Home » Visual & Performing Arts » American Musical Theatre » RUTH ETTING, AMERICAN SONGBIRD EXTRAORDINAIRE (1897-1978) PART ONE OF THREE

RUTH ETTING, AMERICAN SONGBIRD EXTRAORDINAIRE (1897-1978) PART ONE OF THREE

© Joyce E. Eberly

Part One of Three. From Small-Town Nebraska to Gangland Chicago, 1896-1927

When Ruth Etting was born in David City, Nebraska, 23 November 1897, her life was stable and secure. With the death of her mother, Winifred, when Ruth was five years old, her life would forever be changed. Her father, Alfred, who apparently never took his fatherhood seriously, left his young daughter with his parents, George and Hannah Etting, in David City. He remarried and lost contact with Ruth.

Ruth?s grandfather was a prosperous mill owner who also had a great interest in show business. He built the David City Opera House and permitted traveling shows to pitch their tents on his mill property. While still a very young child, Ruth became interested in singing. As she put it, ?I sang in a high, squeaky soprano. It sounded terrible, but I didn?t know I could sing in any other range.? When Ruth was in high school, she developed an interest in clothing design, and after graduating from high school in 1916 (other accounts say she graduated in 1913), she left home and went to Chicago, where she attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. A talented costume designer, she found a job designing costumes at a club called Marigold Gardens.

Beautiful girls with red hair didn?t stay behind the scenes for long, and neither did Ruth. In the early 1920s, she began performing regularly at Marigold Gardens after filling in for an ailing chorus girl.

Before long, she left the chorus line and began singing in a lower range more suited to her voice. Ultimately, she became a headliner billed as ?Chicago?s Sweetheart? in a solo act performing at Marigold Gardens, the Rainbow Gardens, and the Terrace Room of the Hotel Morrison, all in Chicago.

This was the era of Prohibition, organized crime (Al Capone and his ilk), and the Jazz Age in Chicago. She caught the eye of a Chicago businessman, Martin Snyder, nicknamed ?Moe the Gimp? because of a noticeable limp. Snyder was also connected with the Chicago mob. In the shady and dangerous gangland world of Chicago, Ruth began to rely on the protectiveness of Snyder. Finally, in the early 1920s, she married him, claiming that she did so ?nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity.?

Whether because of Snyder?s strong-arm tactics, her extraordinary talent, or a combination of the two, Ruth?s career blossomed. By 1924, she was a featured singer on radio station KYW, owned by the Chicago Herald-Star. Later, she embarked into vaudeville, performing in Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. This led to her being noticed by Columbia Records in 1925 and the beginning of a long recording career.