Free Madonna by Mark Bego Page B

how much protesting her father did, she was going. In July 1978 Madonna boarded a plane at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and she has never regretted it for a moment. When she boarded the jet—for the first airplane ride of her life—she basically left Steve Bray and all her other school friends in the dust.
    â€œLooking back,” says Madonna of Bray, “I think I probably did make him feel kind of bad, but I was really insensitive in those days. I was totally self-absorbed.” 29 Although Steve Bray recognizes that Madonna is talented and a friend, he says, “With her, being polite and ladylike gets left behind.” 49
    Madonna departed from the Wolverine State: next stop Manhattan Island.
    When she got off the plane, she hailed a taxi and instructed the driver to take her “to the middle of everything.” 2 He gladly complied—and dropped her off in the center of Times Square: neon lights, Broadway theaters, pimps, hustlers, prostitutes, con men, and porno palaces. At the time, she had her life savings in her pocket: $35. How far did she think that amount of money would go?
    Madonna was overwhelmed by the tall buildings. Wandering down Lexington Avenue in her winter coat, suitcase in hand, she met a man who offered to let her stay in his apartment. While most would hesitate before moving in with a stranger, Madonna stayed with him for two weeks. “He showed me where everything was, and he fed me breakfast. It was perfect.” 2
    Like Tennessee Williams’s character Blanche DuBois, Madonna relied on the kindness of strangers. However, her streetcar was named “ambition,” not “desire.”
    With no means of supporting herself but her looks and pushy charm—sometimes confused with moxie—Madonna set about looking for work.
    The closest she could come to her much desired big break was when she auditioned for the prestigious Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. She didn’t end up with a real paying gig, but she did land a work-scholarship, which basically meant that she could study dance with the third-string company without having to pay them. It sounds impressive, and was inarguably a foot in the door, but there remained one minor flaw: the matter of needing money to buy food with.
    Madonna found the largely black, multiracial dance company a fascinating experience. For once she found herself in a room full of people as aggressive as she was herself. “Everyone was Hispanic or black, and EVERYONE wanted to be a star!” 29
    Throughout her first months in New York City, she literally lived from hand to mouth. She somehow knew that she was destined to go places—she just wasn’t certain where those places were. “I wasn’t worried about not getting anywhere as a dancer,” she claims. “I knew I was a decent dancer. It was great.” 2 She moved from one apartment to another, eating popcorn for sustenance because it was cheap and filling.
    For money, Madonna found herself spinning around town in a veritable revolving door of menial positions. “I was working at all sorts of stupid jobs,” she says. “I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts, I worked at Burger King, I worked at an Amy’s [Greek fast food restaurant]. I had a lot of jobs that lasted one day. I always talked back to people, and they’d fire me. I was a coat-check girl at the Russian Tea Room for a long time. I worked at a health club once for a week.” 1
    Concerned for his daughter’s well-being, Tony Ciccone paid Madonna a visit once she had gotten herself settled. At the time she was studying with the Ailey company, earning money by selling Dunkin’ Donuts, and living alone in a rundown, fleabag walk-up apartment in the East Village on Fourth Street and Avenue B, one of the worst neighborhoods in New York.
    When Mr. Ciccone came to visit, he was naturally appalled by his eldest daughter’s living arrangements. “The place was crawling with