The Irrepressible Ethel

Merman by Al Hirschfeld

“Each day at the beach, Harold mostly absent, Gore diverted himself with Ethel Merman, the Broadway star with the stentorian singing voice ‘who was quite intrigued with the idea of her voice resounding in a monastery. She has,' he wrote to Pat Crocker, ‘very likely the worst figure of any woman in the world but she is amusing and loves to discuss things in terms of male genitalia. We got on quite well and she can’t wait to read (his forthcoming novel ‘The City and the Pillar’). ‘Don’t read much but love books about homos,’ she said.”

— “Gore Vidal: A Biography” by Fred Kaplan