A01=Caryl Flinn
american culture
american musicals
american theatre
annie get your gun
Author_Caryl Flinn
biographical
biography
broadway
broadway actress
broadway diva
broadway musical
Category=AVLM
Category=AVN
Category=AVP
Category=DNBF
dancer
diva
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
famous actress
gershwin brothers
golden age
hollywood
life story
musical theatre
popular culture
scrapbook
singer
stage actors
stage actress
theatre
theatre history
true story
untold story
Product details
- ISBN 9780520260221
- Weight: 726g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 25 Feb 2009
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Broadway star Ethel Merman's voice was a mesmerizing force and her vitality was legendary, yet the popular perception of "La Merm" as the irrepressible wonder falls far short of all that she was and all that she meant to Americans over so many decades. This marvelously detailed biography is the first to tell the full story of how the stenographer from Queens, New York, became the queen of the Broadway musical in its golden age. Mining official and unofficial sources, including interviews with Merman's family and her personal scrapbooks, Caryl Flinn unearths new details of Merman's life and finds that behind the high-octane personality was a remarkably pragmatic woman who never lost sight of her roots. "Brass Diva" takes us from Merman's working-class beginnings through the extraordinary career that was launched in 1930 when, playing a secondary role in a Gershwin Brothers' show, she became an overnight sensation singing "I Got Rhythm". From there, we follow Merman's hits on Broadway, her uneven successes in Hollywood, and her afterlife as a beloved camp icon.
This definitive work on the phenomenon that was Ethel Merman is also the first to thoroughly explore her robust influence on American popular culture.
Caryl Flinn lives and works in Tucson, where she is a Professor at the University of Arizona. She is the author of The New German Cinema: Music, History and the Matter of Style (UC Press), Strains of Utopia, and Music and Cinema (co-edited with James Buhler and David Neumeyer).
