| Ruth Etting (23 November 1896
– 24 September 1978) was an
American singing star of the 1930s, who had over sixty hit recordings. Her signature tunes were "Shine on Harvest Moon", "Let Me Call You
Sweetheart" and "You Made Me Love You", and her other popular recordings included "Button Up Your Overcoat", "Mean to Me", and
"Ten Cents A Dance".
Born in David City, Nebraska, she left home at age
seventeen to attend art school in Chicago. Her job designing costumes at the Marigold
Gardens nightclub led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus there. She became a featured vocalist at the nightclub and
married gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder on 12 July 1922. He managed her career, booking radio appearances, and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording
contract with Columbia Records.
She made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of
1927, and appeared in a number of other hit shows in rapid succession, including Simple Simon and Whoopee!
In Hollywood she made a long series of movie shorts and three feature
movies.
She appeared in London in Ray
Henderson's Transatlantic Rhythm in 1936.
In 1937 she fell in love with her pianist, Myrl Alderman, who was consequently shot by
her husband Moe Snyder—but survived. Snyder was jailed for the assault, and Etting divorced him 30 November 1937 and married Alderman in December 1938. The scandal effectively ended her career, though she
briefly had a radio show in 1947. Alderman died on 16 November 1966.
Etting died in Colorado Springs, Colorado
in 1978.
Her life was the basis for the 1955 movie Love Me or Leave
Me which starred Doris Day and Jimmy Cagney.
Broadway
- the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 – in which she introduced Irving Berlin's "Shaking The Blues Away"
- Whoopee! – 1928 - in which she introduced "Love Me or Leave
Me"
- the Nine-Fifteen Revue - 1929, in which she introduced "Get
Happy"
- Simple Simon – 1930, in which she introduced "Ten Cents a
Dance"
- the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931
Movie shorts
- The Book of
Lovers -1929
- Roseland -1930
- One Good Turn -1930
- Broadway's
Like That -1930
- Words &
Music -1931
- Stage Struck -1931
- Radio Salutes
-1931
- Old Lace -1931
- A Modern
Cinderella -1932
- A Regular
Trouper -1932
- A Mail Bride -1932
- Artistic Temper
-1932
- Bye-Gones -1933
- Along Came Ruth
-1933
- Crashing the
Gate -1933
- California
Weather -1933
- Knee Deep in
Music -1933
- A Torch Tango
-1934
- The Song of
Fame -1934
- Derby Decade -1934
- Southern Style
-1934
- Bandits and
Ballads -1934
- An Old Spanish
Onion -1935
- Ticket or Leave
It -1935
- Tuned Out -1935
- Alladin
from Manhattan -1936
- Melody in May
-1936
- Sleepy Time -1936
Feature movies
External links
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