January 16

Ethel Merman

Most people when they think of Ethel Merman they probably remember her in Airplane. Her small cameo role. Most people don't remember how really good she was. Yes she developed a reputation for being a very loud singer, but she was talented and Irving Berlin thought she was great, a natural talent. For her birthday I watched Alexander's Ragtime Band with Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche as the top stars. Ethel was first after the title and then Jack Haley. Tyrone plays a classical violinist who wants to be part of a band. He and his group get the opportunity to play at a bar but they have lost their music. The bartender Bill (comic relief played by Paul Hurst who I will have to look up, I thoroughly enjoyed his performance) gives him the sheet music that Alice Faye brought in to sing with a new song by Irving Berlin Alexander's Ragtime band. The band members had never heard the music and did not understand how fast the music was supposed to be played. It was awful, way to slow, you could not even recognize the song. Finally the group got the beat right and it sounded good. Alice recognized the song and started singing. The owner took the group and the singer as one. Alice and Tyrone fought pretty much from that point on, that is how love often starts in films. They go up an up in the entertainment line and things get better for them. Then WWI happens. Tyrone and Jack go to war and eventually are part of the entertainment division singing where Jack sings the great song “Oh how I hate to get up in the morning”. The war ends, Tyrone and Jack come home and find out that Alice and Don are married. Alice is a big success. Jack finds a new singer for the group, Ethel Merman (almost an hour into the movie). Tyrone is depressed from war and loss of Alice. Ethel sings to try to get him to notice her, A Pretty Girl and Say it with music. I don't think I have ever heard her sing so softly or lovely as that scene.

I also don't think I ever noticed until that moment how handsome Tyrone Powers was. I think I always noticed, but there is something about his eyebrows. They seem to frame his eyes, which for most of the film are very sad and brooding. Moving on, at this point Jack is trying to get Tyrone to get back into music business. Tyrone says “Business, what's that?” Ethel says “You know, that thing you do to take your mind off your drinking”. I am always amazed at how much alcohol there is in films that are filmed during prohibition or reflecting the era. Did anyone really stop drinking? On the eve of Tyrone's leaving for a European tour Alice comes to see Tyrone and his new band. Ethel sings Blue Skies with great vim and vigor. While she is singing Tyrone looks with such love at Alice. Ethel asks Alice to sing and she also sings Blue Skies. She has tears and regret in her eyes. On the boat to Europe Ethel sings Pack Up Your Sins. I don't think I have ever heard this song before. “Pack up you sins and go to the devil and you'll never have to go to bed at all.” This is one sequence I would have liked to have seen in color. Ethel and the chorus girls were in dark sequined outfits (Ethel had horns and a great flowing sequined cape) which were probably a dark red. While Tyrone was in Europe, Alice was on an American tour. On the train someone is playing a record of her song Remember, to which Alice mouths along with song. Ethel Merman then sings Stepping around where the chorus boys put their hats on the ground and she steps on them. The men pick up their hats and then place them on the ground in front of them and stand on them. I can honestly admit I have never seen these types of sequences before, understated and unique. In London Tyrone asks Ethel to marry him, but she says no that he is still in love with Alice. When Tyrone gets back from Europe he appears on radio and finds out that Don and Alice have divorced. Alice left her big show and was doing small clubs across the country. Tyrone has a big gig at Carnegie Hall (which makes his aunt accept his playing rag/swing music). Alice finds out but the concert is sold out and she doesn't have the courage to go backstage. She walks around outside listing and a taxi driver takes pity on her and lets her in the cab so she can listen over the radio. Ethel sings Heatwave. Conducting the group Tyrone looks his most vibrant and alive, almost dancing at the podium. At the final number Alexander's Ragtime Band the taxi driver who recognized her convinced her to go backstage. She does and Tyrone gets her to sing and puts her at the center of the stage. Fade to black.

At first I didn't think there was much plot just a way to bring Fox's top stars together and get a lot of songs aired, but I realized it was a romance. Maybe a typical Hollywood romance, but entertaining none the less.