Ethel Merman

Ethel Merman (1908 to 1984), born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann in Astoria, Queens, was an American star of stage and film musicals, celebrated for a powerful belting voice and exact enunciation, and called the first lady of the Broadway musical stage. She never took singing lessons. After vaudeville she rose in Girl Crazy in 1930, then starred in five Cole Porter musicals including Anything Goes, introduced songs from Annie Get Your Gun and Gypsy, and won the 1951 Tony Award for Best Actress for Call Me Madam. Her film career was less distinguished than her stage work, though she appeared in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and, as a self-parody, in Airplane!. Her signature song was There's No Business Like Show Business.