1965
The Hollywood Palace,
ABC, 1966