Ruth Etting was born on November 23, 1896, in David City, Nebraska. Etting was interested in drawing at an early age; she drew and sketched anywhere she was able. She left David City at the age of sixteen to attend art school in Chicago. Etting gained a job designing costumes at the Marigold Gardens nightclub, which led to employment singing and dancing in the chorus. She gave up art school soon after beginning to work at Marigold Gardens. Before turning exclusively to performing, Etting worked as a designer for the owner of a costume shop in Chicago’s Loop, and was successful enough to earn a partnership in the shop through her work.
Etting met gangster Martin “Moe the Gimp” Snyder in 1922, when she was performing at the Marigold Gardens. Etting married Snyder on July 17, 1922, in Crown Point, Indiana. She later said she married him “nine-tenths out of fear and one-tenth out of pity.” Etting later told her friends, “If I leave him, he’ll kill me.” He managed her career, booking radio appearances, and eventually had her signed to an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records.
The couple moved to New York in 1927, where Etting made her Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. She went on to appear in other hit shows in rapid succession, including Ziegfeld’s Simple Simon and Whoopee!
In Hollywood, Etting made a long series of movie shorts between 1929 and 1936, and three feature movies in 1933 and 1934. By 1934, she was having difficulty getting engagements. Snyder’s arguing and fighting at venues where Etting was employed caused her to be passed by for jobs in the United States. In 1936, she thought taking work in England might be the answer, but Snyder created problems while she was working there also. She divorced Moe Snyder on the grounds of cruelty and abandonment on November 30, 1937, at which point she retired from performing and recording.
Ruth Etting briefly emerged from retirement to host a radio show and accept an engagement at New York’s Copacabana in March 1947.
Ruth Etting died in Colorado Springs on September 24, 1978, at age 81. – adapted from Wikipedia
