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Sadly, Ella Fitzgerald would find out that her mother would die in a
car accident in 1932, Tempie died from serious injuries, and Ella took
her loss very hard. Joseph Da Silva would look after Ella for a short
period of time, but Ella wanted to be with Tempies sister who lived in
Virginia. Worse news would come and Joe suffered a heart attack and
died a sudden death. Frances would have to join Tempies sister and
Ella in Virginia, and they all lived together. She would suffer
depression and this affected her grades in school, and her life became
very dramatic indeed. She soon found herself being sent to a reform
school, after getting in trouble with the police, and taken to
custody. At the new reform school, she received beatings from her
caretakers, which made her life even more unbearable. At the young age
of fifteen she managed to escape the reformatory, and found herself
alone and broke, during the Great Depression experience in America.
Ella would take these struggles as a positive experience in her life
and reflect her pain through performance and song. In 1934, her name
was pulled in a weekly drawing at the infamous Apollo Theater, here
she was given the opportunity to perform and compete in Amateur Night.
That night she would face boos and hisses of ‘What’s she going to do?’
from the rowdy crowd she had to perform in front of. Ella would ask
the band to play a Hoagy Carmichael song called Judy, which was her
mother’s favorite so she knew it well. Once the song had finished, the
crowd she feared gave her a warming encore and here she’d do a cover
song to ‘The Objects of my Affections’ by the Boswell Sisters. Away
from the comfort zone of her friends, you would find a restricted,
self-conscious and shy Ella, but once on stage fearless. She loved to
be in the spotlight, and found her place called home there. ‘Once up
there, I felt the acceptance and love from my audience’, said Ella. ‘I
knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life’. Her
saxophonist Benny Carter was extremely impressed with Ella’s natural
singing talent, and introduced her to people who would make her the
star she is today. They became lifelong friends and often worked
together. Chick Webb; was the first musician that she met, and he gave
her the job of vocalist, hiring her for $12.50 a week. Her debut album
was recorded in 1936, entitled ‘Love and Kisses’, released on Decca
Records. It was a moderate success, however her band performances with
Chick, would give her chances to play and venues such as Harlem’s
Savoy Ballroom, often known as ‘The World’s Most Famous Ballroom’. Now
Ella was turning heads, and she began making some seriously good
music. She would soon jazz things up, and started experimenting with
scat singing. Her renditions of songs like ‘(If You Can’t Sing It) You
Have to Swing It’, was a massive bebop hit, and Ella would use her
voice as another horn in the band. Scat singing would soon become
Ella’s new creation, turning it into a form of art. At 21, in 1938,
Ella recorded a version of ‘A-Ticket, A-Tasket’, and the album sold
one million copies, hit number one and stayed in the pop charts for 17
weeks. On June 16th, 1939, another death would soon haunt Ella, Chick
Webb would die. But the band would be renamed ‘Ella Fitzgerald and her
Famous Band’, due to Chick’s tragic loss, and took the task of being
bandleader. Ella married Benny Kornegay, who was a dockworker and had
been interested in Ella Fitzgerald. She married Benny for the reasons
of stability and protection, so when she got to know him and found out
that he had a criminal record, the marriage was annulled. Dizzy
Gillespie’s band would take Ella on tour in 1946, and Ella fell for
the right reasons, in love, with bassist Ray Brown. They adopted a son
together; whom they called Ray, Jr. Ella joined the Philharmonic tour
under Norman’s management and worked with Louis Armstrong on a couple
of albums. This inspired her to record a songbook series from 1956-
1964. These albums would be covers of other musicians work including
Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwin’s, Johnny Mercer, Irving
Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart. Ira Gershwin once said “I never knew how
good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them”. Show’s
such as the Bing Crosby Show, the Dinah Shore Show, the Nat King Cole
Show, the Andy Williams Show and the Dean Martin Show, would all love
having her on as a frequent guest. However, Ella had a very bust
touring schedule, the Ray and Ella would be away from home a lot,
which would affect the bond with their song greatly. Ella luckily
reconnected with Ray, Jr later and he said “all I can say is that she
gave to me as much as she could”. Though Ray, Jr wasn’t the only
member of the family to be affected by Ray’s and Ella’s schedule, the
marriage would also be hurt and the two divorced in 1952 but remained
strong friends for the rest of their lives. Touring on the circuit
made Ella’s manager feel strongly about the civil rights movement, and
that his musicians should be treated equally no matter what skin
color. Norman’s manager would not tolerate any form of racism and
discrimination in hotels, restaurants and concert halls, even when
they were traveling in the Deep South. Although Norman’s good morals
would soon be destroyed when their time in Dallas came to an end. She
was getting ready to perform with the Philharmonic, and a police squad
was irritated by Norman’s principles. They barged in their backstage
rooms, where Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were shooting dice
and arrested everyone, including Ella. But when they got to the police
station Ella said “they had the nerve to ask for an autography”.
However numerous fans including celebrities like Marilyn Monroe,
supported Norman and Ella. Ella Fitzgerald continued to work as hard
as she could, early on, even when her health was at risk. Touring all
over the world, performing in cities that were miles apart, and in
1974 she’d perform with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie in New York. She
was included in the Down Beat magazine Hall of Fame; and received a
Kennedy Center Honors for her contributions to the arts. As well as
her musical offerings, Ella Fitzgerald would contribute generous
donations to child welfare, to organizations for disadvantaged youths.
When Frances died later, Ella felt she had to take on the
responsibility of looking after her sister’s family. In 1987, Ella
would be congratulated by her efforts and one the National Medal of
Arts by the United States President Ronald Reagan, and the awards kept
coming, making Ella very happy. Her health worsened in September 1986;
however Ella still kept on singing. When in hospital Ella had
quintuple coronary bypass surgery. Doctors replaced a valve in her
heart and diagnosed her wit diabetes, which they blamed her for
failing eyesight. The press made out that she could never sing again;
however by 1990, Ella had recorded over 200 albums. She gave here
final performance at New York’s renowned Carnegie Hall; it was the
26th time she’d performed there. At the wise age of 76 years old, her
diabetes affected her greatly. She was forced to have both her legs
amputated below the knees, and she never fully recovered from the
surgery. This made it increasingly harder for her to perform, however
she still enjoyed life, sitting outside in her backyard, and spending
quality time with Ray, Jr and her granddaughter Alice. On the sad day
of June 15th, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald died in her Beverly Hills home,
hours later signs of remembrance started to appear allover the world.
For example a huge wreath of white flowers stood n ext to her star in
the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a marquee outside the famous Hollywood
Bowl theatre read “Ella, we will miss you”. Her body was buried at
Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. The private memorial
service would stop traffic, and she was laid to rest in peace in
the “Sanctuary of the Bells” section of the Sunset Mission Mausoleum.
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