by Ted Sherman

Created on: August 17, 2008   Last Updated: August 19, 2008

I had the great pleasure of meeting Ethel Merman, and hearing her great voice from just a few feet away. I was just out of Navy boot camp in 1943, and on my way from Newport, Rhode Island, to my hometown of Philadelphia. We had a train change at Pennsylvania Station in New York, so several newly-graduated boots, proud of our new Navy blues, decided to spend an afternoon in the Big Apple.

We were just a short walk from the Stage Door Canteen on 44th Street, and knowing it offered free food and entertainment, we went there. When we arrived, we saw there were all kinds of trucks, lights and movie equipment blocking the entrance.

When we were about to give up and go elsewhere, a couple of guys came running over to us and said, "Hey, sailors, do you want to be in the movies?" I know that's a Hollywood cliche, but it did happen to me just that one time. Of course, we accepted and became part of an on-camera audience of servicemen inside while several scenes and musical numbers were shot.

The entertainers in the movie, to be called "Stage Door Canteen", make up a fantastic all-star list of that era. In addition to Ethel Merman, it included Ray Bolger (Scarecrow in "Wizard of Oz"), Jack Benny, Katharine Hepburn, Gypsy Rose Lee, Harpo Marx, and Benny Goodman's orchestra with singer Peggy Lee.

The shooting of the cameo appearances of all those stars and many more took several weeks, both in New York and in the RKO studios in Hollywood, so we sailors that day were only in scenes featuring Ethel Merman and Ray Bolger. Ethel's patriotic song was "Marching Through Berlin". The 1943 World War II anti-German lyrics would've caused an international incident if Barack Obama had sung them while on his recent 2008 triumphant march through Berlin, but they were appropriate then.

If you ever see the black and white "Stage Door Canteen" on DVD or on late, late night TV, and look closely, you can see me ogling the singing Merman from the front row in the crowded audience of servicemen. At the time I was an 18-year-old sailor who looked about 14, with a very short haircut and a big smile.

During a break in shooting, Merman and some other stars joined the sailors and soldiers while the canteen served us coffee and cake. After all these decades, my memory of her is very clear. I expected the bold, brassy dame with her famous loud Noo Yawk voice, but the very pretty young woman in her 30s who sat down with us was quietly friendly.

She asked each of us about home towns and families, and when

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