Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman (102 page)

72. Gibbs, "Ethel Merman."

73. RL, letter to author, z8 January 2007.

74. Louis Sobol, "New York Cavalcade," NYJA, 8 June 1946, MCNY, SC 12.

75. John Crosby, "Radio in Brief," NYHT, ii August 1949, MCNY, SC 13-

CHAPTER 8: CALL ME MADAM

i. Records for Berle's show do not give precise dates of her appearance, and Berle
himself, according to Al F. Koenig Jr., was unable to find them. In her first autobiography, Merman states that her TV debut was 15 June 1953-the famous Fordsoth
Anniversary Show, which is probably not the case. Thanks to Al F. Koenig Jr. for noting the conflicting dates.

2. Frank Stanton, telegram to EM, MCNY, SC 13.

3. Leonard Lyons, "The Lyons Den," NYP, 15 August 1950, MCNY, SC 14.

4. DF, interview with PM, transcript, 28, USC, HCM: Pete Martin Collection.

5. RL, letter to author, z8 January 2007.

6. Ibid.

7. RL, interview with author, July 2004.

8. USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

9. Ai, zoo.

10. Other reports give a figure of two hundred thousand dollars, but either way,
only six outside investors were approached.

ii. MCNY, SC 14.

12. At, 202.

13. EM, interview with PM, transcript, 3, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

14. An insert in the program for the Boston tryout reads, "Tonight Miss Merman
and Mr. Nype will sing `You're Not Sick, You're in Love," the title that was later
shorted to "You're Just in Love." Insert located by Al F. Koenig Jr.

15. CP, interview with PM, transcript, 4, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

16. RLS, telegram to EM, MCNY, SC 14-

17. NYT, 21 August 1950, MCNY, SC 14-

18. As, 208.

19. RE, interview with PM, transcript, 21, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

zo. All from MCNY, SC 14.

21. CP, interview with PM, transcript, 3, USC.

22. Beverly Baxter, London's Evening Standard (unidentified date), MCNY, SC 15-

23. Mary Sullivan, "Two on the Aisle: Review of Call Me Madam," Boston Advertiser, 24 September 1950, MCNY, SC 14-

24. NYJA, 18 September 1950, MCNY, SC 14-

25- Vernon Rice and Robert Williams, "Call Her Magnificent," NYP Weekend
Magazine, 14, MCNY, SC 14.

z6. Walter Winchell, NYM, 4 February 1951, MCNY, SC 15-

27. Al E Koenig Jr., "Merman-Solid New York," joslin's jazz journal (Parsons,
KS, 1998). The quote is taken from an unidentified 1950 clipping found in Edward
Zimmermann's belongings.

z8. Ai, 210.

z9. Ai, zi9.

30. KB, live dialogue recorded on the album Everything the Traffic WillAllow: The
Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman, Lunch Money Productions, 2002 (compact disc).
Blackhurst goes on to say that Mainbocher singled out Ethel's torso, legs, ankles, and
feet for appreciation.

31. Brooks Atkinson, NYT, 22 October 1950, MCNY, SC 14.

32. Gilbert Millstein, "Madam Ambassador from and to Broadway," NYTM,
i October 1950, MCNY, SC 14-

33. Gerald Bordman, American Musical Theater: A Chronicle (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1978), 574.

34. Robert Rice, "Call Me Merman," Flair, October 1950, MCNY, SC 14.

35. Invitation, MCNY, SC 15.

36. Lew Kessler, interview with PM, transcript, 6, USC, HMC: Pete Martin
Collection.

37. PM, "Questions to Ask Ethel Merman Based on Crouse and Lindsay Interview," typed notes, 2, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

38. EM, interview with PM, transcript, USC.

39. NBC, The Big Show, quoted in Jack Gould, NYT, 6 November [1950],
MCNY, SC 14.

40. There is some doubt about the date. Most sources indicate the show closed
in April, but according to the NYT, it closed on May 3. Thanks to Al F. Koenig Jr.
for the research on this.

41. The last show to play there had been Oklahoma! on 31 July 1948. The National
closed as a result of a dispute between Marcus Hieman, who leased the theater, and
the Dramatists Guild and Actors' Equity, which said they would withhold their
works and their members if the National Theatre continued its policy of racial segregation. Rather than change, Hieman used the theater as a film house. When his
contract expired, the new lessees changed the policy.

42. Perle Mesta, "Call Me Minister," NYJA, io September 1950, MCNY, SC 14-

43. EM, "How to Give a Good Party," Cosmopolitan, August 1949; quotes
reprinted in Minneapolis Tribune, 9 October 1949; both in MCNY, SC 13.

44 RL, letter to author, z8 January 2007.

45 DF, interview with PM, transcript, 17, USC.

46. RL, interview with author, July 2004.

CHAPTER 9: A MORE COMPLEX IMAGE

The epigraphs are from "The Theatre," Time, z8 October 1940, MCNY SC 8, and
Bob Considine, "On the Line" (unidentified source), 14 November 1949, MCNY
SC 13-

i. Henry Pleasants, The Great American Popular Singers (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1985), 342-

2. Amy Porter, "Sureshot Merman," Colliers, 1o August 1946, NYPL, Billy Rose
Theatre Collection, Annie Get Your Gun file.

3. Alice Hughes, "Little Items about Big Store Chiefs," New York American,
2 November 1936, MCNY, box 6.

4. Az, 81.

5. Edd Johnson, "Ethel Merman Tells-All about Herself," NYWT, 13 August
1938, MCNY, box 7.

6. Elliot Norton, "Two More: `Ethel Merman Merely Mows 'Em Down,' " Boston
Post, 13 October 1940, MCNY, SC 8.

7. Neal Gabler, Winched: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity (New York:
Vintage, 1995), 63.

8. Victor S. Navasky, Naming Names (New York: Viking Press, 1980), 152-

9. RL, letter to author, 3 February 2007.

10. Robert Garland, "The Drama," NYJA [summer 1947], MCNY, SC 12.

ii. Lew Kessler, interview with PM, transcript, 25, USC, HMC: Pete Martin
Collection.

12. RLS, interview with PM, transcript, 23, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

13. RL, letter to author, z8 February 2007.

14. Helen Ormsbee, "Ethel Merman Discovers Maids Are More Elusive Than Roles," NYHT, z8 April 1946, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection: Annie Get Your
Gun file; "Ethel Guns for a Baby Sitter," NYJA, "Saturday Home Magazine," 12 June
1948, MCNY, SC 13; Dorothy Kilgallen, "Voice of Broadway," NYJA, 9 September
1951, MCNY SC 15-

15. RL, interview with author, July 2004.

16. EM, interview with PM, transcript, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

IT Robert Alton, letter to EM, 4 May 1940, MCNY, SC 7.

18. Betty Hutton, thank-you note to EM, MCNY, SC 9.

19. John Mason Brown, thank-you note to EM, 15 July 1947, MCNY, SC 12.

zo. RL, interview with author, July 2004-

z1. TC, interview with author, 11 September 2,004-

22. BG, interview with author, July 2004.

23. Wolcott Gibbs, "Ethel Merman," Life, 8 July 1946, MCNY, SC 12.

24. Anonymous fan, informal conversation with author, summer 2005-

25- Anonymous fan, informal conversation with author, March 2005.

26. Arthur Laurents, Original Story by Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Hollywood
and Broadway (New York: Applause Books, 2001), 394-

27. TC, interview with author, it September 2004. He goes on to say that Billy
Rose, whose wife, Eleanor Holm, was a good friend of Ethel's, was furious when
Holm commented once that one of his hats looked "too Jewish."

28. RL, letter to author, 3 February 2007.

29. RLS, interview with PM, transcript, 11, USC.

30. RL, letter to author, 3 February 2007.

31. Ed Zimmerman, interview with author, November 2003. The only other time
she acknowledged him, he recalls, was when she noted approvingly to costar Russell
Nype that Zimmerman took both "ketchup and mustard" on his hot dogs and "that's
why he sings so well!"

32. TC, interview with author, 11 September 2004.

33• Ibid.

34. RL, letter to author, 27 February 2007.

35. Unidentified clipping, MCNY, SC 9.

36. RL, interview with author, July 2004.

37. BG, interview with author, July 2004.

38. David Lahm, interview with author, 22 December 2003.

39. "Smile When You Call Merman Madam," Collier's, 21 October 1950, MCNY,
SC 14.

40. TC, interview with author, ii September 2004; recounted by EM in At, 194.

41. Reported by Lewis Funke, "First Night Flutters" (unidentified source),
MCNY, SC 15-

42. Vinton Freedley, interview with PM, transcript, USE, HMC: Pete Martin
Collection.

43. Quotes are taken from Lew Kessler, interview with PM, transcript, 46, USC; various clippings in MCNY; Ai; Az; and Edward Baron Turk, Hollywood Diva: A Biography ofjeanette MacDonald (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 295-

44. Mel Heimer, "My New York," 13 May 1947 (syndicated), MCNY, SC 12.

45• KB, live dialogue recorded on the album Everything the Traffic Will Allow,
Lunch Money Productions, zooz (compact disc).

46. CP, interview with PM, transcript, i9, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

47. Sherri R. Dienstfrey, "Ethel Merman: Queen of Musical Comedy," Ph.D.
dissertation, Kent State University, 1986, 9.

48. TC, Biography episode: "Ethel Merman: There's No Business Like Show
Business," A&E, 1999 broadcast (slightly modified for grammar).

49. Ed Sullivan, "Little Old New York," New York News, 6 February 1945,
MCNY, SC io.

50. From correspondence quoted in Dienstfrey, "Ethel Merman," 130.

51- TC, interview with author, August 2004.

52. Ibid.

53. Julia McCarthy, "Ethel Admits Love, Career Can Mix," New York News, 31
January 1943, MCNY, SC 1o.

54• Lewis Sobol, "Sobol Discusses Success Gals," American Weekly, 6 June 1950,
MCNY, SC 14.

55. Louis Sobol, "Louis Sobol Asks: They Hold Their Audiences, Why Not Their
Men?" American Weekly, undated clipping [1941], MCNY, SC 9.

56. Ibid.

57. Doc Lou Clement and Harold Hoffman, letter to EM, 22 April 1943, MCNY,
SC 10.

58. E. V. Durling, "On the Side," Detroit Times, 29 July 1940, MCNY, SC 8.

59. "Hides Romance" (unidentified writer), 1932, MCNY, box 7.

6o. "DuBarry's to Marry, the Fates Indicate; but the Lady's Not Saying `Whom'
or `Date,"' New York Telegraph, 31 March 1940, MCNY, SC 7.

61. Drew Pearson, "Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe on Merry-Go-Round," LA
Daily News, 3o August 1954, MCNY, SC 4. Ethel's rival-to-be, Marilyn Monroe,
wrote the other half of the guest column, relaying not sarcastic proclamations on
marriage but opinions on glamour.

6z. Burton Rascoe, "Theater," NYWT (date unidentified), MCNY, SC ii.

63. Gibbs, "Ethel Merman."

64. Quoted in Burton Rascoe, "Theatre: Why Gentlemen Prefer Brunette La
Merman," NYWT, 21 January 1943, MCNY, SC 10.

65. New Yorker, "Ethel and Anton," 25 May 1946, 42, MCNY, SC 12.

66. Quote from Gibbs, "Ethel Merman."

67. "A Weighty Problem," Picture Play Magazine, April 1933, MCNY, box 7.

68. Dale Carnegie, Pittsburgh Press, 3 December 1940, MCNY, SC 8.

69. EM, interview with PM, transcript, 2-3, USC.

70. Ibid.

71. Vogue, August 1946, 140, MCNY, SC Iz.

72. Gibbs, "Ethel Merman."

73. William Hawkins, "'Annie' Still Shoots 'Em Dead," NYWT, 17 May 1948,
MCNY, SC 13-

74. When contacted, Penn did not want the photograph reproduced. It is not
among his favorites, he said, because the piece relied on a prop to convey character.

75. Lee Rogow, "Brassy Dame: Review of Who Could Ask for Anything More?"
Saturday Review, 2 July 1955, MCNY, SC 18.

76. DF, interview with PM, transcript, i9, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

77. EM, interview with PM, transcript, i9, USC.

78. John Beaufort, "Something for the Boys at the Alvin," Boston Christian Science,
8 January 1943, MCNY, SC Io.

79. Maybelle Manning, "Live Ducks on Hat Prove Amusement for New Yorkers," Miami News, i April 1940, MCNY, SC 7.

8o. Ibid.

81. "Panama Hattie Puts It On!" New York Women's Wear Daily, 25 October
1940, MCNY, SC 9.

8z. NYJA, "New York World's Fair's `Free Milk Fund for Babies Day,"' ii August
1940, MCNY, SC 8.

83. Amy Porter, unidentified clipping, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection.

84. Gibbs, "Ethel Merman."

85. Lew Kessler, interview with PM, transcript, 25, USC.

86. Amy Porter, unidentified clipping, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection.

87. Gibbs, "Ethel Merman."

88. Unidentified clipping.

89. Dorothy Kilgallen, "Voice of Broadway," NYJA, 6 March 1946, MCNY, SC ii.

CHAPTER 10: MADAM IN HOLLYWOOD

The epigraph is from dialogue transcribed from film box PRS-4o5, file 25235, 20
February 1953, UCLA: Arts Special Collections.

i. Dorothy Kilgallen, "Voice of Broadway," NYJA, z September 1951, MCNY,
SC 15-

z. Robert Garland, note to EM, MCNY, SC 15-

3. NYDN, "Vintage Bon Voyage for Windsors," 24 May 1951, MCNY, SC 15.

4. Sherman Billingsley, telegram to EM, 2 July 1951, MCNY, SC i5.

5. Various clippings in MCNY, SC 15-

6. William Hawkings, "Merman Report: Fine as Ever," NYWT, 16 May 1951,
MCNY, SC 15-

7. Daily Variety, 25 July 1951, MCNY, SC 15.

8. Robert Setting, Maverick: The Story ofRobert Six and ContinentalAirlines (New
York: Doubleday, 1974), 1i.

9. Invitation to EM, MCNY, SC 17.

io. RL, interview with author, July 2004-

ii. Serling, Maverick, ii.

12. Ai, 225-

13 . Serling, Maverick, 104.

14. Ai, 224.

15. Walter Winchell, NYM, 5 November 1951, MCNY, SC 15.

i6. Frank Ferguson, letter to Fox, ii June 1952, UCLA: loth Century-Fox Legal
Records, box 564.

r7. "Biography of Sol Siegel," AMPAS: Sol Siegel file.

18. Unidentified article, ca. December 1952/January 1953, MCNY, SC 16.

19. Fox had procured Alton, like O'Connor, from MGM, the studio more
renowned for its musicals than Fox. Alton's work on Madam exceeded the ten weeks
for which he was initially contracted (at twenty-five hundred dollars per), but this was
typical, especially for productions of this scale. Details of Alton's contract reveal the
growing importance of choreographers to musicals on both coasts-as well as Alton's
growing stature and prestige. Fox gave the choreographer permission to shoot his own
numbers and to choose his own assistants at salaries commensurate with the wealthier MGM. Alton fought for the credit "Dances directed by," Fox insisted on "Dances
staged by," and they compromised with "Dances and musical numbers staged by,"
based on precedent set at MGM (UCLA: zoth Century-Fox Legal Records, box 1032,
Robert Alton folder). Alton would give the film version several additional dance
scenes, primarily to showcase the talents of O'Connor and Vera Ellen and to help develop their courtship. The Ocarina folk festival features "The Ocarina" as its song, and
Ethel appears in an added ball sequence, in which she sings "The International Rag."