Ethel Merman: A Life (44 page)

Anything Goes
(Paramount, 1936)

P
RODUCER
: Benjamin Glazer

D
IRECTOR
: Lewis Milestone

C
AMERA
: Karl Struss

C
AST
: Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman (as Reno Sweeney), Charles Ruggles, Ida Lupino, Arthur Treacher, Grace Bradley, Margaret Dumont

Happy Landing
(20th Century Fox, 1938)

D
IRECTOR
: Roy del Ruth

W
RITERS
: Milton Sperling, Boris Ingster

C
AMERA
: John J. Mescall

C
AST
: Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman (as Flo Kelly), Cesar Romero, Jean Hersholt, Billy Gilbert, the Raymond Scott Quintet

Alexander’s Ragtime Band
(20th Century Fox, 1938)

D
IRECTOR
: Henry King

W
RITERS
: Kathryn Scola, Lamar Trotti (adaptation, Richard Sherman)

C
AMERA
: J. Peverell Marley

C
AST
: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman (as Gerry Allen), Jack Haley, Jean Hersholt, Helen Westley, Paul Hurst, Ruth Terry, John Carradine

Straight, Place and Show
(20th Century Fox, 1939)

D
IRECTOR
: David Butler

W
RITERS
: M. H. Musselman, Allen Rivkin (additional dialogue, Lew Brown), based on a play by Damon Runyon and Irving Caesar

C
AMERA
: Ernest Palmer

C
AST
: The Ritz Brothers, Richard Arlen, Ethel Merman (as Linda Tyler), Phyllis Brooks

Stage Door Canteen
(Sol Lesser–American Theater Wing–United Artists, 1943)

D
IRECTOR
: Frank Borzage

W
RITER
: Delmer Daves

C
AMERA
: Harry J. Wild

C
AST
: Cheryl Walker, William W. Terry, Marjorie Riordan, Lon MacAllister, Margaret Early, plus many guest stars, including Ethel Merman, Katharine Cornell, Katharine Hepburn, Helen Hayes, Ina Claire, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Judith Anderson, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Aline McMahon, Harpo Marx, George Raft, Tallulah Bankhead, Gertrude Lawrence, Gypsy Rose Lee, Virginia Grey

Call Me Madam
(20th Century Fox, 1953)

P
RODUCER
: Sol C. Stegel

D
IRECTOR
: Walter Lang

W
RITER
: Arthur Sheekman

C
AMERA
: Leon Shamroy

C
AST
: Ethel Merman (as Sally Adams), George Sanders, Donald O’Connor, Vera-Ellen, Billy DeWolfe, Walter Slezak, Ludwig Stossel, Lilia Skala

There’s No Business Like Show Business
(20th Century Fox, 1954)

D
IRECTOR
: Walter Lang

W
RITERS
: Phoebe and Henry Ephron (Lamar Trotti, story)

C
AMERA
: Leon Shamroy

C
AST
: Ethel Merman (as Molly Donahue), Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe, Johnnie Ray, Hugh O’Brian, Richard Eastham, Frank McHugh, Rhys Williams, Lee Patrick

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
(Stanley Kramer–United Artists, 1963)

P
RODUCER
/D
IRECTOR
: Stanley Kramer

W
RITERS
: William and Tania Rose

C
AMERA
: Ernest Laszlo

C
AST
: Spencer Tracy, Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman (as Mrs. Marcus), Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, plus many guest stars, including Jimmy Durante, Jerry Lewis, Don Knotts, Joe E. Brown, ZaSu Pitts, Ben Blue, Paul Ford

The Art of Love
(Universal, 1965)

D
IRECTOR
: Norman Jewison

W
RITER
: Carl Reiner, from a story by Richard Alan Simmons and William Sackheim

C
AMERA
: Russell Metty

C
AST
: James Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer, Angie Dickinson, Ethel Merman (as Madame Coco la Fontaine), Carl Reiner

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
(Columbia, 1976)

P
RODUCER
: David V. Picker

D
IRECTOR
: Michael Winner

W
RITERS
: Arnold Schulman, Cy Howard

C
AMERA
: Richard H. Kline

C
AST
: Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Teri Garr, Phil Silvers, plus many guest stars, including Richard Arlen, Milton Berle, Janet Blair, Joan Blondell, Yvonne De Carlo, Alice Faye, Rhonda Fleming, Dick Haymes, Dorothy Lamour, Virginia Mayo, Ethel Merman (as Hedda Parsons), Ann Miller, Louis Nye, Walter Pidgeon, Aldo Ray, Ann Rutherford, Rudy Vallee, Henny Youngman

Airplane!
(Paramount, 1980)

P
RODUCER
: Jon Davison, Howard W. Koch

E
XECUTIVE PRODUCERS
: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

D
IRECTOR
: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

W
RITERS
: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

C
AMERA
: Joseph F. Biroc

C
AST
: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Joyce Bulifant, plus many guest stars, including Howard Jarvis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barbara Billingsley, Ethel Merman (as Lieutenant Hurwitz)

TELEVISION APPEARANCES

Ethel Merman was a frequent guest on all manner of variety and comedy series, talk shows, and game shows. What follows is a list of selected appearances only.

Thru the Crystal Ball,
CBS, 1949

Texaco Star Theater,
NBC, 1949

Toast of the Town,
CBS, 1953

The Colgate Comedy Hour: The Ethel Merman Show,
NBC, 1954

The Colgate Comedy Hour: Anything Goes,
NBC, 1954

The Best of Broadway: Panama Hattie,
CBS, 1954

The Shower of Stars: Show Stoppers,
CBS, 1955

The Toast of the Town,
CBS, 1955

Person to Person,
CBS, 1955

The Chevy Show,
NBC, 1955

GE Theatre,
episode, “Reflected Glory,” CBS, 1956

The U.S. Steel Hour,
episode, “Honest in the Rain,” CBS, 1956

The DuPont Show of the Month,
NBC, 1957

The Perry Como Show,
NBC, 1957

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show,
NBC, 1958

The Frank Sinatra Show,
ABC, 1958

The Eddie Fisher Show,
NBC, 1958

The Ed Sullivan Show,
CBS, 1959

Ford Startime: Ethel Merman on Broadway,
NBC, 1959

The Bell Telephone Hour: The Four of Us,
NBC, 1960

Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall,
NBC, 1960

GE Theatre: The Gershwin Years,
CBS, 1961

The Bob Hope Show,
NBC, 1962

Vacation Playhouse: Maggie Brown
(unsold pilot), CBS, 1963

Lincoln Center Day,
CBS, 1963

The Red Skelton Hour,
CBS, 1963

The Judy Garland Show,
CBS, 1963, 1964

The Bell Telephone Hour: The Music of Cole Porter,
NBC, 1964

The Lucy Show,
episode, “Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing,” CBS, 1964

The Lucy Show,
episode, “Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show,” CBS, 1964

Kraft Suspense Theatre,
episode, “’Twixt the Cup and the Lip,” NBC, 1965

What’s My Line?,
CBS, 1965

The Mike Douglas Show,
syndicated, 1965

The Dean Martin Show,
NBC, 1965

I’ve Got a Secret,
CBS, 1965

The Hollywood Palace,
ABC, 1966