Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman (49 page)

Partly to show off the movie's Technicolor technology, Irene Sharaff's costumes were vibrant and colorful, less subdued than Mainbocher's had been.
(The studio's Charles LeMaire also worked on their designs but had to waive
his credit, "Wardrobe direction by," in order for Fox to procure Sharaff's ser-
vices.)40 Sharaff (191o-93) had a long, distinguished career both on Broadway
and in Hollywood. She excelled at gowns for dance sequences; it was Sharaff
who created Gertrude Lawrence's full-skirted gown for the stage production
of The King and I and Deborah Kerr's in the film. Like Mainbocher's in New
York, Sharaff's work gave Merman a dignified glamour, though here too it is
sent up once when Sally takes up her "supertrain" between her legs to move
about the room more easily.

In Madam, Ethel's outfits have a glamour missing in other film roles; their
very colors show a "new Merm, more subdued and elegant." Stateside, her
character is clad in black dresses, with diamond jewelry and tastefully placed
sparkles in her hair. In Lichtenburg-where most of the movie takes placeshe wears pastels: two pink gowns, one pale blue, a gold-colored dress, and
the pale silver lame "Super Chief." Such care was given to her look that, at
the end, when Cosmo bestows Lichtenburg's ribbon on Sally, its deep pink
is an exact match of her lipstick.

When a reporter asked Merman how she looked on-screen in Technicolor,
she pointed to house cinematographer Leon Shamroy (1901-74) and said,
"Ask him!" When he responded, "She looks great and will surprise everyone,"
she laughed and said, "I could take that for a dirty crack!"41 Ethel loved
Shamroy's work; his lighting made her look radiant, and she insisted on his
services in the forthcoming There's No Business Like Show Business. Shamroy
had an impressive track record in musical and other spectacle pictures, working on South Pacific, The Girl Can't Help It, The Robe, Love Is a Many Splen-
dored Thing, Daddy Long Legs, The King and I, Porgy and Bess, Cleopatra, The
Agony and the Ecstasy, and others. "[Ethel] attributes much of her success in
Hollywood to Leon, she's very quick to say so," said Lou Irwin. "She feels
that Shamroy is a very knowing cinematographer, that he paints with colors
and knows what colors she looks best in. He sees that the sets are dressed with
beautiful flowers which must compliment her beauty and she has very beautiful coloring, and this accentuates it. Walter Lang swears by him. He's one
of the most sensitive directors in Hollywood."" And so the combined work
of Shamroy, Lang, and Sharaff produce a very attractive Ethel. They did not try to make her look younger or steamily glamorous; she was presented as a
high-society adult woman with a womanly figure to show off. (Remarked
Kilgallen of her friend's appearance, "Not a day over 25 in any shot!")43

Censorship

Although Hollywood studios had been submitting their scripts and lyrics for
the approval of the industry's self-censoring agency since 1934, it was probably Zanuck who axed the modest offenses of all the hells and damns in Lindsay and Crouse's book. ("Where the hell is Lichtenburg?" became "Hey Kenneth, where the-where is Lichtenburg?" and "Hey boss, where the heck is
Lichtenburg?") But there was distress up the chain as well: Fox received this
notification: "In the lyric `The Hostess with the Mostes' on the Ball,' we believe the following [italicized] words should be changed: `He can come and
let his hair down l Have the best time of his life l Even bring his new affair
down/Introduce her as his wife/Butshe mustn't leave herpanties in the hall.' "44
When Sally was establishing her authority to her charge d'affaires, Pemberton Maxwell (Billy De Wolfe), Lindsay and Crouse had her say, "I'm the
madam and you're just one of the girls." Not surprisingly, Breen did not approve the line but remarkably accepted it when changed to the equally sexedup "I'm the madam and you're just one of the boys."45

Zanuck was on guard about other items: "About the phone calls to
Harry," he said in a script meeting, "please watch this carefully. We don't
want to be in the position of poking fun of an ex-President of the U.S." Also
axed was a discussion about potatoes and powdered eggs (as a form of foreign aid), which he dropped so as not to appear to be ridiculing the Marshall
Plan.46

A check-off sheet was required for each of the film's characters. Foreign nationals had to be cataloged as either "sympathetic" or "unsympathetic."
(Cosmo received an "indifferent" rating.) The procedure was not unique to
Fox, or to musicals, and reflects conflicting mandates. Cold War fever required that foreigners, even fictional ones, not be depicted too sympathetically, yet the concern about profits abroad could not permit foreign characters to be too unsympathetic. Other items that had to be checked were scenes
depicting drunkenness, violence, gambling, courtrooms, prayers, oaths, divorces, weddings, adultery, illicit sex, and illegitimacy.

Costumes had to be cleared ahead of time before a film was okayed,
and Fox was told: "The greatest possible care [is needed] in the selection and photographing of the dresses and costumes for your women. The Production
Code makes it mandatory that the intimate parts of the body-specifically,
the breasts of women-be fully covered at all times. Any compromise with
this regulation will compel us to withhold approval of your picture. `7 Usually a studio submitted 8% X it still photos of actors in each of their outfits.
Ethel's dresses-largely gowns or light formal wear-feature a lot of exposed
chest. But not to worry-a nearly invisible flesh-colored net was sewn into
garments to cover any excess skin or cleavage that might have sexed up the
proceedings too much.

News Reports

While Call Me Madam was in production, entertainment columnists noted
other milestones. In September, Broadway lost Gertrude Lawrence, the incomparable talent who had been appearing in The King and I-and teaching a weekly drama class at Columbia University-while gravely ill with hepatitis. Ethel sent her condolences and saved the thank-you card from Richard
Aldrich, annotating it, "This is Gertrude Lawrence's husband."

Outside the entertainment world but included in the scrapbooks was a letter from Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver, who spearheaded a crackdown on
organized crime in the early 195os and then went after purveyors of images
that were purportedly pornographic. The letter thanked Ethel for her note
commending him on his work-one of the few scrapbook clippings that ventures into explicitly political terrain.

Ethel pasted in the usual misreports, such as one from Mike Connolly, the
Hollywood Reporter's "Rambling Reporter," who said Merman was dating
Alan Campbell, Dorothy Parker's ex.48 Other Merman escorts in the gossip
sheets included Charles Cushing and James Polk; as late as December 6, after
Call Me Madam's shooting had finished and Ethel was back in New York, a
photo shows her with her "escort Cesar Romero," sharing her faux lover with
Joan Crawford.49 Ethel was a "single girl again after her recent divorce," ran
the story, and here, even the most reliable Merman columnists such as Sullivan and Kilgallen were off the mark.

The more accurate reports asked when wedding bells would ring for Ethel
and Bob Six. "Airlines president Bob Six, whom Ethel Merman is supposed
to marry, just put $io,ooo into a bachelor apartment which, his friends say,
isn't big enough even to hold Ethel's voice."50 In truth, they were planning
to wed as soon as his divorce from Henriette was final, but between Ethel's inborn discretion and Six's marital status (along with his strange insistence
on keeping their union secret after he and Merman actually married in a civil
ceremony), we can see why Ethel might have encouraged false reports of
other romantic partners. Part of it was to keep the press off her back, part to
keep Bob Six happy.

When the West Coast press wasn't speculating on Ethel's marital status, it
was marveling about the possibility of her staying in town for a while. This,
after all, was the "first time she's not got something lined up back in New
York,"51 and her new colleagues seemed eager for her to make her mark there:

La Merman received her first fan letter since she started the film Call Me
Madam at Fox. It was a glowing note her next-door neighbor at the Beverly
Hills Hotel slipped under her door after overhearing the musical sound track.
The neighbor happened to be Rosemary Clooney...... Dear Miss MermanI have a confession to make before I leave town-I'm just down the hall from
you, and I'm afraid I've been guilty of eavesdropping whenever you play your
wonderful sound tracts [sic]. I just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed
them and how anxious I am to see your picture."52

The report was not a publicity stunt; Merman sent Clooney's note to Pop to
save in the scrapbook.

End of Production

Shooting wrapped near Thanksgiving, and Ethel told the press she was tired
and looking forward to taking a break with her children. Within four days,
she was booked to go back to New York, and George "Rosie" Rosenberg,
Merman's film agent at the time, threw a going away party for her at Romanoff's Crown Room. Sitting with Ethel and Bob Six at the first table were
Fox heavyweights Zanuck, Siegel, Lang, Pauley, and their wives, and a solo
Bing Crosby, recently widowed from wife Dixie.

With Call Me Madam now in postproduction, Merman took advantage
of life back in New York. An early event was a huge party thrown by Elsa
Maxwell-another "hostess with the mostes' "-to honor Mary Martin for
her success in South Pacific. Merman was one of hundreds of stars in attendance. Radie Harris noticed that Ethel's ten-pound weight loss for her recent
film "doubled her dynamism,"53 and other columnists were noting how lowcut many of Merman's evening dresses now were. Ethel was pleased with her figure and was justifiably feeling more "womanly" and sexually attractive
than either the media or her career had allowed her to be before. And then
there were the attentions of Bob Six, whose frequent visits to New York she
was happy to accommodate.

Advertisements of the time also showed a softer, more glamorous woman.
A special color magazine ad featured "Ethel Merman, famous star of radio,
stage and screen," posing with monogrammed green luggage and wearing
a sharp business suit, gloves, and her own famous charm bracelet.54 The
worldly elegance of Sally Adams helped companies pitch their products, even
as Ethel continued to promote more down-home products such as Knickerbocker beer, Carling's Ale, and-on a page with lyrics from "Can You Use
Any Money Today?"-Macy's clothing purchased with the store's cashinstallment plan.

Ethel was allowed to be glamorous and classy in a way she hadn't been for
nearly twenty years. Lydia Lane's syndicated "Hollywood Beauty" column,
while not pretending Merman was a pinup (it starts with "she offers a word
of cheer to every girl who doesn't like what she sees in the mirror"), features
Ethel sprinkling advice with references to her upcoming film: "If you have
something on the ball ... and you develop your individuality, you don't have
to be beautiful. The less beautiful a person is the more important it is to stress
other things. I don't think regularity of features means much. You can't just
sit and stare at a pretty face without soon getting bored. Beauty has to be accompanied with something else." What compliment does she get the most?
"I think it's about my hands being graceful and expressive," at which point
Ethel shows her nails and gives readers manicuring tips. The article moves on
to a discussion about makeup in general, giving tips that were rarely solicited
from stars her age.55

Even her outlook and vitality were tied to beauty and health. Asked where
her energy came from, she replied, "People are always asking me that.... I
think part of it comes because I'm happy in what I'm doing. Boredom and
fatigue go together, you know. But I also believe that diet has a lot to do with
it. I love raw meat-I can eat it by the pound.... And I find tea quite a stimulant. During a show when I drink 8 or 9 cups of tea in my dressing room, I
find I don't get tired." Worrying, she said, is what makes people tired. "When
I go home, I leave the show with all its problems behind me."56

Ethel spent Christmas 1952 in New York with family and then left for a
vacation in Palm Beach. Walter Lang had a big bottle of Bollinger champagne
delivered to her there to celebrate New Year's Eve, which she feted at a party
hosted by Jayne and Charles Wrightsman, joining guests Joseph, Jack, and Bob Kennedy and members of the Detroit Ford family. The Duchess of
Windsor had invited Ethel to perform at a charity ball on January S at the
Waldorf-Astoria to benefit war veterans, which Ethel canceled when a cold
kept her down in Florida.

The big event that month for Ethel, like for many Americans, was the
inauguration of war hero Dwight Eisenhower, the first Republican president since Herbert Hoover. His election was settled back in November,
when Ethel was still working on the film, but once she was free she became
an active part of the plans for the January 19 pre-inaugural festivities.
(Eisenhower declined to attend, announcing that he wouldn't be making
any public Washington appearances before being sworn in on the zoth.)
Variety published the event's confirmed list: "Merman, Lily Pons, Edgar
Bergen, Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, Helen Hayes, Hoagy, Walter
Pidgeon, Menjou, Jeanette MacDonald, Gaxton, Allan Jones, et al."57
Ethel's first place on the list indicates how bright her star was shining at the
time.

Bob Six accompanied Ethel to Washington on a special flight of the Continental flagship, along with Colorado governor Thornton and other state officials. The inaugural ball, where Ethel performed "There's No Business Like
Show Business," proved one of the most lavish of the century and was broadcast on television. In all there were five bands, a thousand military aircraft flying overhead, a parade, and a second ball to handle overflow from the main
one at Georgetown's National Armory. (Earl Wilson grumbled the next day
that "It was all just too big.")58 As for Merman's performance, "Ethel could
have even made the Democrats happy."59