"I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank"
About this Quote
A flex that lands because it borrows the language of American power and turns it into showbiz swagger. When Ethel Merman quips, "I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank", she’s not just bragging about lung capacity; she’s measuring her voice against an institution built on permanence, capital, and scale. It’s a comic metaphor with teeth: the bank is the symbol of endurance people actually trust in a modern city, and Merman’s saying her instrument is that reliable, that unshakable, that big.
The specific intent is vaudevillian one-upmanship: a punchline that doubles as a résumé. Merman was famous for a brassy, unamplified belt that could cut through an orchestra and reach the back row without help. In an era before body mics normalized intimacy, volume and stamina were currency. So the joke functions as marketing, too, the kind performers traded backstage and columnists loved to repeat because it packages a technical fact (her breath control) as a cultural image.
The subtext carries a sly gendered edge. A woman claiming space, loudly, and comparing herself to a bank is a way of stealing authority from male-coded domains - finance, infrastructure, the "serious" world - and relocating it in her own body. The context is mid-century Broadway and the celebrity ecosystem that fed on quotable personas. Merman’s line keeps her myth intact: not the fragile songbird, but the industrial-strength star, built for long runs, big houses, and bigger punchlines.
The specific intent is vaudevillian one-upmanship: a punchline that doubles as a résumé. Merman was famous for a brassy, unamplified belt that could cut through an orchestra and reach the back row without help. In an era before body mics normalized intimacy, volume and stamina were currency. So the joke functions as marketing, too, the kind performers traded backstage and columnists loved to repeat because it packages a technical fact (her breath control) as a cultural image.
The subtext carries a sly gendered edge. A woman claiming space, loudly, and comparing herself to a bank is a way of stealing authority from male-coded domains - finance, infrastructure, the "serious" world - and relocating it in her own body. The context is mid-century Broadway and the celebrity ecosystem that fed on quotable personas. Merman’s line keeps her myth intact: not the fragile songbird, but the industrial-strength star, built for long runs, big houses, and bigger punchlines.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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