Happy Birthday, Ethel Merman!
Today marks the 101st anniversary of the birth of Ethel Merman, one of the great Broadway stars of the last century, perhaps the only woman who never had a flop. Alas, that we missed her centennial last year.
As I read this great lady’s biography, I learned with delight that she had her debut (at age five) singing at the Astoria Republican Club. I knew there was a reason I always liked the diva with the iron lungs. It wasn’t just that she reminded me of my great aunts and adoptive grandmother. Ethel appears to have been a Republican.
So this is one diva we gay Republicans love without being embarrassed by her politics.
Indeed, she sang for Ronald Reagan as, I believe, he was about to take office. So, what better way for a gay Republican blog to honor this diva than to provide a clip of her singing for the Gipper.
She was right. He was swell. He was great.
And so was she. Thanks to youtube, you can see this diva with all her class, sass and brass without leaving your home or waiting for the next TCM retrospective of her limited film work.
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I’ve always had a soft spot for the belters — Judy, Ethel, Betty Buckley.
And I’ve always admired someone who could laugh at herself, as evidenced by Miss Merman’s fabulous cameo in AIRPLANE.
Happy Birthday, Ethel Merman! You are, indeed, one of a kind.
Comment by Julie the Jarhead — January 16, 2009 @ 6:56 am - January 16, 2009
Of course, she was a republican. She was married four times (once for 32 days); she consistently swore like a sailor; she upstaged her colleagues nightly; and Arthur Laurents called her the performing dog. You told her how to do it and that’s what she died for 8 performances a week.
Comment by Martin — January 16, 2009 @ 10:32 am - January 16, 2009
War Is Hell…
Comment by sonicfrog — January 16, 2009 @ 10:41 am - January 16, 2009
#2 – Martin, either your satire is over-the-top or you are a bitter queen. Which is it?
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — January 16, 2009 @ 11:08 am - January 16, 2009
What a coincidence, I didn´t know it was her birthday. Last night I played my video of Airplane II in which she cameo appearance singing Everything Is Coming Up Roses. Ethel, Judy and Lisa are the greatest to have ever sung on Broadway.
Comment by Roberto — January 16, 2009 @ 11:29 am - January 16, 2009
What a coincidence, I didn´t know it was her birthday. Last night I played my video of Airplane II in which she cameo appearance singing Everything Is Coming Up Roses. Ethel, Judy and Lisa are the greatest to have ever sung on Broadway.
Comment by Roberto — January 16, 2009 @ 11:29 am - January 16, 2009
“… she consistently swore like a sailor …”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Hey Peter — look me up on Facebook. My last name is Kelleher. (Born on St. Patrick’s Day, no less!)
Comment by Julie the Jarhead — January 16, 2009 @ 12:06 pm - January 16, 2009
Doris Day is a Republican as was Peggy Lee (so I’m told). A little nutty and a little slutty.
Comment by Ignatius — January 16, 2009 @ 12:19 pm - January 16, 2009
I spent many happy teenage hours in my room singing Everything’s Coming Up Roses to my soundtrack of Gypsy. My Mom talked about seeing Call Me Madam on Broadway and how Merman had to sing “You’re Just In Love” several times since it brought the house down. This perhaps explains the lack of surprise when I started discussing my feelings about men.
Comment by Ashpenaz — January 16, 2009 @ 12:35 pm - January 16, 2009
I love the part in _Airplane_ where the nutty soldier thinks “he” is Ethel Merman.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — January 16, 2009 @ 1:54 pm - January 16, 2009
I like Reagan’s reaction at the end. He does that little breath-catch of genuine pleasure.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — January 16, 2009 @ 1:57 pm - January 16, 2009
Bravo, GayPatriotWest!! She’s may favorite female singer of all time; no one else in my lifetime has equalled her.
Many years ago I was introduced to her at a little political gathering by Forrest Tucker. And, yes, she was a Republican and quite proud of it.
Comment by Jack Allen — January 16, 2009 @ 9:17 pm - January 16, 2009
I’ve had my copy of “The Ethel Merman Disco Album” for several years now. I never listen to it, but it warms my heart to know it’s in my collection, ready to be played whenever I need to boogie down or drive the cockroaches from my house.
Now if I could just get a copy of that special musical episode of The Love Boat, my Merman kitsch collection would be complete. She played Gopher’s mother, you know! Seems kind of appropriate.
Comment by Draybee — January 16, 2009 @ 11:19 pm - January 16, 2009
Draybee, no, I didn’t know. And now I do.
And Gopher would later serve as a Republican Congressman from Iowa.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — January 17, 2009 @ 1:34 am - January 17, 2009
[...] night before bed, I’ve been reading a few pages of Brian Kellow’s biography of the Republican most loved by gay men. On the last night of the Bush Administration, I read this anecdote: Once [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Ethel Merman: Anti-Communist — January 21, 2009 @ 3:00 am - January 21, 2009
[...] that she did indeed sing at the Gipper’s inaugural so that must be the source of the clip I linked on her birthday. He and Nancy sent her a telegram to mark her seventy-five [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Ethel was a Republican! — January 28, 2009 @ 2:36 am - January 28, 2009
I’ve never understood why people think this is a happy-go-lucky, optimistic song.
In context, it’s about a mother who is so self-absorbed and obsessed with vicarious success that she’ll impose humiliation, grief, and suffering on her own daughter.
It’s an odd song to sing as a tribute at the beginning of a presidency, since it portends ill-will.
Comment by Rick Sincere — January 30, 2009 @ 5:36 pm - January 30, 2009
Fair point, Rick, but, well, Rose really did believe everything was coming up roses. And that time (i.e., after Reagan’s inaugural), it did.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — January 30, 2009 @ 5:45 pm - January 30, 2009