That's MISS Merman to you!

 

 Some folks have no inkling that Ethel

was one gorgeous dame when she was young. 

Born in Astoria, Queens in 1908,

Ethel Agnes Zimmermann

 became a secretary after high school graduation,

but moonlighted in nightclubs and private parties,

emulating the hot singers of the day:

Sophie Tucker, Nora Bayes, and Fanny Brice.

 She eventually moved to the Keith Circuit of Vaudeville,

with a voice all her own.

 "Discovered" by Vinton Freedley, 

and granted an audition for Girl Crazy,

with The Brothers Gershwin,

Ethel was cast at the drop of a song 

and, of course, her success in that show

tilted the world on its musical comedy axis. 

(Maybe that's why I'm dizzy.)

Below, Ethel in a Cole Porter show,

Red Hot And Blue

from 1936

 with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante.

Above, the Playbill for Panama Hattie, 1940

with music (and Old Fashioneds?) by Cole,

and below, Annie Oakley

in Annie Get Your Gun

(she's doin' what comes natur'lly!)

written by Irving Berlin in 1946.

 How different Annie might have been with Jerome Kern

(the first composer asked to do the music)

at the helm!

"At work" with Mr. Berlin,

for Call Me Madam, 1950

(and as Sally Adams AGAIN in the movie version, 1953). 

From There's No Business Like Show Business,

released in 1954, starring

Donald O'Connor, Ethel, Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor and Johnnie Ray.

Below, "back stage" and ready to film the title number.

I just wonder how that triumvirate got along!

 

Happy Hunting, 1956...

the "jeep among the limousines".

Ethel was urged by her then-husband, Robert Six,

to come out of retirement for this show.

Fernando Lamas co-starred, 

and fearing that he'd be overshadowed by his leading lady, 

had the costume designer make him a pair of very tight trousers.

Needless to say, the audience looked at "him",

not Ethel, come opening night.

Ethel nixed those pants,

and eventually Six as well! 

 Jerry Herman wrote Hello, Dolly! with Ethel in mind,

but she refused the role,

til 1970, when she became the

7th actress to portray Ms. Levy.

 Walter Kerr of the NY Times proclaimed her performance,

"exactly as Wurlitzer-wonderful as it always was."

 Had to include a photo of Ethel's marriage to Ernest Borgnine,

notorious in its brevity and its head-scratching pairing of

these 2 battle cruisers.

Above, a blissful, wedded moment,

however fleeting!

They married in June of 1964, filed for divorce in October, the same year. 

 Black Glama-ed in 1972...

"What Becomes A Legend Most?"

 Ethel passed away in 1984, at the age of 76:

18 Broadway shows, 18 movies, innumerable television appearances,

a whole lotta albums, 2 memoirs

and 1 incredible voice.

There's your legend.