Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice.
Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them.
As far as dramas are concerned, it's considered passe for playwrights to turn out anything the average person can understand.
At a flea market I always head for the junk jewelry table first.
At one time I smoked, but in 1959 I couldn't think of anything else to give up for Lent so I stopped-and I haven't had a cigarette since.
Blow, Gabriel, Blow, is the kind of number a singer hopes for.
Broadway has been very good to me. But then, I've been very good to broadway.
Christmas carols always brought tears to my eyes. I also cry at weddings. I should have cried at a couple of my own.
Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist.
Cole Porter wrote Anything Goes and four more hits for me.
Eisenhower was my war hero and the President I admire and respect most.
Everything's coming up roses - for me.
Gypsy was the frosting on the cake.
I am known to be able to take care of myself when I become angry. I don't mince words.
I attend surprisingly few shows. The type of theater that is popular today just doesn't appeal to me.
I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank.
I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them.
I do everything in an orderly fashion today. Every engagement I have is written in my appointment book.
I don't like to read. The only things I read are gossip columns. If someone gives me a book, it had better have lots of pictures.
I established a whole new career doing concerts with symphony orchestras around the country.
I Got Rhythm really put me on the map.
I had some great Irving Berlin songs.
I have been ambitious to be a somebody from the time I was 5 years old.
I have plenty of invitations to go places, lots to do. If I'm not working, I go to have my hair taken care of and work at needlepoint.
I know Eddie Cantor's brand of comedy has gone out of style today, but at the time we thought he was a great artist.
I love having the Christmas spirit the whole year round.
I love typing a letter. It just seems to flow. The only thing is that I'm afraid of breaking my fingernails.
I mentioned that I was thinking of getting out of the business after Call Me Madam. I thought maybe I should become a homebody.
I preferred delivering my performance in person. I liked to be in control. You couldn't be in films.
I take a breath when I have to.
I was born in my parents' bedroom on January 16. The World Almanac says it was 1909. I say it was 1912. But what difference does it make as long as I feel 33?
I was lucky enough to have the songs in my first show written by George and Ira Gershwin. Then Cole Porter wrote five shows for me.
I was never active in the glee club or school assemblies. Nor did I appear in class plays. I guess I was too involved with my studies.
I was the girl who didn't get the guy.
I wasn't straining at the bit to become a movie star any more than I had plotted to get out of vaudeville and into Broadway musicals.
I work as often as I want and yet I'm free as a bird.
I wouldn't change one thing about my professional life, and I make it a point not to dwell on my mistakes.
I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.
I'll admit - I was honored to be on the cover of Time.
I'll pat myself on the back and admit I have talent. Beyond that, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
I'm not exactly the kind of dame that people have always thought I was.
I'm too honest. I choose my spots.
I'm very unhappy when I'm in love. I'm basically a one-man woman. Once the conquest is made, I don't look right or left.
I've made a wonderful living playing that theatrical character - the professional brassy dame.
I've never cooked. I can't do much more in the kitchen than make a cup of tea and some toast.
I've never suffered stage fright. That fascinates people.
If I feel in need of sleep, I just open a book or turn on the television. Both are better than any sleeping pill.
If the guy I love doesn't call, I go right up the wall. I wonder what has happened. I torment myself.
In 1934, I went to Hollywood to play a con woman.
In a funny way I feel I'm the last of a kind. They just don't produce those vehicles anymore.
In my case, things have pretty much been handed to me.
Legend has it that when God created me, he gave me a big distinctive voice, a lot of boldness and no heart.
Men? I gave the impression I didn't have time for them.
Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.
Mom claimed that I could carry a tune at 2 or 3 years of age. Maybe she was a little prejudiced.
Music, in the past few years... anything singable or understandable is square.
My beloved Mom and Pop always rated tops with each other, and that's the way it will always be.
My career at Warner Brothers consisted of one musical short subject. I was running around in a bear skin. Very chic.
My father taught me to read music and play the piano-but not well, even though people have said that I'm a natural musician.
Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret.
Once I had all the attention, all I had to do was deliver.
Ordinarily my closest friends are not entertainers. There's nothing wrong with show people. That just happens to be a fact.
Some things in life aren't even worth regretting. You're better off passing them like a freight train passes a hobo.
The slapdash way producers used to assemble a show seems a little unbelievable when we talk about them now.
There have been people who have tried to take advantage of me. They want to be linked to me just because I'm Ethel Merman.
There was a friendliness about the people in Denver that made me feel entirely at home.
There's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions.
When I'm asked how to succeed in show business, I always say I haven't the foggiest.
When you are in deep conflict about something, sometimes the most trivial thing can tip the scales.
Who's happy these days?
You gotta have a gimmick.
Ethel grew up near Famous Players-Lasky's Astoria Studios and watched the stars of the silent movies drive by.
Ethel's signature song was There's No Business Like Show Business.
Ethel was bisexual.
Ethel once worked as a secretary for B-K Booster Vacuum Brake Company.
Ethel starred in the stage musical Girl Crazy alongside a young Ginger Rogers.
Ethel's father was German, her mother was Scottish.
Ethel kept her Christmas tree up all year round because she was so fond of the season.
Her daughter, also named Ethel, died of an overdose of drugs and alcohol in 1967.
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