FITZGERALD, ELLA. Jazz singer ( in Newport News, Virginia). She spent most of her formative years in Yonkers, New York, and obtained her musical education in public schools there. In 1934 she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem community of New York, for which the prize was a week's engagement at the theater. The house bandleader,
William (Chick
) Webb
, was so impressed by her talent that he took her into his group...