Music Library, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries

Ruth Etting was one of the most popular singing stars of the late 1920s and early 1930s. On radio she established herself as America's pre-eminent popular singer, repeatedly voted as the top female singer on the air in national listener polls. While the radio and the recording industry were still in their early developing years, Ruth Etting recorded over 200 songs by such composers as Irving Berlin, Johnny Green, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. She was a regular performer on at least eight network radio programs, was featured in six Broadway shows, was highlighted in three major full-length movies, and starred in 35 movie short subjects between 1928 and 1936.

Etting was born in David City, Nebraska on November 23, 1897. After graduation from high school in 1916, she moved to Chicago to attend the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts as a costume designer. From there she joined a chorus line and performed at the Marigold Gardens. In time, she was given solo opportunities which developed into her being billed as "Chicago's Sweetheart" and as a headliner in the Marigold Gardens, the Rainbo Gardens and the Terrace room of the Hotel Morrison in Chicago. She married Moe Snyder. She became a radio star, and her first recording was released by Columbia in 1926.

Etting moved to New York City in 1927 and became a Ziegfeld girl in the Follies. She made some movie shorts there, then moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s, where she took part in three full-length movies.

In 1937 Snyder and Etting divorced and Snyder moved east. Snyder returned to California in 1938 and in a jealous rage shot and wounded Ruth's pianist and boyfriend Myrl Alderman. The subsequent sensationalized trial brought Etting's career to a halt. Snyder was tried for kidnapping and attempted murder. The trial was a scandal, lasting from October through December of 1938, after which Snyder was found guilty and sentenced to prison. When he appealed the decision, Ruth and Myrl Alderman, who had by that time married, declined to appear in court, and he was released after a year in prison.

Ruth Etting returned to the limelight in 1955 when Doris Day and Jimmy Cagney played Ruth and Moe in the movie, Love Me or Leave Me, also the title of the song that seemed to epitomize Ruth's life. After the movie's release, Ruth turned down an offer of a five-figure salary to come out of retirement. Etting retired in Colorado Springs with Myrl Alderman, and lived there until her death in 1978.

From the guide to the Ruth Etting Music Collection, 1886-2000, 1920-1938, 1981-1984