Ethel Merman – Annie Get Your Gun (1956 reissue) album art
This album cover unites three of the four widths of Morris Fuller Benton’s Franklin Gothic: the Condensed (1912) for “Irving Berlin”, the normal (1904) for “The Original Cast Album”, and the Wide (added in 1953 by John L. Renshaw) for the artist’s name and the title. For good measure, the secondary typeface is Franklin Gothic’s lighter sibling, News Gothic.
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin. In the original 1946 Broadway production by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Ethel Merman (1908–1984) played Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926), who is played by Ray Middleton (1907–1984).
The original cast album was first released in 1946 with a different cover. This is the c.1956 reissue by Decca Records. Take note that the album includes the song “I’m an Indian Too”, which is seen as offensive, and was met with criticism by Native Americans. Several of the later productions have omitted the song from their revivals of the musical.
