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Overview"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." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Caryl FlinnPublisher: University of California Press Imprint: University of California Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.912kg ISBN: 9780520229426ISBN 10: 0520229428 Pages: 556 Publication Date: 30 November 2007 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Print Availability: Out of stock  Table of Contentspreface vii 1 / Beginnings 1 2 / From Stenographer to Star 30 3 / The Early Thirties 67 4 / To Hollywood and Back Again 90 5 / Broadway's Brightest: The Early Forties 113 6 / Forging a Family 138 7 / What Comes Natur'lly: Annie Get Your Gun 150 8 / Call Me Madam 177 9 / A More Complex Image 192 10 / Madam in Hollywood 218 11 / Life with Six 239 12 / There's No Business Like Show Business 255 13 / From Mrs. Six to Mama Rose 278 14 / Gypsy: Ethel Merman's Musical Fable 293 15 / It's a Mad, Mad Schedule 333 16 / The Sixties and the Art of Love 347 17 / After the Big Stem--the Seventies 374 18 / Twilight and Transformation 401 19 / Afterlife 415 acknowledgments 429 a word on the scrapbooks 433 discography 437 stage work 443 filmography 463 notes 473 index 000Reviews"""This well-written and psychologically astute portrait will satisfy musical theater fans and anyone who loves a snappy comeback.""--The Advocate ""Masterfully analyzes Merman's work on stage, screen and TV with a sophisticated eye for detail that will delight theater buffs.""--Publishers Weekly" Ethel returns for another biographical bow, following Brian Kellow's Ethel Merman: A Life (2007).Had Gustav Mahler composed the score to Merman's brassy Broadway triumph Gypsy, he might have fashioned a work as somnolent as this biography of the musical comedy star. Flinn (Women's Studies, Media Art/Univ. of Arizona; The New German Cinema, 2004, etc.) gives the diva's life a decidedly academic spin. Sandbagging the account of the Merm's life are fuzzy, prolix discussions of her image as created by the press, the roles she played and the rise in the past century of suburbia and mass transportation. There are considerations, as well, of the racialization of Merman and the Rosified Merman that emerged after Gypsy. The author's thesis is that many Mermans existed, and that some of them, created by external forces, were at odds with the person she really was. The evidence of Merman's life, even as Flinn traces it, challenges that notion. From all accounts - including Kellow's vibrant and far superior version - Merman, both onstage and off, from first day to last, was consistently confident, centered and straightforward. Extensive observations from Merman's son Bob Levitt and from her longtime friend Tony Cointreau lend some focus, but other sources are too far removed from the subject to answer the many questions Flinn raises. Many of Merman's quotes, taken from newspaper and magazine interviews, read as if they were carefully manicured by press agents.A languorous biography ill-suiting the energetic star's life. (Kirkus Reviews) This well-written and psychologically astute portrait will satisfy musical theater fans and anyone who loves a snappy comeback. --The Advocate Masterfully analyzes Merman's work on stage, screen and TV with a sophisticated eye for detail that will delight theater buffs. --Publishers Weekly Author InformationCaryl Flinn lives and works in Tucson, where she is a Professor at the University of Arizona. She is the author of The New German Cinema: Music, History and the Matter of Style (UC Press), Strains of Utopia, and Music and Cinema (co-edited with James Buhler and David Neumeyer). Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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