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SPEAKER_07: Hey everyone, it's Jenny. Before we get started, I wanna remind our listeners that in a continued effort to lift up underrepresented voices and to continue to fight for social justice, Wonder Media Network is offering free ad space on our shows to organizations working towards that cause. If this applies to you or to someone you know, feel free to email me at jennyatwondermedianetwork.com for more information. Thanks for listening and onto the show.
SPEAKER_05: Hey listeners, I'm Luisa and I'm one of the scriptwriters for Encyclopedia Wamanica. I am so grateful and excited to introduce the first lady of song with you, Ella Fitzgerald. Ella broke down barriers with her voice in an era of racial segregation. She put a spell on anyone who listened to her, sharing her gift of song with all audiences. And beyond her ability to sing, Ella showed the world what music could do. It could spread joy and love, and most importantly, a sense of unity even between polarized communities. Ella is celebrated as one of the most important jazz singers of all time. And her music continues to bring harmony to all of us, even in times of crisis and injustice. This episode was originally featured in July for a Dreamers Month. Now here's Jenny Kaplan with the story of Ella Fitzgerald.
SPEAKER_08: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica.
SPEAKER_07: Deemed the first lady of song, today's Dreamer was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. She won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. She was the first woman to sing in the United States and was the first woman to sing in the United States for 40 million albums. Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate, and ageless. Let's talk about Ella Fitzgerald. Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25th, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, to William Fitzgerald and Tempe Henry. Ella's parents separated shortly after Ella's birth, and she and her mother moved to Yonkers, New York, where they eventually moved in with Tempe's longtime boyfriend, Joseph De Silva. Three soon became four, as Ella's half-sister, Frances, was born in 1923. The family struggled to make ends meet. Both parents worked multiple jobs, and Ella occasionally took on work, too. Their apartment was in a mixed neighborhood where Ella made friends easily. She considered herself more of a tomboy and often joined neighborhood baseball games. Sports aside, Ella enjoyed dancing and singing with friends and would perform at lunch and on her way to school. In 1932, Ella's mom, Tempe, died from serious injuries she received in a car accident. Ella was devastated. She eventually moved in with her aunt, Virginia, and when her stepfather, Joe, died shortly thereafter, Ella's step-sister, Frances, came to live with them, too. Ella was in a dark place. She started skipping school, and her grades dropped. She got in trouble with the police and was sent to a reform school where she was subject to beatings by her caretakers. Eventually, Ella escaped from the reformatory. She was 15 years old, broke and alone during the Great Depression. In 1934, Ella's name was pulled in a weekly drawing at the Apollo Theater for a chance to perform and compete an amateur night.
SPEAKER_08: Two sisters who were the dancinest sisters in the world called the Edwards sisters, and they closed the show at the time. And when I saw those ladies dance, I said, no way I'm going out there and try to dance, because they stopped the show.
SPEAKER_07: She was planning to dance, but when the Edwards sisters closed the main show, she changed her mind, fearing she couldn't compete with their moves.
SPEAKER_08: And when I got out there, somebody hollered up in the audience, what is she gonna do?
SPEAKER_07: She made a last-minute decision to sing and asked the band to play Hoagy Carmichael's Judy. She's the one for me, heaven sent her to be my Judy.
SPEAKER_07: By the end of the song, the crowd demanded an encore, and Ella had found her calling. One of the people in the band that night was saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter. Wowed by her natural talent, Benny introduced Ella to people who could help launch her career. The era of big swing bands was coming to a close in favor of bebop. Ella successfully made the transition, using her voice to sound like another horn in the band. She began to experiment with scat singing, eventually turning it into an art. In 1938, Ella recorded a version of the nursery rhyme A Tisket a Tasket. A million copies of the album were sold. It hit number one on the charts, and it stayed on the pop charts for 17 weeks. Ella was suddenly famous. Her life changed professionally and personally. While on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1946, Ella fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. The two got married and adopted a son, Ray Jr. Though the two later got divorced, they remained lifelong friends. Ella worked with all the jazz greats, including Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, and Benny Goodman. From 1956 to 1964, Ella recorded eight song books in which she covered other musicians' songs, including those by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwin's, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart. Ella continued to work throughout her life. By the 1990s, she had recorded more than 200 albums. She received the Kennedy Center Honors, the U.S. National Medal of Arts, and France's Commander of Arts and Letters Award.
SPEAKER_08: Thank you, and I'm so proud to be in class with all of these younger ones coming up. They ain't gonna leave me behind. I'm learning how to rap.
SPEAKER_07: In her later life, Ella suffered from diabetes. She was hospitalized for congestive heart failure in 1986 and for exhaustion in 1990. In 1993, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to complications from diabetes. She never fully recovered from the surgery, and on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79, Ella Fitzgerald died at her Beverly Hills home. Fans all over the world mourned her death. A wreath of white flowers was placed next to her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the marquee outside the Hollywood Bowl read, "'Ella, we will miss you.'" Tune in tomorrow for the story of another incredible dreamer. Special thanks to my favorite sister, Liz Kaplan, the brain behind this amazing collection of women. Talk to you tomorrow. I wanna tell you about an organization that I think we should all support. Push Black is the nation's largest nonprofit black media company. Push Black is a community of over five million black folks who care about how our past shapes our present. It was created as a unique space to focus on the intersection of news and history. Push Black identifies the repetition of historical trends and shares lessons from the past that people can use as they work to strengthen their communities today. Push Black also produces the podcast, Black History Year. Black History Year gives you the stories you should have been taught in school. Push Black connects you to the people who are standing up for black excellence. And striving for full black liberation. Visit pushblack.us to join the community and listen to the podcast. That's pushblack.us. Father's Day is just around the corner and we're so excited to share that we're offering custom episodes of Encyclopedia Wamanica about the amazing dads in your life. Visit the link in our episode notes or head to wondermedianetwork.com slash Father's Day to purchase a custom episode all about your dad.
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SPEAKER_00: Possible.
