F. Scott Fitzgerald

NAME Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, named after his distant cousin Francis Scott Key, the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner". He was widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald.

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Fitzgerald is renowned as one of the greatest American novelists and short story writers of the 20th century. He gained fame for his depictions of the Jazz Age (a term he popularized) and is best known for his masterpiece The Great Gatsby (1925). He was considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s and wrote stories that treated themes of youth and promise along with age and despair.

BIRTH Born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Fitzgerald was the son of Edward Fitzgerald, a failed wicker furniture salesman, and Mary "Mollie" McQuillan, an Irish immigrant with a large inheritance. While his father was poor, having failed in business, his mother's family was financially comfortable enough to finance his education. His family connections included being the namesake and second cousin three times removed of Francis Scott Key, who authored "The Star-Spangled Banner".

CHILDHOOD He grew up in a solidly Catholic and upper middle-class environment in St. Paul, Minnesota. From an early age, Fitzgerald showed an interest in writing, and his literary talents emerged during his youth.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and his mother circa 1897.

EDUCATION Fitzgerald attended Saint Paul Academy and Summit School in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1908-1911. He then attended Newman School, a prep school in Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1911-12. He entered Princeton University in 1913 as a member of the Class of 1917 and became friends with the future critics and writers Edmund Wilson (Class of '16) and John Peale Bishop (Class of '17). 

Fitzgerald's mother's family financed his education at Princeton University, one of the so-called "Ivy League" elite universities. His peers at Princeton were wealthier than him and he never felt part of their world. At Princeton University he mostly ignored formal study, instead receiving his education from writers and critics, such as Edmund Wilson, who remained his lifelong friend

Before Princeton, his high school newspaper published his detective stories, which encouraged him to pursue writing more enthusiastically than academics. He ultimately dropped out of Princeton University to join the army and continue pursuing his writing ambitions.

CAREER RECORD 1917 Joined army after Princeton

1919 After the war he got a job with the Barron Collier advertising agency and wrote slogans for street car cards including regarding a steam laundry in Muscatine, Iowa, "you keep it clean in muscatine". He was a failure.

1920 Achieved literary success with his debut novel, This Side of Paradise (1920).

Wrote numerous short stories for magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.

Worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood in the late 1930s.

APPEARANCE Fitzgerald was handsome, with crinkly fair hair, luminous blue eyes, an angelic mouth, and a delicate, slim build. He had a high forehead, chiselled nose, and delicately lipped. He was 5' 8" (1.73 m) tall.

Fitzgerald at his desk circa 1920. H

FASHION Fitzgerald was known for his fashionable attire and embodying the image of a sophisticated, young American man of the era. He and his wife Zelda were renowned for their exquisite clothes and their matching furs and celebrated the age of the flapper.

His novel The Great Gatsby has significantly influenced men's fashion, particularly regarding light colors, simple stripes, and accessories suitable for warm weather. The novel mentions "beautiful shirts" and "radical new sweatshirts" as well as cream suits and pinstripes worn by the upper classes.

CHARACTER Complex and often contradictory, Fitzgerald was known for his romantic idealism, ambition, and charm, but also struggled with insecurity, self-doubt, and a tendency towards self-destructive behavior, including alcoholism.

Fitzgerald suffered from a life-long inferiority complex that he believed distinguished him from Ernest Hemingway, his chief rival. He once claimed, "I talk with the authority of failure. Ernest [Hemingway] with the authority of success". This sense of defeat stemmed from several formative setbacks that later became building blocks for his fiction. (1)

SPEAKING VOICE Audio recordings of Fitzgerald reading literature reveal that he possessed a "magnificent, magical voice that seems to give insight into his works and personality." These recordings, made in the 1940s, demonstrate a clear, resonant tone and a measured, poetic delivery, reflecting his literary style and sensitivity. (2)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Fitzgerald displayed a mischievous sense of humor. In one notable incident while in Hollywood, he and Zelda outraged guests Ronald Colman and Constance Talmadge at a party by requesting their watches and then boiling the expensive timepieces in a pot of tomato sauce as a prank.

When Thomas Wolfe dedicated his first, very lengthy novel to his editor, a proof copy was sent to Scott Fitzgerald for his views. "I liked the dedication" was his response "but after that I thought it fell off a bit." (3)

RELATIONSHIPS Fitzgerald's romantic life significantly influenced his writing. In 1915, he fell in love with Ginevra King, a girl from a very wealthy Chicago family, but her father disapproved because of Fitzgerald's poverty. This left him with a sense of social inferiority and an ambivalent attitude toward the wealthy.

In 1918, while stationed in Montgomery, Alabama with the army, he met Zelda Sayre, a 17-year-old Southern belle and the affluent granddaughter of a Confederate senator at a country club dance. They formed an engagement which she broke off, partly due to disapproval from her family. However, when Fitzgerald became successful after publishing This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, they resumed their relationship.

Fitzgerald married Zelda on April 3, 1920, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, just a week after the publication of his first novel. The couple honeymooned at the Biltmore Hotel in New York until asked to leave because of their behaviour.

The Fitzgeralds in 1920

Their marriage was tumultuous, marked by jealousy, alcohol abuse, and Zelda's eventual mental illness.

They had one child, a daughter Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald, who was born on October 26, 1921.

Zelda was confined to sanatoriums in Baltimore, New York, and in Asheville, North Carolina on and off from 1930 to her death in 1948. Scott was loyal, not divorcing Zelda and visiting her in the asylums.

In 1927, while in Hollywood, Fitzgerald reportedly developed a relationship with 17-year-old actress Lois Moran, which caused significant jealousy from Zelda, who reportedly set fire to her own expensive clothing in a bathtub as a self-destructive act. Moran became a muse for the author, inspiring characters in his writing including Rosemary Hoyt in Tender is the Night.

Fitzgerald had other mistresses especially the Hollywood gossip columnist, Sheilah Graham, with whom the novelist was living when he passed away. (4)

WRITING CAREER F. Scott Fitzgerald was, by all accounts, a man both hopelessly flawed and ludicrously talented—the sort of person who could quote Keats by heart while misplacing his wallet for the third time in a week. He wrote like a dream, drank like a disaster, and married a woman, Zelda Sayre, who was somehow both muse and mutual enabler, depending on the hour.

He emerged from the fog of World War I determined to become not just a writer, but the writer of his generation. After a brief and unremarkable stint in advertising—a job which, fittingly, he hated with a precise literary loathing—he rewrote a rejected manuscript, added some glamour, angst, and Princeton privilege, and voilà: This Side of Paradise (1920) was born. The book was a resounding hit, especially among the young and impressionable, and turned Fitzgerald into a glittering new star of American letters practically overnight. He was 24. He celebrated by getting engaged to Zelda and ordering champagne. This would become something of a pattern.

Over the next decade, Fitzgerald would write three more novels and roughly a gazillion short stories, the latter often churned out to keep him and Zelda in gin, gowns, and hotel suites. Some were magnificent. Some were, well, let’s just say he was paid by the word.

His novels were uneven in commercial success but increasingly sophisticated in form and mood:

The Beautiful and Damned (1922) featured a married couple drinking and waiting to inherit money—a sort of literary slow-motion car crash.

The Great Gatsby (1925), now rightly venerated as a masterpiece, sold so poorly in its day that Fitzgerald reportedly ended up with a box of unsold copies. It turns out that readers in 1925 weren’t ready for a morally ambiguous tale of bootlegging, lost dreams, and green lights.

Tender Is the Night (1934) was largely autobiographical and hauntingly good in places, but also occasionally meandering, possibly because Fitzgerald was writing it while emotionally unraveling.

His fifth novel, The Last Tycoon, remained unfinished at his death in 1940 and was published posthumously. It was about Hollywood, which is appropriate, since by then Fitzgerald was living in Los Angeles, writing film scripts, and generally feeling washed-up and unappreciated.

Oh, but the short stories! More than 150 of them, many dazzlingly good. He wrote for The Saturday Evening Post and other glossy publications that paid handsomely—about $4,000 a story at the peak, which in today’s money could buy you several Teslas and a weekend in the Hamptons. These stories are like miniature Gatsby siblings: stylish, troubled, ambitious, always teetering between romance and ruin.

His prose evolved too—from youthful bursts of experimentation to the elegant economy of Gatsby, where not a word feels wasted. He learned, in the way great writers do, how to make less do more, how to make sentences sigh and shimmer at the same time.

Sadly, Fitzgerald’s life came with a coda soaked in melancholy. As the Jazz Age waned, so did his fortunes. Zelda’s mental health deteriorated, his drinking worsened, and he struggled to sell his later work. When he died of a heart attack at 44, he thought himself a failure. It would take decades for the world to realize it had lost one of its literary treasures.

Today, Fitzgerald stands tall—albeit a little tipsy—in the pantheon of American letters, his name forever tied to the glamour and hollowness of the 1920s. His books still glow with golden prose and broken dreams, and if that isn’t the essence of America, what is?

MONEY AND FAME Fitzgerald's financial situation fluctuated dramatically throughout his life. Initially struggling financially, he was rejected by Zelda partly due to his limited income. The publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920 suddenly made him rich and famous, allowing him to earn much higher rates for his short stories.

Together with Zelda, they led a lavish, free-spending lifestyle in Europe that eventually contributed to their financial difficulties.

Fitzgerald was known for craving attention and engaging in flamboyant antics to remain in the public eye. According to his biographer Andrew Turnbull, Fitzgerald would do handstands in the lobby of the New York Biltmore Hotel if he “hadn’t been in the news that week”. This behavior was part of a broader pattern: both Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald became famous not only for his literary success but also for their wild, attention-seeking antics. For example, while Scott did handstands in the lobby, Zelda would slide down the hotel banisters. Their behavior eventually led hotel management to ask them to leave for disturbing other guests. 

He wrote commercial short stories and screen plays to pay for Zelda's mental home fees which nearly bankrupted him. Fitzgerald's attempts to keep the bailiffs at bay by writing Hollywood screenplays ended in ignominy. When he died in 1940, his last royalty check was for just $13.13. 

Despite this early success, The Great Gatsby was a commercial failure during his lifetime. True recognition of his work came only posthumously when The Great Gatsby was rediscovered during World War II after being selected as one of the "Armed Services Editions" for soldiers to read while abroad.

FOOD AND DRINK Fitzgerald was a heavy drinker who eventually became an alcoholic. His favorite drink was gin, particularly the gin rickey cocktail. He famously said, "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you".

He reportedly preferred gin because he believed it couldn't be detected on his breath. The gin rickey even appears in chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, where Tom Buchanan mixes four of them. This classic cocktail contains just three ingredients: gin, lime juice, and club soda.

MUSIC AND ARTS Music significantly influenced Fitzgerald's writing style and themes. Growing up during "the first resonating outbursts of popular music-the ragtime era and the jazz age," he integrated these musical influences into his fiction. He frequently used popular songs to express the topics, mores, and energy of his times in his work.

As the years passed from World War I to the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, these songs brought varying effects to his work: stimulation, romance, nostalgia, and consolation. Music also contributed to the modernist traits of his style by creating a mixed-media texture and allusive openings to shows or movies in which the songs appeared. (5) 

LITERATURE Fitzgerald's literary style is distinct and recognizable, characterized as "intensely poetic to the point of rhapsodic, elevating his laments into veritable threnodies for the sureties and stable values that he felt modernity superannuated". His main themes included ambition and loss, discipline versus self-indulgence, love and romance, and money and class.

Fitzgerald: "An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterwards." 

NATURE Nature, particularly landscapes, often served as a backdrop and a symbolic element in Fitzgerald's works. He used natural settings to evoke moods and reflect the emotional states of his characters.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS In 1913, Fitzgerald tried out for the freshman football team at Princeton and was cut on the first day. Despite this rejection, he maintained an interest in football. There are reports that years later, he would call Princeton football coach Fritz Crisler frequently, often between midnight and 6 a.m. before home games, sometimes to suggest plays or strategies.

Image by ChatGBT

SCIENCE AND MATHS Fitzgerald's interests and writings were not particularly focused on science and mathematics. His work centered more on humanities, social observations, and the exploration of human emotions and experiences.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Fitzgerald was baptized Catholic and received a catechizing education in his youth, remaining connected to the Church through major life events (such as his marriage to Zelda before a Catholic priest). However, as an adult, he distanced himself from Catholicism, once writing, “Since I ceased being a Catholic he [a priest in the family] thinks I'm a lost soul”. Scholars argue that while Fitzgerald never fully divorced himself from religion, his faith became increasingly ambivalent. His fiction, especially his short stories, is “saturated with a sincere, religious spirit,” reflecting a journey from religious engagement to agnosticism and, in his later years, to a kind of despairing hope. (6)

A central philosophical concern in Fitzgerald’s fiction is the moral and psychic gulf between ordinary Americans and the wealthy elite. He was a vocal critic of America’s leisure class, sensing “a corruption in the rich and mistrusting their might,” a theme rooted in his own experience as “a poor boy in a rich town”. Fitzgerald’s works satirize the idle lives of the rich, exposing the emptiness and moral ambiguity that can accompany privilege and excess.

POLITICS Fitzgerald's writings often reflected the social and political climate of the Jazz Age and the disillusionment that followed World War I. While not explicitly a political writer, his works critiqued the societal structures and values of his time.

SCANDAL Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda became notorious for their free-spending, self-indulgent, heavy-drinking lifestyle. Their behavior sometimes shocked even the liberal standards of their social circles, such as when they boiled guests' expensive watches in tomato sauce as a prank at a Hollywood party.

His apparent relationship with 17-year-old actress Lois Moran in 1927 while married to Zelda created tension in his marriage. Throughout his life, his struggles with alcoholism also drew attention and concern.

MILITARY RECORD During World War I, Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton to join the Army as a second lieutenant. While awaiting deployment, he received training at Fort Leavenworth under future president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who reportedly found him a difficult student "who slept through [Eisenhower's] lectures and disliked him intensely". (7)

He was stationed with the 45th and 67th Infantry Regiments at Camp Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama in 1918 and later at Camp Mills on Long Island in November 1918. He never saw combat, as the war ended with the armistice before he could be deployed overseas.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Fitzgerald's health was significantly affected by his heavy drinking. He struggled with alcoholism throughout much of his adult life, which contributed to his declining health and premature death.

Fitzgerald was an insomniac and wrote about his struggles with sleeplessness in vivid, personal detail. In his 1934 essay Sleeping and Waking, Fitzgerald describes the torment of insomnia, noting how it manifests differently for everyone and how, for him, the darkest hours of the night brought intense emotional pain and restlessness.

HOMES Raised at the family home 599 Summit Avenue, St Paul Minnesota.

1903-08  Lived with his parents in a two storey house at 29 Irving Place, Buffalo.

29 Irving Place By Andre Carrotflower 

1919 Fitzgerald moved into an apartment at 200 Claremont Avenue in New York City to try to lay a foundation for his life with Zelda. Working at an advertising firm and writing short stories, Fitzgerald was unable to convince Zelda that he would be able to support her. She broke off the engagement and Fitzgerald returned to his parents' house in St. Paul

1924 The Fitzgeralds left their Long Island home for the French Riviera, where they became known for their extravagant lifestyle. They didn't return permanently to the USA until 1931.

1927  In 1927, they briefly lived in Hollywood in a studio-owned bungalow before departing for Delaware after just two months. They rented there a mansion near Wilmington, Delaware until 1929. 

1931 Rented a house in Montgomery

1932 Rented "La Paix" an estate in the suburb of Towson, Maryland, 

1935-37 He  lived in hotels near Asheville,  Carolina. Mainly the Grove Park Inn. 

1937 Moved to Hollywood

TRAVEL Fitzgerald traveled extensively, living in Europe for periods of time. He frequented France, where he's noted to have "sampled every corner of the country's gin supply". He also spent time in Hollywood pursuing screenwriting work and often visited New York, where he socialized with other high-profile figures like Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, and Clark Gable.

DEATH F. Scott Fitzgerald died on December 21, 1940, at the age of 44 in Hollywood, California. He suffered a fatal heart attack while at home with his companion, Sheilah Graham. Fitzgerald had been in declining health due to years of alcohol abuse, coronary artery disease, and previous heart attacks. On the day of his death, he collapsed suddenly while reading and eating a chocolate bar, unable to be revived despite immediate efforts.

Fitzgerald left no detailed instructions for his funeral, but he did express in his will a wish for "the cheapest funeral" possible. His daughter, Scottie, was away at college and asked Sheilah Graham not to attend the funeral for reasons of social propriety. Instead, Graham's friend Dorothy Parker attended the small visitation, which was sparsely attended. Parker, reflecting on the scene, quoted the line from The Great Gatsby: “the poor son of a bitch”.

Fitzgerald wished to be buried in his family plot at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland, where his father’s family was from. However, due to his lapsed Catholicism and reputation, the church initially refused his burial, claiming he was “unfit to be buried alongside good Catholics in consecrated ground.” As a result, Zelda arranged for him to be buried nearby in Rockville Cemetery, a non-Catholic graveyard. When Zelda died in a fire in 1948, she was buried with him-her casket placed directly on top of his because only one plot had been purchased.

In 1975, after their grave was found to be deteriorating, Fitzgerald’s daughter and local advocates petitioned for the couple to be moved to the Fitzgerald family plot at St. Mary’s. The Archbishop of Washington approved the reburial, and both F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were finally interred together at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.

Their shared gravestone is inscribed with the famous final line from The Great Gatsby:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (8) 

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA F. Scott Fitzgerald has had a surprisingly rich afterlife in popular media—films, TV, and stage plays—considering that in his own lifetime he worried he’d be forgotten. His moody charisma, tragic brilliance, and knack for beautiful failure make him catnip for biographers and filmmakers alike. Here's a rundown of his appearances and portrayals:

🎬 Film & TV Portrayals

1. Beloved Infidel (1959) Gregory Peck plays Fitzgerald in this dramatization of his later years in Hollywood and his relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham. It’s brooding, romantic, and extremely 1950s.

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald and ‘The Last of the Belles’ (1974) Richard Chamberlain stars as a weary Fitzgerald, reflecting on his early romance with Southern belle Zelda Sayre. This TV movie is part Fitzgerald bio, part adaptation of his short story.

3. Z: The Beginning of Everything (2015–2017, Amazon Prime) Fitzgerald (played by David Hoflin) takes a supporting role to Zelda (Christina Ricci) in this stylish but short-lived series. It's heavy on flapper fashion, gin, and marital drama.

4. Midnight in Paris (2011, dir. Woody Allen) Tom Hiddleston plays Fitzgerald in a whimsical cameo. He and Zelda appear as Gatsby-era party ghosts encountered by Owen Wilson’s time-traveling writer. Hiddleston brings a gentle, courtly melancholy to the role.

🎭 Stage Adaptations & Fictional Appearances

Gatz (2006–present) This is a marathon stage performance where actors read The Great Gatsby aloud—word for word—while acting out scenes in an office setting. It’s become a cult hit and critical darling.

📺 Documentaries & Biographical Series

The American Experience: F. Scott Fitzgerald – Winter Dreams (PBS) A solid, well-researched documentary that traces his rise, fall, and resurrection through the lens of American identity and disillusionment.

🖋️ In Literature Fitzgerald himself has become a character in novels, particularly those exploring literary history and alternative timelines:

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain – Though it's about Hemingway and Hadley, Fitzgerald makes memorable cameos.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler – Follows Zelda’s POV and paints Scott as both genius and burden.

Tender Is the Bite (2021) – A noir-mystery novel by Spencer Quinn featuring a dog detective that contains subtle references to Fitzgerald's work. Because why not?

ACHIEVEMENTS Author of acclaimed novels and short stories that captured the essence of the Jazz Age.

His works continue to be celebrated for their literary artistry and social commentary.

Posthumously recognized as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.

Sources (1) F Scott Fitzgerald Society (2) Excellence in Literature (3) The Faber Book Of Anecdotes (4) Encyclopaedia of Trivia (5) Rowan & Littlefield (6) Fine Books magazine (7) PBS (8) Washingtonian

Ella Fitzgerald

NAME Ella Jane Fitzgerald

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Ella Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer known as the "First Lady of Song," "Queen of Jazz," and "Lady Ella." She was celebrated for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

BIRTH Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. At the time of her birth, her father worked on a grain ship in the port city.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Fitzgerald was the child of William Fitzgerald and Temperance "Tempie" Williams Fitzgerald, who had a common-law marriage. Her parents separated shortly after her birth. By the time she was twelve, her mother had remarried to Portuguese immigrant Antonio Corri (also documented as Joseph Da Silva), who became Fitzgerald's stepfather. She had a half-sister, Frances, born in 1923, with whom she remained close throughout her life.

CHILDHOOD After her parents' separation, young Ella moved with her mother to Yonkers, New York. She grew up in a diverse, working-class neighborhood where she made friends easily. To support the family, her stepfather dug ditches and worked as a part-time chauffeur, while her mother worked at a laundromat and did catering. Fitzgerald occasionally took small jobs to contribute to the household income, including working as a runner for local gamblers.

Fitzgerald was considered more of a tomboy in her youth, often joining neighborhood baseball games. She also enjoyed dancing and singing with friends, sometimes taking the train into Harlem to watch performances at the Apollo Theater.

Her childhood took a tragic turn in 1932 when her mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident. Following this loss, fifteen-year-old Fitzgerald moved in with her aunt in Harlem. Shortly thereafter, her stepfather also died of a heart attack. This period of profound loss led to a difficult time in her life, during which her grades declined and she became involved in running numbers for bookies. (1)

EDUCATION Fitzgerald attended Benjamin Franklin Junior High School. Due to truancy, she was sent to the Colored Orphan Asylum and later the New York Training School for Girls, a state reformatory school. After losing her mother, her academic performance suffered significantly.

CAREER RECORD  After moving to New York, to help contribute money to the household, Ella Fitzgerald  took on some small jobs, even running for local gamblers. She picked up their bets and dropped off money

November 21, 1934: Won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater.

1935: Began performing with the Chick Webb Orchestra.

1938: Achieved her first hit with "A-Tisket, A-Tasket."

1939: Led the Chick Webb Orchestra after Webb's death.

1940s: Performed with Dizzy Gillespie, embracing bebop.

1950s-1960s: Recorded her famous "Song Book" series.

APPEARANCE Ella was described as a "large woman who'd grown up rough," whose physical appearance didn't conform to conventional beauty standards of her era. However, she was known for her warm smile and dignified stage presence. As she aged, she carried herself with grace, often seen in elegant evening gowns during performances. Fitzgerald wore cat's-eye glasses that became part of her signature look. (2)

Ella Fitzgerald 1986 by By Brianmcmillen Wikipedia

FASHION Fitzgerald's fashion sense evolved dramatically throughout her career, becoming an important element of her public persona. Early in her career, she struggled with shabby clothing, but as her success grew, she embraced a sophisticated style featuring sequined gowns and luxurious fabrics.

She collaborated with Zelda Wynn Valdes, a breakthrough African American designer who believed dresses should highlight and celebrate a woman's attributes. Her wardrobe featured luxurious materials including charmeuse, hammered satin, chiffon, burned-out velvet, knits, embroidery, and expert tailoring. Her iconic black sequined floor-length gown perfectly encapsulated her ability to blend sophistication with joy.

Fitzgerald used fashion strategically to open doors in a segregated society, understanding that elegant attire could serve as "presentational shorthand" that communicated respectability and equal stature-particularly crucial for a Black woman of her era. Her red carpet looks often featured luxurious fabrics like chiffon and charmeuse, highlighting her sophisticated style and artistic expression.

Annie Leibowitz's famous American Express portrait captured this sense of style perfectly, showing Fitzgerald in a tailored tomato-red dress, matching pillbox hat, and vintage leopard coat. (2)

CHARACTER Fitzgerald maintained a notably private personal life throughout her career. Rather than celebrating after performances and tours, she often preferred going home to read books and watch her favorite television soap operas.

Her persona combined confidence and innocence in a way that reflected mid-20th century America. She maintained an unwavering commitment to jazz as an art form despite her commercial popularity. While she faced significant racial discrimination throughout her career, her talent transcended these barriers, allowing her to connect with diverse audiences worldwide.

SPEAKING VOICE Her speaking voice was soft and unassuming, a contrast to her powerful singing voice.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Fitzgerald had a warm and sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor. This was particularly evident during her legendary February 1960 live Berlin performance of “Mack the Knife,” where she forgot the lyrics and improvised with grace and wit—earning her a Grammy.

RELATIONSHIPS Ella Fitzgerald married Benny Kornegay, a local dockworker, in 1941 in St. Louis, Missouri. The marriage was annulled in 1942 after Fitzgerald discovered Kornegay had a criminal record.

While touring with Dizzy Gillespie's band in the mid-1940s, she met and fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. The couple married during a civil ceremony in Youngstown, Ohio, on December 10, 1947. The marriage license was recorded on December 12, 1947, at the Mahoning County Courthouse. The ceremony took place while Fitzgerald was performing at the Merry-Go-Round nightclub in Youngstown.

The two adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr.  He became a jazz and blues singer.

Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, bowing to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would occasionally continue to perform together. 

Brown, c. 1947 in a band with Dizzy Gillespie by McOleo Wikipedia

There were reports that Fitzgerald secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a Norwegian, in Oslo in July 1957. However, this marriage is not officially documented and ended abruptly after Larsen was sentenced to prison for theft.

Marilyn Monroe was not only a devoted fan of Fitzgerald’s music-calling her “my very favorite person, and I love her as a person as well as a singer, I think she’s the greatest”-but also a true friend who used her celebrity to support Fitzgerald during a time of racial prejudice in America. Their friendship began in the mid-1950s, after Monroe saw Fitzgerald perform in Los Angeles and the two connected over shared experiences, including difficult childhoods, early unsuccessful marriages, and the challenges of stardom.

MONEY AND FAME At the time of her death, Fitzgerald had amassed a net worth of approximately $10 million. Her commercial success was substantial, with more than 40 million albums sold worldwide during her lifetime. Her audiences were remarkably diverse, spanning all races, religions, nationalities, and economic backgrounds.

Despite her success, Fitzgerald faced the persistent reality of racial discrimination. In a candid 1963 interview that was never broadcast, she expressed frustration about not being able to perform in certain parts of the South due to segregation laws. In one particularly revealing incident from 1955, she was arrested in her dressing room at an integrated show in Houston-only to have an officer at the police station ask for her autograph afterward.

FOOD AND DRINK Ella Fitzgerald had a well-known love of food, particularly "hearty food" and dishes rooted in Southern cooking. According to those close to her, including her son Ray Brown, Jr., Fitzgerald never cooked herself but was an avid reader and collector of cookbooks-amassing a collection of about 300 volumes, which she read as others might read novels, sometimes annotating them in the margins. Her collection included many books featuring Southern cuisine and works by African-American and Jewish writers, reflecting her broad culinary interests.

Even though Fitzgerald was not a cook, she loved to talk about food, especially later in life when her diet became restricted due to diabetes and heart problems. Despite these limitations, her enthusiasm for food and culinary conversation remained strong. (3)

Regarding drink, Fitzgerald's reputation was "unmarred by drinking, drugs or smoking." She lived a relatively clean lifestyle compared to many of her jazz contemporaries, and there is no evidence she was known for drinking alcohol or indulging in substance

MUSIC CAREER On the evening of November 21, 1934, a nervous 17-year-old girl in hand-me-down clothes stood backstage at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater, fully intending to dance. But fate, as it often does, had other plans. Seeing that she was up against a pair of show-stopping hoofers called the Edwards Sisters, she panicked, pivoted, and announced she'd sing instead. It was a bold decision—possibly mad—but also the best one she would ever make. She launched into Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy,” and by the time she finished, the audience was hollering for more. Not bad for a first public performance. She took home the $25 first prize, which in Depression-era dollars was roughly the value of a used car and two chickens.

In 1935, having made an impression that refused to fade, Ella crossed paths with jazz drummer Chick Webb—a man who looked like he’d been carved out of determination and wire. He took her under his wing, gave her a gig with his band, and eventually became her legal guardian. That same year, she recorded her first single, "Love and Kisses," though it was her cheeky 1938 co-written hit “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”—yes, the one about a lost yellow basket—that catapulted her from jazz hopeful to bona fide star. Turns out nursery rhymes and swing rhythms make surprisingly good bedfellows.

When Webb died in 1939, the band did a rather astonishing thing—they named Ella their leader, making her one of the first women to helm a major jazz orchestra. She did so until the group dissolved in 1942, at which point she struck out solo and began dabbling in something fresh and frisky called bebop. Not only did she keep up with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, she invented a whole new language of jazz with her scatting—essentially joyful, acrobatic nonsense that somehow made more musical sense than most actual lyrics.

Things really took off when Norman Granz entered the picture. A man with a suit, a cause, and a remarkable knack for matchmaking (musically speaking), he built Verve Records more or less around Ella’s voice. From 1956 to 1964, she recorded her “Songbook” series, tackling everything from Cole Porter to Irving Berlin, and in the process became the definitive voice of the Great American Songbook. If you wanted to know how a Gershwin tune ought to sound, you went to Ella. Everyone did.

Over the decades, she shared the mic with legends—Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie. Together they churned out the sort of classics that feel like they’ve existed since the beginning of time, or at least since your parents first slow danced.

Despite grueling tours, chronic illness, and an industry not always kind to women—let alone Black women—Fitzgerald soldiered on. She performed everywhere from the Hollywood Bowl to Royal Albert Hall and refused to slow down until 1993, when after nearly 60 years of making the world swing, she gave her final bow.

MUSIC AND ARTS Fitzgerald’s greatest passion was music. She was deeply interested in music and musicians, absorbing new styles and experimenting with her voice, especially in scat singing and bebop. She was also committed to performing and the joy of jazz, which permeated her nearly six-decade career. Beyond performing, she enjoyed attending live acts and was an enthusiastic supporter of the arts throughout her life.

Fitzgerald's musical gifts were extraordinary and multifaceted. Her voice was described as flexible, wide-ranging, accurate, and ageless. She could seamlessly transition between sultry ballads and sweet jazz, and could even imitate every instrument in an orchestra.

Her vocal technique was characterized by remarkable purity of tone, impeccable diction, precise phrasing, perfect timing, flawless intonation, and absolute pitch. However, her most distinctive talent was arguably her improvisational ability, particularly evident in her revolutionary scat singing.

LITERATURE Ella Fitzgerald greatly enjoyed reading. Offstage, she was known for her privacy and quiet habits, often preferring to go home and read books rather than attend parties or public events. She was described as someone who "kept a lot inside her head," and friends noted that she enjoyed reading as a form of relaxation and escape. Her love of books extended to collecting cookbooks-she reportedly owned around 300, which she read as others might read novels, sometimes annotating them in the margins. (4)

NATURE She reportedly enjoyed peaceful retreats away from the spotlight.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Ella loved to read and was known to enjoy watching sports, though she devoted most of her time and energy to music and performing.

Outside of her musical career, Fitzgerald had a deep concern for child welfare and was committed to charitable work. She made generous donations to organizations supporting disadvantaged youths and later established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, focusing on academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care for the less fortunate, and medical research.

In 1972, Ella Fitzgerald, along with Carol Channing, performed during Super Bowl VI where the Miami Dolphins faced off against the Dallas Cowboys in New Orleans. She became  the first African-American woman to perform during Super Bowl Halftime.  

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY While Fitzgerald did not publicly discuss her religious beliefs in detail, her life was marked by humility, gratitude, and a quiet sense of purpose. She credited her mother’s favorite songs and early exposure to music as sources of comfort and inspiration. Her actions and charitable work suggest a worldview shaped by compassion and a desire to serve. She was known for her kindness and compassion, guided by a strong moral compass.

Fitzgerald in 1940

POLITICS Though Fitzgerald generally avoided political statements throughout most of her career-reportedly saying, "show people should stay out of politics"-she did make exceptions. In an unbroadcast 1963 interview with radio host Fred Robbins, she spoke candidly about racism, expressing frustration about being unable to perform in parts of the Southern United States due to segregation. "It makes you feel so bad to think we can't go down through certain parts of the South and give a concert like we do overseas, and have everybody just come to hear the music and enjoy the music because of the prejudice thing that's going on," she said.

Throughout her career, she faced substantial racial discrimination, including a 1955 arrest at an integrated show in Houston. Despite these challenges, her talent ultimately transcended barriers and helped advance the cause of racial equality in the entertainment industry. (5) 

SCANDAL Following her mother's death when Fitzgerald was fifteen, she entered a troubled period in her life. She became involved with local mobsters and gamblers, occasionally running bets for bookies. This activity eventually led to her placement in the New York Colored Orphan Asylum in the Bronx, where she suffered humiliating treatment.

After spending part of 1932 in the orphanage, she ran away. She subsequently experienced periods of homelessness while struggling to find work in Depression-era New York.

MILITARY RECORD She performed extensively for troops during WWII as part of USO tours.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Fitzgerald began experiencing serious health problems in the 1970s but continued performing regularly. In 1986, she underwent heart surgery after suffering from congestive heart failure. Her health challenges were compounded by diabetes, which ultimately necessitated the amputation of both her legs in 1993.

Despite these severe health setbacks, her passion for music remained undimmed. Even after her heart surgery in 1986, she continued to perform periodically.

HOMES She lived in Yonkers, New York, during her childhood. Later in life, she resided in Beverly Hills, California.

TRAVEL Fitzgerald performed extensively throughout the world, appearing at top venues globally. Her international touring schedule included performances with numerous jazz greats, including regular participation in Norman Granz's famous Jazz at the Philharmonic concert tours. She was warmly received by audiences overseas, sometimes finding more acceptance internationally than in parts of her segregated home country.

DEATH Ella Fitzgerald died on June 15, 1996, at her home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 79. She had been suffering from heart disease and diabetes for many years. At the time of her passing, she was surrounded by family and friends.

Fitzgerald’s funeral services were private, as requested by her family. The family also asked that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to the Society of Singers, an organization supporting professional singers in need. The Society of Singers' lifetime achievement award is named "The Ella" in her honor.

Ella Fitzgerald is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California. She rests within the Sunset Mission Mausoleum, second floor, in the Sanctuary of the Bells, Crypt 1063. Her grave marker is inscribed:

BELOVED MOTHER & GRANDMOTHER

MISS ELLA JANE FITZGERALD

1917–1996

THE FIRST LADY OF SONG

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Beyond her numerous music recordings, Fitzgerald appeared in several films, including Pete Kelly's Blues (playing Maggie Jackson), St. Louis Blues (1958), and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960). She also made an appearance in a 1980s television drama called The White Shadow.

Throughout her career, she was featured in various commercial advertisements, including campaigns for Memorex (where her voice shattered a glass, asking: “Is it live, or is it Memorex?”), Kentucky Fried Chicken, and American Express.

ACHIEVEMENTS Fitzgerald's extraordinary career garnered numerous awards and distinctions:

14 Grammy Awards

First African American woman to win a Grammy Award (1958)

Grammy Hall of Fame recognition for "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" in 1986

Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992)

National Medal of Arts (1987)

Kennedy Center Honors (1979)

Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1995)

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1967)

Sources (1) ellafitzgerald.com (2) NPR (3) The Harvard Crimson (4) The Nation (5) USA Today