Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
#1Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 8:03pm
All loud divas should watch this and learn.
Perry Como teaches Ethel to sing softly
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
miss pennywise
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/04
#2re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 8:09pmEthel was born to belt!
http://www.roches.com/television/ss83kod.html
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"If any relationship involves a flow chart, get out of it...FAST!"
~ Best12Bars
HDThoreau2
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/11/06
#3re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 8:31pmGreat! I love it!
If Tom DeLay is The Hammer, then I proclaim a new title for the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi: The Briber. Nancy Pelosi had to bribe her members with spinach to get their votes.
#4re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:00pm
I like when she whispers in to the old-fashioned boom mike. It's almost pretty. Actually, it IS pretty.
#5re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:20pm
I always used to laugh at her "Moonshine Lullabye" from Annie Get Your Gun.
It's an amazing, bluesy song, but as much as I love Ethel, she "croons" like a buzz saw.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#6re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:24pm
No hatin' on the Merm in this thread.
The clip proves: She could sing pretty when she WANTED to.
Thing is, she never wanted to!
#7re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:26pmTrue dat.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#8re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:30pmon the MERMANIA! disc (& also included as a bonus on the remastered GYPSY) is Ethel's take on LITTLE LAMB & i love how she does it...its so soothing & it gets me teary-eyed.
Parks
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/5/04
#9re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:31pm
fabulous 
. Thanks for posting.
"If it walks like a Parks, if it wobbles like a Parks, then it's definitely fat and nobody loves it." --MA
HDThoreau2
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/11/06
#10re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:32pmThe clip of Merman with Perry Como shows the dimension of her voice. Her unique sounds fit perfectly with the golden age of broadway.
If Tom DeLay is The Hammer, then I proclaim a new title for the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi: The Briber. Nancy Pelosi had to bribe her members with spinach to get their votes.
#12re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 9:59pmThis is one of my favourite videos, so adorable! (I just described Merman as adorable... odd.)
Theatre is a safe place to do the unsafe things that need to be done.
-John Patrick Shanley
#13re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:00pmShe was adorable! She WAAAAAAAAAAAS!!!
#14re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:00pmLove that video.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#15re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:21pm
Love it. She sounded beautiful when she sang softly.
But when she belts, my God. No one can top that. That IS belting. No that sh*t they do today.
HDThoreau2
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/11/06
#16re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:27pmEthel Merman is truly one of the greats.
If Tom DeLay is The Hammer, then I proclaim a new title for the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi: The Briber. Nancy Pelosi had to bribe her members with spinach to get their votes.
#17re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:38pmThanks for the link, Pal Joey. It was wonderful!
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
HDThoreau2
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/11/06
#18re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:48pmI have sent it to a lot of friends, and everyone loves it.
If Tom DeLay is The Hammer, then I proclaim a new title for the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi: The Briber. Nancy Pelosi had to bribe her members with spinach to get their votes.
#19re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:52pmI have a feeling you would still be able to hear it all the way to the back of the house.
#20re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 10:58pm
I can never decide if it's that we don't have that kind of talent in musicals anymore, or that the talent that we do have don't have the kind of chances that someone like Merman and Mary Martin had.
But this was a complete joy.
She is delightful. But when a voice like Merman's, asking her to sing soft is like asking Savion Glover to do nothing but the old soft shoe...
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
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miss pennywise
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/04
#21re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/1/07 at 11:16pm
sondheimboy,
The answer simply is that Ethel Merman was an original.
There was never anyone "like" her and there never will be.
http://www.roches.com/television/ss83kod.html
**********
"If any relationship involves a flow chart, get out of it...FAST!"
~ Best12Bars
#22re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/2/07 at 9:51am
Eydie Gorme is the Last of the Great Belters 
AudreyTwoTwo
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/4/06
#23re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/2/07 at 9:57amI wish my sound worked, because I would definitely listen. I am sure it's wonderful. :)
The Best of Times is Now!
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#24re: Ethel Merman: How to Belt Softly
Posted: 4/2/07 at 9:58amWe could use a little Merm-spiration in today's musical landscape. It's not the belt, its the persona: Ethel was a broadway diva for the every-gal working class.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
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