Beverly Sills Lifestyles, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, 1977 TV

Ethel Merman and Mary Martin sat down with Beverly Sills for a rare joint interview in this rare TV appearance from 1977.

[@sanfordpress8943]

Beverly Sills. Funny. Elegant. Professional. Courageous. Gifted I miss her so

[@theogoldberg8919]

The same can't be said of the other two obviously

[@BrooklynDreaminCG]

These immortals are all gone now! Thank God for video.

[@mmjhcb]

My beloved Mary Martin. What a brilliant performer and what an equally lovely woman. I miss her every day!

[@rexlex1736]

I met Mary Martin on several occasions and corresponded with her for a number of years. She was the same in person as she was in front of a camera, totally down to earth and absolutely no ego, which is virtually unheard of in show business. She was just like a next door neighbor or a favorite relative. She will be gone 30 years in November, 2020.

[@mmjhcb]

I can second your comments. My first Broadway show was "The Sound of Music." I loved Mary Martin and saved my own money for weeks to get the tickets. What a thrill! I have a couple of treasured notes from her and I met her in Cleveland. What she projected on stage was exactly what she was in real life. GENUINE! APPRECIATIVE! LOVELY! She's one of few stars who never changed. Simply loved doing what she was doing and loved those who loved her. Some start out genuine, but change or were never great character studies anyway. Julie Harris was another who never changed. A lovely woman on top of extraordinary talent. I won't mention the idol I had in the sixties who has changed. It's crushing when that happens. It never ever did with Mary Martin. I miss her every day.

[@stephencowley3661]

How lucky you were to meet her, How I would have love to have done, an absoulte genius of a actress and singer, especially loved her as a muse to Rodgers & Hammerstein. Find it hard to realise she has been gone for over 30 years.

[@globalman]

What an incredibly delightful surprise to discover this. Thank you. I never knew of this show as I left the states 1975. I've seen all 3 ladies on stage which makes this even more of a treat. I saw Miss Sills in Puritani early 70's. However my greatest joy and memory was seeing Mary Martin in Sound of Music and going to her dressing room after the show with my grandmother who was a music maven. Then we saw Miss Merman in Gypsy and went back stage where I also met Ethel's son. Both ladies were charming, warm and friendly. My mother was an agent at MCA Ond Madison Ave. late 50's on and so I encountered Miss Merman a number of times as she and my mother got along very well being very similar types. Ethel seemed to take my mother under her wing.

[@makeittrue]

I love the segment from where the two are singing together. I am very well familiar with the Merm. Her voice projection is enormous and I never had a doubt people in the very last row could hear her over the orchestra. I really had not heard enough Mary Martin to wonder how well she could project without a microphone. She certainly has chops to be heard along with Ethel. A theater professor I had in the 1980s loved Ethel Merman but referred to Mary as the "oldest living ingenue". I know the orchestras were smaller and that helped toward being heard but still my hat is off to both artists--to do long runs on Broadway night after night. I saw a group of men on Theater Talk who were close to Ethel in her later years mention that she would spend time in LA with Mary. I have a feeling Ethel felt comfortable with Mary because they both had achieved top tier Broadway careers.

[@allenjones3130]

Ethel, Mary and Beverly--three legends of music!

[@wotan10950]

Wow, I saw these shows when they were first broadcast. I never thought I'd see them again. Sills was at the height of her fame, and Martin and Merman were icons. I recall that Sills interviewed Yul Brynner, Birgit Nilsson, many others.

[@VivaColoratura]

Merman: I just take a breath when I have to... EPIC!! 😄

[@jamesfox2579]

You CAN'T top Mary Martin AND Ethel Merman!!!❤️

[@jamesfeeney3016]

I could listen to these ladies forever! Brings back such good memories

[@SymphonyBrahms]

Two great ladies of the musical theater stage and one great lady of the operatic stage.

[@AiTaiwandeRen]

Thank you SO much for posting this treasure!!!

[@randysills4418]

Ned Geyser Daniel stanwyck: Beverly Sills (no relation ) was NOT homophobic...read her autobiography....Somehow, I think you misunderstood...

[@tenor2productions]

Mr. Eichler, thank you for these historic interviews. x

[@thomasdevine6495]

Ehtel: I did Peter and the Wolf. Mary (interrupting): Which role did you play? Ouch.

[@VivaColoratura]

I NARRATED IT!!!!! 😂😂😂😂

[@photo161]

Certainly, the only one of the great songstresses who could match Merman decibel for decibel was the indomitable Mary Martin, has she so brilliantly demonstrates here.

[@stanmarcusgtv]

not really and not even close - when Merman sings it's all Merman

[@arthurboehm]

No, Mary wasn't about having a big voice. In many of the Martin-Merman duets, Mary struggles (without appearing to) to find her "place." Usually, she finds a way to complement Merman--and of course shines when she's singing alone. Together, she remains "above water," so to speak, but its something of a fight.

[@JJ-nd8rd]

Wow, so happy I found this...

[@showtunestarpower]

They're just the best - the absolute best. Sigh.

[@johniovine1512]

i love listening to them but i like to hear a song from them also

[@petelovesbevsills]

I'm in HEAVEN!!! Thank you Alan for posting this and may I in my BEST ever Oliver Twist impersonation ask..please Alan do you have any more?

[@aeichler]

petelovesbevsills Yes, we have more by all of them. Do you have the Beverly Sills Farewell Concert?

[@petelovesbevsills]

Alan Eichler yes Alan I do have that one. Its all the 'Lifestyles with Beverly Sills' that I've never seen before. I know that Beverly also recorded a show called 'Skyline with Beverly Sills'...something else I've never seen before. I am delighted to tell you that your upload has caused quite a stir with a touch of wild pandemonium on our Facebook Beverly Sills Crazies page! You have made over 170 members very happy! :)

[@sueparras6028]

NOBODY could belt out a tune like Ethel Merman!

[@theogoldberg8919]

Once an asshole always an asshole she was the worse

[@davidcarlton1784]

Does anyone have the episode of Over Easy, the show that Mary Martin hosted on PBS when Ethel was her guest?

[@v.maschler9569]

omg…do you have more? This is just wonderful! 3 legends...

[@aeichler]

V. Maschler Yes, we have more by all of them.

[@theogoldberg8919]

1 legend BEVERLY. 2 rotten jackasses otherwise

[@GreenParc]

Mary Martin aka Larry Hagmans mom I believe

[@Garkenrat]

Big big egos each heavily stroking their ow. Thank the universe for KZbin.

[@jimbuxton2187]

Yes, but they're just saying the truth....

[@MikeA15206]

The decor is amazing, everything but the finish on that coffee table is back in fashion now. Too funny!

[@Setheskivias]

Three great women! I think Ethel Merman was irritated because Mary Martin keep interfering and sort-of brushing Ethel off while Ethel was still trying to finish her thought. Never interview two divas at the same time because it just doesn't work out.

[@kerryincolumbus]

LOVE LOVE LOVE all three of these glorious fantastic women!! but.... am I alone in this... does Miss Merman look like she'd been out drinking all night and had to get up early? she's all puffy and kinda loopy.. imo.

[@vino140]

+kerryincolumbus >> Ethel is just OLD.

[@bmbutler2]

She's 69 here

[@dxmxo9427]

Beverly looks like Dinah Shore,anyone agree?

[@Twentythousandlps]

Sills flunks this tricky assignment by zoning in on Mary, so that Ethel Merman - of all people - is reduced to a third wheel.

[@Channel-jy8mq]

李春平妻子

[@mariemarchesani1595]

Saw this again..Martin likes to take over and take away from both, but mostly Ethel..Who lets her. Merman had nothing to prove..still the number one Broadway Diva...by popular vote!

[@filmmekker]

I wonder if this was after the Gene Shallet interview? In that one Ethel dominates the conversation. Maybe she was letting Mary talk more.

[@georgestrum3478]

All three divas....dead.

[@TheTerryE]

Ethel seems annoyed for some reason.

[@piustwelfth]

She's not annoyed at all. That's her personality. She's having a good time during this interview. She was a very fun-loving person.

[@DeepScreenAnalysis]

Mary keeps talking over her.

[@nonenoneonenonenone]

She lies. Ethel Merman had a teacher, or at least a vocal coach.

[@charlesrhodes1358]

No. She was told not to study voice as they would undoubtedly change her tecnique.

[@rexlex1736]

Merman had natural singing voice, like Judy Garland and Streisand.

[@filmmekker]

She didn’t!

[@stephencowley3661]

@@filmmekker George Gershwin himself told Ethel Merman never to have singing lessons she had a natural trombone in her throat!

[@filmmekker]

@@stephencowley3661 Right. She never took singing lessons.

[@stuartlee6622]

Never heard of any of 'em.

[@eviesmail5447]

Stuart Lee teo of the greatest stars if broadway before my time but I adore them Mary is the Kate mom to the late Larry Hagman JR from Dallas in the early eighties prime time soap Opera and the mid sixties light comedy I dream of Jeannie in the mid nineteen sixties with its cult following

[@eviesmail5447]

They were there but I was a kid and knew nothing of Mary but Ethel in the Marlo Thomas sitcom That girl Her father was Danny Thomas whom founded at judes hospital

[@eviesmail5447]

I have no idea who will take over her role there She’s married to an 8os talk show host Phil Donahue talk show long before Oprah’s

[@filmmekker]

Don’t be proud of that.