In what may have been her motion picture debut, here is Ella Fizgerald at 25 in the
1942 Abbott and Costello comedy Ride ‘Em Cowboy. With her in the sequence are the Merry Macs singing and the Lindy Hoppers lindy-hopping. This was at about the time she had stopped fronting the Chick Webb band and moved into a solo career. Fitzgerald’s first professional ambition was to be a dancer. That’s not her job here, but check out her moves as she comes onto the set.