Ruth Etting

Stars

Actress | Singer Born Nov. 23, 1897 in David City, Neb.

Ruth Etting was a radio and Broadway singing star of the 1920s and '30s.

Her big break came in the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1927." Other shows followed: "Whoopee" in 1928, "Simple Simon" in 1930 and another "Follies" in '31. The 1930s found her in constant demand for major radio shows. She was seen in a few movies, such as the 1933 "Roman Scandals," and by 1936 she was an international name and was presented as a star on the London stage.

Etting's forte was simple, basic sentimental song, though she could handle a rhythm tune with the lilting panache of the Jazz Age. Her career and life seemed to be in high gear, then scandal intervened. She made big headlines when there was a shooting incident. The victim: her pianist, Myrl Alderman; the perpetrator; her estranged husband, Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder.

Eventually, after her relationship with Snyder ended, she had a long and happy marriage with Alderman. All this was told in "Love Me or Leave Me," a typically fictionalized Hollywood movie made in 1955, starring Doris Day as Etting.

— Leonard Feather in the Los Angeles Times Sept. 24, 1978