- 556 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
About this book
Broadway star Ethel Merman's voice was a mesmerizing force and her vitality was legendary, yet the popular perception of La Merm as the irrepressible wonder falls far short of all that she was and all that she meant to Americans over so many decades. This marvelously detailed biography is the first to tell the full story of how the stenographer from Queens, New York, became the queen of the Broadway musical in its golden age. Mining official and unofficial sources, including interviews with Merman's family and her personal scrapbooks, Caryl Flinn unearths new details of Merman's life and finds that behind the high-octane personality was a remarkably pragmatic woman who never lost sight of her roots.
Brass Diva takes us from Merman's working-class beginnings through the extraordinary career that was launched in 1930 when, playing a secondary role in a Gershwin Brothers' show, she became an overnight sensation singing "I Got Rhythm." From there, we follow Merman's hits on Broadway, her uneven successes in Hollywood, and her afterlife as a beloved camp icon. This definitive work on the phenomenon that was Ethel Merman is also the first to thoroughly explore her robust influence on American popular culture.
Brass Diva takes us from Merman's working-class beginnings through the extraordinary career that was launched in 1930 when, playing a secondary role in a Gershwin Brothers' show, she became an overnight sensation singing "I Got Rhythm." From there, we follow Merman's hits on Broadway, her uneven successes in Hollywood, and her afterlife as a beloved camp icon. This definitive work on the phenomenon that was Ethel Merman is also the first to thoroughly explore her robust influence on American popular culture.
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Table of contents
- CONTENTS
- PREFACE
- 1 Beginnings
- 2 From Stenographer to Star
- 3 The Early Thirties
- 4 To Hollywood and Back Again
- 5 Broadway’s Brightest: The Early Forties
- 6 Forging a Family
- 7 What Comes Natur’lly: Annie Get Your Gun
- 8 Call Me Madam
- 9 A More Complex Image
- 10 Madam in Hollywood
- 11 Life with Six
- 12 There’s No Business Like Show Business
- 13 From Mrs. Six to Mama Rose
- 14 Gypsy: Ethel Merman’s Musical Fable
- 15 It’s a Mad, Mad Schedule
- 16 The Sixties and the Art of Love
- 17 After the Big Stem—the Seventies
- 18 Twilight and Transformation
- 19 Afterlife
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- A WORD ON THE SCRAPBOOKS
- DISCOGRAPHY
- STAGE WORK
- FILMOGRAPHY
- NOTES
- INDEX
- Photographs
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Yes, you can access Brass Diva by Caryl Flinn in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Film & Video. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.