New book on Ruth Etting to be published this fall

I received an email yesterday from one of the authors of a new book on Ruth Etting, coming out this fall. Ruth Etting: America's Forgotten Sweetheart, by Kenneth Irwin and Charles O. Lloyd will be published by Scarecrow Press and is the first full-length biography of her life.



As excited as I am about the book, I'm maybe even more excited about the photo on the cover! It's an image I've never seen before, and it features the pearls-around-her-upper-arm-look that I love - and in fact, the dress has strings of pearls hanging down her back, and off one hip. Ruth Etting wore pearls like no one else! Check out these images for further proof! 1, 2, and 3

More on the book...

"In Ruth Etting: America's Forgotten Sweetheart, authors Kenneth Irwin and Charles Lloyd provide the first full-length biography of this ground-breaking artist. This book recounts Etting's early hears as a pioneering radio performer who quickly attained national celebrity, her recording career as "Sweetheart of Columbia Records," and her innovative work in early short subjects. The authors detail Etting's unhappy marriage to her husband-manager, Martin (Moe "The Gimp") Snyder, her second marriage to pianist arranger Myrl Alderman, and her Colorado Springs retirement. They also examine Etting's place in the history of American entertainment, specifically her trend-setting vocal style and her innovative work in phonograph recordings and radio performance--as well as her enormous popularity throughout the 1930s and beyond."

For more on the book and more on the authors, check out their website!

Who's Dated Who?

Okay, this cracks me up! There's a site called Who's Dated Who, that details which celebrities have connected personally. It's just a fun, fluffy, gossipy site. But I never expected to find Ruth Etting listed on it? I was searching on Google, and there was a link...

But the best part is that they list Humphrey Bogart as one of three men she dated - the only others being her two husbands.



Ruth Etting and Humphrey Bogart did make a short film together in 1930 - Broadway's Like That. It was Bogart's very first film role! But in 1930 Ruth was still married to Moe Snyder, so it's seems a little unlikely that she ever dated Bogart? But even if it's not true, it's kind of a fun little rumor, and it's even more fun to find her listed on a gossip site alongside Britney Spears and Brad Pitt!

Buster Crabbe and a Swimming Lesson

There's an interesting photo available on eBay right now - it's of Buster Crabbe giving Ruth Etting a swimming lesson on September 3, 1935. Buster was a former Olympian - in 1928 he won the bronze medal for the 1,500 meter freestyle, and 1932, he won the gold medal for the 400 meter freestyle. He also starred in the 1933 Tarzan serial Tarzan the Fearless, and went on to make over 100 movies.

Wikipedia states "Crabbe is the only actor who played Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers — the top three comic strip heroes of the 1930s."

This photo was taken after Buster had appeared as Tarzan, and before Flash Gordon, so right at the start of the peak of his career. Ruth on the other hand had appeared in 3 full-length movies in the two years before the photo was taken, and had no more major movies on the horizon - so it was slightly after her peak in Hollywood. So the question is, who was more famous at the time this photo was staged? Who did it help more? The Olympian who had one hit serial? Or the torch singer who had starred on Broadway, had dozens of hit records, and starred in three movies, but whose popularity might be waning a bit? It's an interesting question.

Another question is did he really teach her anything? Did they actually get wet? Did she really need swimming lessons? If so, the photos from that part of the lesson might have been even more interesting!

The photo is currently listed at $179.99 on eBay, so if you're interested, here's the link!

Ruth Etting by Edward Thayer Monroe, 1932

The image above is available on eBay right now for $749.99 - only the version on eBay in not signed. The listing says it's 8 7/16" by 11 13/16" and printed on thick paper - an art print.

It lovely and I hope it finds a good home!

Half Fairy Tale

Every once in a while a new fact, or photo, or song, or quote becomes available. I found this on IMDB today...

Ruth Etting on the movie, Love Me or Leave Me (1955):
"It was half fairy tale. It's a shame that the most beautiful part of my life, my twenty-eight year marriage to [Myrl] was left out completely because that was the real highlight of my life story".

It's interesting to read Ruth's own words, about her life. The quotes in various magazines and newspaper articles from early in her career all seem carefully worded for the press - it's like she was saying what she ought to say, and what the public wanted to read - but who knows how she really felt. Was she ambitious? Or was her entry into show business really as unintended as she made it sound? Did she really just want to design costumes, and was she really pulled up onstage to do a solo because there was no one else? And if at the start it was all just luck, was there a point, where she got ambitious? Or did the ambition and push to succeed come from her first husband? The movie, Love Me or Leave Me, obviously "answered" all those questions - but how much is true and how much is fairy tale? it's hard to know, but calling her marriage to Myrl, after her career was effectively finished, the real highlight of her life, is perhaps more telling than anything in the movie.

From Chicago to New York City, 1927

This is a fun image to share! I paid more for this print than I've ever paid before or after - over $400 - but it was worth it! It's not dated, but if you look at the photographer's imprint in the bottom right corner it reads "Paul Stone Raymor, LTO, Chicago"

Chicago! So it most likely was shot before she left for New York in 1927. And on the back of the print there are a couple of stamps - one says "Culver Service, 205 East 42" and the other says "Ruth Etting, Sweetheart of Columbia Records" - so that must mean this print was distributed after she signed her record deal in 1926 - and while there may be a 42nd Street in Chicago too, the 42nd Street in NYC is the heart of Broadway. Ruth came to New York to appear in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, on Forty-Second Street. So it seems pretty clear that this image was shot sometime between 1926-1927 in Chicago, and was used to promote Ruth once she arrived in New York, for her first show on Broadway.

For many years this was my favorite image of Ruth Etting - I loved the pearls and the feathers! It's a very famous image of her, and used on a record album cover released in the 1980's, as well as elsewhere. So when I saw the image posted above, I had to have it! I've never seen it anywhere else, but the pearls wrapped around her upper arm are the same, and there are enough other similarities that it makes me think it may have been shot during the same session, or soon after.

It's not an art print - it's printed on thin paper and feels like a promo piece that was probably reproduced many many times - but that doesn't mean any of the other prints have survived. I was grateful to see this one, and grateful to be able to purchase it, and now I'm happy to share it with all of you!

I would say that my three favorite Ruth Etting images, are this one, the sister image I linked to above, and this shot from 1925, with pearls wrapped around her head. Evidently Ruth had a thing for pearls!

And finally, here's a closeup of the pearls wrapped around her upper arm - the way the pearls glow, and the delicacy of the netting - it's just a beautiful print!

No One's Fool, 1921

There's a lot of sheet music out there with Ruth Etting on the cover. Some of the songs she recorded, some she never recorded but sang on the radio, and others she may never have sung at all - but the publishers knew her face on the cover, might help sell more copies of the song! Most of what's available was published in the late 1920's and early 1930's, during the peak of her career.

But what about her early years in Chicago? She came to Chicago in 1914 at the age of seventeen to study art, got a job designing costumes at a night club called the Marigold Gardens, and by 1918 was the featured vocalist. In 1926 she signed a record deal with Columbia Records, that led to nation-wide exposure. So for eight years, from 1918-1926, she worked mostly in Chicago - appearing live and on local radio. It was during that time that she was known as Chicago's Sweetheart.

So the sheet music above for No One's Fool is particularly interesting because it's dated 1921. So she may not have had a big record deal yet, and she may not have had a lot of national exposure, but she had some! And only three years into her career.

The photograph on the cover is one of very few images from the beginning of her career - and may be the oldest image from that time in her life in existence. There are baby pictures that show up on eBay occasionally, but I've never seen a photo of Ruth as a young girl, or from before 1921. The same photograph was used in 1926 on the cover of What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry? - and it wasn't out of the ordinary for the same photos to be reused, but since this sheet music is from 1921, we know this particular photograph was shot sometime before that - so she was probably around 24, or maybe a little younger.