How did Marilyn Monroe help launch the career of Ella Fitzgerald?
Despite being one of the most famous women who ever lived, Marilyn Monroe also feels like one of the most misunderstood. While her beauty is globally known, the personality and heart of the woman behind the blonde hair and siren eyes aren’t known well enough, as stories of her intellect, kindness, and personality are forgotten in the shadow of her myth. In this instance, a story of her love and care for her fellow creative women connected her to another legend, as Monroe helped support Ella Fitzgerald’s career.
Only a few years before the so-called peace and love era of the 1960s, the world was still torn apart by racism and segregation. In the 1950s, prejudice across the lines of race, gender and even genre was rife. So, for women like Ella Fitzgerald, a black jazz singer trying to make it big, times were extremely tough.
At the time, there were key hot spots, and if you wanted to make it, you had to first make it there. In Hollywood, the Mocambo was the place. Located on the Sunset Strip, the venue was a regular watering hole for the stars of the time. It was where Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner, Bob Hope, Sophia Loren, Howard Hughes and more all hung out, so to be seen there and to be heard by the people in the place went a long way in helping to establish a powerful career.
Ella Fitzgerald, like every other singer at the time, wanted to play at the Mocambo. But, not only did the Mocambo look down on jazz, they looked down on the people who originated it: talented black musicians. For most, that would be the end of that as racism tore oppertunities away from people. But luckily, Fitzgerald has recently made a powerful friend.
Monroe was sick of Hollywood. She cast off Los Angeles, sick of its vanity and swallow nature, and ventured to New York in the hopes of finding some more intellectual stimulation. In her time there, she read and saw plays and fell madly in love with a new sound. She fell in love with jazz, and one night, in one of the city’s buzzing venues, she fell in love with Fitzgerald’s voice, recognising the singer as the talented and gifted woman she was.
When Monroe heard about Fitzgerald’s dream and the Mocambo’s racist booking process, she made it her mission to get the singer in the door. “I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt,” the jazz star said later in 1972.
“She personally called the owner of the Mocambo and told him she wanted me booked immediately,” she explained. But she took it even further. As a perfect example of a person using their influence for good, Monroe said that if the Mocambo booked Fitzgerald, she would be there.
The singer explained, “She would take a front table every night.” Everyone knew that where Monroe went, the world followed. So naturally, the club booked her.
But Monroe’s friendship with Fitzgerald was strong, and her admiration for the singer was very real. She was true to her word. Every night that the jazz singer performed, the actor was there, front and centre, supporting her and making sure the venue treated her with respect. “Marilyn was there, front table, every night,” Fitzgerald recalled.
Monroe’s kindness and support changed her life, as her use of stardom helped ensure the singer’s own rise. The singer recalled these moments with deep kindness and gratitude, acknowledging the pivotal role Monroe played in shaping her path “The press went overboard,” Fitzgerald said. “After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again”.
