Ella Fitzgerald & Marilyn Monroe: The Story - Civil Rights ''Marilyn went to the owner of the most prestigious nightclub on the West Coast, Mocambo, and offered to sit front-row centre every night for five nights if the owner booked one of her favourite singers: Ella Fitzgerald. The owner agreed and the result exposure gave Ella’s career a huge boost, one from which she never looked back and which she always acknowledged. Fitzgerald became the first African-American to perform at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe had lobbied the owner for that booking. It has to be remembered that this happened in the mid 1950s, a time of racial segregation in the United States. Although Fitzgerald was arguably the greatest seller of jazz discs on Earth at the time, she could not perform at just any venue. Her manager had set up an entire touring organisation to save her from the humiliation of having the door slammed in her face by a racist club owner, although Fitzgerald very seldom showed her true feelings in public, this fact was something she knew prevented her from fully bringing her artistry to the world. Marilyn, at the time, had gone completely rogue, breaking away from her draconian studio contract that let 20th Century Fox make a fortune off her and left her borrowing clothes from the wardrobe department. It had refused to give her better parts, never acknowledging the sheer graft that she had put into acting right from the start. Marilyn always knew what she was worth, and she always knew when she was being used. Like Ella, Marilyn never suffered fools, and her quips and asides are legendary: when asked why she wanted to be a sex symbol, she replied that she would rather be a symbol of sex than a few other things she could think of. Ella wanted to be seen as beautiful. She always said that what she wanted to do was “stop traffic”. Her singing career came into being because she did not have the self-confidence to compete with the tall, lithe, light-skinned showgirl types who came up against her at the legendary amateur nights at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. So, she simply stood there and sang. She knew that her voice, her timing and her impeccable musical ear were quite simply a gift, and because of this her voice retained its exquisite girl-like quality all of her life. Marilyn, who was billed simply as “The Girl” in arguably her second-most famous film, The Seven Year Itch, did not want to be fluffy and frivolous and dainty. And so their similar battle to be seen and accepted as how they saw and accepted themselves was exactly the same beneath the surface. While listening to Ella, Monroe was a huge and expert fan of jazz, I imagine that Marilyn must have heard Ella’s voice that spoke to her own.'' - The Ella and Marilyn incident was turned into a play by Bonnie Greer in 2005. Bonnie talks about her play and the civil rights Marilyn believed in, beautiful segments of Ella's singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZHBambTppc ''I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt, Ella later said. It was because of her that i played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the 50's. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him and it was true, due to Marilyn's superstar status that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night, The press went overboard. After that, i never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman - a little ahead of her times. And she didn't know it.'' - Ella Fitzgerald ''I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.'' - Marilyn Monroe -Telegram, turning down a party invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy (1962) (''Freedom riders'', were Civil Rights activists, challenging segregation laws on interstate buses in the Southern United States in 1961, originally from the 1940's.)