I once worked for a producer who (almost) never laughed at anything I said. I think he was afraid that if he did, he'd have to pay me more or something. Anyway, every time I see Ethel Merman, I think of the one time I did manage to make him laugh. He walked into a meeting and said, "I just heard from Ethel Merman in New York" and I asked, "Did she use a telephone?"
This clip is from the 1972 Tony Awards telecast. It's Ethel, sounding a lot like all the Ethel Merman impersonators these days (some of whom are even women), doing three of the many great songs she performed on Broadway. I like the middle one, where poor Larry Blyden — a wonderful musical performer who died way too young — tries and fails to hold his own in a duet…and you can kinda see that he knows Ethel has squeezed him out of the number and he doesn't mind.
I'm not sure she didn't prerecord these vocals and lip-sync to them on the air but who cares? It's five minutes of Ethel Merman. Beat that. I dare ya.
