Customer Reviews

Ethel Merman: The Biggest Star on Broadway

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1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is a ghastly book. Ethel Merman deserves better. Leaving aside all the errors in grammar and puncutation, and the endless repetition of phrases and words, there is little to admire in this book. Ironically, Geoffrey Mark, enthusiastically thanks his editor in an early chapter. For what? Had this been a student paper I would have handed it back full of red ink. Among the many glaring problems with grammar, the most obvious is the lack of footnotes. Story after story, anecdote after anecdote are repeated with no attribution. There are those who would consider this plagiarism, but apparently the folks at Barricade Books do not.

The author criticizes the other books on Merman that are out there, at the same time helping himself liberally to everything that is in them. For example, in Merman's autobiography she writes that she bled "like a stuck pig" during a filming accident in Hollywood in the 1930s. Mark uses the same exact words to describe the same incident. More than 90 percent of what you read has been written before and is available from previously published sources and from the Internet.

Mark makes astounding claims, such as Merman's birthday really being 1906 and not 1908, and does not bother to substantiate this claim or reveal his source material. Another odd claim is that she sang with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1934 and that a recording exists. Sure the recording is out there, but no one has ever written that it is Ethel Merman. People have written that it "sounds" like Merman, but another singer is always credited. Another odd claim is that one of the songs from "Call Me Madam" was recorded in 1955 and not at the time of the original Decca recording. The recording dates, which have been published, do not substantiate that fact. As a further example of the inaccuracy of the author, he writes that Merman first did the television program, "The Match Game" between 1967 and 1969. The show aired for the first time in 1973. These are facts that would have been easy to check and correct.

It is also interesting to note that there are no quotations from Ethel Merman's son or her grandchildren. It is quite unusual that there are no contributions from these individuals.

The author has a rather odd fascination with Merman's hairstyles, her weight, her breasts, her sex life, her gowns and her makeup, while revealing little of her magic as a performer. He uses the words "point her massive breasts" in two consecutive paragraphs in an early chapter of the book. Why could not an editor have caught this? There is also a great lack of critical commentary in this book. We get no idea of what critics thought of Ethel Merman and why she was so successful as a performer. And the author's habit of referring to Ethel Merman as Miss Zimm, Mermo, the Merm, Mermsky, etc etc does not make for scholarly reading. Also the author doesn't have much knowledge of vocal terminology. He misuses the terms "quaver" and "vibrato" continuously, even going so far as to say that Merman had a "quaver in her vibrato" -- which makes no sense.

Throughout the book the author is coy towards his subject and rather disrespectful, openly criticizing Merman for her behavior and condemning her for things she did or did not do during her career. The author is an arm chair psychologist and offers many (unfounded) observations about his subject, including a supposed "oral fixation" that he felt was part of Merman's psyche. On the same token the author does stick up for Merman when he states that she wasn't the "bitch" that she was supposed to be, but that doesn't give him the liberty of telling the reader all the mistakes Merman made with her life and how could have done better by doing this or that.

What does work, and the only thing that does work in this book, is the detailed analysis Mark offers of Merman's radio, film, television appearances and recordings. Despite some factual errors, this is an interesting section and well written. It is a shame the rest of the book isn't like this.

I am told that there is to be a scholarly treatment of Merman's life to published at a later date. That would be a welcome "antitode" to this gossipy and in the long run very silly book.

Very very disappointing. Would give it zero stars if I could.

After hearing for years that Geoffrey Mark Fidelman (he dropped the last name for this book) was writing a biography of Ethel Merman, I was very excited to purchase this book from Amazon. I read it in one afternoon and was more than disappointed. First of all this is not ancient Egypt and information can be checked and doubled checked at this point in time. The author lists the actresses who starred in film versions of Merman's shows and then makes mistakes such as Ann Miller appearing in "Take A Chance" (it was Lillian Roth) and Martha Raye doing "Red, Hot,And Blue. (this was Betty Hutton but not a film version of the Cole Porter show!) It should also be added that not one film, show, television, or song title appears in the index AND the index pages in many cases don't match up when you attempt to look up a name. The recordings are also incomplete in that he does not list her test recordings of the songs from "Girl Crazy" or her other deleted song from "Alexander's Ragtime Band". For the record this was " Slumming On Park Avenue"! Discographies with this information are easily obtainable. He also tells us that the radio and television listing is incomplete because " too many have been lost to history". I have programs in my collection that are not even listed so he should have tried a little harder. The shows and films she appeared in are given short shrift in favor of discussing Merman's sex life which is very crassly outlined in some detail. Why a so-called expert would take this course in writing a book about some one he knows ALL about is beyond me and does an insult to his subject and to the readers as well. The definitive Merman book has yet to be written and we have waited to long to have a crude account like this one.

There is a distinction about this book; it isn't the worst book we've ever read in our lives, but awfully close. Merman's life has already been revealed in several other times (most notably her 1978 autobiography and the Bob Thomas' solid 1984 I Got Rhythm); here author Geoffrey Mark promises to tell the truth. Really? Where? Merman's alleged lesbian love affair with Jacqueline Susann has been documented already, as has the tragic death of her daughter Ethel Jr. and her very brief marriage to Ernest Borgnine. The book needs major editing and proofreading. Any book boasting lines such as "Romantically, she thought with her vagina" deserves to be slow-roasted, then spit out.

For such a colorful woman, it's amazing that this is the first true biography of her. More than twenty years after her death, her name still rings out for us and the title of the book is still apt. People of all ages know "The Merm."

Or they know the shows of "The Merm." The most disappointing aspect of this book is that the author doesn't seem at all interesting in helping us understand those shows. The fact of their existence is enough to pass the time. Stories that have become part of the lore (hating Fernando Lamas, the criss-cross names for billing) are comming and Mark doesn't add anything to them. He does not ever delve into any of the shows, providing historical information on what it was like to be at a Merman show, to experience Merman as a performer. There is not even any dissection of the shows. To hear Mark tell it, Happy Hunting may have been as big a hit as Call Me Madam. The difference is barely discussed, and Gypsy gets even shorter shrift, except to tell us how exhausting it was for her.

As far as her personal life, Mark is again content to revel in a few juicy tidbits (the Loretta Young story has been around for years) and tries to force others into seeming juicy, but he doesn't seem to have found anything new. I have heard stories from people who knew Merman that would have made ideal insertions here, instructive as to her personality and just plain funny. If I could have heard these stories casually over the years, Mark could have found them as well.

That's the problem. Mark seems to have done no research at all. He's condensing an astounding life into less than 200 pages without adding anything of his own. He's merely collecting bits of information that exist other places without doing any real research of his own to deepen or clarify this fascinating subject. Though Merman's autobiography is howlingly inaccurate, it remains the best piece we have about her, for at least it does detail SOME information now and then.

Merman still deserves a ripe, full and complex account of her life. She shouldn't still be deserving it, not after all of these years. It should have been done already, but another opportunity has passed by unfulfilled.

Obviously, this man has nothing on his mind but sex and secrets, because that is all this horrific book is about. With the exception of several interesting tidbits about "Gypsy" (Her dislike for Sandra Church, etc.) all this book covers is secrets about Ethel Merman and her sex life. We needn't hear about how one of her breif marriages was ruined because her husband couldn't get an erection. We needn't hear how Merman desperately tried to have an affair with "Gypsy" composer Jule Styne. What we want to hear is stories about her shows- the staging, the backstage turmoil and triumph.
There is an interesting listing of televison shows, films and stage shows featuring Merman, however, besides that, this is utter trailer trash.

Don't bother buying this book unless you are a fan of supermarket tabloids. There are many factual errors & the author seems far more interested in speculating about Ms. Merman's private life than in providing factual information on one of the greatest performers in Broadway history. I was furtunate enough to see Ms. Merman in all of the shows she did after 1940. She was a true original & deserves nuch, much better than she receives from this author.

Absolute drek. But where to begin? The author's constant use of the heretofor unknown nickname "Mermo"? His skewed critical facilities (Merman's overbearing "Mad World" performance was worthy of an Oscar nomination?!)? Or his near complete disregard for facts and a fractured chronology that will have even the most casual Merman observer rolling their eyes? The "Ethel Merman Disco Album" of star bios.

The book is nicely produced with excellent photos and a polished, professional look. The professionalism ends there. The writer flits randomly but amiably among first, second and third person, with breathless accounts of events that, in some cases, are exaggerated beyond recognition. The book appears not to have been fact checked (Merman and Robbins embracing after "Rose's Turn" in 1954????). So there has yet to be a definitive Merman biography. This one brings us no closer.

Ethel Merman remains one of Broadway's most colorful stars, and there is enough fodder for a really good book covering here career.

This isn't it.

Geoffrey Mark's book is riddled with factual errors. A few glaring ones:

Merman was born in 1908 (not 1906!)(A line in THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINES sums it up: "My age is the only thing I lie about and I don't add on, I take off!")

Merman recorded "The Hostess with the Mostes' " for Decca in November 1950 and it WAS on the original 12" Lp release. Where does the author come up with the claim that it was added to the 1955 reissue??? Better research needed.

Merman did NOT claim in her autobiography that Sandra Church died in obscurity. (She did say something like that about her GYPSY standby!) In fact Merman says nothing negative about Church at all.

These (and other wrong dates and misstatements) destroy the credibility of other passages that Marks claims exclusive knowledge. Does anyone REALLY know what happened between Miss Merman and Ernest Borgnine on their wedding night?

Worst of all, the discography misses label and catalogue numbers for many releases but includes a few. Maddening.

I can't fault the author for his opinions, but when he spends the opening chapter lambasting Merman's two autobiographies and Bob Thomas's excellent I GOT RHYTHM only to directly steal passages from all three something is out of balance.

It's a shame that the warmth and respect he had for Lucille Ball in the book on her TV series is nowhere in evidence here.

I thumbed through this at the bookstore; Ethel Merman is overdue for an examination of her life and career. Jumping to the end, I noticed no reference was made to her final screen appearance (a cameo) in AIRPLANE. It was as if it didn't exist.
I put the book down and walked away.
'Nuff said.