After the show, Hope was waiting with a bottle of fine Champagne: After a couple of swigs, I looked around and the mirrors in the joint were shaking and the chandeliers were swinging. The name "Billie" came from silent movie star Billie Dove, whom Holiday adored. Later, Billie got married to Louis McKay. Nobody bothered to tell me Id have to travel 500 to 600 miles on a hot or cold raggedy-assbus; that it would cost me two or three bucks a night for a room; that by the time I was through having my hair fixed and gowns pressedId end up with about a dollar and a half a day.. And that pretty little thing took off from that stage like a beautiful little birdShe rushed up, took me in her arms, hugged me, looking at me, smiling and weeping at the same time. All rights reserved. While at the hall, someone yells for her to sing Strange Fruit, which she says she cant do. Now comes Hulu's "The United States Vs. Billie Holiday," directed by Lee Daniels from a script by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Pugnacious as she was precocious, Holiday battled through the sadness of her life, time and time again. His Anslinger is even worse than the real one, who was happy to crack down on drug-using jazz musicians, Black ones in particular, a surefire way to make headlines. Her label, Columbia, wouldn't allow it, but let her record with the Commodore label, pairing the record with the ballad "Fine and Mellow." Her troubles now an ongoing media sensation, Holiday was heartbroken by the way some of her friends received herespecially fellow superstar Sarah Vaughan, whom Holiday had looked out for in the old days. While she lay dying, a by-then retired Fletcher attempted to visit Holiday in the hospital. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support from Joyce Lieberman and Julian Herzfeld. It wasnt the pneumonia that killed him, it was Dallas, Texas. I got to the point where I hardly ever ate, slept, or went to the bathroom without having a major NAACP-type production.. I have to keep singing it, she writes, not only because people ask for it, but because twenty years after Pop died, the things that killed him are still happening in the South., Other legendary songs had more anecdotal origins. Ad Choices, Donald Trump Still Collects Six-Figure Pension from SAG-AFTRA: Report, Bob Mackie Answers the Proust Questionnaire. When she reunited with her mother, Sadie Gough, in Harlem, where Gough was doing sex work, Billie was forced into prostitution. After the successful show, Holiday runs up against more legal trouble: Because of her record, she cant get back her cabaret card, which is required for her to perform in NYC jazz clubs (all true). And thats just the way it felt. Holiday did her time at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, where she received none of the drug addiction treatment Columbia, her record label at the time, didn't want her to record the song at first because of its controversial subject matter. This is something I spoke into existence, the rapper-exec said, before thinking to put up a fence. Cocaine supposedly made Black people almost superhumanly strongNEGRO COCAINE "FIENDS" ARE A NEW SOUTHERN MENACE blared a 1914 New York Times headline. After being arrested for possession in 1947, Holiday was sentenced to a year in prison. Billie Holiday never stopped being addicted. Her romantic tastes were equally iconoclastic; allegedly, she had affairs with Charles Laughton, Tallulah Bankhead, and Orson Welles, the finest cat she ever met. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Chinese-Americans, racists warned, were luring white women into their opium dens for sex. Youve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn bodys sermons on how to behave.. Louis McKay, played by Rob Morgan, is no angel in this picture. RHODES: (As Jimmy) Love is important, too, right? Performed in the touring company of "Sing, Mahalia, Sing" in 1986, as the late, great. Billie Holiday deserves better, a biopic that, say, shows how her voice changed over her quarter-century recording career, from girlish to mature to brittle, reflecting all that heartache and hard living. Dont tell me about those pioneer chicks hitting the trail in those slip-covered wagons with the hills full of redskins. READ MORE: The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 July 17, 1959), better known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959. I cut him off, just like that. All Rights Reserved. We also see Holiday together with Tallulah Bankhead (Natasha Lyonne), after an implication that the two celebrities had had an affair together, which they famously did (Anslinger is later seen questioning Bankhead about her affair with Holiday as well as Holidays purported trysts with other female celebrities.). I took the glass and raised it as a toast to Hope. The movie starts with a graphic photo of white people attacking a Black victim, with overlay text noting that in 1937, an anti-lynching bill was considered in the Senate, though it ultimately didnt pass. It was widely rumored she and Holiday shared an intimate relationship, though it's understandably difficult to confirm these due to the danger associated with She died addicted. But her dog, Mister, had other plans. The couple divorced, but Holiday kept her addiction. At the age of 12 she was raped by a trumpet player. RHODES: (As Jimmy) Never heard you sing it. She respected her fellow musicians too much for that. She was busted by the police in her hospital room for drug possession that June. They provoke people in the wrong way. A damn woman let out a scream. She wouldnt give me a cent. Later, he harasses her in the hospital as she's dying. Billie Holiday was born Eleanor Fagan in Philadelphia, PA on April 7, 1915. The actor revealed that his pet died after being hit by a truck on the second anniversary of his father's death. Though in both those films she got to sing, too. When she was finally released, she had lost her cabaret license, prohibiting her from performing where alcohol was servedmeaning she couldn't perform at jazz clubs. In our culture, there's one heroic story we tell about people with addiction problems, which is that sometimes they recover from their addiction, Hari says. I dont usually drink the stuff, but this champagne is crazy. Look, girl, he said, dont you know we just now had one of the worst earthquakes anybody ever had around here?. All contents Billie Holiday (Andra Day), accompanied by her stylist Miss Freddy (Miss Lawrence), sits down for an interview with radio journalist Reginald Lord Devine (Leslie Jordan). 2023 Cond Nast. By the early 1940s she was hooked on heroin. Most federal agents are nice people. ", Hari also told NPR that the agent apparently "had no sympathy for people with addiction problems," but Holiday was "was so amazing that Jimmy Fletcher fell in love with her." Everybody hollered at me that the bus had swerved and made me shoot it over. Protesters sent the song to Congress in hopes of passing an anti-lynching bill, per the BBC. During this, her marriage with Jimmy also suffered as she found out he was cheating on her. I thought he looked a little pale. Scarred by Vaughans reception, Holiday hid in the back of the Strand Theater watching Lena Horne rehearse. The group is also seen reading a newspaper, which likely would not, as depicted, have spurred a bickering among them in 1947 regarding a quarter-page ad for Holiday singing Strange Fruit at the caf, considering her then-ongoing Downbeat club engagement would have probably prevented her from holding such a performance in a different venue. Copyright 2021 NPR. Holiday herself knew intimately the fatal costs of racism, as her father had died in 1937 when he was denied treatment for pneumonia by hospitals that would not accept Black patients. Ask yourself the question, who loves you, sweetheart? She carries the movie with conviction and looks kind of like the real Holiday, with those gardenias in her hair. Billie Holiday has become a mythic presence in absentia. "They bust her, and it's pretty clear, I think, from reading the historical documents, that he planted drugs on Billie Holiday that night," Hari told NPR of the raid. Buy Lady Sings the Blues on Amazon or Bookshop. I know Lady, Louis Armstrong once said. Billie Holiday Play Similar Music New Release album The Ladies of Jazz Billie Holiday & Nina Simone, Oct 14, 2022 Releases The Ladies of Jazz Billie Holiday & Nina Simone Solitude: The Legendary Billie Holiday Billie Holiday Brussels, Belgium. Photos by Bettmann/Contributor and Takashi Seida/Hulu. People pay good money to come here and hear me sing it. Holiday is then seen with trumpeter Joe Guy (Melvin Gregg), who had an affair with her and supplied her with drugs while struggling with addiction himself (although it should be noted that it was Holidays husband Jimmy Monroe whod first supplied her with heroin in the early 40s). He was supporting the adoption of a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for first-time offender drug dealers. DUKIC: (As Joe) I've told you a hundred times, people in high places don't like you singing that song. Our jazz critic and jazz film-follower Kevin Whitehead has this review. In 1947 she was arrested on drug charges and spent 10 months in federal prison, Legacy reported. Thanks for signing up! The real Anslinger did take an interest in Holiday's case, but in the film, her drug busts are just leverage to make her stop singing that song. Holiday died on July 17, 1959. After moving to New York with her mother in the late 1920s, she endured another sexual assault at 14. Holiday ended up releasing the song on the Commodore label in 1939, and it went on to sell a million copies. Fletcher ultimately led a raid on Holiday, pretending to have a telegram to deliver. Per Legacy, Holiday was arrested in her hospital bed by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who said they found heroin in her room. Worse, the story turned the last of her terrible husbands, Louis McKay, played by Billy Dee Williams, into a saintly figure who's always there for her. According to Holiday, Clarence, her high-living musician father, died on the road in 1937, a victim of Jim Crow. Holiday after being arrested for heroin possession in 1947. According to Holiday biographer Julia Blackburn, the singer was itching to record the song after seeing the audience reactions. A later scene shows Levy planting drugs on Holiday and setting her up for another arrest by Fletcher and the feds; although an old Oakland Tribune article reports that Holiday and Levy were both arrested during the early-1949 raid, the setup does appear to have been coordinated by Levy. The nickname was short for president of the saxophone, according to Donald Clarke's Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon. Most of my other songs just about love. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. After her release, she auditioned to sing at the Harlem speakeasy Pods and Jerrys: I asked him to play Travlin All Alone. That came closer than anything to the way I felt. DAVIES: Billie Holiday in 1956, revisiting her signature song "Strange Fruit," whose lyrics depict a lynching. The two went their separate ways. I knew I had to do it that night and there wasnt two seconds to waste taking any lessons. She died on July 17, 1959, at the age of 44. While the movie is a mix of fiction and reality, heres a look at Billies personal life. 'Never Have I Ever' Season 4 Arrives in June. hulu The United States vs. Billie Holiday Watch Now What really did her in was when her abusive husband, Louis McKay, got involved. Director Lee Daniels told the Hollywood Reporter that The U.S. vs. Billie Holiday isnt a biopic, and as longtime Canadian journalist Robert Fulford once wrote in the National Post, it is difficult for anyone to attempt to chronicle an authoritative Life of Billie Holiday anyway, because the documents dont exist, and the witnesses have often lied. In "The United States Vs. Billie Holiday," federal agents wage a vigorous campaign for years to make her stop singing "Strange Fruit," that scathing portrait of lynching as a Southern tradition. He learned of Anslinger's plan and agreed to set her up, Hari reported. Portrayed the role of Effie Melody White in the original musical version of "Dreamgirls", giving one of the most triumphant singing performances ever committed to Broadway. The fashion designer famous for besequining the stars from Marilyn to Cher on the importance of investing in a full-length mirror. Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. | She managed to make a few more albums and even undertook a European tour in 1954 before her demons got the best of her. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. [July 2004]. She was raised in Baltimore, mostly by her mothers half-sister Eva Miller and her relatives. I was filthy dirty and had holes in the knees of my stockings, but I had sixteen hundred bucks and some change. In the 1947 feature "New Orleans," she played a white opera singer's housemaid. To be fair, biographical movies are entertainments, not history lessons. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Joan Baez Sings with Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones, 8 Facts About Son of a Sinner Singer Jelly Roll, Selena Gomez Shares"Transformative" Lip Tint, 16 Musicians and Singers Named Knights or Dames, How Rina Sawayama Landed in John Wick: Chapter 4, Dolly Partons New Book: Inside Her Iconic Style, Niall Horan's Under-$30 Eye Care Must-Haves, Taylor Swift Has (Kind Of) Reunited The Civil Wars, 7 Musicians Who Are Connected to Bobby Caldwell, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Morgan Wallen. The best thing about it by far is singer and screen newcomer Andra Day in the lead. As the Treasury agent came towards us, I stepped on the gas. She also catches Billie's later singing voice well. The same on-screen text also mentions that Billie Holiday rose to fame in part due to her song Strange Fruit, a lyrical, horrifying description of a lynching, which is true to the record. But the jazz singer refused to cower. My boxer dog Mister was in the back seat whimpering, scared. Im a jailbird. Dont you say that! she exclaimed. Meanwhile, Strange Fruit was indeed inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978 and named song of the century by Time magazine in 1999. As a young teen, she moved to Harlem, where she became a high-class call girl. Maybe they would have been kinder to me if theyd been nasty; then I wouldnt have trusted them enough to believe what they told me.. McKay handled her burial arrangements. If someone had dropped a pin, it would have sounded like a bomb. "She's really haunted by what Jimmy Fletcher did to hereven years later," Hari added. For Holiday, singing was a magical form of connection and expression. Oddly enough, Dove was actually the stage name of Lillian Bohny. And, as Hari told Esquire, she and the Pope drank something called Vin Mariani, which was wine laced with opium.. Feeling ill, she went into a New York hospital in May 1959 where she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Drugs became racialized, with cocaine coded as being associated with Black Americans, opioids with Chinese immigrants, and marijuana with Mexican immigrants. Jennifer Holliday was born on October 19, 1960 in Houston, Texas, USA. DAVIES: Kevin Whitehead is the author of the new book "Play The Way You Feel: The Essential Guide To Jazz Stories On Film." Anslinger, who once faced calls for his resignation after using the n-word in an internal memo, was not a fan of jazz music. You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation, Holiday notes wryly. That strained relationship didn't stop her from borrowing his last name when she became a performer. And tell me who thinks of you a million times a day and who's blue and lonely, honey, when you're away? Jennifer Holliday was born in Riverside, TX on Wednesday, October 19, 1960 (Baby Boomers Generation). But having Billie leave her band stranded down South in the middle of a tour is a low blow. Why not WHITEHEAD: Andra Day likewise replicates the croaky way Holiday spoke in her last years in the late 1950s. She managed to survive a difficult childhood often left in the care of cold-hearted relatives and even spent time in a Catholic reform school before joining her mother in New York City. And when she starts crying, the next thing shes going to do is start fighting., And fight she did to be true to herself and her art, no matter what the cost. A previous headline misspelled Billie Holiday's last name as Holliday. When she was ten years old, she was raped by an adult neighbor. McKay batters Billie so badly that sometimes she has to tape up her ribs before performingnot to mention, he attempts to wrest control of her estate and works with Anslinger to arrest Holiday for her drug use yet again. Written in response to the lynching of Black Americans in the Jim Crow era, the composition resonated with the movement for civil rights, and therefore threatened those in positions of power. The Ebony magazine cover displayed that shows a portrait of Billie with the cover line Im Cured for Good Now was from the actual July 1949 issue, her declaration of her effort to stay away from heroin. But singing songs like The Man I Love or Porgy is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck., Many of Holidays signature songs were born of moments in her life both traumatic and trivial. But while the movie charts Holidays efforts to maintain her career while being hounded by law enforcement and struggling with substance abuse disorder, its not just a portrait of the life of one artist: The film also tells an important story about the origins of Americas war on drugs. Anslinger appears in a scene with other notorious historical figures: Reps. J. Parnell Thomas and John Rankin, Sen. Joe McCarthy, and McCarthy aide Roy Cohn, the latter two of whom had their own connections to and vendettas against the largely Black jazz scene. But how much of the film is true? And that may be true. Billie had passed away in 1959 after she was hospitalized due tocirrhosis of the liver. Holiday returned the favor, choosing to rename him "Pres" (or "Prez" depending on the source). Dope never helped anybody sing better, or play music better, or do anything better. It is reported that Louis was physically abusive towards Billie. However, she had two godchildren who she cared about deeply. You don't have to take three guesses. In 1959, she collapsed and was hospitalized. We exchanged a few words. And the chauffeur was in the front seat the same way. Several people applauded the movie and recommended others to watch it. After her release, her new manager Ed Fishman (Alain Goulem) wants to get her headlining Carnegie Hall. Billie decided to give love a second chance and got married to Jimmy Monroe. Slate is published by The Slate DAY: (As Billie) And I've asked you over a hundred times, what people, Joe? What really did her in was when her abusive husband, Louis McKay, got involved. When I finished, everybody in the joint was crying in their beer. If I had to sing Doggie in the Window, that would actually be work, she writes. 2023 Theyve got a dirty job to do and they have to do it. The legends singing stuck with Day because her songs were rooted in truth.. And thats the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.. All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. HOLIDAY: (Singing) Who loves you? [It's about a] Black American woman living in America who's been in love with her country her whole life. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. He said he found opium in her garbage can and a heroin kit in her bathroom. Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, told WNYC Studios, "She had a heroin addiction because she'd been chronically raped as a child and she was trying to deal with the grief and the pain of that. 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