There never was, never will be anyone like Ethel Merman...... Thank you for this.

The first law of art is to communicate, and Ethel REALLY does. You can hear EVERY word nice and clear! I love it.

ETHEL MERMAN WAS ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR ! she may have been bombastic and brassy , but on her it fit , and she was GREAT !

Thank you for this comment as it consoles me for lamenting Hollywood's sheer stupidity. I love Roz Russell, a brilliant actress. The fact is Gypsy was written specifically for Merman with total approbation of Gypsy Rose Lee. I saw Miss Merman on Broadway and met her backstage as she was a friend of my mother's. I still see and hear the whole show in my head. Brilliant. The film was nothing in comparison.

She sings dangerously, which creates suspense and holds the attention.

Can listen to the Merm for hours and hours--- oh wait, I have.. I have all her recordings and saw her in person more than 25 times.

@marthajulian7064

11 ай бұрын

You saw her 25 times!?!? Lucky, lucky you! 💙

Thank you so much for this ! No one like Merm...before or since ! I am one of the old timers who saw her in Gypsy when I was in high school and have loved her ever since.....It would be great if you had some Bea Lillie comedy routines. I saw her in High Spirits and whenever i get to NYC I go to the Broadcast Museum and watch her skits on the Ed Sullivan Show. She was a riot ! Thanks again !

Yes, no question one didn't have to strain to hear the lyric of a tune when Ethel Merman sang it. She enunciated ev-e-ry sin-gle syl-la-ble, and belted it to the rafters.

How I would have LOVED to have seen Miss Lillie perform in her many, many shows here and in Great Britain!!!!!

My second time watching this. Makes me feel like I’m in a Vaudeville audience. 💛

Famous as the most cold-blooded performer in Broadway history. Did not know the meaning of stage fright and whatever she did she did it 100% her way and if something bombed, she shrugged it off and moved on to the next show.

No one has ever conquered the vocal demands of GYPSY like Merman. She made it seem easy.

@ozvoyager

6 жыл бұрын

Stephen Sondheim would disagree.

@alankanen1052

7 ай бұрын

In my opinion, Patti LuPone buried Merman when she played Mamma Rose in New York's City Center and then on Broadway.

funny end by Bea Lillie. Those 2 have such different styles!

I have also wondered how different some films of musicals would have fared had they retained their original Broadway leads. And this is not only about Merman losing out to Roz Russell in "Gypsy," and to Betty Hutton (originally Judy Garland) in "Annie Get Your Gun," but also how "My Fair Lady" would have been with Julie Andrews, instead of Marnie Nixon ghosting for Audrey Hepburn; and if Mary Martin had been cast in "The Sound of Music" instead of Andrews.

@rexlex1736

3 жыл бұрын

Mary Martin was too old to play Maria in the film version of "The Sound of Music." She 46 when she played the role on Broadway.

Love Ethel and Bea. This doesn't show Beatrice Lillie at her best. Check out her signature song "THERE ARE FAIRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR GARDEN here on You Tube.

I've changed my mind about Merman. No one could put over any song writer's song better. No wonder the composers of the 1930s sought her out. "Gypsy" (the film) is playing on TCM tonight. Rosalind Russell is swell in the role, to be sure, but I found myself wondering what kind of a movie it would have been had they cast Ethel in that role...

@mariemarchesani1595

7 жыл бұрын

Merman made the movie "Call Me Madam'". It did come close to her stage work. I saw every one of her shows from the original Annie Get Your Gun to Hello Dolly--some many times. It was not only her voice she took over the stage. Would she make it today? Bette Midler has. However, the likes of Merman could not be captured on a movie or TV screen and only on the stage and yes the Hollywood Bowl. She will always be the #1 DIVA of the GOLDEN AGE OF BROADWAY!!!!I will always remember the thrills and excitement of her performances and the composers who wrote just for her--14 hit shows a record no one will meet. Obviously, audiences loved her. Over 30 years she is gone, but far from forgotten.

Fortunately fragments of the color videotape still exist on KZread.

Bell Television Hour--Television broadcast (audio),. January 29, 1960 Episode title: "The four of us". Duration: 59:25. Performers: Ray Bolger ; Benny Goodman ; Beatrice Lilly ; Ethel Merman ; Donald Voorhees ; Bell Telephone Orchestra. Access to original items restricted. Original in: *LJ-16 2685, *LJ-16 2686.Contents: We're off to see the wizard -- Sad but true -- On your toes. There's a small hotel / Richard Rodgers -- Everything I've got belongs to you -- The old soft shoe -- Oh, tonight -- Please be kind -- / Carl Maria von Weber -- Concertinos / Carl Maria von Weber -- Alexander's ragtime band / Irving Berlin -- Sweet Georgia Brown / Ben Bernie -- Tweet, tweet, tweet -- After you've gone away -- 'Way down yonder in New Orleans / Turner Layton -- Once in love with Amy -- Girl crazy. I got rhythm / George Gershwin -- One o'clock jump.

@StevenTorrey

6 жыл бұрын

Bell Television Hour was a continuation of the Radio Program begun in 1940-1958 ant then to Television from 1960-1968 as a monthly program,

What year is this from -- and what television show? It's terrific.

@StevenTorrey

6 жыл бұрын

It is the Bell Telephone Hour, January 29, 1960.

What a shame we didn't get to hear Merman sing "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life"

It would have been nice to have the date this happened

Lucy was 63 when she was Mame. Auntie Mame of the book is a flapper, probably in he twenties. Roz Russell was 44 when she did Auntie Mame first on Bway, and 51 in the film - already pushing it, as Mame ages about 15 years or more in the story.Of course, maybe Patrick Dennis said his aunt was older than I think! Anyway, Lansbury was also 41 when she opened Mame in 66. I saw her touring it 10 years later and she was surely a young 51 then. It's a youthful part. And Lucy's voice was shot from cigs.

The one and only. She probably couldn't work on Broadway now. Alas!

And what if Jill Haworth had been cast in Bob Fosse's "Cabaret." instead of Liza Minnelli. In the cases of Andrews as "Maria Von Trapp" and Liza playing "Sally Bowles," though, I think the films' audiences were given some special moments of cinema history even without the Broadway stars.

@treesny

2 жыл бұрын

"Cabaret" is one of the greatest film musicals ever made, and the fact that it jettisons the stage musical's book and many of the songs is for once justified -- not because the stage version or the other songs are poor (they're not), but because what resulted was of a piece dramatically and totally cinematic. It's no accident that Kander & Ebb's other great show, "Chcago", was directed by Bob Fosse too. Still, I do wish we had more of the first London Sally, Judy Dench, on film: she really showed how a great actress can portray a poor singer (which is what Sally is supposed to be).

@Bivolari No, sadly my student fell in Spiderman. The magic on Broadway was never in the special effects, it was in the performances. This vid being the case in point.

@paulstud The Bell Telephone Hour.

Merman seems to have nice low notes; I wish she sang more of them.

@mariemarchesani1595

4 жыл бұрын

To negative comments on Merman. ..did you see her perform on stage? A stage with an audience..She still remains #1 Broadway Diva...I was fortunate to see her in the original Annie Get Your Gun do the cclosiinfafter of Dolly

why no information, like when, like where, and etc etc etc

Again, had Mary martin been a film actress and twenty years younger ... she played maria on B'way at 46 - already pretty mature for the young novitiate nun. She's have been 52 in the film, and closeups don't lie, not even with vaselined lenses. Nobody expect MM to do that film. Julie was 30 - Audry was 35 that year. The reason she was in MFL and not Julie was the huge budget. Warner didn't predict that JA would be a star after Mary Poppins. That's show biz.But MFL is a great film.

I don't think she'd go over well today. On Broadway maybe she'd still go over well. She was just right for the time.

@ClarasBeau She was obviously right for her time-there was no stage star bigger- but today, who knows?

She sings a bit like Sophie Tucker.

Why?

She was a tyrant... but one of a kind.

And, much as I love Lucille Ball, I think any reasonable person would agree the film of "Mame" really should have been made with both its stars--Angela Lansbury AND Bea Arthur. After all, Lansbury also had a film history, from her contract days at M-G-M. I don't even think Lucy had the proper chutzpah to have carried off a remake of the nonmusical "Auntie Mame," let alone the musical version of that story. I don't think Lucy was as bad in "Mame" as some critics did, just not ideal in the role.

@LJ-ht4zs

2 жыл бұрын

-Unfortunately, Lucille Ball had a serious broken leg from a ski accident - which delayed the movie Mame for over a year and diminished her abilities as a physical actor. I thought that Lucy was good in Mame. Recently saw it on Amazon Prime or youtube (don't remember) - and was pleasantly surprised. So much criticism from all quarters (to me undeserved) that I was afraid to see Lucille Ball in something terrible as she is one of my favorite actors ever - always will be. I remember a director I believe Marc Daniels said she was the best actor he ever was involved with. I loved her in movies and on of course on tv - Saw I Love Lucy 70 years ago and have seen it again. Still makes me laugh. I ❤Lucy and always will.

Of course Merman should have done both Annie Get your Gun and Gypsy on film and Mary Martin could haver done South Pacific but not The sound fo music becauser she was 52 when the film was done.Not onlymJulie Andrews should have done MyFair Lady and Camelot alsoAngela Lanbury Mame,Carol Channing Hello Dolly and everybody always forget Barbara Cook who also lost her Marian Paroo inMusic Man for Shirley Jones and she also could have done the film and Carol Lawrence and Larry \Kert inWest Side Story.We lost many great performances in Hollywood because the producers only wanted famous movie stars because they rhoiuyght thag they would sell the movie .If Warner oculd have done what he wanted we would have lost two of the best musical performances I ever seenRobert \Preston ionMusic \man(he wanted Frank Sinatra) and ex Harrison in My Fair \lady(he wanted Cary Grant).Happiççy tjhey made tjhe films but the women werent so lucky(Julie Andrews and Barbara Cook)

@karlakor

7 жыл бұрын

The same is true with dramatic roles. Tallulah Bankhead did not play the film version of The Little Foxes. As great as Bette Davis was in that role, I can't help wonder why it wasn't offered to Bankhead. Well, yes I do know; Bette was a big box office star.

@capt.molyneaux7037

7 жыл бұрын

Tallu and Lillian Hellman hated ea other. The commie Hellman was great friends w producer Sam Goldwyn. Say no more.

@ozvoyager

6 жыл бұрын

All film evidence available suggests that Merman and Channing (and Bankhead, for that matter) would have done their legends no good by essaying their signature parts on film. They simply were not suited to film.

@treesny

2 жыл бұрын

@@ozvoyager I agree. They were electrifying stage performers who lost so much on film. With Merman, early film appearances where she's singing "live" and some of her later TV appearances (ditto) give a better sense of the incredible charisma she projected in the theater than film, where lip-synching was inevitable.

Cultural appropriation LOL

@cjaquilino

27 күн бұрын

Considering this genre of music is literally called "coon shouting" and the entire appeal was putting a white face to soften black music and culture for a white audience, that appropriation is the appropriate word.

She was almost too much here, don't you think? Would she go over today? It seems as though she's way too loud and imposing... She's a great belter, to be sure, but should she just be a stage star only? Just sayin'...

Merman undeniably had a great set of pipes but her voice is almost like finger nails on a chalkboard for me. Not attractive at all. Too loud, too brassy, too in your face.