Ethel Merman's Annie Get Your Gun.

Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) Ethel Merman Born January 16, 1908 in Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA Died February 15, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA Birth Name Ethel Agnes Zimmermann Height 5' 5½" (1.66 m) Born in the Astoria section of Queens, New York City, Ethel Merman surely is the pre-eminent star of 'Broadway' musical comedy. Though untrained in singing, she could belt out a song like quite no one else, and was sought after by major songwriters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Having debuted in 1930 in "Girl Crazy, " she is yet remembered for her marvelous starring appearances in so many great musicals that were later adapted to the silver screen. Among the film versions, Merman herself starred in Anything Goes (1936) and Call Me Madam (1953). That wonderfully boisterous blonde, Betty Hutton, had the Merman lead in both Red, Hot and Blue (1949) and Annie Get Your Gun (1950). Besides Betty Hutton, other Merman screen stand-in roles include Lucille Ball, (in Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)), Ann Sothern, (in Panama Hattie (1942)), Vivian Blaine (in Something for the Boys (1944)) and Rosalind Russell (in Gypsy (1962)). (Russell could never render Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne's "Everything's Coming Up Roses" the way the immortal Merman did, over and over again.) Spouse (4) Ernest Borgnine (27 June 1964 - 18 November 1964) ( divorced) Robert Logan Forman Six (9 March 1953 - 20 December 1960) ( divorced) Robert Daniels Levitt (18 December 1941 - 10 June 1952) ( divorced) ( 2 children) William B. Smith (15 November 1940 - 1 October 1941) ( divorced) Trade Mark (2) The song, sung in her inimitable way, "There's No Business Like Show Business" Powerful belting mezzo-soprano vocal range Trivia (34) Thrice-wed Merman married twice-wed Ernest Borgnine in 1964. The couple separated just 11 days after the wedding and Borgnine filed for divorce on October 21, charging extreme mental cruelty. They had announced their impending nuptials at the legendary New York night spot P.J. Clarke's, but Borgnine, who was riding high as the star of McHale's Navy (1962) at the time, said the marriage began unraveling on their honeymoon, when he received more fan attention than she did. The competitive Merman was left seething. "By the time we got home, it was hell on earth," Borgnine recalled in a 2001 interview. "And after 32 days I said to her, 'Madam, bye'." Merman filed a cross-complaint shortly thereafter charging Borgnine with extreme cruelty. She was granted a divorce on November 18, 1964, after 22 minutes of testimony. Borgnine went on to marry a third time, but Merman remained single after her divorce. In her 1978 biography, she devoted a chapter of her autobiography to the marriage: It consisted of one blank page. She had two children with her second husband, Robert: daughter, Ethel (born July 20, 1942), and son, Robert Levitt Jr. (born August 11, 1945). Ethel died of a drug overdose that was ruled accidental, on August 23, 1967. Parents are Edward Zimmerman (1879-1977) and Agnes Zimmerman (1883-1974). She was an Episcopalian. Her father, whose family was from Pennsylvania, was of German descent. Her maternal grandparents were Scottish immigrants. Bertolt Brecht actually desired to have the raucous Ethel play the title role of his masterpiece "Mother Courage...and Her Children". Of course, she never did. She loved Christmas so much, that she kept her Christmas tree up year-round. In 1979, she released her most controversial album-to-date, a disco LP simply titled "The Ethel Merman Disco Album". Despite it not even charting on the Billboard charts, and many people's skepticism about the then 71-year-old veteran performing her Broadway hits to a disco beat, it was a smash hit, being played in Studio 54 regularly, with live appearances by Merman, herself. It also became a staple period album for the majority of the gay community. Devised her screen and stage name by removing the first three letters (Zim) and the last letter (n) from her birth name - Zimmermann She was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 7044 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Recording at 1751 Vine Street in Hollywood, California. Her daughter Ethel Levitt was married to William Geary in 1960. She gave birth to Merman's first grandchild, Barbara Jean, on February 20, 1961. She later gave birth to a son, Michael Geary. She suffered a miscarriage during her marriage to Robert Levitt. When she died, she left $800,000 to be divided between her son and her two grandchildren. Winner of a 1972 Special Tony Award (New York City). Elaine Stritch was once a stand-by for Ethel Merman for the musical "Call Me Madam". In her one woman show "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty", Stritch told a story illustrating Merman's showmanship and attitude: Buried at Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, CO. Merman's 1964 marriage to Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine, which lasted less than five months, served as fodder for many a stand-up comic's jokes at the time. Due to her bellicose stage voice, said to be loud enough to be heard in many a theatre's third balcony, one of Merman's nicknames later in her career was "Old Yeller.". Merman was widely believed to be the inspiration for the character of Helen Lawson in Jacqueline Susann's best-selling novel Valley of the Dolls. When 20th Century-Fox began their film version, Judy Garland was signed to play Lawson, but she was eventually replaced by Susan Hayward, whose singing voice had to be dubbed by Margaret Whiting. In the mid-1960s, hoping to convince their customers to use the newly introduced ZIP Code system, the U.S. Post Office commissioned a song about the subject and hired Merman to sing it. The animated short subject featuring Merman's voice and a cartoon postman named " Zippy" was widely credited with getting the American public to use ZIP codes. One of Merman's last appearances was a hilarious cameo in 1980's Airplane, in which she played a patient in a military mental ward who "thinks he's Ethel Merman." When the angle cut to that patient's bed, Merman sat up and sang "Everything's coming up roses" from her Broadway hit Gypsy. In the late 1930s, Merman was briefly under contact to 20th Century-Fox, in hopes of replicating her stage success on screen. But after a handful of films, in which she co-starred with such Fox stars as Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, Sonja Henie, Don Ameche and The Ritz Brothers, the studio decided not to renew her contract. Personal Quotes (10) [on 1959, when she was nominated for a Tony Award for "Gypsy" but had lost to Mary Martin in "The Sound of Music"] You can't buck a nun. [in 1930, on the show that made her a star, George Gershwin's "Girl Crazy"] In the second chorus of "I Got Rhythm", I held a high C note for 16 bars while the orchestra played the melodic line--a big, tooty thing--against the note. By the time I'd held that note for four bars, the audience was applauding. They applauded through the whole chorus and I did several encores. It seemed to do something to them. Not because it was sweet or beautiful, but because it was exciting. Few people have the ability to project a big note and hold it. It's not just a matter of breath; it's a matter of power in the diaphragm. I'd never trained my diaphragm, but I must have a strong one. When I finished that song, a star had been born. Me. [on Mary Martin] She's okay, if you like talent. I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them. I don't want to sound pretentious, but in a funny way I feel I'm the last of a kind. I don't mean that there aren't some girls out there somewhere who are just as talented as I was. But even if they are, where will they find the shows like :Girl Crazy", "Anything Goes", "Annie Get Your Gun", "Call Me Madam" and "Gypsy"? They just don't produce those vehicles anymore. I take a breath when I have to. I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank. Broadway has been very good to me. But then, I've been very good to Broadway. You'll never prove you're too good for a job by not doing your best Not to pat myself on the back, but when I do a show, the whole show revolves around me. And if I don't show up, they can just forget it! Salary (1) The Perry Como Show (1948) $20,000

Dorothy Fields Fields, Dorothy (July 15, 1905 – Mar. 28, 1974), lyricist and librettist, was born in Allenhurst, N.J., the daughter of Lew M. Fields and Rose Harris. Her father, born Lewis Maurice Schoenfeld, was famous as a member of the comedy duo Weber and Fields, but left performing in the year of Dorothy’s birth to become a successful Broadway impressario. Although Lew Fields cautioned his children against pursuing careers in the theater, Dorothy’s two older brothers, Joseph and Herbert, also became successful on Broadway, the former as a writer and producer, and the latter as a writer and Dorothy’s sometime collaborator. Dorothy Fields graduated in 1923 from the Benjamin Franklin School for Girls in New York City, where she excelled at English, drama, and basketball, and had her poems published in the school’s literary magazine. After her father quashed her attempt to land an acting job with a stock company in Yonkers, she worked as a teacher and laboratory assistant, while continuing to submit her verses to magazines. DOROTHY FIELDS Born: July 15, 1905 Died: March 28, 1974 Key Shows "Annie Get Your Gun" "Blackbirds of 1928" "Redhead" "Sugar Babies" "Sweet Charity" "Up in Central Park" Related Artists Harold Arlen Fred and Adele Astaire Irving Berlin Bob Fosse Oscar Hammerstein II Jerome Kern Ethel Merman Cole Porter Richard Rodgers Gwen Verdon In 1926 Fields met the popular song composer J. Fred Coots, who suggested that they write some songs together. Although nothing memorable came out of this brief association, Coots introduced Fields to another composer and song-plugger, Jimmy McHugh. Through McHugh she got a job as a lyricist at Mills Music, Inc., where one of her first assignments was to write the lyric for a tune commemorating aviator Ruth Elder’s attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Fields later referred to herself as “Mills Music’s fifty-dollars-a-night girl,” because she was paid 50 dollars for each lyric she composed. In 1927 Fields received sole billing as lyricist for a revue at Harlem’s Cotton Club that featured Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. The following year she and McHugh wrote the song “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” which was dropped from the revue “Revels of 1928,” but found a home alongside another soon-to-be-popular Fields-McHugh number, “Diga Diga Doo,” in the all-black hit, Lew Leslie’s “Blackbirds of 1928.” After this initial success, the Fields-McHugh team collaborated on “International Revue” (1930), a flop despite two enduring songs, “Exactly Like You” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” The family of jazz pianist Thomas (“Fats”) Waller maintained that Waller, not McHugh, actually composed the melodies to “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” and others, and sold them to McHugh for a nominal fee. In any case, however, it is undisputed that Fields is the lyricist. From 1930 to 1939 Fields worked in Hollywood, first with McHugh, with whom she wrote songs such as “I’m in the Mood for Love” and “Dinner at Eight” for the movie musicals LOVE IN THE ROUGH (1930) and EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT (1935), and then with Jerome Kern. Kern and Fields first worked together on ROBERTA in 1935, and subsequent collaborations included I DREAM TOO MUCH (1935), SWING TIME (1936), and JOY OF LIVING (1938). In 1936, Kern and Fields won the Academy Award for Best Song for “The Way You Look Tonight,” from SWING TIME. Other Kern-Fields songs from this period that have gone on to become standards include “Lovely to Look At” and “A Fine Romance.” Jerome Kern and Fields collaborated on songs for movie musicals during the 1930s. On July 15, 1939, Fields married David Eli Lahm, a clothing manufacturer. They had two children before his death in 1958. The same year, she returned to New York to work with composer Arthur Schwartz on the musical “Stars in Your Eyes.” She then collaborated with her brother Herbert, with whom she had already worked on screenplays and the short-lived musical “Hello Daddy” (1928), and on the books for three Cole Porter hits: “Let’s Face It” (1941), “Something for the Boys” (1943), and “Mexican Hayride” (1944). In 1945 Dorothy and Herbert Fields wrote the book for Sigmund Romberg’s “Up in Central Park.” Her lyrics for the show included “Close as Pages in a Book.” In 1946, Fields approached Oscar Hammerstein with her idea for a musical based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Hammerstein agreed to produce the show, and Kern and Fields were contracted to write the songs. When Kern died before they were able to begin work on the project, Irving Berlin was hired to replace him. Berlin wrote both music and lyrics for “Annie Get Your Gun,” but Dorothy and Herbert Fields contributed an excellent book. The finished product, starring Ethel Merman as Annie, ran 1,147 performances. It remains one of the most popular shows in the repertoire. In 1927 Fields received sole billing as lyricist for a revue at Harlem’s Cotton Club. Fields’ work habits were highly disciplined. Typically, she would spend eight weeks researching, discussing, and making notes on a project, before settling into an 8:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. daily work routine. She worked at a bridge table in her apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and preferred to write with pencil on a yellow legal pad. She kept notebooks in which she copied passages from Dryden, Shaw, and Thoreau; unusual synonyms for commonly used words; humorous proverbs; rhyming phrases; odd-sounding words; and anything else that might come in handy in writing a lyric. Tall, slender, and well dressed, with chestnut hair and hazel eyes, she spoke well and was active in charitable causes throughout her life. Fields collaborated with her brother and composer Morton Gould on the lackluster “Arms and the Girl” in 1950. The following year, she wrote several fine lyrics to Arthur Schwartz’s melodies for “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” She scored two films with composer Harold Arlen, MR. IMPERIUM (1951) and THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE (1953), then returned to Broadway to work with Schwartz again on “By the Beautiful Sea” (1954). Herbert Fields died in 1959, while “Redhead,” the show they were working on with composer Albert Hague, was having its out-of-town tryout. Although not a great show, “Redhead” captured the Tony Award for Best Musical in a lean year for Broadway theater. Her penultimate musical, “Sweet Charity,” written with composer Cy Coleman and librettist Neil Simon, was the biggest hit of the 1965-1966 season. Songs such as “Big Spender” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now” proved that Fields, despite her advancing age, had not lost her knack for up-to-the-minute slang and phraseology. In 1971, Fields became the first woman inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her last show, “Two for the Seesaw” (1973), also written with Coleman, was not a popular success, but her lyrics were praised for their evocation of modern life in New York. She died at home in New York City. During her 48-year career Fields cowrote more than 400 songs and worked on 15 musicals and at least 26 movies. Her lyrics were noted for their strong characterization, clarity of language, and middlebrow humor. An amateur pianist and lifelong lover of classical music, she was highly conscious of the melodic line, and tailored her lyrics to float freely over it. Fields’ professional longevity, rare for a songwriter in the popular field, may be attributed to her undimming imagination and her willingness to adapt to changing trends in the musical theater.