According to Holiday herself, she really was forced off the stage after singing Strange Fruit at Philadelphias Earle Theater in May 1947, despite having received a rapturous welcome at first. When she reunited with her mother, Sadie Gough, in Harlem, where Gough was doing sex work, Billie was forced into prostitution. It climbed to the No. Up came eleven. Even his wife is a Holiday fan. What you looking at him for? By Don Hunstein/Columbia Records/Getty Images. The United States vs. Billie Holiday: What Really Happened, The Weeknd's 'The Idol' to Premiere in 2023, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. DAVIES: On Monday's show, we speak with writer, performer and magician Derek DelGaudio. From how she got the nickname "Lady Day" to the origins of "Strange Fruit," here are some facts about the famed jazz singer. The man was arrestedbut Holiday was sent to a reformatory. {{#media.media_details}} {{#media.focal_point}}. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Holiday after being arrested for heroin possession in 1947. KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: The movies have not been kind to Billie Holiday. Since then, Holiday struggled to get better, though she continued to sing "Strange Fruit." (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY"). 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 She became one of jazz's great stars, performing with the likes of Count Basie and Artie Shaw. However, it was originally written by poet, teacher, and activist Abel Meeropol, from New York. But her dog, Mister, had other plans. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. But not everyone was so callous. Meeropol later set the poem to music, and the resulting song found its way to Holiday. Whether the two had such a long affair, however, is impossible to verify. The two had a well-documented affair in the early 40s. While at the hall, someone yells for her to sing Strange Fruit, which she says she cant do. Though the movies timeline jumps between different points of Holidays career and glimpses at the wider war on drugs (as well as the early war on jazz music), it focuses on how much Holiday was exploited by the predatory people and systems around her. WebJennifer Holliday was born on October 19, 1960 in Houston, Texas, USA. Billie had been three times. WHITEHEAD: Yeah, that didn't happen. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. 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. 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. 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. I found out that that wasnt the real story, that Billie Holiday was a civil rights leader, that she wasnt just a drug addict or a jazz singer, Daniels recently told The She made her first attempt to get clean in 1946but news of her stay in a sanitarium was leaked, and she began to be tailed in earnest by the feds, who were hoping to nail her for possession. Jennifer Yvette Holliday is an American singer and Tony Award-winning actress. She started her career on Broadway in musicals such as Dreamgirls (1981-85), and later became a successful recording artist. The real Holiday did record the song in 1939. In 2001, she sang "America The Beautiful" on the first WWE pay-per-view to be held after the September 11th terrorist attacks. A damn woman let out a scream. She was sentenced to a year at a West Virginia prison. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Made an appearance at the 6th annual United States Conference on AIDS at the Anaheim Hilton & Towers in Anaheim, California. GARRETT HEDLUND: (As Harry Anslinger) Hoover says it's un-American. The two went their separate ways. Still, he stayed true to his job. Her parents, Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday, were both teenagers when she was born, and her musician father took off when she was still a baby. He leaped at me, kicked my hat off, and knocked me flat on my can in the middle of that little station. 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. The Slate Group LLC. Well, spot the difference.. When she arrived back at her hotel, cops were already swarming the lobby. According to Jazzwise, as a young teen Holiday started drinking and smoking marijuana, which would be the start of a lifetime of running from her "personal demons" and toward "the pursuit of pleasure.". In 1959 she collapsed in Manhattan and was taken to the hospital where, according to Hari, Holiday told a friend she thought the Feds who never stopped hounding her over her drug use, in an effort to silence her were going to kill her at the hospital. But the humiliation was terrible." Anslinger took a break from Holiday's case but later returned with a different narcotics agent, Colonel George White. In the film's depiction, Holiday's impact with the emotional song made her a target in the eyes of the federal government. I spent the rest of the war on 52nd Street and a few other streets. According to several reports, she started using heroin in the early 1940s during her marriage to Monroe. Her father was often out of the picture, himself a jazz musician. Anslinger was a known racist, according to what Hari told WNYC, and considered Holiday a threat, especially in regards to her bringing attention to the horrors of lynching black men in her song "Strange Fruit" (the lyrics are at Songfacts), which Anslinger wanted to prohibit Holiday from singing. I spent many a wonderful hour there listening to Pops and Bessie. Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. 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). He saw I saw it, and he started explaining and explainingLying to me was worse than anything he could have done with any bitch. Slate is published by The Slate Then we'd have something closer to the real Billie Holiday story. Russell Crowe Shares Sad News That 16-Month-Old Dog Louis Died in My Arms. I stayed sore for three weeks., Holidays philandering first husband, the trombonist Jimmy Monroe, would inspire the heartbreaking ballad Dont Explain. One night he came in with lipstick on his collar, she writes. Per Legacy, Holiday was arrested in her hospital bed by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who said they found heroin in her room. Buy Lady Sings the Blues on Amazon or Bookshop. Here are some facts about the life and music of the great Lady Day: Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan, though some sources say the name on her birth certificate was "Elinore Harris." Jennifer Holliday was born on October 19, 1960 in Houston, Texas, USA. Shortly after that arrest, Billie Holiday diedon July 17, 1959, the result of "alcohol- and drug-related complications," according to Biography. Biographer Farah Jasmine Griffin described Young as Holiday's "creative soulmate.". This is hardly the first biopic to invent stuff when the real story is dramatic enough. She was arrested and sentenced to four months on the notorious Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island). | The actor revealed that his pet died after being hit by a truck on the second anniversary of his father's death. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. God Bless the Child was initially a joke to get even with her mother, after she refused to give her cash-strapped daughter any money. She died on July 17, 1959, at the age of 44. The fashion designer famous for besequining the stars from Marilyn to Cher on the importance of investing in a full-length mirror. My boxer dog Mister was in the back seat whimpering, scared. The song is central to Hulu's new biopic, "The United States Vs. Billie Holiday." And tell me who thinks of you a million times a day and who's blue and lonely, honey, when you're away? 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 she so desperately needed. Columbia, her record label at the time, didn't want her to record the song at first because of its controversial subject matter. Lester Young dies, and his wife does not let Holiday sing at the funeral. Or the word love, Holiday wrote of her life experiences. I was filthy dirty and had holes in the knees of my stockings, but I had sixteen hundred bucks and some change. Send me updates about Slate special offers. 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. The singer managed to become a well-known name in the industry after struggling for many years. In The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Andra Days performance reminds viewers of the power of the Holidays voice, more than 60 years after her death. She continued to play and record music, with much of her money going to support her drug habit and that of her husband. Holiday still couldn't manage to part ways with her heroin habit, despite her poor physical condition. The movie is directed by Lee Daniels from a script written by Suzan-Lori Parks, but its based on the 2015 book Chasing the Scream by writer Johann Hari. 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. Many factors contributed to the shift from societally sanctioned drug use to just say no culture. The case was called The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and in a memoir, she wrote, "That's just the way it felt." 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