Directed by Leslie Woodhead
Featuring Sophie Okonedo, Ella Fitzgerald and Norma Miller
Running time: 1 hour and 29 minutes

by Stacey Osbeck

Ella Fitzgerald dreamed of being a dancer. She grew up in New York at a time when swing moves developed and evolved along with the jazz scene. On the street corners of Harlem, Ella danced for nickels. When the Apollo Theater picked the teenager to perform on Amateur Night, she saw a chance to show her fancy footwork on a real stage in front of a formidable audience. That same night the Edwards Sisters put on a phenomenally choreographed routine and brought the house down. After that, she said no way I’m going out there to dance. And as the story goes, the organizer said you’re here, well do something. So she figured she’d go out and sing a song. In that moment Ella Fitzgerald was born. 

Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things, director Leslie Woodhead’s documentary feature, tracks the singer’s life and decades spanning career. 

In 1919 when Ella was two her family, like countless other African Americans, fled the poverty and prejudice of the South during the Great Migration. Ella’s mother moved them to Yonkers, a town just north of New York City. Many flocked to the northern neighborhoods of Manhattan giving rise to the Harlem Renaissance.

The change of location promised more opportunities, but life there was fraught with its own struggles. Ella especially lost her way in 1932 when her mother passed. It’s believed during that time her stepfather neglected and possibly abused her. She was sent to a juvenile detention center which documentation paints more like a hardcore women’s prison with solitary confinement and grown men beating the girls. Life there was so harsh she never spoke on it. 

Despite all her hardships, life swung a sharp turn the moment she stepped out on that Apollo stage. Harlem’s top band leader, Chick Webb, took her on after that performance which catapulted her career. Within six months she was cutting records. Webb quickly became a good friend and mentor to the young singer. 

A-Tisket, A-Tasket, conceived by Ella, shot to number one on the Your Hit Parade charts. The song also scored her a role performing it in the 1942 Hollywood flick Ride ‘Em Cowboy. 

Her improvisation skills often made people love her songs all the better. During a scat session which led into various snippets of songs including Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, she changed the wording to “Sweat gets in my eyes,” since she was sweating so profusely. Years later in Berlin at a show recorded in front of a live audience, she wanted to sing Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife. “You won’t recognize it. It’s a surprise hit,” is only part of Fitzgerald’s version because in the middle of it she forgot the lyrics. 

This film often skipped around in time visually. Still photos of young Ella alternated with clips of her as a mature performer. Maybe Woodhead thought moving images, which were abundant in her later years, would be more engaging so he spliced them throughout regardless of where we were in the timeline. 

At one point, even the voiceover and those interviewed talk about her career in the 60s and the 70s and then the story leaps back to 1947 and I’m thinking where are we going? Jumping around didn’t add anything and at times robbed the story of some of its forward momentum. 

Ella, though a star on the radio, was having trouble booking big clubs. This documentary put forth that Marilyn Monroe told a club you need to start letting everybody in here. And supported Ella by sitting in the front and cheering. This is a very watered down version of their relationship. 

What the film did not mention was that to improve her own singing an acting coach instructed Marilyn to listen to Ella Fitzgerald records. In time, as the movie star’s fame rose Ella found not only a fan, but a friend in her.

Marilyn didn’t call some club and say you need to start letting everyone in. Marilyn personally called the famous Mocambo and told the owner you are booking Ella Fitzgerald. The Mocambo didn’t usually hire performers of color, although Herb Jeffries, Eartha Kitt and Dorothy Dandridge had graced its stage before. The problem beyond just race was that Ella had a reputation of getting so into her performances that she would sweat on stage and furthermore she was a big girl. Both attributes lacked the glamour and sex appeal most venues were looking for.

The actress told him if you book Ella Fitzgerald I will take a front table every night. True to her word, every night she cheered from the front and brought along her famous friends, which naturally drew the press, shifting the trajectory of Ella’s career.

In another instance, Marilyn went to see one of the songstress’ shows in Colorado and discovered the spot wouldn’t allow Ella to walk through the main doors. She had to go around back. Marilyn refused to enter unless the situation was rectified immediately. In the end, the two walked through the front doors together. None of the details I mentioned here were included in the film.

This seemed a red flag that perhaps other aspects of the jazz singer’s life had also been glossed over or cherry picked. Did Ella develop any friendships with other women at all or did the filmmaker not see them as worth mentioning? While the men who helped propel her to fame and further visibility appeared to get their due, the career changing friendship between Marilyn and Ella warranted less than a full minute of screen time.

Needless to say, I found some of the filmmaker’s artistic decisions to be not only strange, but disappointing. 

The voiceover says she got her shot on the Apollo stage at 16. Born April 25, 1917, Ella Fitzgerald stepped out to sing for Amateur Night on November 21, 1934 which would have made her 17. In addition, the film interviewed Judith Tick who said Ella was 13 when her mother passed. But other sources, including NPR and Wikipedia, list her age for that event as 15. Again, questions and red flags. 

Although I can’t recommend this documentary the music is catchy and watching Ella Fitzgerald’s career skyrocket from the streets of Harlem to worldwide fame is inspiring no matter how you cut it.

Available to watch on April 24th. Ella’s birthday is April 25th.