Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman (99 page)

45. Louis Sobol, "Down Memory Lane with Ethel Merman," EveningJournal, 14
July 1934, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection, folder 3.

46. Az, zi.

47. EM quoted in unidentified article, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection,
Special Collections.

48. RL, interview with author, July 2004.

49. Louis Schutt, interview with PM, transcript, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

50. Az, z8.

51. Hilda Cole, "The Past of Ethel Merman: How a Stenographer Led Double
Life and Won Fame," supplement to Sunday Ledger, 9 June 1935, USC, HMC: Pete
Martin Collection, folder 3-

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

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

54. Chicago Daily News, "Ethel Once Wrote Own Reference," 17 April 1937,
NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection.

55• Wolcott Gibbs, "Seasons in the Sun and Other Pleasures," excerpted in
Reader's Digest, October 1946, 84-88 (quote from 86), NYPL, Music Division: Ethel
Merman folder.

56. Lew Kessler, interview with PM, transcript, 2, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection, box 20, folder 1.

57. Anonymous coworker, personal conversation with author, summer 2003.

58. KB, interview with author, 5 October 2004.

59. Marilyn Cantor Baker, interview with author, June 2,004-

6o. Martin, notes on EM interview, it September 1950, transcript, 3, USC,
HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

61. Al E Koenig Jr., "Ethel Merman," in NotableAmerican Women, ed. Susan Ware
and Stacy Braukman (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2005).

62. Irving Drutman, "Eternal Merman," NYWJT, 18 September 1966, Theater
sec., NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection: MWEZ, nc 26.491, 1960-69.

63. As, 74.

64. Al E Koenig Jr., "The Merman Story," unpublished essay, 2004, 1.

65. Most accounts, including Merman's, refer to the establishment as "Little Russia"; extant menus indicate "The Little Russia."

66. As, 70.

67. Press clippings and announcements spell the Pavilion club variously as
"Pavilion Royale" and "Pavillion Royal/e."

68. Buck Lindsay and Russel Crouse, interview with PM, transcript, USC,
HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

69. RE, interview with PM, transcript, 5, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

70. Lew Kessler, interview with PM, transcript, 23-24, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

71. ProArte compact disc liner notes for Ethel Merman: You're the Top, courtesy
of Al F. Koenig Jr.

72. KB, interview with author, 5 October 2004-

73. Robert St. John, "Dream Tunes Are What US Wants: Ethel Merman Changes
Her Ballads and US Claps Hands," unidentified source, MCNY, box 2.

74. Gary Wedow (choir master of the New York City Opera), interview with
author, November 2003.

75. Ibid.

76. Jeannette LoUetri (singing voice specialist), interview with author, 7 November 2003.

77. Linda Carroll, "Topic: The Broadway `Belt': Can Belters Avoid Injury in Exciting Performances?" in Laringologiea e Voz Hoje, Temas do IVCongresso Brasileiro de
Laringologia e Voz, ed. Mara Behlau (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria e Editora Revinter Ltda.
1998), 99.

78. Jeannette LoVetri, interview with author, 7 November 2003.

79. KB, interview with author, 5 October 2004.

8o. Ibid. Jeannette LoUetri objects, saying, "No opera singer I know has that idea.
None!" Correspondence with author, 7 April 2007.

81. Linda Carroll and William Riley, interview with author, 17 November
2003.

8z. "A Pair of Ethels Thrill Broadway: Ethel Waters and Ethel Merman," Buffalo
News, 2 November 1940, MCNY, SC 8.

83. Marj Cherry, "Life Story of the `Doll from Astoria with a Trumpet in Her
Throat'-Merman," Daily Press (VA), 4 September 1955, MCNY, SC i9.

84. Linda Carroll and William Riley, interview with author, 17 November
2003.

85. KB, interview with author, 5 October 2004-

86. Lou Irwin, interview with PM, transcript, USC, HMC: Pete Martin
Collection.

87. Ibid.

88. EM, interview with PM, transcript, USC. There is inconsistency on this; in
her second autobiography, Ethel says she remained at the Booster Brake Company,
making thirty-five dollars a week.

89. Louis Notarius, "Short Reviews of Short Features," Publix Opinion, 27 June
1930, 7, AMPAS.

90. As, 70. Although the film was recorded as number 999 in the Vitaphone
archives, neither it nor the sound discs have ever been found. Some say that Merman's number in The Cave Club was "Sockety-Sock" and that she performed it clad
in animal skins.

91. Lou Irwin, interview with PM, transcript, USC.

92. Ai, 72.

93. KB, interview with author, 5 October 2004.

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

9S. Both dates verified by Al F. Koenig Jr.

CHAPTER 2: FROM STENOGRAPHER TO STAR

The epigraphs are from Guy Bolton, "Merman Debut Is Recalled," NYHT, i9 June
1960, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection: Ethel Merman folder; and Will Friedwald, Stardust Memories: The Biography ofAmerica c Most Popular Songs (New York:
Pantheon Books, 2002),185.

i. EM, interview with PM, transcript, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection, box
i9, folder 3.

2. RE, interview with PM, transcript, 52, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

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

4. Willie and his brother Eugene Howard had appeared recently at the Palace as
"Two Hebrew Humorists Who Hail from Harlem." See Howard Pollack's George
Gershwin: His Life and Work (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2oo6).

5. Deena Rosenberg, Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira
Gershwin (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997),18z; Arthur Ruhl, review
of Girl Crazy, NYHT, 15 October 1930.

6. Ira Gershwin quoted in Rosenberg, Fascinating Rhythm, 184.

7. Friedwald, Stardust Memories, 184.

8. The higher number is repeated in Friedwald, Stardust Memories, 182.

9. RE, interview with PM, transcript, 4-5, USC.

io. DF, interview with PM, transcript, 4-5, USC, HMC: Pete Martin Collection.

H. Alex Aaron quoted in Guy Bolton, "Merman Debut Is Recalled," NYHT, i9
June 1960, NYPL, Music Division.

12. Al F. Koenig Jr., "Merman: Solid New York," joslin's jazz journal,1998, quoting from original reviews in New York Daily Mirror.

13. Unidentified article, MCNY, box 2.

14. Review, NYHT, 29 October 1930, MCNY, box 2.

15. Unidentified review of Girl Crazy, 1930, MCNY, box 2.

16. Time, 27 October 1930, MCNY, box 2.

17. Baird Leonard, "Theatre," unidentified source, MCNY, box 2.

18. Bolton, "Merman Debut Is Recalled."

19. RL, letter to author, 16 January 2004.

20. John T. Casey, "Singing Her Way to Stardom," New Movie Magazine, October 1934, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Special Collections.

21. EM, interview with PM, transcript USC; "revision" in Ai, 33•

22. Casey, "Singing Her Way to Stardom."

23. RE, interview with PM, transcript, USC.

24. DF, interview with PM, transcript, 2-3, USC.

25. See, for instance, " `Rhythm Girl' Joins Benefit," Los Angeles Examiner, 14
December 1933, MCNY, box 3.

z6. NYHT, 29 October 1930, MCNY, box 2.

27. He did this in the 2004 biopic of Cole Porter, DeLovely.

z8. RL, letter to author, i6 January 2004.

29. A2, 50-

30. RE, interview with PM, transcript, 12, USC.

31. RL, letter to author, 16 January 2004.

32. Evening journal, 6 March 1931, MCNY, box 2.

33. Unidentified article, early 1930s, MCNY, box 2.

34. Unidentified newspaper article, NYJA 13 December 1931, MCNY, box 2.

35. The other was in 1926. Louis Botto, At This Theatre (New York: Applause
Books, 2002), 4-

36. For the description of Bolger, see J. Brooks Atkinson, review of Scandals,
NYT [i931], MCNY, box 2.

37. Unidentified newspaper article, NYT, MCNY, box 2.

38. "The Theatre," New Yorker, z6 September 1931, MCNY, box 2.

39. "And Now the `Scandals,"' NYJA, 16 September 1931, MCNY, box 2.

40. Letter, undated (probably late 1931), in MCNY, box 2.

41. Walter Winchell, "Winchell of New York," NYM, 5 August 1931, MCNY,
box 2.

42. "Who's Who in the Cast," Playbill for Scandals, z8, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection: MWEZ, nc 9606, "Programs."

43. When Warner Bros. approached Merman, now the toast of Broadway, offering another contract at fifteen hundred dollars a week, she declined, still steamed
over her previous experience.

44• My thanks to Jerry Beck at Cartoon Research for letting me see Song Shopping.

45. Gary Wedow, interview with author, November 2003.

46. A Columbia University graduate, Blumenstock entered the film industry as
an editor and a title writer. He directed shorts from 1927 to 1931 and then went over
to Warner Bros.' Advertising and Publicity Department. There is no evidence of
where his aesthetic influences were derived.

47. KB, interview with author, 5 October 2004.

48. TC, interview with author, ii September 2004.

49. Ann Pinchot, "-And just WHAT Has Ethel Got? Answering the Query about
Lively Miss Merman," King Features syndicate paper, 1937, NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection: Special Collections folder: C. and L. Brown Collection.

50. Ashton Stevens, Chicago American, i August 1933, MCNY, box 3.

51. Alma Whitaker, "Mae West Old Story Says Ethel Merman," LAT, 24 December 1933, MCNY, box 3.

52. In 1933, Ethel, during the filming of We're Not Dressing in Los Angeles,
rented an apartment in the same building that West lived in; seventy years later, in
2004, eBay sold a photograph of Merman and West from the late 1950s or early'6os,
standing alongside fellow icon Judy Garland. In all fairness to West on the question
of who was imitating whom, if anyone, it should be stated that Mae West's act was
secured well before she moved into pictures and even before Ethel hit the Broadway stage.

53. Sidney Skolsky, "Skolsky's Hollywood" (syndicated), iz December 1935,
MCNY, box 5.

54. Bernard Sobel, "Gay 9os Ghost Rules Broadway," NYM, 19 February 1933,
MCNY, box 3.

55. Lloyd Lewis, "Stage Whispers," Chicago Daily News, 13 July 1933, MCNY,
box 3.

56. John Mason Brown, "Two on the Aisle: Actors Who Work Too Hard to Win
Attention," NYP, z6 June 1933, MCNY, box 3.

57. Remie Lohse, "Caught in the Act," Stage Magazine, May 1933, 34-35, MCNY,
box 3.

58. Ibid.

59. Ashton Stevens, "Olssen and Johnson and Ethel Merman Strike 12 in `Take
a Chance,'" Chicago American, ii July 1933, 15, MCNY, box 3.

6o. "Filming of `Chance' Set?" Variety, 13 June 1933, MCNY, box 3.

6,. Variety, 27 September 1932, MCNY, box 4.

6z. Unidentified clippings, Variety and New Yorker, May 1933, MCNY, box 3.

63. Unidentified clipping, MCNY, box 3.

64. Frank Meehan, NYJA, May 1933, MCNY, box 3.

65• Al, 34-

66. TC, interview with author, ii September 2004.

67. Marilyn Baker, interview with author, June 2004.

68. Maurice Zolotow, "Ethel Merman Hit Parade," Cosmopolitan, October 1950,
NYPL, Billy Rose Theatre Collection: Merman folder: "Mid -1950s."

69. Ibid.

70. RE, interview with PM, transcript, 13, USC. Eden's comment actually refers
to vaudeville engagements Merman had had the summer before, when Girl Crazy
went briefly to the World's Fair.

CHAPTER 3: THE EARLY THIRTIES

I. RL, letter to author, 16 January 2004.

2. Mitzi Gaynor, in Biography episode: "Ethel Merman: There's No Business Like
Show Business," A&E, 1999 broadcast.

3. John Mason Brown, "Seeing Things," NYP, z8 October 1950, MCNY, SC 14.

4. "The Theatre," Time, 65, z8 October 1940, MCNY, SC 8.

5. John Chapman, "New Tops for Old Vic and Young Ethel," New York News,
Sunday edition, 26 May 1946, MCNY, SC 12.

6. Wolcott Gibbs, "Ethel Merman," Life, 8 July 1946, 87, MCNY, SC iz.

7. Bosley Crowther, "New Angles on an Old Smoothie," NYT, Sunday edition,
1 May 1938, MCNY, box 7.

8. "Actress Can't Get Trunk Damage Pay," unidentified clipping, January 1934,
MCNY, box 3.

9. Sidney Skolsky, "Hollywood: Watching Them Make Pictures," unidentified
Los Angeles newspaper, 26 January 1934, MCNY, box 3.

10. "Ethel's Songs Guarded," Hollywood Citizen News, 1o February 1934,
AMPAS.

ii. The quote comes from a 30 January 1934 letter from Will Hays to Zukor, in
which Hays quotes Joseph Breen. In the same letter, Hays adds, "Pursuant to the action of the Board of Directors at the meeting of to December 1930, it is suggested that
the above title not be used." AMPAS: We're Not Dressing Paramount Production file.

12. AMPAS: Paramount press sheets for We're Not Dressing, i August 1933-31 July
1934-

13. Unidentified clipping, MCNY, box 7.

14. "Film Newcomers Assert Hollywood `Tame Town,' " Los Angeles Post-Record,
13 March 1934, MCNY, box 3.

15. Quoted in William McBrien, Cole Porter: A Biography (New York: Knopf,
1998), 172.

16. Lucius Beebe, "Ethel Merman: Her Day Is Occupied," NYHT, 2 December
1934, MCNY, box 13.

17. Recently, Broadway historian Ethan Mordden disputes this "popular misconception" about this change to the story, saying, "In fact, that wasn't true at all.
What had to be changed was a subplot involving a mad bomber loose on a boat."
Web broadcast, 6 April 2007, NYT, "Musical Milestone," www.nytimes.com/
packages/khtml/zoo7/04/08/o6/theater/zoo7o4o8_Mo1D_FEATUUE.html.

18. Nunnally Johnson, interview with Tom Stempel, 1969, transcript, 202,
UCLA: Special Collections.

19. World Telegram, 5 January 1935, MCNY, box 4.

zo. Ai, ,o6.

21. Hollywood Reporter, 9 March 1954.

22. Ai, 109.

23. George Holland, "Sterling Quartet of Stars in Best Musical Comedy to Open
in Recent Years," Boston EveningAmerica, November 1934.