Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman (58 page)

In 1956, Ethel had not yet given up on her marriage with Bob Six and took
advantage of a new career opportunity to reinvigorate it. Stunning everyone,
she announced her return to Broadway for the upcoming Happy Hunting.
The news began to trickle in during February, when Sam Zolotow, Earl Wilson, and Walter Winchell announced separately that Ethel was back in New
York "to discuss a musical version of the film All About Eve"' (eventually, Applause). Explaining her change of heart, Ethel tried to manage the inconsistencies of earlier statements she'd made:

I've been misquoted about giving up the stage.... I did move out of New
York ... to live in Denver and it did force me to give up Broadway temporarily. But I did manage to make a couple of movies and appear on some
TV shows.... Please get this for the record. If I do come back and do a show
it's because my husband's business will keep him in the East. I'll work only to
be near him and that's the only reason.... This is strictly a one-show deal, because we're still keeping our home in Denver.'

She claimed to be mulling over "about three shows," but in truth she grabbed
onto Happy Hunting to keep the marriage together. Now that Six was spending more time in New York, perhaps a return to the spotlight would rejuvenate the ailing relationship. It was not a decision Ethel made to regain her autonomy and independence; that would come later. Together, she and Bob Six
had pooled resources to found the "Mermsix" Production Company, which
eventually became one of the backers of the new show, despite Ethel's professed aversion to the practice.

Colorado reluctantly said farewell to its colorful guest. Associates threw
parties, and the local press announced, "Ethel Merman Packing-Back to Broadway." Ethel told them she had had "three great years here, loved it," but
had just changed her mind. She was simply unable to resist the new show,
she averred, talking up its thin story line.3

After a late-winter Florida vacation, during which papers announced
that she (actually, Six) went deep-sea fishing, and after several more TV
appearances-Ed Sullivan on March 18; The Arthur Murray Party on April
5-Ethel sold her two-door 195o Ford to the wife of Six's assistant Stewart
Faulkner, and the family moved back to their Park Lane apartment in
New York. The city welcomed its diva back with open arms. On May r9 the
journal ran a full-page, five-photo story of Ethel and Bob Six. In one photo,
Six embraces his wife as they gaze out the window at the horizon, and we
read in the caption under Ethel, "That's my town, Broadway."4 "Ethel
Merman Returns Shouting `I Love Broadway,"" ran another.5 New York
was also abuzz about the new show, whose tickets were topped at a skyscraping eight dollars. Scalpers were on the make before the show was even
written.

Happy Hunting would prove to be, if not Ethel's least favorite show, her
least favorite time spent on the boards. "Happy Hunting," she said, "rivaled
Sadie Thompson as my most miserable theatrical experience."6 The show was
the twenty-second written by the team of Lindsay and Crouse, and the program rightfully boasted that "Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Crouse hold another
record. They ... are still speaking to each other." They had worked with
Ethel on Anything Goes, Red, Hot and Blue! and Call Me Madam. The three
were a great trio and knew it. Lindsay and Crouse ended up dedicating their
published script "To Ethel Merman, to whom we, too, are dedicated."

Happy Hunting

Happy Hunting was a simple musical comedy written around a star persona,
like musicals of old. It borrowed tidbits from the team's previous successes.
Like Call Me Madam, the story centers around a current event-here, the excitement over actress Grace Kelly's "defection" from Hollywood to wed
Prince Rainier of Monaco, whom she had met while filming To Catch a Thief.
(Before the April 19 marriage, a piece called "Merman Eyes Monaco" was already announcing the premise of the new show.) Ethel's character was a curious amalgamation of previous roles, reprising Sally Adams as a mildly un-
dercultured American in Europe, the protective Molly Donahue, and the
scheming Nails Duquesne.

In Happy Hunting, Ethel plays wealthy widow Liz Livingstone. Arriving
in Monaco with her daughter, Beth, Liz anticipates an invitation to the imminent royal wedding, at which she intends to snag a rich husband for Beth.
To her deep chagrin, she is not invited, so to save face, she feigns a hotel burglary of all of their clothes, since without clothes, they obviously can't attend.
Beth sees through her mother's ruse, as does a puzzled Duke of Granada-a
kind of Latin Cosmo-who happens to catch Liz hiding her wardrobe. (She
goes to bed in layers of clothing and jewels to protect them from the fake
theft.)

The ruse brings Beth and Liz closer, prompting them to sing "Mutual Admiration Society." And Liz gets to know the Duke, who has a title but no
money, whereas she has plenty of money but no title and, hence, no respect
from Philadelphia's "Main Line." They arrange for the Duke to accompany
the Livingstone women back to the United States as Beth's fiance, resolving
several dilemmas at once.

On the trip back, Liz discovers she has more than the feelings of a bellemere for the Duke. (At first Liz thinks this term refers to a horse with a bella confusion enhanced by the onstage presence of Daisy, a horse to whom Liz
confides her feelings for the Duke.) But she refuses to act on them: "Let's not
add incest to injury." 7 Meanwhile, Beth has fallen in love with Sanford
"Sandy" Stewart Jr., a blue-blood lawyer from Philadelphia.

In a fox hunt scene back in the United States, Liz, who is not a horsewoman, is thrown from her saddle. (Any wonder why the role of Auntie
Mame-on Broadway at the same time-seemed right for Ethel?) Best
friend Maud Foley insists they go to a ball dressed as a Goya painting, like
the costume party that Ethel and Bob Levitt had attended several years back.
Both the hunt and the ball scene afterward work to show high society as hypocritical and pretentious.

Eventually Liz decides to straighten out matters: she'll marry the Duke,
singing, in a softer mood, "I'm a Funny Dame." Beth elopes with Sandy with
the Duke's assistance. The Duke, whom Liz now calls "Hymie" in another ethnicity-bender, realizes he has feelings for Liz, even though, like another Duke
of the time, he learns that if he marries her, he cannot accede the throne. He
marries her anyway, allaying Liz's fears that he is only interested in her money.
The two end by reprising "Mutual Admiration Society."

Happy Hunting abounds in references to the Monaco wedding, with Liz
even sharing Grace Kelly's hometown of Philadelphia. But it makes almost
as many references to Ethel Merman's life, giving insiders a wink or two. Liz
moved to Philadelphia from Colorado, where her husband (in the play, departed) had made his fortune in the transportation business-railroads,
not airplanes. Liz's quick entry into the upper class keeps her at arm's length
from the older society mavens, who perceive her as a nouveau riche among
blue bloods.

Happy Hunting was not an unusual Merman musical; it was basically an
unambitious vehicle for her vocal and comic talents, boasting the usual
Lindsay-Crouse gags, funny, if slightly old-school:

and

(The latter surely pleased the executives at Rheingold, whose product Ethel
and costar Fernando Lamas were both shilling at the time.)

Lindsay and Crouse's book plays off established aspects of Merman's persona, taking advantage of her comic skills and purportedly tough femininity.
In act II, after the Duke tells Liz to "stop trying to be feminine"-

LIZ (more determinedly feminine): Hasn't a woman the right to be feminine?