Ethel Merman: A Life (45 page)

The Ed Sullivan Show,
CBS, 1966

The Gypsy Rose Lee Show,
syndicated, 1967

The Ed Sullivan Show,
CBS, 1967

Annie Get Your Gun,
NBC, 1967

That Girl,
episode, “Pass the Potatoes, Ethel Merman,” ABC, 1967

Batman,
episode, “The Sport of Penguins,” ABC, 1967

Batman,
episode, “Horse of Another Color,” ABC, 1967

Tarzan,
episode, “Mountains of the Moon,” NBC, 1967

The Hollywood Palace,
ABC, 1967

That Girl,
episode, “The Other Woman,” ABC, 1968

The Ed Sullivan Show,
CBS, 1968

The Dick Cavett Show,
ABC, 1968

The Merv Griffin Show,
syndicated, 1968

The Mike Douglas Show,
syndicated, 1968

Around the World of Mike Todd,
ABC, 1968

That’s Life,
episode, “Moving In,” ABC, 1968

The Hollywood Palace,
ABC, 1968

The Mike Douglas Show,
syndicated, 1969

The Carol Burnett Show,
CBS, 1969

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,
NBC, 1970

This Is Your Life,
syndicated, 1972

Bell System Family Theatre: ’S Wonderful, ’S Marvelous, ’S Gershwin,
CBS, 1972

The Merv Griffin Show,
syndicated, 1972

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,
NBC, 1975

Dinah!,
syndicated, 1975

Evening at Pops,
PBS, 1976

The Big Event,
NBC, 1976

The Bobby Vinton Show,
syndicated, 1977

The Ted Knight Musical Comedy Variety Special Special,
CBS, 1976

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé Sing Cole Porter,
ABC, 1977

The Muppet Show,
syndicated, 1977

The Merv Griffin Show: The Belters,
syndicated, 1977

Sha Na Na,
syndicated, 1977

You’re Gonna Love It Here
(unsold pilot), CBS, 1977

The Love Boat,
episode, “The Third Wheel,” ABC, 1979

Musical Comedy Tonight!,
PBS, 1979

Rudolph and Frosty,
ABC, 1979

Hee Haw,
syndicated, 1979

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,
NBC, 1979

The Love Boat,
episode, “Not So Fast, Gopher,” ABC, 1980

Live from Lincoln Center: Beverly Sills Farewell Gala,
PBS, 1981

The Love Boat,
episode, “The Love Boat Musical,” ABC, 1982

Night of 100 Stars,
CBS, 1982

The Wonderful World of Musicals,
BBC, 1982

MAJOR ACTING AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

ANTOINETTE PERRY (TONY) AWARDS

1950: Best Actress in a Musical,
Call Me Madam

1956: Nominee, Best Actress in a Musical,
Happy Hunting
(lost to Judy Holliday,
Bells Are Ringing
)

1959: Nominee, Best Actress in a Musical,
Gypsy
(lost to Mary Martin,
The Sound of Music
)

1972: Special Award for Lifetime Achievement

HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS (GOLDEN GLOBE) AWARDS

1953: Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy,
Call Me Madam

DRAMA DESK AWARDS

1970: Outstanding Performance,
Hello, Dolly!

CHAPTER ONE

“an infinitely romantic notion…”
Joan Didion,
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
(New York: Modern Library), p. 211

“more like brother and sister than cousins,”
Ethel Merman and George Eells,
Merman
(New York: Simon & Schuster), p. 21

“a beautiful fifth-floor walk-up,”
ibid., p. 21

“Ethel always felt…”
author interview with Tony Cointreau, June 9, 2004

“I’m not even sure…”
Merman,
p. 21

“intends to enter the business world,”
William Cullen Bryant High School yearbook, 1924

“Wherever joy and laughter abound…”
ibid.

“Boyce-Ite was an anti-freeze solution for automobiles,”
Merman,
p. 26

CHAPTER TWO

“you’d go right through the windshield,”
Merman,
p. 28

“ultra-chic,”
ibid., p. 27

“a fascinating game,”
New York Times,
n.d.

“
GEORGE WHITE’S SCANDALS PROVES
…”
Cosmopolitan,
October 1926

“dog-faces,”
New York Times,
October 11, 1963

“Any time you’re busted, kid,”
Gene Fowler,
Schnozzola
(New York: Viking, 1951), p. 73

“I’m really a lucky guy…”
Newsweek,
June 17, 1946

“beat the air with his arms…”
ibid.

“pronunciation of every word…”
Brooklyn Citizen,
November 14, 1936

“This girl was dynamite!”
ibid., p. 135

“A big fat woman like that,”
Dody Goodman, interview with author, March 18, 2004

“got to know the guys,”
Merman,
p. 35

“broke up the place,”
ibid., p. 36

CHAPTER THREE

“unremitting battle against clichés,”
New York Times Book Review,
December 5, 1993

“Miss Merman,”
Merman,
p. 38

“No, Mr. Gershwin,”
ibid., p. 38

“a comely ballad singer,”
New York Times,
September 15, 1930

“promises well for her debut later in the season on the musical comedy stage,”
ibid.

“Roly-poly / Eating solely…”
Philip Furia,
Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 79

“all the big shots I’d sent notes and flowers to…”
Merman,
p. 40

“I thought my garter had snapped,”
ibid., p. 40

“Ethel, do you know…”
ibid., p. 41

“You’ve just been made a star!”
unpublished interview with Edward and Agnes Zimmermann, housed at University of Southern California Cinema Library

“Did you ever see…”
ibid.

“And never forget your shorthand,”
Merman,
p. 41

CHAPTER FOUR

“Your music does funny things to me,”
New York Times,
September 26, 1973

“One song, ‘Sam and Delilah,’”
ibid., October 15, 1930

“imitative of no one,”
New Yorker,
n.d.

“my favorite singer of songs,”
Merman,
p. 48

“I want you to be…”
ibid., p. 46

“We all have that little policeman…”
Tony Cointreau, interview with author, November 17, 2004

32 “
I’M TELLING YOU THE ONLY THING
…”
Merman,
p. 46

“as close to a retraction…”
ibid.

“Never before has Ethel Merman been more charming or stimulating….”
New York Evening Post,
April 25, 1931

“finds himself the proprietor…”
New York Herald Tribune,
September 16, 1931

“had no particular bearing on the song…”
New York Sun,
September 15, 1931

“Ethel Merman has been called in…”
New York American,
September 16, 1931

“a gratifying moment,”
Merman,
p. 56

“no word h as been invented to describe,”
ibid., p. 57

“Ladies a nd gentlemen…”
Margaret Whiting, interview with author, November 11, 2003

“My father told me…”
ibid.

“I’ve never gone through…”
ibid.

“I’m writing for pictures…”
ibid.

“I’ve given you three or four good songs,…”
ibid.

“just about walked away with the show,”
Wilmington News,
November 17, 1932

“fast on its feet…”
New York Herald Tribune,
November 28, 1932

“fast, loud and funny…”
New York Times,
November 28, 1932

CHAPTER FIVE

“I had a stupid contract,”
Jane Wyatt, interview with author, November 10, 1990

“was like being in on a pass,”
Merman,
p. 63

“It was so extravagant and wonderful,”
Helen Hayes, interview with author, June 9, 1990

“I was singing ‘Eadie Was a Lady’…”
Los Angeles Times,
December 24, 1933

“all the tricks of the clever comedienne,”
New York Daily News,
April 26, 1934

“an unusual and very effective roughhouse comedienne,”
New York Daily Mirror,
April 26, 1934

“Why don’t
you
tell him?”
Marilyn Cantor, interview with author, September 2, 2005

“This woman is terrific…”
ibid.

“Junior! Junior! It’s Mama!”
ibid.

“superior screen comedy,”
New York Times,
November 10, 1934

“The most important thing about the picture,”
Vanity Fair,
December 1934

CHAPTER SIX

“a beautiful story,”
New York World-Telegram,
February 21, 1959

“taken in three generations of theater historians,”
Ethan Mordden,
Sing for Your Supper: The Broadway Musical in the 1930s
(New York: Macmillan, 2005), p. 65

“frantic flight from boredom,”
William McBrien,
Cole Porter: A Biography
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 150

“like a band going by,”
ibid., p. 165

“He would say…”
The Stage,
December 1934

“the best musical show in years,”
Boston Evening American,
November 6, 1934

“in liveliness and beauty…”
Boston Post,
November 6, 1934

“hers was a genuine triumph…”
Boston Daily Record,
November 6, 1934

“She could pick up anything…”
Anna Crouse, interview with author, March 18, 2005

“He had the air of commander in chief,”
Nanette Fabray, interview with author, April 7, 2006

“Oh, all right, I’ll give you a check,”
Anna Crouse, interview with author, March 18, 2005

“Vinton, I’d rather tell…”
ibid.

“not suitable to the ears…”
New York Herald Tribune,
November 22, 1934

“She is vivacious and ingratiating…”
New York Post,
November 22, 1934

“I have a chance to show…”
New York Herald Tribune,
December 2, 1934

CHAPTER SEVEN

“The things that make life worth living…”
New York Daily News,
October 23, 1935

“My idea of real scenery…”
ibid.

“dull and commonplace musical comedy,”
New York Herald Tribune,
January 4, 1936

“as well as possible,”
ibid.

“What smells in here?”
Omaha World-Herald,
June 21, 1936

“Probably that part…”
ibid.

“For Christ’s sake,”
unpublished interview with Lew Kesler, housed at University of Southern California Cinema Library

“the anatomical jokes…”
New York Herald Tribune,
October 31, 1936

“Broadway made vocal,”
John Mason Brown,
Two on the Aisle
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1938), p. 281

“never to care about anything,”
Brooklyn Eagle,
November 8, 1936

“the public acted as if we were under quarantine,”
Merman,
p. 83

CHAPTER EIGHT

“beaming with fatuous good will,”
Pauline Kael,
5,001 Nights at the Movies
(New York: Henry Holt, 1982), p. 27

“pace, humor, spectacle…”
New York Times,
January 22, 1938

“the Broadway torch singer…”
Los Angeles Times,
January 27, 1938

“a story of an imaginary character…”
Rudy Behlmer,
Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck
(New York: Grove Press, 1993), p. 13

“demands recognition as the best musical show of the year,”
New York Times,
August 5, 1938

“a turning point of the industry…”
Hollywood Reporter,
May 25, 1938

“best acting part,”
Los Angeles Examiner,
May 25, 1938

“I think your performance…”
Ethel Merman to Sol Wurtzel, letter, May 25, 1938

“I liked to be in control,”
Merman,
p. 92

“the red side,”
Joshua Logan,
Josh
(New York: Delacorte, 1976), p. 141

“She took everything down in shorthand,”
Anna Crouse, interview with author, March 18, 2005

“Ethel said she would try it in New Haven,”
ibid.

“every indication of proving a big, popular success,”
Boston Herald,
January 17, 1939

“a field day,”
ibid.

“As for Miss Merman,”
New York Herald Tribune,
February 19, 1939

“gives Merman a chance…”
New York Daily News,
February 11, 1939

CHAPTER NINE

“strictly carriage trade or nothing,”
New York Journal-American,
June 15, 1959

“I started giving things to people,”
New York Herald Tribune,
January 12, 1950

“The company for
Du Barry Was a Lady
was wacko
,” Lewis Turner, interview with author, March 29, 2006

“When Cole got dirty,”
John Lahr,
Notes on a Cowardly Lion
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), p. 205