Merman, Ethel

Merman, Ethel [née Zimmermann] (1908–84), actress and singer. The leading musical comedy queen of her era, she was born in Astoria, New York, and performed in cabarets and in vaudeville before making her Broadway debut in Girl Crazy (1930) where her singing of “I Got Rhythm” stopped the show and catapulted her to fame. Thereafter she appeared in George White's Scandals of 1931 and Take a Chance (1932) before getting many juicy roles in Cole Porter musicals: the evangelist‐turned‐songstress Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes (1934), former manicurist Nails O'Reilly in Red, Hot and Blue! (1936), nightclub singer May Daly in Du Barry Was a Lady (1939), saloon owner Hattie Mahoney in Panama Hattie (1940), and rancher Blossom Hart in Something for the Boys (1943). One of her greatest successes was the sharpshooter Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun (1946), followed by ambassadress Sally Adams in his Call Me Madam (1950). After playing the Philadelphia Main Liner Liz Livingston in Happy Hunting (1956), Merman gave what was considered her greatest performance: the driven stage mother Rose in Gypsy (1959). Walter Kerr described her Rose as a “brassy, brazen witch on a mortgaged broomstick, a steamroller with cleats, the very mastodon of all stage mothers.” Her last appearances were in a 1966 revival of Annie Get Your Gun and as a replacement in the lead of Hello, Dolly! Prior to her time, Broadway's leading ladies usually had been demure innocents. The dark‐haired, brassy performer with perfect projection and impeccable diction changed the nature of heroines for many musicals, usually playing tougher, more knowing, and cynical figures. Autobiography: Merman, with George Eells, 1978.