How to Celebrate the Life of Ella Fitzgerald

Why celebrate Ella Fitzgerald? Let some fans tell you. Bing Crosby: "Man, woman or child, Ella is the best." Mel Tormé: "Ella was the greatest singer on the planet." Ira Gershwin: "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them."

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Popcorn
• Ella Fitzgerald CDs
• Ella Fitzgerald Videos

1. Splurge. Treat yourself to some of the best recordings ever made: Ella's Songbook series, available as separate CDs and as a complete collection. Each features the music of a different songwriter, and you'll quickly learn why the likes of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George and Ira Gershwin considered these performances the definitive treatments of their work.
2. Read Geoffrey Mark Fidelman's biography, "First Lady of Song: Ella Fitzgerald for the Record."
3. Rent a video of "Ride 'Em Cowboy" starring Abbott and Costello, make a big bowl of popcorn, and laugh your way through one of the handful of movies Ella made.
4. Visit the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and peruse their Ella Fitzgerald collections. To start with a virtual tour, see americanhistory.si.edu.
5. Honor Ella's memory by sending a contribution to the American Diabetes Association, or ride your bike in its annual Tour de Cure. She battled the disease for much of her life and died from its complications in 1996.
6. Throw a party for Ella on February 16. On that day, in 1935, she started her first paying gig at the Harlem Opera House.
7. Support the two-party system by having another party on Ella's birthday, April 25. (She was born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1918.)
8. Play her music and sing along. Then sing some more. As the First Lady of Song often said, "The only thing better than singing is more singing."

Tips & Warnings

• The Library of Congress has photographs and videotapes documenting Ella's life and career, as well as her entire music library. At the Smithsonian, you'll find her awards - dozens of them, including 13 Grammy awards, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Medal of Art - along with such memorabilia as the glass she shattered in her classic "Is it live or is it Memorex?" TV commercial.
• To sign up for the Tour de Cure, call your local office of the American Diabetes Association or visit their Web site.
• Some sources give the year of Ella Fitzgerald's birth as 1917; others - including the Library of Congress and the singer's grave marker at California's Inglewood Cemetery - say 1918.