Background
Together with her mother, Augusta, and her brother, Jack, she and her family toured as the Pee Wee Minstrels.
Together with her mother, Augusta, and her brother, Jack, she and her family toured as the Pee Wee Minstrels.
In a 1934 vote held by Stars, she came in second place, behind Annette Hanshaw, as the best "female popular singer." By age 7, she was known as "the little girl with the big voice". Their family name was originally Schutte. The father, Charles, was the manager.
They also played in vaudeville as The Three Shuttas.
She debuted on in The Passing Show of 1922, and then in a series of Florenz Ziegfeld productions including Louie the 14th and Whoopee!. The couple appeared in clubs across the country, and were regulars on Jack Benny Canada Dry Show.
She signed off with the song Rock-a-Bye Moon. They divorced in 1936.
Shutta returned to in 1963 in the musical Jennie, which starred Mary Martin.
The show ran only 84 performances, and was generally considered unsuccessful. Subsequent work was difficult to find, and Shutta used alcohol to get herself through the rough spots. Her final comeback was at the age of 73 in the original production Follies (1971-1972) with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
She brought down the house each evening with the song " Baby" in which her character, veteran actress Hattie Walker, reminisces about her younger days as chorus girl in the Follies.
Follies was staged at the Winter Garden Theater where Shutta made her first appearance for the Shuberts in 1922. Ethel Shutta died in 1976 in New York City in Saint Clare"s Hospital at the age of 79.
She resided in Greenwich Village.
