Brian Kellow - Ethel Merman: A Life

The Bennetts: An Acting Family

Cant Help Singing: The Life of Eileen Farrell

A LIFE

VIKING

VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland(a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Copyright Brian Kellow, 2007
ISBN: 1-4295-7846-7
All rights reserved

The following photos in the insert are reprinted with permission from the Billy Rose Theatre Division, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden foundations: p. 1 center and bottom , p. 16 bottom ; the Museum of the City of New York: p. 12 top ; The Barbara Geary Collection: p. 14 top right and left. All other photos are reprinted with permission from Photofest.

The lyrics from Love Look in My Window are reprinted thanks to kind permission from Jerry Herman.

Roses Turn from Gypsy Words by Stephen Sondheim, Music by Jule Styne; 1959 by Stratford Music Corporation and Williamson Music, Inc. Copyright Renewed. All Rights Administered by Chappell & Co. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured.

Ridin HighWords and Music by Cole Porter 1936 (Renewed) Chappell & Co. Assigned to John Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts, Chappel & Co., owner of publication and allied rights throughout the world. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Ours (from Red, Hot and Blue! )Words and Music by Cole Porter 1936 (Renewed) Chappell & Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Lets Do It (Lets Fall in Love) (from Paris )Words and Music by Cole Porter 1928 (Renewed) WB Music Corp. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Night and DayWords and Music by Cole Porter 1932 (Renewed) WB Music Corp. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

The Leader of a Big-Time Band (from Something for the Boys )Words and Music by Cole Porter 1943 (Renewed) Chappell & Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

I Get a Kick Out of You (from Anything Goes )Words and Music by Cole Porter 1934 (Renewed) by WB Music Corp. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Its De-LovelyWords and Music by Cole Porter 1936 by Chappell & Co. Copyright Renewed and Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts, Chappell & Co. owner of publication and allied rights throughout the world All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Down in the Depths (On the Ninetieth Floor)Words and Music by Cole Porter 1936 Chappell & Co. Copyright Renewed, assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts. Publication and Allied Rights Assigned to Chappell & Co. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

But in the Morning, No (from DuBarry Was a Lady )Words and Music by Cole Porter 1939 (Renewed) Chappell & Co. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please (from Panama Hattie )Words and Music by Cole Porter 1940 by Chappell & Co. Copyright Renewed and Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts, Chappell & Co. owner of publication and allied rights throughout the world. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

By the Mississinewah (from Something for the Boys )Words and Music by Cole Porter 1943 (Renewed) by Chappell & Co. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

A Kind of Love Letter to New York, from The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley by Phyllis McGinley, copyright 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954 by Phyllis McGinley; renewed 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 by Phyllis Hayden Blake. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Kellow, Brian.
Ethel Merman: a life / Brian Kellow.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Merman, Ethel. 2. SingersUnited StatesBiography. 3. Motion picture
actors and actressesUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
ML420.M39K45 2007
782.1'4092dc22
[B] 2007014646

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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For Scott Barnes

I could spend a lifetime thanking him for his support
throughout the writing of this bookand I may.
No writer ever had a more insightful reader,
a more faithful champion, or a more loving spouse.

Too new for an empire, too big for its boots,

With cold steel cables where it might have roots,

With everything to offer and nothing to give,

Its a horrid place to visit but a fine place to live;

Phyllis McGinley,
A Kind of Love Letter to New York

F rom the beginning of her career, Ethel Merman showed impeccable timing: she came along just when Broadway was ready to embrace her. The first half of the twentieth century was an age of electric, outsize personalities in the world of entertainment, and a great many of them were New York City born. In our era of musical theater, onstage helicopters and falling chandeliers have taken the place of eleven-oclock numbers, and many new productions emphasize a grandiose physical production rather than the character of an individual performer. Thus, as time passes, we may have to squint a little to get a clear picture of what has come to be known as Broadways golden age, roughly the 1920s through the 1950s. In the 30s, when Ethel Merman leaped to stardom, musicals were unashamedly star-driven. Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Bert Lahr, and Victor Moore belonged to a generation of performers who dominated the productions in which they appeared. Despite the intermittent presence of what came to be known as integrated musicals, such as Jerome Kern and P. G. Wodehouses polished works for the Princess Theatre in 1915 and Kern and Oscar Hammersteins landmark Show Boat in 1927, what people mostly wanted to see was the new Jolson show or the new Cantor show, or the latest edition of the Ziegfeld Follies, which might offer several major names for the price of a single ticket.