I recently enjoyed a documentary about the life and work of Ella Fitzgerald. (‘Just One of Those Things,’ 2019, by Leslie Woodhead)

'Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.'

Ella Fitzgerald had a smooth, clear, precise voice, with an extraordinary range. She excelled at swing, she mastered scat and she gave us definitive interpretations of the Great American Songbook. Dubbed the Queen of Jazz, the First Lady of Song, she overcame hardship and discrimination to achieve success. And she consistently embraced change.

'There's a saying old, says that love is blind.
Still we're often told, seek and ye shall find.
So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind.
Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet.
He's the big affair I cannot forget,
Only man I ever think of with regret.
I'd like to add his initial to my monogram.
Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?
There's a somebody I'm longing to see,
I hope that he turns out to be,
Someone who'll watch over me.’
'Someone to Watch Over Me’ (G Gershwin / I Gershwin)

Born in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald's mother Tempie took her to Yonkers, New York in a bid to escape poverty and prejudice. As a child Fitzgerald would make the short trip into bustling Harlem where she could hear the best of blues, jazz and musical theatre, and dance on street corners for nickels.

Following the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the death of her beloved mother in 1932, life took a turn for the worse. Fitzgerald moved in with her aunt, began skipping school and her grades suffered. She was placed in a state reformatory for girls over 100 miles from home. Beaten and placed in solitary confinement, deemed ‘ungovernable’ by the authorities, she ran away to Harlem and took to sleeping rough.

'It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts.'

In 1934 Fitzgerald signed up to compete in the first Amateur Night at the legendary Apollo Theater. She intended to dance, but on seeing that accomplished tap duo the Edwards Sisters were on before her, at the last moment she opted to sing instead. The crowd laughed and jeered at the scruffy 17-year-old in her dirty dress and work boots. But her version of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Judy’ won them over and secured first prize.

‘Once I got up on stage I felt the acceptance and love from the audience. I knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life.’

In the wake of this success, Fitzgerald was enlisted by Chick Webb, a celebrated drummer and bandleader who specialised in swing, the good-time dance music of the time. With her impeccable timing and perfect pitch, she fitted right in.

Fitzgerald recorded a string of hit songs with Webb including the huge hit ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’, a song she co-wrote.

'A-tisket, a-tasket,
A brown and yellow basket.
I send a letter to my mommy,
On the way I dropped it.
I dropped it, I dropped it,
Yes, on the way I dropped it.
A little girlie picked it up
And put it in her pocket.’
'A-Tisket, A-Tasket’ (E Fitzgerald / V Alexander)

When Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald took over as head of the band, and the outfit was renamed Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra. She clearly had natural authority, and she rose to the top despite not being conventionally good looking.

‘I know I’m no glamour girl, and it’s not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I’ve got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing.’

With the United States’ entry into World War 2, many of Fitzgerald’s musicians were drafted and the group was disbanded. What’s more, public taste was moving on - from upbeat swing to the mellow crooning of Frank Sinatra and the sentimental swoon of Glenn Miller. She realised she had to evolve, and she found her answer in the fast tempos, complex chord progressions and virtuoso playing of the burgeoning be-bop movement. While performing with Dizzy Gillespie's big band, she started scat singing, improvising along with the brass.

'I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing.'

Although Louis Armstrong was the first to use his voice in this way, Fitzgerald took scat to new heights, embracing more intricate and sophisticated melodies. On her 1960 live album ‘Ella in Berlin’ you can hear her 5-minute scat version of ‘How High the Moon’ in which she quotes from over 40 other songs - including jigs, nursery rhymes, folk ballads, bop solos, novelty numbers and show tunes. It’s a joyous cascade of spontaneous invention. As she closes, she’s so exhausted that she sings ‘sweat gets in your eyes’ rather than ‘smoke.’

'Listen to my tale of woe,
It's terribly sad but true.
All dressed up, no place to go,
Each evening I'm awfully blue.
I must win some handsome guy,
Can't go on like this.
I could blossom out I know
With somebody just like you.
So...
Oh, sweet and lovely lady, be good.
Oh, lady, be good to me.
I am so awfully misunderstood,
So lady, be good to me.’
'Oh, Lady Be Good’ (G Gershwin, I Gershwin)

In the 1950s Fitzgerald’s manager Norman Granz persuaded her that she should evolve beyond jazz clubs onto the concert stage. He created the Verve label as a platform for her talent, and suggested she make recordings of the work of ‘tin pan alley’ composers and lyricists, like George & Ira Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart and Irving Berlin.

‘I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was 'it', and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop… It was a turning point in my life.’

‘Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book’ was the first of eight such sets that Fitzgerald recorded for Verve between 1956 and 1964. Her moving interpretations of these classic show tunes prompted the public to reassess what had come to be regarded as a trivial and ephemeral genre.

'The only thing better than singing is more singing.’

Throughout her life Fitzgerald faced the indignities of racism. She struggled to get gigs in certain upmarket nightclubs and was barred from certain hotels. TV and radio producers were reluctant to book her. She was only given one dedicated TV special. Although racial segregation rules were abolished in 1954, Granz had to tear down 'Whites Only' and 'Negro’ signs when touring in the South. In 1955 a group of armed Texas police raided a concert in Houston and arrested several performers, including Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, for ‘gambling’ in a backstage dressing room.

‘Maybe I’m stepping out - but I have to say because it’s in my heart - but it makes me feel so bad to think that we can’t go down to certain parts of the South and give a concert like we do overseas, and have everybody just come to hear the music, enjoy the music. Because of the prejudice thing that’s going on… I’m just a human being.’

Fitzgerald summed up her frustration in a conversation with Tony Bennett.

‘Tony, we’re all here.’

While continuing to record the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured relentlessly in the United States and internationally, sometimes working as many as 48 weeks in a year. She just loved performing. She put on her last show in 1993 and died at home in 1996, at the age of 79.

'I sing like I feel.'

In watching the documentary, one can’t help but be impressed by Fitzgerald’s extraordinary talent, drive and resilience - and by her appetite for change: from dance to song; from swing to be-bop to popular standards.

'A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.'

In her acceptance speech on receiving the NAACP President’s Award in 1987, 70-year-old Fitzgerald addressed the young talent assembled in the hall.

‘Thank you. I’m so proud to be in class with all of these younger ones coming up. They ain’t gonna leave me behind. I’m learning how to rap.’

'Every time we say goodbye,
I die a little.
Every time we say goodbye,
I wonder why a little.
Why the Gods above me,
Who must be in the know,
Think so little of me,
They allow you to go.
When you're near
There's such an air of spring about it.
I can hear a lark somewhere
Begin to sing about it.
There's no love song finer,
But how strange the change
From major to minor.
Every time we say goodbye.’
'Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye’ (C Porter)

No. 439

Fred: I’d like to try this thing, just once. Come on, honey.
Ginger: We’ll show them a thing or three!
‘Flying Down to Rio.’ (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers hit the dance floor in their first film together)

I recently watched a couple of documentaries about the legendary dance partners, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. (I’d particularly recommend episode 2 of ‘The RKO Story: Tales from Hollywood.’)

Between 1933 and 1939 Astaire and Rogers appeared together in nine RKO musical films – classics like ‘The Gay Divorcee’, ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Follow the Fleet’; ‘Swing Time’, ‘Shall We Dance’ and ‘Carefree’. They sparred and swooned, quipped and crooned; shimmied and span, twisted and turned. They defined a thrilling dance style that fused tap and ballroom with a dash of ballet. And they gave cinemagoers some welcome respite from the gloom of the Depression.

'Part of the joy of dancing is conversation. Trouble is, some men can't talk and dance at the same time.’
Ginger Rogers

People working in creative industries today could learn a good deal from Fred and Ginger’s approach to their craft; from their robust mentality and rigorous process.

'Well, I thought I knew what concentrated work was before I met Fred, but he's the limit. Never satisfied until every detail is right, and he will not compromise. No sir! What's more, if he thinks of something better after you've finished a routine, you do it over.'
Ginger Rogers

1. Get Taught and Trained

'Some people seem to think that good dancers are born, but all the good dancers I have known are taught or trained.’
Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was born in 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska. As a young boy his mother encouraged him and his older sister Adele to form a song and dance act, and during the 1920s they had considerable success on Broadway and in London. They split in 1932 when Adele married and settled down.

Like many stage performers of the day, Astaire determined to try his luck in Hollywood. But his first screen test was not encouraging:

‘Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances.’

Nonetheless producer David O Selznick thought Astaire had something.

'I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test.’

Astaire made his film debut in 1933 and that same year RKO Pictures proposed a small role, dancing with Ginger Rogers in ‘Flying Down to Rio.’

Rogers, born in 1911 in Independence, Missouri, was by then an established Broadway actress who had been performing in movies since 1929.

'My mother told me I was dancing before I was born. She could feel my toes tapping wildly inside her for months.'
Ginger Rogers

Astaire and Rogers were offered fifth and forth billing respectively on ‘Flying Down to Rio.’ But Astaire was initially reluctant to become part of another dance double act. He wrote to his agent:

'What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers? I will not have it - I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her or anyone else.’

2. In an Era of Drabness, Make Things Glamorous

Astaire and Rogers’ performance in ‘Flying Down to Rio’ was considered its highlight. RKO, keen to capitalize on the success, commissioned them to appear together in more pictures. And they secured Astaire’s commitment to the partnership by giving him a percentage of the films' profits, a contractual rarity at that time.

'Do it big, do it right and do it with style.'
Fred Astaire

The couple danced so well together. They had an instinctive understanding, a natural chemistry. And their personalities complemented each other. While he was stylish and sophisticated, she was smart and sassy.

'He gives her class and she gives him sex appeal.’
Katharine Hepburn

Astaire-Rogers movies told sentimental stories of glamorous people in fabulous locations. Astaire was consistently decked out in top hat and tails, and Rogers wore the most elegant dresses. The films had wit and style, luxury and romance, music and dancing. They offered welcome escape from the realities of recession-hit daily life.

‘It was [Producer Pan Berman’s] idea to make things glamorous in an era of drabness.’
Hermes Pan, Choreographer

3. Be a Team at All Times

RKO surrounded Astaire and Rogers with a team of talented practitioners across a range of disciplines.

First there was choreographer Hermes Pan, one of the few people Astaire would allow into his creative process.

‘We were always seeking ideas. Fred hated to repeat himself in anything.’
Hermes Pan, Choreographer

By contrast with the set-piece spectaculars of Busby Berkeley musicals, Astaire and Pan designed dance routines that were elegantly integrated with the plotlines of the films.

‘To go from reality to fantasy is a difficult thing. Dialogue is reality. Dance is fantasy, and song. So you have to slide into it before the people are conscious that you are doing it.’
Hal Borne, Accompanist

Writer Allan Scott crafted light comedy dialogue to propel the drama gently forward.

‘The thing uppermost in my mind always was sentiment and absurdity. In other words, combine the two with a sort of rippling kind of dialogue without too many obvious jokes.’
Allan Scott

RKO employed a company of seasoned actors to play alongside Astaire and Rogers: including Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick and Erik Rhodes. And the music was composed by America’s greatest songwriters: Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, and Irving Berlin.

‘Berlin came in one afternoon, and he was a terrible pianist, just awful…He played ‘Cheek to Cheek’ and sang it. Of course he had an awful voice too. ‘Heaven, I’m in heaven…’ When he got through it, we looked at each other and said: ‘Oh yes, very good.’ ‘Is it?’ ‘Must be. He wrote it.’’
Hermes Pan, Choreographer

The set designers adapted the fashionable art deco styles of the day, and generally worked in white so as best to show off the dancing. The cinematographers learned to follow Astaire and Rogers’ every move, employing a close-tracking dolly camera.

Finally RKO producers ensured consistency by scheduling the same technicians to work on each new movie.

‘We worked as a team at all times. So when Mark [Sandrich, Director] got ready to do a picture, he said we’re going to go on such-and-such a date, everybody in the studio knew that, every department knew that. When he got ready to go, he had his crew.’
Joseph Biroc, Camera Operator

‘Heaven... I'm in heaven,
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.
And I seem to find the happiness I seek,
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek.
Heaven... I'm in heaven,
And the cares that hung around me through the week,
Seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak,
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek.’
Fred Astaire, ‘Cheek to Cheek’ (I Berlin)

4. If It Doesn’t Feel Right, Do It Over

'What counts more than luck is determination and perseverance. If the talent is there, it will come through. Don't be too impatient. Stick at it. That's my advice. You have to plug away, keep thinking up new ideas. If one doesn't work, try another.’
Fred Astaire

Astaire was hard working and obsessive, an absolute stickler for detail.

‘Fred Astaire was such a perfectionist, and if a thing didn’t feel right they did it over.’
Maurice Zuberano, Set Designer

Rogers shared Astaire’s uncompromising standards

'The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first.'
Ginger Rogers

The creative process began with Astaire and Pan working out routines together, and then Rogers was introduced to the steps a few weeks later. The duo had daily rehearsals for five to six weeks until they were ready for principal photography.

‘We would dance all day, every day in a rehearsal hall at RKO Studios. And we had a great deal of fun. There’s something about rehearsals that’s really very exciting. When you actually got to the shooting and doing the scene, the fun has kind of gone out of it to some extent.’
Ginger Rogers

Only when Astaire, Rogers and Pan were entirely confident in a routine would they expose it to the broader team.

‘I never wanted to show numbers that we were doing until we had them pretty well finished, and invited them to come and take a look …. Usually they loved what they saw, because we knew what we were doing by that time.’

Astaire insisted that dance routines be filmed in as few shots as possible, typically with just four to eight cuts, while holding the dancers in full view at all times. This proved incredibly challenging. One sequence in ‘Swing Time,’ which required the duo to dance while climbing stairs, took 47 takes to perfect. By the end of the shoot, Rogers' feet were bleeding.

‘I can only get the job done if I beat myself to a pulp. You rehearse and get to know it so well, you don’t look as if you’re wondering what the next step is.’
Fred Astaire

5. Employ Constructive Anxiety

In his youth Astaire’s sister had branded him Moaning Mini. He fretted before, during and after a production.

‘I worried about things 10 years after I did them.’

Such was Astaire’s apprehension around the work that he couldn’t stand to review the rushes himself, and so sent Pan in his place.

‘He said: How was it?
I said: Oh, it was great.
He said: I don’t like the way you said great.’
Hermes Pan, Choreographer

Conventionally we consider worry a corrosive condition. But Astaire’s was a constructive anxiety. It produced better work.

'Things have come to a pretty pass,
Our romance is growing flat,
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that.
Goodness knows what the end will be,
Oh, I don't know where I'm at...
It looks as if we two will never be one,
Something must be done.
You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther,
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let's call the whole thing off!’
Fred Astaire, ‘Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off’ (G &I Gershwin)

6. Argue, Don’t Quarrel

There were longstanding rumours, possibly started by the studio to drum up publicity, that Astaire and Rogers didn’t actually get on with each other. They spent many years setting the record straight.

'We had fun and it shows. True, we were never bosom buddies off the screen. We were different people with different interests. We were only a couple on film.’
Ginger Rogers

There were certainly a few occasions when Rogers’ dramatic costume choices frustrated Astaire. In one routine in ‘Follow the Fleet’ her heavily beaded, bell-shaped sleeves slapped Astaire every time she took a turn.

'The world needs strong women. There are a lot of strong women you do not see... It's kind of nice to be able to play a strong woman who is seen.'
Ginger Rogers

In ‘Top Hat’ the ostrich feathers in her blue gown flew off in all directions when she span, and all over his tuxedo. Astaire argued repeatedly for Rogers to change her costume. But she held her ground. And she was right: the cascading feathers enhance the graceful fluidity of the dance.

‘I guess I couldn’t blame him. But I had designed the dress and I was going to wear it. And I did.’
Ginger Rogers

Astaire explained afterwards that robust arguments are critical to successful working relationships.

‘We never quarrelled. We argued about something, which you do with anybody you’re working a routine or dances with.’
Fred Astaire

By the end of the ‘30s the partnership had run its course. Rogers wanted more challenging dramatic roles and Astaire was keen to work with other dancers. What’s more, musicals were expensive to produce and RKO was facing financial difficulties.

And so that was more or less it. Astaire went on to make movies with Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse and Judy Garland. Rogers won the 1941 Academy Award for her performance in ‘Kitty Foyle,’ and by the mid-1940s she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood.

'This search for what you want is like tracking something that doesn't want to be tracked. It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable.'
Fred Astaire

Astaire and Rogers made one last movie together (their first in colour) when Rogers stepped in for a sick Judy Garland for 1949’s 'The Barkleys of Broadway'. When they filmed the last dance, a large crowd of crew members from productions past and present gathered to bid them farewell.

'I did everything Fred did, only backwards and in high heels.'
Ginger Rogers

Astaire and Rogers had revolutionised dance on film. They had set new standards for performance and artistry. They had given joy to millions of people all over the world. And they had made it all look easy.

'I suppose I made it look easy, but gee whiz, did I work and worry.’
Fred Astaire

'The weather is frightening,
The thunder and lightning
Seem to be having their way.
But as far as I'm concerned, it's a lovely day.
The turn in the weather will keep us together.
So I can honestly say
That as far as I'm concerned, it's a lovely day.
And everything's okay.
Isn't this a lovely day to be caught in the rain?
You were going on your way, now you've got to remain.
Just as you were going, leaving me all at sea,
The clouds broke, they broke and oh, what a break for me.’
Fred Astaire, ‘Isn’t This a Lovely Day’ (I Berlin)

No. 378

Ella Fitzgerald: ’I’m Going to Try to Find Out the New Ideas Before the Others Do'

Fred and Ginger: Making It Look Easy With Work and Worry