Ella
A while ago I Tivo’d (well, actually ReplayTV’d, but it’s not quite as well-known a verb) a special on Ella Fitzgerald called Something to Live For. She was a fascinating person, driven to perform and succeed, and I really enjoyed the story and especially the music, as I am a great Ella fan. One line I will always remember was mentioned by a contemporary of Ella’s while she was being interviewed about how Ella got her start. She described a club in Harlem, where Ella went to perform. She recounted how Ella didn’t wear fashionable clothes, nor was she a beautiful girl, but relatively plain and poorly dressed, so when she got on stage, she was actually booed. But then the music started, and she opened her mouth to sing, and the room quieted down. By the end, everyone was so transfixed, “you could have heard a rat piss on cotton!” What a great line! Ella really was something special.
