Ethel Merman, Joshua Logan, 90th Birthday Tribute to Irving Berlin

Ethel Merman and director Joshua Logan paid tribute to Irving Berlin on his 90th birthday in this rare TV appearance with Gene Shalit. Eric Knight is on piano.

[@95KIPPIE]

Ethel is just the greatest! We were blessed to witness talent like that!

[@StevenTorrey]

"Can't beat live television." That is so true. So much of television gives such pleasure, then and still today.

[@showtunestarpower]

Ethel, Josh, and Gene are so beautifully relaxed. Ethel's THEY SAY THAT FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL is superb. Thank you!

[@Finnigan9]

She had such great stage-presence...and unlike most singers, you can understand EVERY word she sings! .

[@terryhammond1253]

🎹 Alan, thank you as always for your amazing video clips. You make a lot of theatre and music lovers very happy. 💖

[@filmmekker]

Thanks for posting all this great Merman stuff!

[@liesljones5987]

What a fabulous treat - Two legends Ethel Merman and director Joshua Logan singing and talking about ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and other shows. Thank you so much for posting this - a true (nearly) lost treasure!

[@larrygevirtz30]

As she sang, this is "wonderful in every way!"

[@frederickcombs8661]

Gene Shalit had a real gift, was always kind and made great interviews with the best.

[@Eschetic1]

Thank you so much for this, Alan. The affection in Merman's eyes looking at Logan as they fumble through "Anything..." is marvelous. It sometimes shakes me to realize how few are still around (like us) who remember first hand the massive contributions of these people made (and I only got to see Merman live the first time at an Actor's Fund matinee when she went into HELLO, DOLLY! and Logan productions on the far side of his best years starting with LOOK TO THE LILIES - a near miss). It would have been nice if the musical CHERRY that Logan refers to near the end had worked out. The non-Berlin demo which circulated had some potential and they were talking about the Winter Garden for it (I don't believe it ever got up). If Mr. Berlin hadn't been gun-shy after MR. PRESIDENT and his name wasn't enough to get the rights for SAYONARA, a Berlin/Logan musical from BUS STOP might have been something. Logan staged a revival of the Joseph Jefferson vehicle RIP VAN WINKLE (the original was before the time of ANYONE now alive!) down at the then new-ish Kennedy Center which was very nice.

[@victoriaorme1564]

How thrilling!

[@OldWorkingMan]

This was Sep 21, 1978. Ethel was 4 months shy of 70.

[@thegreatdominion949]

May 11 was Irving's birthday, so this must have been filmed on May 10, 1978.

[@MrBilliefan]

Actually, she was already 70--born January 16, 1908. I had the pleasure of meeting her around the time of this broadcast in late May/early June 1978, when she made a personal appearance at Macy's in San Francisco to promote her autobiography.

[@nondescript2892]

" sooner or later I'm higher than you.." ...lol..indeed