Ethel Shutta

Biography

Ethel Shutta (pronounced "shoo-TAY") was an American actress and singer, who came to prominence through her performances on Jack Benny's radio show, her role in the early Eddie Cantor musical Whoopee!, and her Broadway comeback in Follies at the age of 74. In a 1934 vote held by Radio Stars, she came in second place, behind Annette Hanshaw, as the best "female popular singer." By age seven, she was known as "the little girl with the big voice". Together with her mother, Augusta, and her brother, Jack, she and her family toured as the Pee Wee Minstrels. Their family name was originally Schutte. The father, Charles, was the manager. They also played in vaudeville as The Three Shuttas. She debuted on Broadway in The Passing Show of 1922, and then in a series of Florenz Ziegfeld productions including Louie the 14th and Whoopee! Shutta married band leader George Olsen in 1926, and the couple appeared in clubs across the country. They appeared on the Jack Benny Canada Dry Radio Show, which debuted in 1932 on NBC radio. Her rendition of the song Rock-a-Bye Moon became Benny's theme song. In 1933, Shutta was featured on the Nestle Chocolateers program. A review in the October 1933 issue of Radio Fan-Fare magazine described Shutta as "a foolproof radio attraction. She knows how to sing songs, and she knows how to sell 'em." She and Olsen were heard on the Oldsmobile Program on CBS radio in 1933. Shutta continued to work on her own as a singer after her 1939 divorce from Olsen. Shutta married George Kirksey in 1940; they divorced in 1957. Kirksey was a sports writer and helped bring major league baseball to Houston, Texas. She returned to Broadway in October 1963 in the short-lived musical Jennie, which starred Mary Martin. The show ran 84 performances but was not a success, either with the critics or at the box office. Her final comeback was at the age of 73 in the original Broadway production of the musical Follies (1971–72) with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. She played the role of veteran actress Hattie Walker, and sang "Broadway Baby" in which her character reminisces about her younger days as a chorus girl in the Follies. Steven Suskin wrote: "The actresses in the three critical supporting roles were unforgettable ... Many people have sung "Broadway Baby" over the years, but I don't think anyone has ever been out there "walking off her tired feet" like the 74-year-old Shutta." Follies was staged at the Winter Garden Theater where Shutta made her first Broadway appearance in September 1922, in The Passing Show Of 1922.