Stars Who Struggled Before Making It Big

Ella Fitzgerald

Before becoming the “First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald struggled during childhood. At a young age, Fitzgerald and her mother moved to New York to live with her mother’s boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva, who was abusive towards her. After her mother passed away from a heart attack, Fitzgerald moved in with her aunt but let her grades in school flounder at this time.

Fitzgerald would often skip school and she became involved with mafia-type people, running gambles and becoming a lookout at a local bordello. After getting caught by the police, she was admitted to an orphan asylum and later a school for girls, where she suffered physical abuse. At age 15, she escaped but she was homeless on the streets of New York. After two years in this state, she entered and won an amateur singing contest at the Apollo Theatre and the rest, as they say, is history.