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National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Ethel Merman
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Object number
NPG.71.50
Exhibition Label
Born Queens, New York
In 1930 the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy opened on Broadway, and toward the end of the first act, an unknown singer named Ethel Merman mesmerized the audience with her rendition of “I Got Rhythm,” in the course of which she held a high-C for sixteen bars. As Merman later put it, by the time the applause died, “a star had been born. Me.” Over the next five decades, her booming voice and brassy style were the main attraction of some of the most successful Broadway musicals ever, including Anything Goes, Gypsy, and Annie Get Your Gun—whose score included her trademark song, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Of her singing technique, Merman once said, “I just stand up and holler and hope that my voice holds out.” This painting shows Merman dressed for the title role in Annie Get Your Gun.
