Chicago
Ruth left home at seventeen for Chicago and enrolled at the academy of Fine Arts
in pursuit of a career in costume design.6
She got a job designing costumes at a night club called the Marigold Gardens and when the
tenor got sick, she was pulled into the show since she was the only one who could sing low
enough. That led to dancing in the chorus line and eventually featured solos. Her career
in costume design and art was soon forgotten.
By 1918 she was the featured vocalist at the club and the Gimp entered her life. A Chicago gangster, Moe Snyder married Ruth in 1922 and managed her career for the next two decades.6 Her numerous radio appearances during these years, led her to become known as Chicago's Sweetheart.
"'I was just a farm girl. So green the cows could eat me,' Ruth has said of her childhood in Nebraska,1 but the quote pertains to her early days in Chicago as well.
"...still unprepared to deal with the problems arising from her unexpected success as an entertainer, she longed for her grandfather or anyone else to guide her." 1
I guess you know who came into her life then! 2
I won't take the time to quote the complete description of Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder" - in my opinion, his memory doesn't deserve it! 2
"... he was obsessed with her sweet singing, wholesome personality and blond beauty."1
"Snyder flourished in the reflected glory of celebrities...Now after seeing Ruth at the Marigold, he dreamed of capturing a potential celebrity for himself. His cronies laughed when he talked of marrying her before they had even met. Unlikely? Snyder didn't think so."1
"Snyder's underworld connections were ... complicated. Naturally, he always denied having any. Ruth, when asked whether he had been a gangster, replied, "No--anh-ah. He might have liked to have been, but I don't think he was quite good enough.'"1
"On July 12, 1922, the obviously mismatched couple crossed the Illinois line to Crown Point, Indiana, and were wed. Attempting to explain her motivations, Ruth later claimed that she had married Snyder nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity..."1
Once dubbed the happy singer of sad songs, her warm friendly voice was not the ideal vehicle for sad tunes. Instead she relied on a melancholy phrasing to capture the feeling of a torch song.5
Etting came to prominence in Chicago as a nightclub performer and local radio star.5
A farm girl from David City, Nebraska {her birthdate was November 23, 1898}, Etting didn't start out to be a singer. She went to Chicago during World War I to study art, her first love. An assignment to design a costume for a Chicago nightclub led to her being hired for the club's chorus line {providing a welcome supplement to her modest income}, and then to her replacing an indisposed singer even though she had never had any formal vocal training. She caught the attention {and more} of a small-time racketeer, Martin Snyder {nicknamed 'The Gimp' because of a lame leg}. Those were the days when Chicago's mobsters ruled much of the city, especially its clubs and speakeasies, so Snyder lost no time opening doors for Etting. She married Snyder in 1922, and he officially became her manager. She was soon singing on pioneer radio programs {on Chicago's WGN} and making recordings, most of them of novelty tunes or light ballads.7
Etting had the kind of high-pitched yet smooth and unaffected voice that came across particularly well on early crystal sets. She was also one of the first to recognize that less was more when singing into a radio microphone. Her intimate, almost cooingly soft-voiced sound {so different from the open-voiced vaudeville and theatrical style of the day} quickly won her the sobriquet 'Chicago's Sweetheart of the Air." Etting never hesitated to admit that she copied her style at first from Marion Harris. But to distinguish herself from Harris, she began alternating the tempo within parts of a song - singing some phrases in half-time or double-time 'to create and maintain interest' {as she once put it}. She also 'played around' with certain notes or phrases, giving them extra little tonal variations now and then.7
By a series of fortunate acquaintances and coincidences, she wound up in chorus jobs and singing in various hotels and speakeasies. Her infamous small-time gangster husband and manager, Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder, promoted her relentlessly and landed her a local job with Abe Lyman's California Orchestra. Columbia's Chicago artist and repertoire director heard one of these broadcasts and signed her up a contract that stretched from 1926 well into the 1930's. 8
As her fame grew in the Chicago musical world, she gained a national audience through local radio shows that carried thousands of miles back in those days of relatively uncrowded air-waves. But her international reputation was secured when she left Chicago to star in Broadway's "Ziegfeld Follies of 1927". 8
About 1918 Ruth Etting, an aspiring art student, moved to Chicago in search of a career. She was employed as a costume designer for a local night club. Having become stage-struck, she was soon lured into the chorus as a second job. Ruth claimed that songs arranged for the chorus were too high for her range, so she confined herself mainly to dancing and miming the lyrics. One day the show's leading tenor was out "sick" and only Ruth was able to do the number in the tenor's key. They managed to dress her in his polo costume ... Ruth recalled that paper was stuffed into the tip of his shoes to make them fit. The rest is show business history! Ruth was an immediate hit and became a star performer in the show. By the mid-20's Etting had established herself as "Chicago's sweetheart". In addition to appearances in 61night clubs, Ruth regularly broadcast on local radio. 3
Etting's early career milestones included her 1925-1926 Chicago successes as budding recording artist soon to be followed by club and radio dates with Abe Lyman's Orchestra. She thereafter appeared briefly with Isham Jones, before resuming her status as soloist on records as well as in top clubs and theatres. 10
Sources:
1. Ginger, Loretta and Irene Who?,
by George Eells, 1976
2. Joel Harris
3. Jim Bedoian, Take Two Records, 1981
4. The personal letters of Brail Wright,
submitted by his daughter, Mimi
5. Jim Bedoian, Liner Notes from The
Original Torch Singers, Take Two Records, 1980
6. Fred Hyatt, KPFK-FM Los Angeles, Liner
Notes from Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Take Two Records, 1987
7. Discovering Great Singers of Classic
Pop" by Roy Hemming and David Hajdu
8. Greg Gormic in Liner Notes from Ruth
Etting - Love Me or Leave Me", English Flapper Label, 1996
9. David Jamieson, Documentary Filmaker on
Castille del Lago, 1999
10. Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Take Two Records
1987
Three Stooges, Rainbow Gardens
...because he wasn't getting top billing above the emerging songstress Ruth
Etting. Calmly puffing a cigar, Fine attempted the ultimate bluff. He
"... and he had grim news. Ray Evans, the show's emcee, had just quit in a dispute with the angel-voiced songstress, Ruth Etting, over who would get top billing. "Let me talk to him," said Fred. "Where is he?" "No one knows. He ..."
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