ELLA FITZGERALD. (Posted by: Fernando Rosa)

FACT FILE
BORN: April 25, 1918, in Newport News, Virgínia
SPOUSE: Bernie kornegay (1941-19439)
Ray Brown (1948-1952)
CHILDREN: Raymond, Jr. (adapted)
DIED: June 15, 1996, in Beverly Hills, California

Ella Fitzgeraçd. Known as “the First Lady of Song”, was born in  Virgínia. Her parents separated when she was one, and she moved to Yonkers, New York, with her mother. Ella and her younger sister, Frances, loved to dance. They would dance around their apartment while their mother sang along to records. Ella also joined the glee club at school.

In her early teens, Ella discovered the bustling African American neighborhood of Harlem, which was just a trolley car and a subway ride away. She went to the savoy ballroom and learned the latest dances, bringing them back to Yonkers and dancing on street corners for spare change.

Ella was sixteen, tall, and shy when her friends dared her to enter a talent contest at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater. She planned to dance, but Ella was so nervous when she hit the stage that she couldn’t move her feet. She had to do something, so she sang instead. Her voice was shaky at first, but it grew stronger. Ella ended up winning first prize!

SCAT AND BEBOP

 Ella made scat singing popular, which is singing nonsense syllables like "skee-ba doobie-do-wah" to imitate musical instruments. It went along with a new kind of jazz music-bebop.

JAIL TIME

When Ella went on tour, her manager insisted that she and the other black musicians be treated the same as whites, even when they traveled in the south. Once in Texas the police went backstage to give the black perfarmers a hard time. When they saw band members gambling in Ella's dressing room, they arrested everyone, including Ella. Then they had the nerve to ask Ella for an autograph in jail!

She kept winning talents shows, and soon she was the lead singer for a jazz band performing at the Savoy Ballroom. Ella was a hit! her fans especially loved it when she left the stage and danced with the audience. She sang with lots of famous bands and recorded many albums.

Among her numerous honors are thirteen Grammy awards, over 40 million albums sold, and the National Medal of Arts given to her by President Ronald Reagan.

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