Transcript
Narrator/Character from Havoc Town (0:00)
This is an iHeart podcast. There's a vile sickness in Ambas Town. You must excise it. Dig into the deep earth and cut it out.
Aaron Manke (0:16)
From iheart Podcasts and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. This is Havoc Town, a new fiction podcast set in the Bridgewater audio universe, starring Jewel State and Ray Wise.
Podcast Host/Narrator (0:29)
Listen to Havoc town on the iHeartRadio.
Aaron Manke (0:31)
App, Apple podcast Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Podcast Host/Narrator (0:38)
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.
Aaron Manke (0:47)
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Podcast Host/Narrator (1:10)
In Hollywood, they say that it's who you know. The right connections can give you a leg up. For instance, director Sofia Coppola is an immense talent, but it's easier to get noticed when your dad directed the Godfather, right? In fact, scores of our favorite celebrities, people with massive amounts of talent, come from Hollywood royalty. Nicolas Cage, George Clooney, Emma Roberts, the list goes on and on. But while these artists had a leg up, their talent is what earned them job after job. After all, it's not how you get the opportunity, it's what you do with it that counts. And as one Hollywood starlet has proved, sometimes a foot in the door is all someone needs to break the glass ceiling. In 1948, an up and coming actress arrived for her voice session at Columbia Pictures, one of the leading film studios in Hollywood. She had a good singing voice but was untrained, so the studio had her working with a composer named Fred Karger to get her as ready as possible for the small part in an upcoming film. That afternoon, Fred handed the young actress a vinyl record and encouraged her to listen to it. The singer on the record was a moderately well known crooner by the name of Ella Fitzgerald, and Fred thought that the young actress might be able to learn a few things about singing by listening to Ella. And the actress did listen, and found herself drawn in by Ella Fitzgerald's low, sultry voice. She became an instant fan and bought scores of Ella's records. As it turned out, Ella Fitzgerald wasn't just a hypnotic singer, she was also prolific, having released dozens of records since 1935. Over the next six years, the young actress spent countless hours listening to Ella's recordings. She followed her career even as her own career took off and she began to land bigger and bigger roles in Hollywood. But much as she loved Ella Fitzgerald. She didn't get to see her perform until November of 1954 at a nightclub in Los Angeles. After the show, the actress met Ella and introduced herself as Marilyn Monroe, one of Ella's biggest fans. And the two struck up a fast friendship. By this time, Marilyn Monroe was one of the most famous celebrities on the planet. Ella Fitzgerald was famous in her own right, but had nowhere near Maryland star power. In fact, even though Ella had been recording albums for almost 20 years and had multiple songs top the Billboard charts, she was still struggling to book a lot of upscale clubs around the country. She especially wanted to play the Mocambo, a famous LA nightclub, but the owner had so far refused to book her. This was sadly a common problem for black performers in the 1950s. At the time, a lot of clubs and casinos practiced segregation. These venues flat out refused to hire black talent. Or if they did, musicians like Ella would perform and then be ushered out the back door without being allowed to stay in the venue after their set. But that was only part of why the Mocambo refused to book Ella. In fact, singers like Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitty had already played the Mocambo. So Ella wouldn't have been the first African American woman to perform there. No, the problem was that Ella was full figured. It seems that she didn't meet the traditional beauty standards of the time. And the club's owner worried that a heavyset woman like Ella would lack the glamour needed to draw a crowd. And so for years, Ella had been unable to change the club owner's mind about her. But that was before she became friends with Marilyn Monroe. So in the spring of 1955, Marilyn placed a call to the owner of the Mocambo and made him a deal. If he booked Ella for a run at the club, Marilyn would be there every single night. And she would make sure that the paparazzi's got plenty of pictures of her sitting at the center table. The club owner was a businessman first and foremost. His only real issue with booking Ella was her ability to draw a crowd. And Marilyn would certainly take care of that with her at the performance. The Macambo would end up being in the newspapers night after night. So he agreed and hired Ella for a couple of weeks in March of 1955. On opening night, Marilyn Monroe kept her word. She showed up at the Mocambo dressed to the nines with the trail of reporters and photographers right behind her. She sat at the very front of the club so the whole audience could see her avidly supporting her friend. Plus Two more celebrity guests also showed up to see Ella croon Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. That night, Ella put on an unforgettable show to a packed house. The rest of her run sold out, and the Mocambo decided to extend her contract for another week. After selling out that club, Ella's entire career changed. She was in demand at upscale clubs around the country. In fact, there wasn't a stage she could not book. Years later, she said in an interview that after the Mocambo, she never had to play a small jazz club again. And even though her talent is what brought her so much success, she always credited her good friend Marilyn Monroe for using her star power to open a door that never should have been closed to begin with.