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Starshining broad

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Oh blah you hello

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from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny

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Kaplin and this is Encyclopedia.

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Wamanica, deemed

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the first Lady of Song Today's

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Dreamer, was the most popular female jazz

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singer in the United States for more than half

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a century. She won thirteen

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Grammy Awards and sold over forty

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million albums. Her

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voice was flexible, wide ranging,

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accurate, and ageless. Let's

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talk about Ella Fitzgerald. Ella

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Jane Fitzgerald was born on April twenty

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fifth, nineteen seventeen, in Newport

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News, Virginia, to William Fitzgerald

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and Tempe Henry.

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Ella's parents separated shortly after

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Ella's birth, and she and her

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mother moved to Yonkers, New York, where they

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eventually moved in with Tempe's longtime

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boyfriend, Joseph da Silva.

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Three soon became four as Ella's

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sister, Francis, was born in nineteen twenty

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three. The family struggled

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to make ends meet. Both parents worked

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multiple jobs, and Ella occasionally took

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on work too. Their apartment

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was in a mixed neighborhood where Ella made

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friends easily. She considered herself

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more of a tomboy and often joined neighborhood

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baseball games. Sports

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aside, Ella enjoyed dancing

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and singing with friends, and would perform at

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lunch and on her way to school. In

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nineteen thirty two, Ella's mom,

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Tempe, died from serious

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injuries she received in a car accident.

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Ella was devastated. She eventually

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moved in with her aunt, Virginia, and when her

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stepfather, Joe died shortly thereafter,

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Ella's stepsister Francis, came to live

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with them too. Ella was

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in a dark place. She started

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skipping school and her grades dropped.

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She got in trouble with the police and was sent

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to a reform school, where she was subject

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to beatings by her caretakers. Eventually

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Ella escaped from their formatory.

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She was fifteen years old, broke and

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alone. During the Great Depression. In

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nineteen thirty four, Ella's

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name was pulled in a weekly drawing at the

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Apollo Theater for a chance to perform

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and compete an amateur night. Two

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sisters who were a dance and his

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sisters in the world called the Edwards Sisters,

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and they closed the show at the bout.

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And when I saw

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those ladies dance, I

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says, no way, I'm going out there

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and try to dance because they stopped

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the show. She was planning to dance,

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but when the Edwards Sisters closed the main

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show, she changed her mind, fearing

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she couldn't compete with their moves. And

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when I got out there, somebody hollow

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up nobodience. What is she gonna do? She

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made a last minute decision to sing and

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asked the band to play Hoogi Carmichael's

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Judy for Me Heaven

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Samplery.

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By the end of the song, the crowd demanded

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an encore, and Ella had found

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her calling. One

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of the people in the band that night was saxophonist

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and arranger Benny Carter. Wowed

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by her natural talent, Benny introduced

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Ella to people who could help launch her career.

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The era of big swing bands was coming

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to a close in favor of Bebop. Ella

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successfully made the transition, using

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her voice to sound like another horn in the band.

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She began to experiment with scat singing,

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eventually turning it into an art. In

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nineteen thirty eight, Ella recorded

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a version of the nursery rhyme A Tisket

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a Tasket. A million

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copies of the album were sold. It hit

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number one on the charts, and it stayed on the pop

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charts for seventeen weeks. Ella

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was suddenly famous. Her

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life changed professionally and personally.

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While on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band in

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nineteen forty six, Ella fell

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in love with bassist Ray Brown. The

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two got married and adopted a son,

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Ray Jr. Though the two later

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got divorced, they remain lifelong friends.

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Ella worked with all the jazz greats,

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including Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington,

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Nat King, Cole, Dizzy Gillespie,

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and Benny Goodman. From

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nineteen fifty six to nineteen sixty four,

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Ella recorded eight songbooks in

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which she covered other musician songs, including

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those by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington,

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the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving

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Berlin, and Rogers and Hart. Ella

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continued to work throughout her life.

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By the nineteen nineties, she had recorded

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more than two hundred albums.

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She received the Kennedy Center Honors,

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the US National Medal of Arts, and France's

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Commander of Arts and Letters Award. Thank

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You, and I'm so proud to be in class

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with all of these younger ones coming

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up. Ain't complete me behind. I'm learning out

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a rep In

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her later life, Ella suffered from

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diabetes. She was hospital

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for congestive heart failure in nineteen eighty

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six and for exhaustion in nineteen

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ninety. In nineteen ninety

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three, she had to have both of her legs

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amputated below the knee due to complications

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from diabetes. She never

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fully recovered from the surgery, and

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on June fifteenth, nineteen ninety six,

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at the age of seventy nine, Ella

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Fitzgerald died at her Beverly Hills

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home. Fans all

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over the world mourned her death. A

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wreath of white flowers was placed next

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to her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and

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the marquis outside the Hollywood Bowl read

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Ella, you will miss You. Tune

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in tomorrow for the story of another incredible

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dreamer. This month of Encyclopedia

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Wamanica is brought to you by Casper

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Casper Mattresses and Products. Let today's

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dreamers get the sleep they need to turn their

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ideas into reality. Special

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thanks to my favorite sister, Liz Kaplan,

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the brain behind this amazing collection of women.

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Talk to you tomorrow