Let's Name A Theater for Ethel Merman- Page 2

[morosco]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 3:16pm

Name it The Merman Tabernacle.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 3:21pm

Mary Martin is acknowledged at all for all of her imput to theatre as we know it!

She was the original Maria in the Sound of Music and no one even thinks that Julie Andrews didn't play the role since she was born!

[morosco]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 3:28pm

It may be a myth but I seem to recall that years ago folks were on the verge of renaming the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers) but she refused because Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was playing there at the time and the large letters on top of the building simply said "WHOREHOUSE".

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 5:12pm

Calling all fans of Ethel Merman: what do you think? Have you heard any of her really old recordings?
Let's Name A Theater For Ethel Merman

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 5:16pm

There a lot of myths about the MERM.
Let's Name A Theater For Ethel Merman

[jv92]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 5:38pm

But no one answered my question-
Does she haunt the Imperial Theatre? Any background on that? I read it somewhere, but there was no background on it.

[Copeman63]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 6:31pm

Let's name a thread after Ethel Merman!

[Swango]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 7:53pm

To Best12Bars:

Thanks for "Loud Hall" -- I needed that.

Posted: 12/30/05 at 8:24pm

Merman and Martin both deserve theatres named after them. To think Walter Kerr and Brooks Atkinson, two critics got theatres named after them but those two legendary ladies who busted their butts eight times a week in long running hits for decades have not is shameful. All Kerr and Atkinson did was sit on their butts and take notes!

[Magicupoursleeves]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 8:31pm

Bad reviews in the past? Not a fan of critics I see.

Merman Danceteria = priceless

[Hank]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 8:35pm

The name "Broadway Theatre" is redundant.
It should be renamed anyway, and who better than for Ethel Merman?

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 12/30/05 at 11:27pm

It would certainly be a sensation to name the Broadway Theater "The Ethel Merman."

I don't know how to create a thread for the Merm, but I agree that it should be done!
Let's Name A Theater For Ethel Merman

Posted: 12/31/05 at 12:54am

Hey "magicupoursleeves" the critics have always been lovely to me. I still don't thnk they deserve to have theatres named after them. The invaluable contributions of Merman and Martin should take precedent over the best of critics.

No need to be bitchy "magicupoursleeves!"

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 1:12am

I dont think critics should get theatres though Hirschfeld deserved it. But I think the Broadway theatre has a pointless name anyway, name it the merman already.

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 9:43am

Without saying anything negative about anyone else, Ethel Merman deserves to have a theater named for her more than Al Hirshfeld, and several of the others especially Walter Kerrr and Brooks Atkinson.
Let's Name A Theater For Ethel Merman

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 11:42am

Many of the theatres that would befit her voice & personality are no longer standing & were not Broadway. Some that come to mind are:

Roxy
Paramount
Hippodrome
Capitol

The 2 that are standing are not broadway but they should be in the running

Theater @ Madison Square Garden
Radio City

Seriously, you could take the St James. Hey he is a Saint so I think he can sacrifice a theater for the Merm

Read a quote in a new book about her. A great line about her marriage to Borgnine. Joe Flyn from Mc Hale's navy was quoted as sayin that if she got pregnant he "wanted the pick of the litter". Imagine a minature Merm

Updated On: 12/31/05 at 11:42 AM

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:35pm

Wouldn't it be a thrilling New Year's Eve to hear Ethel sing some of her old favorites!

I would love to hear comments from anyone who ever saw Ethel live on stage in one of her Broadway shows.
Let's Name A Theater For Ethel Merman

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 10:15pm

I heard Ethel singing today on a biography of Irving Berlin. She sounded wonderful.


Let's Name A Theater For Ethel Merman

[Magicupoursleeves]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 10:34pm

I wasn't being bitchy. I'm sorry, I was just kidding.

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 11:28pm

No problem!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[fflagg]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 11:57pm

It is bad enough that she lost the Tony for Gypsy to Mary Martin [who at 45 was playing a 21 year old] in The Sound of Music but to be screwed from having her own theater.

For shame.

If not a theater what about naming an award after her??

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 11:34am

I think the Imperial should be named for Ethel Merman. The Broadway is too far off the beaten track. Wouldn't it be great to see her name on a theatre on 45th Street amidst all the other marquees? Actually, the Imperial has two street facings, on 46th as well, so that would be a bonus. Besides, the Imperial was the location of her three longest running shows: Annie, Madam, and Gypsy (which moved there from the Broadway in August 1960).

The Majestic could be named for Mary Martin. After all, she starred there in South Pacific and Jennie.

And why not name the St James for Carol Channing?

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 3:12pm

I agree that the Imperial is an excellent choice! I did not know that Gypsy ever played there.

The more I read in the book, the more convinced that I am that Miss Ethel Merman deserves a theater. When you think of so much of her career happening in the 1930's it is amazing.

She was still a very popular figue in the 1970's more than forty years later, and made appearances in the 1980's: fifty years later!

I would have loved to have seen her in the play "Legends" with Mary Martin!
Let's Name A Theater For Ethel Merman

[RYANWOODS]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 3:19pm

Broadway Theatre definatly should be changed - and The Ethel Merman Theatre is a great way of paying tribute to a great lady of Broadway.

I mean its such a pointless name for a theatre anyway!!

[Sant]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 3:30pm

As much as I think Ethel Merman deserves recognition I wouldn't want to see the names IMPERIAL, ST. JAMES, THE PALACE, NEW AMSTERDAM or WINTER GARDEN disappear. They are such classic houses and legendary theatres that those names should be kept intact. So many milestone shows played in those theatres when they had those names - except for New Amsterdam, but the house is probably the most legendary one on B'way. (Okay, Winter Garden isn't really intact anymore since they added the stupid 'Cadillac' there but still) Those are the houses these great legends played in and I may be the only one on this planet but I like the feeling when I see a show, for example, in The Imperial Theatre that "Wow this is the same theatre where so-and-so played in and that-and-that show opened so many years ago!" Changing the name would change that.

I wouldn't mind, however, seeing the names MARQUIS, THE BROADWAY
and especially AMERICAN AIRLINES and HILTON disappear!


Updated On: 1/1/06 at 03:30 PM