I remember discovering some years back that beautiful Marilyn Monroe and the amazing Ella Fitzgerald were good friends. Initially I thought what an unlikely friendship but then actually it's really not that surprising. Yeah it was the 50's but they both moved in show biz circles and I'm sure unlikely friendships were formed more often than people think. The story goes that Ella wanted to play at Mocambo, a very popular club in the 50's but they wouldn't book Ella because she was black. Enter sweetheart Marilyn who personally phoned the night club owner and asked him to book Ella immediately, on the agreement that Marilyn would appear at the front table every night Ella sang. She did and the press loved it. Lovely story and nice to see women support each other across colour lines. I already liked Marilyn, she had a lot more depth than being just a beautiful woman, this story made me like her even more.
