MARILYN’S SINGING COACH told her to listen to Ella’s Gershwin records 100 times in a row if she really wanted to learn how to sing. So, America’s sweetheart did just that. It was November 1954, in Los Angeles, when Marilyn got the true thrill of seeing her idol in person. No one would have predicted how close they would become—they hadn’t yet shared their intimate secrets of troubled childhoods, struggling just to survive. It was Marilyn who got Ella her first BIG break at the Mocambo, the famous L.A. nightclub where Bogie, Bacall, Charlie Chaplin, and Clark Gable all held court, and the same famous haunt that refused to put the übertalented and proudly voluptuous Black Fitzgerald onstage. Monroe promised the owner she would sit up front every night, with her celebrity pals like Sinatra and Garland. Every night, Ella sold out in front of her luminous friend. Still, despite her fame, the Queen of Jazz was forced to come into clubs through the kitchen or the back door. Again, MM stepped in. She famously refused to enter a Colorado club through the front door unless Ella was allowed to walk in beside her, like the royalty they were. Ella always remembered Marilyn’s kindness: “I owe her a real debt,” the First Lady of Song proudly proclaimed on more than one occasion.
