Ethel Merman: A Life by Kellow Brian

Author:Kellow, Brian [Kellow, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2007-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Happy Hunting was a musical brought to life for all the wrong reasons. The wellspring of the show was Robert Six’s greed and ambition. He had already grown dissatisfied with his marriage to Ethel Merman, Retired Broadway Star. To his way of thinking, if he had gone to the trouble of marrying Ethel Merman, she should remain in the limelight; there was much greater dollar-for-dollar value to Continental in having her in the full glare of the public eye. Now that Hollywood had once again turned its back on her, Six began prodding her to think about returning to Broadway. With that, her lovely dream of domestic quietude began to crumble.

Many songwriters had tried to lure Ethel back to the stage by sending her their scores, in either complete or partial form. Even Irving Berlin had tried to cajole her into doing a show he had partially written called The Last Resorts. Always the answer was no. Harold Karr and Matt Dubey, then, were extremely lucky to find her in a receptive mood when they flew out to Denver and auditioned their songs for the show that would become Happy Hunting. Ethel was not overly impressed, but in the face of Six’s enthusiasm she agreed to consider the project. Six hammered away at her, telling her that he thought the score, even in its incomplete form, sounded like the basis for a tremendous hit.

Other pressures were brought to bear, too: Jo Mielziner, who had designed Stars in Your Eyes and Annie Get Your Gun, wanted to produce as well as design the show, and he worked overtime trying to persuade her that she should commit to it. So did Abe Burrows, one of Broadway’s hottest directors since his success with Guys and Dolls and Can-Can. Six began canvassing several of his business associates to put up money for the show, and when Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse expressed interest in writing the book, Ethel found herself outnumbered. Since it was so important to Six that she sign on, she decided to be a good wife and gave in.

Her own motives weren’t entirely innocent. Like Six, she was driven partly by avarice. Anna Crouse felt that her decision to do Happy Hunting showed “one of her weaknesses. She said, ‘I don’t like these big composers getting all this money.’” Ethel reasoned that taking a chance on an unknown team might work to her advantage financially; it would be easy enough to refuse to do the show unless she gained leverage over the songwriters on the percentage of the show’s profits. She was also beginning to worry a bit about her finances. Although she was well fixed for the moment, a great deal of money was going out, and not much was coming in. When they married, she and Six had agreed to split all expenses fifty-fifty, but in recent months she felt that she had been burdened with more than her fair share. Whenever the family flew anywhere on Continental, the airlines billed Ethel for three-quarters of the fares—for herself, Ethel Jr.

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