March 15, 1955
This is a story that has been disregarded. It’s the story of an impeccable solution to a paradoxical situation. It’s a story about an unusual woman who was a little ahead of her times. It’s a story about how the life of the most popular female jazz singer had changed direction, on account of a single phone call. Let’s make a start at Mocambo, a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip in 1955. 1955; The year where American saw extreme segregation, and black musicians often faced with the brunt of it.
With this particular story, it revolves around 2 iconic stars, one counteracted from her success and one who conjures unconventional images for different people, known mostly for the wrong reasons. Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald.
Ella Fitzgerald, the acclaimed jazz singer, who had had her fair share of struggles to overcome. While she was venerated by her community, (and still is widely regarded as one of the adept singers to this day), the fact that she was African American secured a numerous amount of doors to her professionally. Upsetting many knowing that people’s prejudice got in the way of her authentic talent.
Marilyn Monroe had to get
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“I’d been thinking for years about taking over Ella’s personal management. … Ella was afraid. She thought I was too much of a blow-top,” Granz had said before Ella had accepted. “So I told her it was a matter of pride with me, that she still hadn’t been recognized—economically, at least—as the greatest singer of our time…. We had no contract. Mutual love and respect was all the contract we needed.” Little did they know, the collaboration of Franz 's shrewdness from years of experience and Fitzgerald’s immense talent upraised her social standing from one of jazz’s most cherished singers to the International First Lady of