text: Nudity on stage can be powerful , and is still protested , but not as powerful as the frightening glimpse I had as a child of Ethel Merman in Gypsy . Now , if you could get the ghost of Ethel Merman and the undead Mickey Rooney to strip to the waist for 10 rounds of bare-knuckle action , that would be truly frightening stage violence .
  
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  Micky Rooney and Ethel Merman worked together on several productions .