Ethel Merman

In this blog post, Amy Henderson, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery , discusses Ethel Merman, and her 1971 portrait by artist Rosemarie Sloat. The portrait is currently on view at NPG, in the " Bravo! " exhibition, on the museum’s third floor mezzanine. It was one of the most riveting moments of my life—the day I strolled into my office and found myself face-to-face with Ethel Merman. The Queen of the American Musical Stage was not there to visit me, needless to say, but to pay homage to the larger-than-life portrait that hung on my wall. The portrait was enormous, more than ... Read Full Story

When Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand meet up for tea, Ethel Merman hears tell and barges her way in to belt out a Broadway tune. Barbra and Judy are wisely fearful of Ethel's take-no-prisoners style of singing, watching exits and wondering if scalding tea in the face would slow Ethel down much if they need to make a break for it. They appear again in ' Valley of the Dolls ' a few years later when Neely O'Hara flushes Helen Lawsons' wig in the toilet, but I digress. Read Full Story

Singing like Ethel Merman comes very naturally to Klea Blackhurst. Ethel’s voice was one of very few singing voices she heard in her early childhood, so she thought all singers sounded like that. As a result, in Everything the Traffic Will Allow: The Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman , Blackhurst’s oversized cabaret tribute to La Merm, she never stoops to mere imitation or any kind of aping parody of Merman’s more obvious mannerisms. She simply and naturally inhabits the spectacular sunrise-like open-throated style of singing that Merman brought to life. As such, Blackhurst gives you some inkling of what Merman meant to “The ... Read Full Story

Playbill - Rita McKenzie, the big-voiced actress who performed Ethel Merman's Broadway in an Off-Broadway engagement and is heard on the 1995 cast album ó will bring the revue to Detroit's historic Gem Theatre for a run that begins Sept. 9. Read Full Story

Obituary: Talent vet repped Tony Curtis and Ethel Merman -- Talent agent Tom Korman, whose clients included Tony Curtis, Ethel Merman and Ricardo Montalban, died of heart failure July 30 in Los Angeles. He was 76. Read Full Story