Ethel Merman on Gypsy Rose Lee

Ethel Merman appears on Gypsy Rose Lee's television show early in the Broadway run of Gypsy. Featured is rehearsal footage of the original cast

[@michaelneel4828]

Ethel played the hell out of this part !!! RIP there will never be another :(

[@TFABMN]

This revelation is incredible! Merman and Gypsy, herself! Wow. Too bad there isn't film of that show with the original cast!

[@anterlopic1]

I remember my mother watching her show in the afternoon, after we came home from school. GRL-an amazing life

[@user-ke7yx6ze2d]

It was nice that Gypsy Rose was happy that Ethel played her mother.❤

[@sandrashevey8252]

My father was one of the news boys in the act. He was the rear end of the horse...no pun...

[@Pamactres]

I studied tap dance in NYC with Don Emmons, one of the original farm boys in "Gypsy." A WONDERFUL man, and a brilliant teacher! Did your dad work with him?

[@sandrashevey8252]

Was Emmons in `Gypsy` (the original broadway show) or the vaudeville company Dainty June? My father danced with them in the 20s before the death of vaudeville. See my Facebook page The Blacklist. The lead photo includes my father age 20 or so standing next to Gyspy (Rosalie).

[@sandrashevey8252]

@@Pamactres My father wrote and danced in the 1920-30 vaudeville act `Dainty June and the News Boys`. Sondheim rang him in the Fifties for info about the act. He never worked with Emmons or met him. The Sondheim musical is pure fantasy, revisionism. The `Herbie` character, supposedly by Dad, was about age 20. Rosalie Holvig was probably age 35-41 maybe a bit younger. She was also still married to her newspaper husband and they lived in Seattle. When the act broke up Dad broke them back there from Oklahoma or wherever they were on the road. It was winter. It was freezing and he was wearing only a cloth jacket. He got pneumonia and almost died.

[@libbychecks1001]

What a treasure! Thank you so much for posting this.

[@gymnastix]

You are correct. The information about the original Broadway run of "Gypsy" in this video's description is inaccurate. The original Broadway run of "Gypsy," starring Ethel Merman as "Mama Rose," opened at The Broadway Theatre on May 21, 1959, and closed at The Imperial Theatre March 25, 1961, after 702 performances and two previews. The video here, with Ethel Merman as a guest, is from a 1967 episode of "The Gypsy Rose Lee Show," six years after the close of the original "Gypsy" on Broadway.

[@stacyDominguez]

Coolest video on KZbin. Love this historical footnote of Broadway. Wish I could have seen Gypsy in her prime and the play Gypsy when it was on Broadway.

[@rfinkels22]

About 15 years ago I got to spend a moment of quality time with Gypsy's son. He had brought an astonishing documentary film to the Breckenridge Film Festival. The documentary was a huge compl;ation of film footage that Gypsy had taken all through her career from the earliest moments. It was astonishing to see actual footage of the various acts that appear in the musical Gypsy itself. One could also see that it was a myth that Gypsy never really took off her clothes. I saw it myself, at least through actual film. BUT there was a scoop at the event I saw, a few scoops actually. First her son only recently had discovered who his dad way, Otto Preminger! But in the questions from the handful of people who showed up for the screening, someone asked if Mama Rose was really like "that". I remember his answer almost word for word. He thought his mom was in denial. He claimed that Mama Rose was literally psychotic: "I know for a fact that she killed three men". You know the scene in the musical and film where they tussle the landlord collecting the rent. According to Gypsy's son, Mama Rose threw him out the window. I asked what the result was and he retorted that it was the first of the murders. The second, he claimed, was at a party attended by the sheriff no less, where Mama rose took a rifle and shot dead Gypsy's girlfriend (jealousy). What an evening of revelation!

[@musicaltheatergeek79]

Mama Rose also attempted to kill Bobby Reed, one of the boys in their act who eloped with June ('Tulsa' in the musical). Rose reported Reed to police and the pair was apprehended and brought to headquarters, where a fuming Rose was waiting. Rose had a gun on her person and pulled it out to shoot Reed. In fact, she fired twice, but the safety was still on and no bullets were dislodged. Nevertheless, Rose still jumped Reed and viciously attacked him, punching and scratching.. Needless to say, after everything quieted down, June and Bobby went ahead with the wedding and June left the act forever. The marriage didn't last, but according to June the two remained friends.

[@poetcomic1]

PRICELESS video backstage at Gypsy rehearsals with Gypsy, Ethel, Julie Styne and more.

[@blueorange4]

When I lived in San Francisco I would watch Gypsy Rose Lee's TV show when I came home from school to have lunch. I never wanted to go back to school after watching her show. :-P

[@TomIdelson]

Wonderful wonderful video! Thank you so much for that! Two amazing women!

[@alexandrabillings99]

This is absolutely extraordinary. Thank you so much for posting it!!!!!

[@PRLambert63]

Thank you so much for posting this rare tape!

[@BlueLadybugful]

love u gyp !!!!

[@cmcb09]

Gypsy was larger than life, her sister June on the other hand was adorable very approachable loved to regale about her career but came off like a longtime friend. They were very different.

[@BobbyinNashville]

Amazing!

[@musicaltheatergeek79]

This episode aired the same year that Merman's daughter Ethel (from her second marriage to newspaper executive Robert Levitt) died of a drug overdose on August 23, 1967. Incidentally, Merman's son, Robert (also by Levitt) was married to actress Barbara Colby, who was shot and killed in 1975 while leaving an acting class, by unidentified killers. The case remains cold. At the time, Colby had just landed a part in the upcoming MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW spin-off PHYLLIS as Cloris Leachman's boss, but only 3 episodes (including the pilot) had been filmed/aired. She was subsequently replaced with Liz Torres.

[@h.calvert7443]

musicaltheatergeek79 Ms Colby also appeared on the original Odd Couple, Season 2, Episode 12. Felix & Oscar go on vacation to Jacaloma in the Caribbean. She played the desk clerk & makes a great contribution to the show. It is my favourite episode, & I howl with laughter every time I see it! Interestingly, Jack Klugman played in Gypsy on Broadway with Ethel Merman in 1959. He really couldn't sing but the audience reaction to him was so overwhelmingly positive that the composer & lyricist decided to alter his numbers rather than replace him, so that he could just talk/sing his part. Apparently, the police decided that Barbara Colby was the victim of a mistaken identity drive-by shooting. So tragic. R.I.P. Ms Colby. 🎭

[@gymnastix]

Gypsy Rose Lee's nationally-syndicated television series, distributed by Seven Arts Television, and videotaped at KGO-TV (an ABC-TV affiliate) in San Francisco, aired from 1965-68. There is a TV series listed for Gypsy Rose Lee in 1958, but likely a local California TV series. In any case, by the color video here, this has to be an episode of the Seven Arts series.

[@singe0diabolique]

Some people get a thrill knitting sweaters and sitting still! But what the heck crawled onto Merman's head and died?

[@EagleRockers]

Gypsy's TV show was on the air after the Broadway run of Gypsy closed.

[@MrCrowebobby]

Not to pick and argument, but I once read an interview with June Havoc, where all she had to say about "Gypsy" was: "I was a solo act; there was never anyone else on stage with me." I've often wondered about that.

[@prttymn]

Of course, they're talking about GYPSY. Ethel played her mother. It WAS all about her. If you had seen other episodes of her show, she is very open and welcoming. But this is why people loved Gypsy at the time.

[@brianeduardo1234]

It is amazing how she wore a hat for the interveiw... the interviewer is way over the top....

[@XX-gy7ue]

I love them !

[@johnnyray88]

June Haver had all the talent at a young age she could sing she could dance she could act she was the chief breadwinner that supported her mother and gypsy. Where gypsy was not fortunate in June's talents. Gypsy had the personality and the gift of gab which June didn't possess. June was a success in motion pictures. Then when Gypsy got older she had to find a way to succeed and she went into Burlesque and she had great success as their top performer. As a young child she loved to write stories which led her to write books. Gypsy wrote a story about her mother which was an instant best-seller and later on a successful Broadway stage play and then a movie.

[@Muttonchop_USA]

June Havoc. Not June Haver. I saw her on Broadway playing Miss Hannigan. She was very funny.

[@tjbnyc76]

As the kids say nowadays, epic!

[@clarequilty4962]

Gypsy Rose Lee should have hosted every talk show. Who wouldn't want to sit and dish it up with her? (There are some not-so-nice stories about Merman's treatment of the cast members who were getting laughs and applause.)

[@brianeduardo1234]

Did not realise the interviewer was Gypsy Rose Lee herself... gosh she is hard to take

[@brianeduardo1234]

thank you for that brian

[@brianeduardo1234]

I know the show well and the context. But still and interviewer's role is to draw out the guest, not dominate them. I haven't seen other episodes. I always thought that for all Rose's overbearing nature, as depicted in the show and movie, that when she comes backstage and her daugther rejects her that it is very sad. There is a Danny Kaye movie with a similar scene - that teared me up to. We are both entitled to our opinion. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Brian

[@roychefets6961]

Delicious. By the way those mink hats were popular at the time and expensive.

[@brianeduardo1234]

The musical is accurate... Gypsy Rose Lee clearly thought everything was about her!

[@DEAD-FROM-NY]

Well maybe they should have called the show ETHEL! Or JUNE!

[@sumaphelia]

I don't necessarily disagree, but I'm not sure I understand you completely. Care to explain?

[@maxwilson4748]

A bit creepy but definitely entertaining.

[@musicaltheatergeek79]

+Max Wilson creepy? How?

[@MrDirtystoner]

it is creepy watching this crap since they promote those queens as women.... sick world...

[@musicaltheatergeek79]

Uh, Gypsy Rose Lee (real name Rose Louise Hovick) and Ethel Merman (real name Ethel Zimmerman) were both actual women, not men in drag or trans. Lee was a famous burlesque stripper in her youth, and her life story was the basis for the musical GYPSY, which starred Merman as her pushy stage mother. That's what they're discussing here.

[@brianeduardo1234]

Well in the show once GRL becomes successful she becomes a pretentious bore. believing in her own publicity - the interview clip is so little about Ms. Merman but all about GRL - after all Ms. Merman was her guest... I found GRL insufferable. Just opinion but an interviewer should draw out his or her guest not dominate them... thank you for responding and asking.

[@DEAD-FROM-NY]

Ahem. The show WAS called GYPSY.

[@mp2040]

Wow I love Ethel but the hat is a bit mikado )) she needs some chopsticks. That other woman is very annoying, never heard of her though

[@CrystalCountess]

Brilliant. It helps give context to her book and the musical adaptation

[@JSOMERSETJSOMERSET]

Ethel so butch like a truck driver!!