Elaine Stritch was covering Merman in CALL ME MADAM on Broadway and appearing as Melba, who sings "Zip", in PAL JOEY in New Haven simultaneously. One day, during a snowstorm and on a two-show day, Elaine had to check in with Merman (who, of course, never missed) and then get up to New Haven to make her own curtain during the second act of PAL JOEY. Stritch was apprehensive, so Merman said, "Elaine, just go to New Haven and sing the f'ing song!" She told the story in ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY. I hope I remembered it accurately.
I'm not going to accurately tell this story at all, but once Ethel was in rehearsal for some show and in the middle of the song she got off with the orchestra and shouted "Speed up, assholes!" and than, backstage, she turned to her manager and said (about the conductor) "Lee, that son of a bitch is tryin' to sabatoge me!"
Sandra Church (the original Louise) somehow got on Merman's bad side during the run. When producer David Merrick asked Merman if she was still speaking to Church, Merman reputedly said, "Of course I speak to her! Every night when the curtain goes down, I say 'Go #!&! yourself!'"
I heard this story from Sondheim himself. They were teaching her ROSE'S TURN, and she couldn't understand the Ma... Ma... Ma.. MAMA. She asked if it was on the beat or off. And Sondheim said, Rose is having a breakdown and realising how much she misses her own Mother and is having trouble saying the word Mama. And the Merm siad: "Oh,OK, but is it on the beat or off?"
To the Duke of Windsor, former King of England, when she saw the Duchess dancing with a much younger man: "Hey Duke, get off your royal a** and dance with your wife!"
I came across this story about Ethel Merman while reading Carol Channing's autobiography, JUST LUCKY I GUESS. Carol was nervous about sharing a limo for a benefit concert with Ethel Merman, because apparantly Ethel had given her the silent treatment ever since Carol landed HELLO, DOLLY! The story, as Carol reports it, is as follows:
::She got in the backseat with me and yelled, "Hi Carol!"
Oh good, she's TALKING to me.
Ethel: I had the strangest airplane trip out here. A passenger was bleeding from the rectum.
Now that's the first thing she'd said to me since 1964. Why was she so chatty when I was invisible for so long?...
Anyway, I repeated, "A passenger was bleeding from the rectum?"
Ethel: Yeah.
Naturally, I said what you would have said, "How did you know?"
"Well," she said, "there was no doctor on the plane, but I'm a nurse. What the hell are yuh laughin' at? I'm a GOOD nurse. I volunteered to serve at Roosevelt Hospital for every Thursday."
Now, I ask you, if you were strung up in Roosevelt Hospital, wouldn't you dread Thursdays? I mean, this woman walks into your room with her little white nurse's band abover her forehead and screams, "Ah'm your nurse! Roll over." Wouldn't you? Dread Thursdays?::
When she went to Hollywood for one of her last musicals, she was given a tour of the studio she was working for. Loretta Young was working in a soundstage when Merman walked in.
There was an enormous staircase as part of the set. Merman asked her tour guide "Where the hell does this go?" Loretta approached Merman with a collection box in her hand. "Miss Merman, you cursed! that'll be ten cents" Merman replied "Tell me something Loretta, how much would it cost me to tell you to go f*ck yourself?"
From "The Making of GYPSY" " ...Merman who, while at a cocktail party in Gypsy Rose Lee's elegant Manhattan townhouse, announced to her hostess: "I've read your book. I love it. I want to do it. I'm going to do it. And I'll shoot anyone else who gets the part."
"Carol was nervous about sharing a limo for a benefit concert with Ethel Merman, because apparantly Ethel had given her the silent treatment ever since Carol landed HELLO, DOLLY!"
This is really only Carol Channing's speculation. Hello Dolly was written for Merman and Jerry Herman tried several times to get Merman to open it but she didn't want to take on a new show at that point in her life. Later she took over the show and Herman added two new songs especially for her. So if there was silent treatment from Merman, it wasn't because Carol landed the show over Merman.
A friend of mine stayed in Mermans old NY apartment while in NY with The Royal Ballet a number of years back. She wasnt told who used to live there until day 3 or 4 then mentioned casualy that she had heard some pretty high notes blasted/sang out in the middle of the night. She had no idea who Merman was and moved out late that evening after the show.
....this is mine. Merman returned home to then husband Ernest Borgnine after a meeting with studio heads for a future movie. 'How did you get on?' asked Borgnine. 'Swell' said Merman 'He said i had the eyes of a teenager, the complextion of a 20 year old and the legs of a 25 year old' 'How about your 60 year old ****?' groaned her husband. 'Oh he never mentioned you!'
Opening night of 'Annie Get Your Gun' A chorus girl turns to Ethel and asks 'Miss Merman are you ever nervous?' Ethels reply was 'Why should i be nervous little girl? i know my f***ing lines!"
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joined:7/15/06
Posted: 7/16/07 at 05:01pm