Marilyn and Ella is a 2008 play by Bonnie Greer. [1] It is a musical drama about Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald. [2] [3]
On March 15, 1955 [4] Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood, [5] after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking. [6] The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. Bonnie Greer dramatized the incident as the musical drama, Marilyn and Ella, in 2008.
It has been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first Black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroe's intervention, but this is not true. African-American singers Herb Jefferies, [7] Eartha Kitt, [8] and Joyce Bryant [9] all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard .
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
Freda Charcilia Payne is an American singer and actress. Payne is best known for her career in music during the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. Her most notable record is her 1970 hit single "Band of Gold". Payne was also an actress in musicals and film, as well as the host of a TV talk show. Payne is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, a former singer with the American vocal group the Supremes.
The Mocambo was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. It was owned by Charlie Morrison and Felix Young.
BlackGirl is an American pop/dance vocal trio consisting of Pam Copeland, Nycolia "Tye-V" Turman, and Rochelle Stuart from Atlanta, that formed in 1992 on the Kaper/RCA/BMG label.
Jet is an American weekly digital magazine focusing on news, culture, and entertainment related to the African-American community. Founded in November 1951 by John H. Johnson of the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois, the magazine was billed as "The Weekly Negro News Magazine". Jet chronicled the civil rights movement from its earliest years, including the murder of Emmett Till, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the activities of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Shirley Ann Hemphill was an American stand-up comedian and actress.
Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson is a 1962 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by an orchestra arranged by Nelson Riddle.
Bonnie Greer, OBE FRSL is an American-British playwright, novelist, critic and broadcaster, who has lived in the UK since 1986. She has appeared as a panellist on television programmes such as Newsnight Review and Question Time and has served on the boards of several leading arts organisations, including the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the London Film School. She is Vice President of the Shaw Society. She is former Chancellor of Kingston University in Kingston upon Thames, London. In July 2022 she was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Althea Gibson defeated Darlene Hard in the final, 6–3, 6–2 to win the ladies' singles tennis title at the 1957 Wimbledon Championships. Gibson was the first African American player to win a singles title at Wimbledon. Shirley Fry was the defending champion, but did not compete.
"We Must Be In Love" is the title of a R&B single by Pure Soul. It was the first single from the band's debut album. The single peaked at number-eleven at R&B radio in 1995.
Stairway to Heaven is the title of a R&B single by Pure Soul. It was the final single from their debut album. A radio-remix of the single was serviced to radio featuring The O'Jays, who originally recorded the song on their Family Reunion album in 1975.
Iris Winnifred King née Ewart (1910–2000), was born in Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, on September 5, 1910. She attended the Kingston Technical High School in Kingston and later the Roosevelt University in Chicago where she studied political science and public administration from 1951-'53.
Otho Lee Gaines was an American jazz singer and lyricist. Gaines wrote the lyrics for "Take the "A" Train" and "Just A-Sittin' and A-Rockin'", two jazz standards by Billy Strayhorn.
Joyce Bryant was an American singer, dancer, and civil rights activist who achieved fame in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a theater and nightclub performer. With her signature silver hair and tight mermaid dresses, she became an early African-American sex symbol, garnering such nicknames as "The Bronze Blond Bombshell", "The Black Marilyn Monroe", "The Belter", and "The Voice You'll Always Remember".
Smalls Paradise, was a nightclub in Harlem, New York City. Located in the basement of 2294 Seventh Avenue at 134th Street, it opened in 1925 and was owned by Ed Smalls (né Edwin Alexander Smalls; 1882–1976). At the time of the Harlem Renaissance, Smalls Paradise was the only one of the well-known Harlem night clubs to be owned by an African-American and integrated. Other major Harlem night clubs admitted only white patrons unless the person was an African-American celebrity.
Gloria Spencer was an American gospel singer who was billed as the "World's Largest Gospel Singer" due to a glandular condition that caused her to weigh 625 pounds (283 kg). Over the course of her four-year career, Spencer released only two albums. She was noted for her "sparkling soprano that could easily show a pop feeling or a gritty one." Spencer died of congestive heart failure in April 1976.
Joseph Perkins Greene was an American songwriter, best known for "Across the Alley from the Alamo", "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" (1944), and "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'" (1946).
Harriet Arline Forte Kennedy was an American museum administrator, sculptor, and singer.