A huge Broadway star through the 1940s and '50s, Ethel Merman's powerful voice
and strident personality established her formidable reputation as 'the first
lady of musical comedy', indelibly associated with classic songs of the era like
'I Got Rhythm', 'Everything's Coming Up Roses', 'I Get a Kick Out of You',
'Anything Goes' and 'There's No Business Like Show Business'. The daughter of a
New York accountant, she trained as a secretary, but her irrepressible
personality and vibrant artistic spirit was never going to be contained by an
office job and visits to the vaudeville theat...