MERMAN, ETHEL. Grande dame of the musical theater, whose brassy singing enthralled decades of listeners; b. Ethel Zimmerman, Queens, New York, ; d. New York, New York, .
Ethel Merman and Mary Martin are considered the two greatest actresses in the history of the American musical theater. Merman was the more boisterous of the two. Whereas Martin was a sexy tomboy, Merman was an up-front, no-nonsense dame. In an October 28, 1940, cover story on...