Ethel Merman Overview:

Legendary actress, Ethel Merman, was born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann on Jan 16, 1908 in Astoria, NY. Merman died at the age of 76 on Feb 15, 1984 in New York City, NY and was laid to rest in Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum Cemetery in Colorado Springs, CO.

MINI BIO:

Big, bold, brassy American brunette, a successful singer in her early twenties, with pencilled eyebrows, thin, determined lips, a shock of cotton-wool hair and a voice that would still be travelling when it hit the back of the opera house. Hollywood had as little idea of how to cope with her as it did later with Mary Martin, but it did give her a couple of rampaging musical successes in middle age. Married/divorced Ernest Borgnine (fourth husband) in 1964.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Film Stars).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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She was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the categories of Recording and Motion Pictures. In addition, Merman was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame . Merman was never nominated for an Academy Award.

BlogHub Articles:

Classic Movie Coincidence: , Katy Jurado and Ernest Borgnine

By Annmarie Gatti on Jan 16, 2017 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

If we have enough good times together, I’m gonna get down on my knees. I’m gonna beg that girl to marry me. -Ernest Borgnine as Marty Well, here’s something a little different than our usual Classic Movie Coincidences… Both and Katy Jurado share a birthday today,... Read full article


Merman, O'Connor, Ellen, and Sanders stun in... Call Me Madam (1953)

By Michaela on Jun 1, 2016 From Love Letters to Old Hollywood

Call Me Madam is a film I can't believe isn't more well-known. Let me list some of its features: , Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen, gorgeous costumes, beautiful dancing, Irving Berlin tunes, and oh yeah, George Sanders singing and making me fall madly in love with him. Aren't you mad this fi... Read full article


, Good to Broadway

By Aurora on Jan 16, 2015 From Once Upon a Screen

Murray Schumach wrote ?s New York Times Obituary and wrote this: ?Beginning in 1930, and for more than a quarter of a century thereafter, no Broadway season seemed really complete unless it had a musical with .? When, among a cast of thousands your absence is felt, then you a... Read full article


: A Showstopping, Ripsnorting Swan Song

By KC on Jul 13, 2010 From Classic Movies

I recently re-watched Airplane (1980), and I was stunned to see in a brief cameo. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten this hilarious moment. I checked out her filmography later, and realized that this was Merman's last movie role. What a great way to go! Singing your most ... Read full article


TV Tuesday: Belts One Out For Vel

By KC on Dec 15, 2009 From Classic Movies

This is the most enthusiastic commercial for dish soap I've ever seen! Ethel "Merm" Merman make Vel sound like an incredibly exciting product. I love the way she says "icky pan".... Read full article


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Ethel Merman Quotes:

Emmeline Finch: I'm only thinking of Russell's condition.
Mrs. Marcus: You mean his financial condition, because that's the only condition that he has.
J. Russell Finch: Yeah but...
Mrs. Marcus: Emmeline, do you know why your husband had a nervous breakdown? It's because he has sunk $40,000, including $15,000 of my money into a company that makes seaweed for people to eat.
J. Russell Finch: Yeah but...
Mrs. Marcus: And not only does nobody like it, but it costs over $4.00 a can.
J. Russell Finch: Yeah but...
Mrs. Marcus: Yeah but WHAT?
J. Russell Finch: Well, most people like it and I like it, and I'm working hard trying to keep the cost down.
Mrs. Marcus: Yeah you were working hard trying to keep the cost down the day that you ran out of your office and stood in the street screaming.
Emmeline Finch: Mother!
Mrs. Marcus: Oh Emmeline, shut up!
[Russell starts to speak]
Mrs. Marcus: And you too!


Grand Duke: Tell me - How does this reception differ from your famous Washington parties?
Sally Adams: Well we have a good time!


[first lines]
Reno Sweeney: [singing] In olden days a glimpse of stocking / Was looked on as something shocking, / Now, Heaven knows, / Anything goes!
[as she sings the words "anything goes", the title of the film appears onscreen]


read more quotes from Ethel Merman...



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Ethel Merman on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame




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Ethel Merman Facts
Her third husband, Robert F. Six, was CEO of Continental Airlines.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 560-562. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

She was either seen or heard (or both) in several of the opening credits of film of TV adaptations of shows in which she recreated her original roles. In the 1936 film of "Anything Goes" she appears singing a phrase of the title song before the opening credits even appear; in the 1953 film of "Call M<e Madam", she is heard saying the words "Call me madam" as the title appears onscreen, and in the 1967 TV adaptation of "Annie Get Your Gun", the credits appear on targets at which she shoots.

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Theater Hall of Fame

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