Legends helping Legends: Ella and Marilyn

The traditional image of Hollywood Icon Marilyn Monroe is a sultry, sex-pot with red lips, bleached blond hair, and that sultry voice saying, “Dad — dy.” Because sexuality is so intertwined with Monroe’s identity, few will bother to look at her identity further.

Films like My Week With Marilyn or even The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe capitalize on the sex too. The affairs, the drama, the men, the drugs. Few bother to note Monroe’s business savvy in opening her own movie production company when Fox refused to give her decent roles. A trend that wouldn’t gain popularity until later in Hollywood, once the studio system of old had dispersed.

But the best, most real story of Monroe’s life is that of her friendship with legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald.

In a time when there were race riots in the south, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movements something magical happened in tinsel town the way only Hollywood could make it.

Monroe had gone on record saying that Fitzgerald was her favorite singer, even. The two women had a lot in common. Both had had difficult lives in their childhood, and struggled coming up as performers getting people to take them seriously.

Monroe had been told by a vocal coach that if she wanted to improve her voice, she should listen to Fitzgerald. At the time, Fitzgerald was selling out jazz night clubs all over, but because of her race, was frequently turned away from larger, fancier venues.

The actress witnessed Ella’s perform in L.A. in 1954, and that was when their friendship began. Upon learning of “The First Lady of Song” struggle to get a gig at L.A. night club the Mocambo, Monroe took it upon herself to help the singer secure not just one but several.

Using her popularity, Marilyn promised the Mocambo club owner that if he let Ella perform she would bring all of her star power to the shows each and every night. She would sit up front, with all of her celebrity friends, getting the club fabulous publicity. Bringing along the likes of Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra.

The concerts were a success, selling out, and Fitzgerald’s contract was even extended to add on another week!

It wasn’t just the Mocambo either. Once while going to see one of Ella’s shows in Colorado, Monroe learned that the club owner was refusing to let Ella enter in the main doorway because of her skin color. When she witnessed this, Monroe refused to enter the club until Fitzgerald was allowed to enter in the front with her. After that, Fitzgerald never had trouble with any other night club.

Said Marilyn of Ella when asked who her favorite singer was, “Well, my very favorite person, and I love her as a person as well as a singer, I think she’s the greatest, and that’s Ella Fitzgerald.”

And Ella of Marilyn, “She was an unusual woman — a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”