- Ethel Merman, Lyda Roberti, and Mae West
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Ethel Merman (1932-1935), Lyda Roberti (1934), Mae West (1933)
- Eadie Was A Lady - Ethel Merman Time: 4:33
- An Earful Of Music - Ethel Merman Time: 2:12
- You're A Builder Upper - Ethel Merman Time: 1:59
- I Get A Kick Out Of You - Ethel Merman Time: 2:23
- You're The Top - Ethel Merman Time: 2:11
- The Lady In Red - Ethel Merman Time: 2:09
- It's The Animal In Me - Ethel Merman Time: 2:28
- College Rhythm - Lyda Roberti Time: 2:11
- Take A Number From One To Ten - Lyda Roberti Time: 2:15
- A Guy What Takes His Time - Mae West Time: 2:05
- (I Wonder Where My) Easy Rider's Gone - Mae West Time: 1:51
- I'm No Angel - Mae West Time: 2:40
- I Found A New Way To Go To Town - Mae West Time: 2:02
- I Want You--i Need You - Mae West Time: 1:58
- They Call Me Sister Honky Tonk - Mae West Time: 2:04
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Side One
ETHEL MERMAN (1932-1935)
EADIE WAS A LADY (Buddy DeSyrva-Nacio Herb Brown-Richard Whiting) From the Musical Production Take a Chance, with THE TAKE A CHANCE OCTETTE. Recorded 12/16/32, mx B 12735-B, B 12736-B, Brunswick 6456 (5:57).
AN EARFUL OF MUSIC (Gus Kahn-Walter Donaldson) From the Samuel Goldwyn Picture Kid Millions, with JOHNNY GREEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA. Recorded 10/8/34, mx B 16117-A, Brunswick 6995 (2:52).
YOU'RE A BUILDER UPPER (Ira Gershwin-E.Y. Harburg-Horold Arlen) From the Musical Production Life Begins at Eight Forty, with JOHNNY GREEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA. Recorded 10/8/34, mx B 16118-A, Brunswick 6995 (2:34).
I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU (Cole Porter) From the Musical Production Anything Goes, with JOHNNY GREEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA. Recorded 12/4/34, mx B 16397-A, Brunswick 7342 (3:05).
YOU'RE THE TOP (Cole Porter) From the Musical Production Anything Goes. with JOHNNY GREEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA. Recorded 12/4/34, mx B 16398-A, Brunswick 7342 (2.49).
THE LADY IN RED (Mort Dixon-Allie Wrubel) From the Warner Bros. Picture In Caliente. Orchestra Conducted by AL GOODMAN. Recorded 7/17/35, mx B 17824-1, Brunswick 7491 (2 46).
IT'S THE ANIMAL IN ME (Mack Gordon-Harry Revel) From the Paramount Picture The Big Broadcast of 1936. Orchestra Conducted by AL GOODMAN. Recorded 7/17/35, mx B 17825-1, Brunswick 7491 (3:12).
Side Two
LYDA ROBERTI (1934)
COLLEGE RHYTHM (Mack Gordon-Harry Revel) From the Paramount Picture College Rhythm, with JIMMIE GRIER AND HIS ORCHESTRA. Recorded 10/5/34, mx LA 228-A, Columbia 2967-D (2,50).
TAKE A NUMBER FROM ONE TO TEN (Mack Gordon-Harry Revel) From the Paramount Picture College Rhythm, with JIMMIE GRIER AND HIS ORCHESTRA. Recorded 10/5/34, mx LA 227-B, Columbia 2967-D (2:55).
MAE WEST (1933)
A GUY WHAT TAKES HIS TIME (Ralph Rainger) From the Paramount Picture She Done Him Wrong. Recorded 2/7/33, mx B 13037-B, Brunswick 6495 (2,41).
(I WONDER WHERE MY) EASY RIDER'S GONE (Shelton Brooks) From the Paramount Picture She Done Him Wrong. Recorded 2/7/33, mx B 13038-A, Brunswick 6495 (2:22).
I'M NO ANGEL (Gladys DuBois-Ben Ellison-Harvey Brooks) From the Paramount Picture I'm No Angel. Recorded 10/3/33, mx LA 33-B, Brunswick 6675 (3:29).
I FOUND A NEW WAY TO GO TO TOWN (Gladys DuBois-Ben Ellison-Harvey Brooks) From the Paramount Picture I'm No Angel. Recorded 10/3/33, mx LA 34-B, Brunswick 6675 (2,38).
I WANT YOU-I NEED YOU (Ben Ellison-Harvey Brooks) From the Paramount Picture I'm No Angel. Recorded 10/7/33, mx LA 62-A, Brunswick 6676 (2,33).
THEY CALL ME SISTER HONKY TONK (Gladys DuBois-Ben Ellison-Harvey Brooks) From the Paramount Picture I'm No Angel. Recorded 10/7/33, mx LA 61-B, Brunswick 6676 (2,54).
The selections are ASCAP.
Produced by Miles Kreuger
Transferred from discs and edited by George Engfer
Cover caricatures by Al Kilgore
Film shorts research by Romano Tozzi
ETHEL MERMAN (1932-1935)
LYDA ROBERTI (1934)
MAE WEST (1933)
On October 14, 1930, the posh opening nighters that jammed into Broadway's Alvin Theatre to see Girl Crazy were there primarily to hear the latest Gershwin score and laugh with their favorite funnyman, Willie Howard. Love songs like "Embraceable You" went to a pert and pretty (though largely inaudible) redhead in the lead, Ginger Rogers. Fifth billing fell to a girl with frizzy black hair, a swaggering strut, and the assurance of a bull entering a rodeo ring. Toward the end of Act One, this gal suddenly burst into a belting, boisterous, bluesy ballad called "Sam and Delilah," which echoed all the way down to the far end of Times Square. When she followed this with "I Got Rhythm" and "Boy! What Love Has Done to Me," the American Musical Theatre had found its new first lady, Ethel Merman.
Three months later, on January 19, 1931, six blocks south of the Alvin, at the 46th Street Theatre, a modest college musical, You Said It, made its quiet Broadway bow, with a score by a new composer, Harold Arlen, and starring Jewish-dialect comedian Lou Holtz. The Act One finale, a jazzy little number called "Sweet and Hot," was introduced by an adorable, youthful comedienne with tiny twinkling eyes, round apple cheeks, platinum blonde curls, and a personality as volatile as a pan of popcorn on a hot stove. When Lyda Roberti, with that incredible Polish accent of hers, sang "Sveet and Chott' (with an unspellable gutteral "H" that defies the pathetic limitations of the standard alphabet), she tore the house down.
Even if August 17, 1892 is her correct birth date, Mae West was at least forty when she made her screen debut in a brief but pungent supporting role in the George Raft gangster flick, Night After Night (Paramount, 1932). Dripping with jewels, she sidled into a crowded gambling casino, where a hatcheck girl, noticing her adornments, commented, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds," to which Miss West slyly cooed, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Hollywood had a new star.
What do these three ladies have in common that links their recordings under one cover? To begin with, each is a singing comedienne with a trunkful of stage, screen and vaudeville credits. Each played the Palace and reached the pinnacle of fame within a two-year period of the others. But more important, each is blessed with a personality and appearance that is utterly unlike any other performer, before or since. There are other belters, but only one Merman; other sex-bombs, but only one Mae West; other sprightly platinum blondes, but only one Lyda Roberti. The recordings heard in this album represent each star at the height of her creative powers. They comprise 100 per cent of the Merman-Roberti-West recordings in the Columbia archives and are therefore Columbia's definitive contribution to the work of these great ladies.
• • •
Ethel Agnes Zimmermann was born on January 16, 1908, on the top floor of her grandmother's house at 359 Fourth Avenue, Astoria, New York. As a child, this daughter of a dry-goods-store accountant sang at the family's Lutheran church and her father's Masonic lodge; and, at eight, she was already entertaining troops at Camp Mills on Long Island.
Blessed with no shortage of common sense, young Ethel became a diligent student of shorthand and typing at William Cullen Bryant High School and, after graduation, worked as a secretary to Caleb S. Bragg, president of the B. K. Vacuum Booster Brake Company. Outside the office, she continued to perform at social functions; and finally, during the summer of 1929, she landed a two-week engagement at the Little Russia, a cellar bistro at 100 West 57th Street, near Carnegie Hall. She was spotted there by talent agent Lou Irwin, who got her a Warner Bros. contract that led to only one film, a musical short set in a jungle. In November, she opened at the swanky Les Ambassadeurs, on a bill headed by the new comedy team Clayton, Jackson, and Durante. Just as everything was beginning to click, she was plagued by a bad throat and had to have her tonsils removed.
During her recovery, Irwin booked her into the out-of-the-way Roman Pools Casino, in Miami Beach. Returning home with a tan and a newly abbreviated last name, Miss Merman teamed up with pianist-arranger Al Siegel, who helped her develop her blues style. The team broke in their act at the Ritz Theatre, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and, in the summer of 1930, were booked into the Brooklyn Paramount, doubling on weekend nights at the Pavilion Royal, in Valley Stream, Long Island. It was during this time that Ethel was signed by Paramount Pictures and appeared in a series of short musical films, beginning with "Her Future."
It was at the Brooklyn Paramount that producer Vinton Freedley saw Ethel and signed her for Girl Crazy. As if one section of her career had to be completed before she moved on to the next section, Merman reached the culmination of her brief but meteoric vaudeville career by opening at the Palace on September 13, 1930, at the very same time she was rehearsing for her Broadway debut. While appearing in Girl Crazy evenings, she raced out to the Astoria studios of Paramount during the day to moke not only shorts, but her feature-film debut in Follow the Leader (Paramount, 1930), in which her Broadway colleague, Ginger Rogers, also appeared. As if this work load were not enough, she also managed to take the nightclub world by storm in a spectacular engagement at the ultra-chic Central Park Casino, where she was backed by Leo Reisman's Orchestra and the piano of Eddy Duchin.
After Girl Crazy, Merman played opposite Rudy Vallee in George White's Scandals of 1931 (September 14, 1931, Apollo) and made her recording debut for RCA Victor on September 28, 1932. On November 26, 1932, she opened at the Apollo in Take a Chance, from which she made her first originalcast recording, a double-sided version of her showstopper, "Eadie Was a Lady," a most singular example of double entendre, set in a bordello, with
Ethel wandering among drunken sailors in a sleazy feather boa and too many ruffles. Side One of the Brunswick 78 ends with the dirty two-bar vamp heard on this LP, while a similar vamp that originally opened Side Two had to be eliminated in order to join the two sides.
Neither "You're a Builder Upper" nor "The Lady in Red" was introduced by Ethel Merman, but both are stylistically right up her alley. "An Earful of Music" is her contribution to the Eddie Cantor picture, Kid Millions (United Artists, 1934), in which the plot requires her to masquerade as his mother!!!! Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "You're the Top," both from her great stage and screen hit, Anything Goes (November 21, 1934, Alvin), are probably her most familiar recordings. "It's the Animal in Me" was originally filmed for We're Not Dressing (Paramount, 1934) but, except for the reprise of a few bars in the finale, was cut from the final print. The footage later turned up intact in the all-star spectacle The Big Broadcast of ?936 (Paramount, 1935). One of the maddest numbers ever filmed, it depicts our Ethel, dressed in a Tarzan costume, swinging from jungle tree to tree on vines and ending up on the back of an elephant, who then proceeds to join other elephants in a vertically photographed geometric dance number that is either a wild spoof of Busby Berkeley or simply some poor director's hangover.
• • •
Very little is known about the early years of Lyda Roberti, except that she was born in Warsaw, Poland, the daughter of the celebrated clown Roberti. In her youth, she toured all over Europe with a small circus as a bareback rider and aerialist. When the Russian Revolution broke out, she and her family escaped through Siberia to China, where she sang in a Shanghai club. Finally coming to America, she and her sister, Manya, toured wherever there was work. Lyda played in vaudeville and for a time appeared with a Fanchon and Marco unit. She was discovered in Los Angeles by Jack Yellen and Lou Holtz, who brought her east to appear in You Said It (January 19, 1931, 46th Street). After the show's brief run, Lyda joined Holtz in a historic eight-week run at the Palace, beginning on July 11, 1931. From there she was whisked out to Hollywood where her comedy roles included Mata Machree, a riotously funny vamping spy in the classic dada-esque comedy Million Dollar Legs (Paramount, 1932). In 1933, she returned to Broadway for two more musicals: Gershwin's Pardon My English (January 20, 1933, Majestic) and Kern's Roberta (November 18, 1933, New Amsterdam), in which she had top billing and played opposite a new comedian named Bob Hope.
Upon her return to Hollywood, Paramount gave her a prize role In College Rhythm (Paramount, 1934), in which two rival department stores decide to have a football game for publicity. From that score, we hear on this album the only two commercial recordings ever made by this entirely delightful comedienne.
On June 25, 1935, Lyda Roberti married Hugh (Bud) Ernst, her second husband. From that time on, her appearances grew fewer and fewer; and on March 12, 1938, she was found dead of a heart attack in her Hollywood home. The papers said she was thirty-two years old, but other sources claim her birth date as May 20, 1909. Whatever her real age, her premature passing robbed the entertainment world of one of the potentially giant comic personalities of all time.
• • •
By the time Mae West made her screen debut in 1932, she had been a professional performer for over thirty years, having begun as a child in the Brooklyn stock company of Hal Clarendon. Her Broadway debut took place in A la Broadway, a revue that opened at the Folies Bergere (later the Fulton and now the Helen Hayes), on September 22, 1911. Her seductive ways were in evidence even then as early reports reveal; and in subsequent national vaudeville tours, Miss West was most popular. In Rudolf Friml's Sometime (October 4, 1918, Shubert), starring Ed Wynn, she introduced the shimmy to goggle-eyed New Yorkers, even before that dance was taken up by Bee Palmer and Gilda Gray, both of whom claimed to have introduced it.
Miss West helped the Roaring Twenties reach their climax with a play she wrote in 1926, Sex (April 26, 1926, Daly's 63rd Street). An immense success, it was considered too daring by a minority of reformers; and its star and authoress was sent to prison on Welfare Island for eight days. Despite such travails, Miss West continued to write her own material and has published two novels and her autobiography and written over a half dozen plays and all her own screen dialogue. Diamond Lil (April 9, 1928, Royale), a smash in New York and on the road, gave her national fame and made her the darling of the intellectuals, who found in Lil a classic American prototype.
Mae West's two most popular and finest films are certainly She Done Him Wrong, her first starring picture, based on Diamond Lil; and I'm No Angel, in which she portrays a torrid sideshow queen, Tyra, who becomes the sweetheart of high society as a lion tamer with a circus. These pictures, both filmed and released in 1933, made her the biggest box office attraction of the year and saved Paramount Pictures from being forced to sell out to MGM. They helped launch the career of young Cary Grant, who hod hardly been noticed in his few earlier films; and, best of all, they provided Miss West with the lilting naughty ditties that she used for her recording debut, all of which are heard on this album.
Mae's saucy, voluptuous appearance and manner, coupled with her rare wit and cheery attitude toward romance, were a breath of fresh air to a generation suffering from both repression and Depression. Her quips became the bywords of the day, and' she wot widely imitated. Even Walt Disney used her image as the source for Jenny Wren in hit 1935 Silly Symphony, Who Killed Cock Robin?, and later as Geo in Pinocchio. In 1941, the RAF dubbed their new bulging life jackets the Mae West. As the star herself once put it, "I've been in Who's Who, and I know what's what, but it'll be the first time I ever made the dictionary."
Miles Kreuger
August 30, 1967