Evening star., 1941-04-06


dressed in the snappiest outfit her salary
afforded. got to demonstrate to Mr. White,
in person, her ability to add her vibrant per-
sonality to song and make them total what
Astoria considered a WOW. Mr. White cast
a professional eye over her face. torso and
extremities And he offered her job.
To be sure, it was just a job in the chorus
But certainly this was the big chance for a
stage struck stenographer.
Maybe. But Jimmie didn't Vdnt mere
chorus job. And 50, in this contrary tale, we
come to the third breach of the accepted rules.
She turned the offer down, with thanks,
and went right back to pounding the type
writer for the B. X. Vacuum Booster Brake
Company.
lean point out other ways in which Jimmie
flew in the face of the Standard Guides to
Success. 1t was primarily as singer. for in
stance. that she aspired to climb to fame
And yet whenever anybody suggested to her
that she ought to take singing lessons and
learn to sing according to the rules she
brushed the suggestions away with blithe
stubbornness. She liked to sing the way she
liked to sing, she said and lessons might
spoil her style. So she never took lesson in
her life - hasn't to this day. She wouldn't
practice, either: said it was enough to sing
when she felt like it or when there was some oc-
cason for it. She still holds to that heresy, too
Of course all this would be of no interest
or consequence to the world if Jimmie were
still pounding that typewriter in Long Island
City. But that's the point: she isn't In fact,
within year from the day when she spurned
George Whites offer of job in his chorus
MIR. White was buying her contract from an
other producer for $4,000 so that he could
give her a featured part in his next edition
of the Scandals"
Zimmie's the Top
AND today, if you should walk up and down
that part of New York s Broadway where the
theaters cluster, you would find Just one
musical comedy with a feminine star impor-
tant enough to have her name alone in the
theater lights. And even if you had never
been near Broadway before in your life, you
would know that name. You would have seen
that star in the movies. You would have
heard her records If you may be judged by
box-office trends, you would part more cheer
fully with your hard earned money for sight
and sound of her than for almost any other
entertainment being offered.
Yes, it's Jimmie But Jimmie isn't Jimmie
any more - except to her old friends. She's
the Il Got Rhythm" girl, the "Eadie Was
Lady, girl, the You're the Top" girl, the
Let's Be Buddies" girl. All you have to do
is to subtract the Zim from Ethel Zimmer-
man, you see and you have that pulsating,
scintillating, aggravating warbler of low
down songs, Ethel Norman.
How did she get that way? How could any,
body break 50 many of the rules and still
get ahead?
put that very question to her just the
other day. 1t was early in the afternoon, and
she had just had breakfast in her suite in
the tower of one of New Yorks swankiest
hotels. A tremendous basket of flowers sat
on the table - just such floral display as
she used to order for her boss to send around
to some other star on an opening night In
huge glass cabinet, filling most of one wall,
was what is probably the most impressive
collection of miniature perfume bottles in
existence. 1t was obviously setting out of
a stenographer's dream book
But how had she achieved it? What rule
had she followed?
Miss Norman puckered her lovely brow.
She pursed the lips that have launched a