Song:Everything's Coming Up Roses
Album:Gypsy: Original Broadway Cast: 50th Anniversary Edition
Ethel Merman was the First Lady of musical theater. She was known for her big voice. And though in her later years she became a bit of a parody of herself, there's no question that she needed that big voice in the early days of Broadway. Everything's Coming Up Roses is one of several signature songs from a show written for her. She was born Ethel Zimmerman Jan. 16, 1908 in Astoria, Queen's, NY. She always claimed she was born in 1912. Her parents took her to vaudeville shows and later on Ethel sang in nightclubs while working as a secretary during the day. She changed her name to Merman because she thought Zimmerman was too long for a marquee. She went to Hollywood in 1930 and worked for Warner Bros. But she didn't like sitting around waiting to be cast. So when the opportunity came to star in the new Gershwin musical Girl Crazy, she jumped at it and it made her a star. Ethel would appear occasionally in films. But for the most part she starred in Broadway musicals like Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun and many others. Gypsy was actually her final original show in 1959. Of course it's based on the life of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee and the music by Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne was tailored for Ethel Merman. Everything's Coming Up Roses was her big song in the show. Unfortunately, she did not star in the film version. She got squeezed out by Rosalind Russell's husband. The Original Broadway Cast of Gypsy is now available on CD with bonus tracks. In her later years, Ethel Merman became a regular on TV talk and variety shows and occasionally appeared in films and on stage. I'm not sure folks in that era knew how important she was in the development of musical theater. Ethel Merman died on Feb. 15, 1984 at age 76. Here's Ethel Merman performing Everything's Coming Up Roses on an early 80s Tony Awards show.
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