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"Ethel Merman, a living legend who was long Broadway's undisputed queen of musical comedy, tells about her fascinating life in this fast-moving autobiography packed with surprising anecdotes and brimming with humor. 'If you are interested in hearing about me, my career, my ups, my downs and some of my mistakes, ' she says early on in the book, 'I think you'll get it straight from the shoulder because that's the kind of woman I am.' Born Ethel Zimmermann in Astoria, Queens, and once a secretary for a vacuum booster brake firm, she rose to fame in such unforgettable musicals as Girl Crazy, Panama Hattie, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam and Gypsy. She became the favorite singer of the Gershwins and of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter; they wrote for her such songs as 'I Got Rhythm, ' 'You're the Top' and 'There's No Business like Show Business.' 'You'd better not write a bad lyric for Merman, ' said Irving Berlin, 'because people will hear it in the second balcony.' Her unique personality brought her such glamorous friends as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Mary Martin, Judy Garland, Joshua Logan, Tallulah Bankhead, Jimmy Durante, Mike Todd, Stephen Sondheim and Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower. But Merman tells not only of her triumphs on and off the stage, but also of the touching devotion that existed between her and her parents and of the lifelong religious underpinning that helped her through the tragedy of losing the daughter she cherished. She also discusses her four tempestuous marriages. Her first one, to agent Bill Smith, was short-lived, but her second one, to newspaperman Bob Levitt, was made in heaven, while it lasted. The following one, to airline executive Robert Six, turned into a costly mistake; and the last one, to Ernest Borgnine, was a headlined fiasco, about which she talks uniquely and freely here for the first time. Here is her personal view of a great glittering world, where today she still reigns supreme, doing television shows and concerts throughout the world. A very special, very honest lady."--Jacket.… (more)
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Fun fact: Her family name is Zimmerman, which she shortened to Merman because her father objected to her chosen career as being not quite respectable at the time (1920s), although both her parents encouraged and supported her choice.
However, it was a bit disconcerting to discover that the songs & pIays remembered were not the ones that were most celebrated at the time, and that she considered the most important.
This is probably due to the dating, because her "prime" was 1930-1954, just before my childhood, we didnt' live near any of her live venues (many of her musicals went through multiple revivals), and once her movies left the theater they weren't available anymore.
My personal recollections are mostly from TV shows where she performed her most-requested hits, which I knew from seeing local revivals of the musicals (without Merman, of course).
This will be most interesting to people who still know who all the personalities are, or have an interest in nostalgia.
Another fun fact: the early musicals were mostly intended as "ads" for the composer's newest works, to see which songs might become hits with the audiences. The story lines were generally exercises in stringing the songs into a somewhat plausible narrative. Later, the stories were written first, and the music selected to fit the particular needs of the plot. Either way, the artists were often surprised that the public "voted" for different songs than they expected.
p. 92: "Reporters often used to ask me how I felt about movies in comparison to the stage. I now knew I preferred delivering my performance in person. I liked to be in control. You couldn't be in films. And I'd already learned that it was cold down there as the face on the cutting-room floor."
There's a catchy book title in that last phrase.