Ethel Merman: A Life (46 page)

“She’s an individual with a special way of working,”
ibid., p. 208

“I saw this lady coming from one side of the stage…”
author interview with Don Liberto, April 5, 2006

“Always give them the old fire,”
Time,
February 27, 1984

“She was screwing around all over the place,”
Lewis Turner, interview with author, March 29, 2006

“It is scarcely an entertainment for children,”
Boston Transcript,
November 20, 1939

“to the accompaniment of raised eyebrows”
Boston Globe,
November 14, 1939

“comes a little short of expectations,”
New York Times,
December 1939

“Yeah. But what do I do next year?”
Notes on a Cowardly Lion
, p. 207

“Grable was happy to have a job,”
Lewis Turner, interview with author, March 29, 2006

“How would you like to stick your cock up my ass and make some fudge?”
ibid.

“After the curtain came down,”
ibid.

“I’m not gonna be somebody’s sweetheart,”
unpublished interview with Dorothy Fields, housed at University of Southern California Cinema Library

“She was on the up-and-up every second,”
Lewis Turner, interview with author, March 29, 2006

“a New York character in the best sense,”
Julian Myers, interview with author, February 11, 2004

“I thought ‘Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please’…”
Betsy Blair, interview with author, December 12, 2005

“HIYA, DOLLFACE!”
Time,
April 24, 1950

“perfectly democratic,”
Betsy Blair, interview with author, December 12, 2005

“a weak sister,”
Variety,
October 9, 1940

“It isn’t going to be easy to cut,”
Boston Herald,
October 9, 1940

“among the best in her long list of hits,”
New York Journal,
October 31, 1940

“her humor displays a new warmth,”
Arts Monthly,
January 1941

“Miss Hutton should be given one number,”
New York Herald Tribune,
October 29, 1940

“Tempers flared. Some ugly things were said,”
Merman,
p. 116

CHAPTER TEN

“June had that ambition,”
Betsy Blair, interview with author, December 12, 2005

“made me feel like a star,”
June Allyson and Frances Spatz Leighton,
June Allyson
(New York: Berkeley Books, 1983), p. 16

“Where the hell are all the people?”
unpublished interview with Robert Levitt, housed at University of Southern California Cinema Library

“I’m terribly sorry I’m late,”
ibid.

“Well, the party’s over,”
ibid.

“He was a very funny, acerbically funny man…”
David Brown, interview with author, December 8, 2005

“confirmed reports of her marriage to Robert D. Levitt,”
New York Times,
December 21, 1941

“Get out of my way, Cuddles,”
Merman,
p. 124

“I never lose at this game,”
ibid.

“I believe in giving customers…”
Providence Sunday Journal,
May 10, 1953

“I’ve never been poor…”
ibid.

“an Oxford man posing as a mugg,”
ibid.

“Undoubtedly the season’s first smash musical hit,”
Boston Herald,
December 19, 1942

“Ethel Merman has never looked better,”
ibid.

“Oh, just do whatever you want, darling,”
Betty Garrett, interview with author, June 12, 2004

“One of the song and dance delights of the season,”
New York Herald Tribune,
January 8, 1943

“There is nobody quite like this Merman…”
New Yorker,
January 12, 1943

“because so many in the audience had men overseas,”
Lou Wills Jr., interview with author, March 18, 2005

“I was so frightened,”
Betty Garrett, interview with author, June 12, 2004

“Paula didn’t stop doing it,”
Lou Wills Jr., interview with author, March 18, 2005

“It was very traumatic for Paula,”
Betty Garrett, interview with author, June 12, 2004

“a little china doll…”
New York World-Telegram,
October 2, 1942

“a sorry job of switching a show…”
New York Herald Tribune,
October 2, 1942

“bright, but it shares the structural weakness…”
New York Herald Tribune,
January 24, 1943

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“What the fuck is Malmaison?”
Dolores Gray, interview with author, October 31, 1990

“The show would have been a perfect vehicle for Merman…”
Howard Dietz,
Dancing in the Dark: Words by Howard Dietz
(New York: Quadrangle, 1974), p. 273

“Ethel’s sound was hers,”
Karen Morrow, interview with author, May 3, 2004.

“Her mouth dropped open,”
Joshua Logan,
Josh
(New York: Delacorte Press, 1976), p. 225

“Later, we dubbed it ‘the goon look’…”
ibid.

“Easy. You may think I’m playing the part…”
ibid., p. 227

“The second act went roaringly,”
ibid.

“burdened with a book…”
New Yorker,
May 25, 1946

“a great big, follow-the-formula…”
Time,
May 27, 1946

“routine,”
New York Times,
September 29, 1946

“By the time she is finished,”
New York Times,
September 29, 1946

“Miss Merman
is
Broadway,”
Saturday Review,
June 15, 1946

“If anybody asked…”
unpublished interview with Robert Levitt, housed at University of Southern California Cinema Library

“Well, I guess that’s right,”
ibid.

“She did her job, she did it perfectly…”
Helene Whitney, interview with author, July 28, 2004

“You march in that parade…”
William Weslow, interview with author, April 25, 2004

“We never, ever do that,”
Warren Berlinger, interview with author, September 11, 2005

“Get rid of her,”
ibid.

“That story went right through the entire company,”
ibid.

“He was full of himself,”
ibid.

“The scuttlebutt was…”
Helene Whitney, interview with author, July 28, 2004

“This was after she’d had two shows,”
Don Liberto, interview with author, April 5, 2006

“What are you in here for?”
William Weslow, interview with author, April 25, 2004

“I felt as if I had been freed,”
Merman,
p. 149

“when many people were on the town,”
David Brown, interview with author, December 8, 2005

“Fine?”
ibid.

“Because there was no air-conditioning…”
Nanette Fabray, interview with author, April 25, 2005

“He never really amounted to a great deal,”
David Brown, interview with author, December 8, 2005

CHAPTER TWELVE

“I didn’t have a clue to what Ethel Merman really was,”
Marge Champion, interview with author, October 22, 2003

“She seemed like the darling of the Bronx,”
ibid.

“Who’s Perle Mesta?”
Bob Thomas,
I Got Rhythm!: The Ethel Merman Story
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1985), p. 105

“common-law clients,”
Esquire,
n.d.

“You have to stage it with love,”
New York Journal-American,
October 30, 1960

“He was the cheapest man this side of the Mississippi,”
Helene Whitney, interview with author, July 28, 2004

“poor famished faun,”
Gilbert Milstein, “Mainbocher Stands for a Fitting,”
New York Times Magazine,
March 25, 1956

“Next to Lee Shubert,”
ibid.

“I believe in the exact opposite of realism on the stage…”
ibid.

“In politics, I’m noncommital,”
New York Times,
n.d.

“Jerry said to me, ‘This morning…’”
Donald Saddler, interview with author, March 23, 2004

“When he gave her something she liked,”
ibid.

“I hope this guy can sing and act,”
Ronald L. Davis interview with Russell Nype, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, August 22, 1983

“A.S. (Academic Sexiness),”
Mademoiselle,
n.d.

“always looked as if she sniffed bicycle seats,”
Bob Ullman, interview with author, November 17, 2004

“
DEAR ETHEL: I KNOW YOU WILL BE BRILLIANT
…”
telegram from Judy Garland to Ethel Merman, September 11, 1950, Museum of the City of New York

“
THEY MAY CALL YOU MADAME
…”
telegram from Mary Martin to Ethel Merman, September 11, 1950, Museum of the City of New York

“We gotta have something to lift the second act,”
Laurence Bergreen,
As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin
(New York: Viking, 1990), p. 502

“Will probably not go down in the record…”
Variety,
September 12, 1950

“no
South Pacific,”
New Haven Evening Register,
September 12, 1950

“What I’d like to do is a number with the kid,”
Merman,
p. 164

“We’ll never get off the stage,”
Merman,
p. 164

“only an occasional flash of inspirational fire,”
Boston Record,
September 21, 1950

“Boys, as of right now I am Miss Birdseye of 1950,”
Merman,
p. 164

“the greatest musical comedy duet that’s ever been written,”
Ronald L. Davis interview with Russell Nype, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, August 22, 1983

“most enchanting scores…”
New York Times,
October 13, 1950

“indescribably soul-satisfying,”
New York Post,
October 13, 1950

“There hasn’t been anything with more of a ballyhoo…”
New York World-Telegram and Sun,
October 13, 1950

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“She opened her mouth and that trombone came out,”
Sheldon Harnick, interview with author, October 28, 2004

“I’ve always suspected that Stritch’s glands worked overtime,”
Merman,
p. 180

“A role is a very personal thing,”
ibid.

“I gather you’re well,”
ibid.

“ATTA GIRL, ETHEL…”
Elaine Stritch—at Liberty,
DRG CD, B000060P33, April 2002

“Elaine wouldn’t have known anyway…”
Dody Goodman, interview with author, March 18, 2004

“In later years…”
Alex Birnbaum, interview with author, February 17, 2005

“Life was so exciting and you were doing so many things,”
Ronald L. Davis interview with Russell Nype, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, August 22, 1983