Word: apollo
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...hothouse orchid. She had curls, said one visitor, which were "like the pendent ears of a water spaniel, and poor little hands, so thin that when she welcomed you she gave you something like the foot of a young bird." Browning himself, with his big, bumped nose, was scarcely Apollo reincarnate. And Old Man Barrett, though rather like an ogre, was hardly as black as hell's chimney after all; Elizabeth called him "Sweet Puppy...
Last week, tricked out in a yellow and pink garden dress, picture hat and orange and magenta feather boa, Puerto Rico pursued a hapless, grinning amateur into the wings. Then he laid his pistol down. Out onto the stage stepped one of the most famed alumnae of the Apollo amateur hour: bosomy, nimble-voiced Ella Fitzgerald...
Palm Fronds & Spotlight. Apollo patrons saw Ella for the first time 17 years ago. Billed as a dancer in the amateur show, she looked shyly down at her spindly legs, stammered out that she had changed her mind, would like to sing instead. The audience guffawed. But by the time 15-year-old Ella had slid smoothly into the second chorus of Judy they were shouting encouragement. Three encores later, she walked off the stage with the $25 first prize. No other contestant had come even close...
Scat Mother Goose. Almost every year Ella manages to get back to the Apollo. Last week, Ella, now a strapping 31, gave the fans a hearty sampling of sweet ballads with a Fitzgerald edge, a few bopped-up old favorites, her latest raid on Mother Goose (a scat version of Old Mother Hubbard), and a couple of friendly imitations of her old pals Louis Armstrong and Rose ("Chichi") Murphy. As always, her gently rasping voice, halfway between jungle wail and jukebox jangle, brought the house down...
After her Apollo visit, Ella was heading downtown for her annual three-week session at the Paramount (at $3,250 a week), then out to the West Coast. Still at the top of the heap, Ella has a simple explanation for her success: "People like...