Two new bios out...
For days, if not weeks afterward, the jukebox in my brain spun ‘round with the slow version of her anthem, “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” which she sang in a kind of Sprechstimme on The Muppet Show. The lights on the back-stage set slowly dim, soften from white to amber before deepening to red, and Merman, in turn, caresses each Muppet with a delicate wave of her hand. Merman often said that of all her television appearances she felt this was the one that captured her true personality. I don’t think Kellow, perhaps not Flinn either, is willing to embrace that childlike strain. Yet there it is, from the young Broadway belter who continued to live at home with her parents, long after she attained financial independence, to the aging divorcée who remarked, “I love having the Christmas spirit the whole year round,” and indeed, from the early 1970s onward, kept a tree with lights in her East Side apartment throughout the year. It was as much a mainstay as the collection of Muppet dolls that adorned her bedroom.
http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2008/01/they-say-she-was-wonderful-ethel-merman.html
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 21:33 (eighteen years ago)
Does it come in on the downbeat?
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 21:39 (eighteen years ago)
sup
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/10500/10706_w.jpg
― tramp steamer, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 04:40 (eighteen years ago)
http://franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/merman.jpg
― the table is the table, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 04:43 (eighteen years ago)
a classic for all time.
that and the hysterical scene in AIRPLANE!
― the table is the table, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 04:47 (eighteen years ago)
weird to see young & svelte ethel
http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/3166352.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=41CAE2DF95708CE2F0CD3C9CE793D863A55A1E4F32AD3138
― gershy, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 07:54 (eighteen years ago)
http://www.spoonercentral.com/Mad/EnD.jpg
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 13:30 (eighteen years ago)
that gargling champagne anecdote (top link) is a wowzer
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 15:25 (eighteen years ago)
From the second article linked above:
"The first glimpse of Sondheim as a Broadway baby predates even "Saturday Night." It's the famous photo of him as a teenager folded uneasily into the Oscar Hammerstein II family."
Is this pic on the internet somewhere? I couldn't find it last night.
I liked the review of the two Merman books. But Thompson shortchanges her rough side. It was that combination of harshness and motherly warmth that made her Broadway's greatest star. My favorite Merman story (every musical type has one) is her response to a sweet old woman who tried to congratulate her after a show to which Merman replied, "Outta my way, cunt! I gotta use the can." But I LOVE how she kept a Xmas tree lit year round (think I'll do that myself). Both sides are crucial to her persona.
Or, perhaps she's simply Broadway's quintessential star with enough power to bring the integrated musical (I LOATHE that term but...) to its knees in "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy. As with Singin' in the Rain, it is at once an apotheosis and a death knell.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 15:34 (eighteen years ago)
Another tribute link (lots past the "downbeat" story again):
http://eddieonfilm.blogspot.com/2007/01/centennial-tributes-ethel-merman.html
Sondheim referred to her as “The Talking Dog” - possibly in reference to her acting ability, but certainly a reflection of the mutual animosity that existed between them. Fernando Lamas, her leading man in the 1955 Broadway musical Happy Hunting, likened kissing her to “kissing a truck driver,” and made a point of ostentatiously wiping his mouth with the back of his hand during one performance to drive the point across; Merman filed a complaint with Actors Equity over the incident, and her co-star was forced to issue a formal apology and pay a fine. Her personal life was no less without its share of unpleasantness and intrigue. A chapter of her autobiography entitled “Ernest Borgnine,” in reference to her marriage to the Oscar-winning actor (which ended in a hasty annulment after 32 days), consisted of one blank page.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:25 (eighteen years ago)
Who else was Ernest Borgnine married to besides Ethel and Katy Jurado?
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:33 (eighteen years ago)
haw, I was gonna say Stella Stevens (imagine Merman on the Poseidon)
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:34 (eighteen years ago)
Jimi Hendrix - 1983 (A MERMAN I SHOULD TURN TO BE)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:39 (eighteen years ago)
I've always made that connection.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:41 (eighteen years ago)
fuck, table beat me to "severe shell shock. thinks he's ethel merman."
― impudent harlot, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:43 (eighteen years ago)
Imdb says Ethel was extremely jealous about success of McHale's Navy. Also that EB said "I thought I was marrying Rosemary Clooney!"
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:45 (eighteen years ago)
great, now we have TWO gay threads.
― Stevie D, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 17:06 (eighteen years ago)
Ooh yummy! Where's the other one?
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 17:10 (eighteen years ago)
I'm just here for the Ernest Borgnine stories.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 17:29 (eighteen years ago)
saw the botched '36 film of Anything Goes tonight
she was 28! she and Bing do a nice "You're the Top"
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 04:34 (seven years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCfqIXiLxSE
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 18:36 (seven years ago)