Editing Ethel Merman (section)

==Early life==
Ethel Merman was born on January 16, 1908, in her maternal grandmother's house in [[Astoria, Queens]], but she later insisted that the year of her birth was 1912. She was an only child.<ref>Kellow, Brian, ''Ethel Merman: A Life''. New York: Viking Press 2007. {{ISBN|0-670-01829-5}}, p. 2.</ref> Her father, Edward Zimmermann, was an accountant with James H. Dunham & Company, a Manhattan wholesale dry-goods company, and her mother, Agnes ({{Nee|Gardner}}) Zimmermann, was a schoolteacher. Edward Zimmermann had been raised in the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] and his wife was [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]]. Shortly after they married, they joined the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] congregation at Church of the Redeemer, where their daughter was baptized. Merman's parents were strict about church attendance and she spent every Sunday attending morning services, Sunday school, afternoon prayer meetings, and evening study groups for children.<ref>Kellow, pp. 2–4.</ref>

Merman's parents insisted she have an education with training in secretarial skills, in case her entertainment career failed. Merman attended P.S. 4 and [[William Cullen Bryant High School]] (which later named its auditorium in her honor), where she pursued a commercial course that offered secretarial training.<ref>Kellow, pp. 4–7.</ref>

She was active in numerous extracurricular activities, including the school magazine, the speakers' club, and student council, and she frequented the local music store to peruse the weekly arrivals of new sheet music.<ref>Kellow, p. 7.</ref> On Friday nights, the Zimmermann family took the subway into Manhattan to see the [[vaudeville]] show at the [[Palace Theatre (New York City)|Palace Theatre]], where Merman saw [[Blossom Seeley]], [[Fanny Brice]], [[Sophie Tucker]], and [[Nora Bayes]]. At home, she tried to emulate their singing styles, but found her own distinctive voice difficult to disguise.<ref>Kellow, p. 6.</ref>

After graduating from Bryant High School in 1924, Merman was hired as a [[stenographer]] by the Boyce-Ite Company. One day during her lunch break, she met [[Victor William Kliesrath|Vic Kliesrath]], who offered her a job at the Bragg-Kliesrath Corporation for a $5 increase above the weekly $23 salary she was earning, and Merman accepted the offer.<ref name="Ethel Merman a Life" /> She eventually was made personal secretary to company president [[Caleb Bragg]], whose frequent lengthy absences from the office to race automobiles allowed her to catch up on the sleep she had lost the previous night when she was out late singing at private parties.<ref name="Ethel Merman a Life">{{cite book|last=Kellow|first=Brian|title=Ethel Merman : a life|year=2008|publisher=Penguin Books|location=New York|isbn=9780143114208|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJK5VL5dr8IC&q=Bragg-Kliesrath+brake&pg=PT24|access-date=October 30, 2020|archive-date=March 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309031817/https://books.google.com/books?id=OJK5VL5dr8IC&q=Bragg-Kliesrath+brake&pg=PT24|url-status=live}}</ref> During this period, Merman began performing in [[nightclub]]s, first hired by [[Jimmy Durante]]'s partner [[Lou Clayton]]. At this time, she decided the name Ethel Zimmermann was too long for a theater marquee, her next ambition to sing in. She considered combining Ethel with Gardner or Hunter, which was her grandmother's maiden name. Her father strongly disapproved of these considerations, so she abbreviated Zimmermann to Merman to appease him.<ref>Kellow, pp. 8–13.</ref>