From how she got the nickname "Lady Day" to the origins of "Strange Fruit," here are some facts about the famed jazz singer. A damn woman let out a scream. Despite President Harry Trumans tepid steps toward advancing civil rights for Black Americans, racist Democrats still held a tight grip over his partyincluding Anslinger, who despised jazz and its icons. She was handcuffed to her bed, and law enforcement kept a tight watch over her quarters, even as fans gathered outside the hospital to wish her well. READ MORE: The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". Ask yourself the question, who loves you, sweetheart? Columbia, her record label at the time, didn't want her to record the song at first because of its controversial subject matter. Evidently shirking his duties in Washington, movie Anslinger obsessively turns up at Holiday's New York gigs to glare at her from the audience, as if he hates music in general. Most federal agents are nice people. DAY: (As Billie, singing) Southern trees. DAY: (As Billie Holiday) No, Joe. Protesters sent the song to Congress in hopes of passing an anti-lynching bill, per the BBC. ", 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." By Don Hunstein/Columbia Records/Getty Images. Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, and grew up in Baltimore. Holiday tried rehab to kick her habit, but it didn't work, and besides having a metaphorical monkey on her back, Holiday also had theChief of the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Mr. Harry J. Anslinger, gunning for her, due to a personal vendetta against Holiday. In the Broadway musical production of "Your Arms Too Short To Box With God", her performance earned her a 1981 Drama Desk nomination. 3 Billie Holiday The next scenes are somewhat fudged: The movie depicts Holiday at Joe Guys New York apartment the day after the performance, where shes apprehended by a group of federal agents led by Jimmy Fletcher, who reveals his true allegiance to the government. Shes played Jack Nicholsons daughter, Gwyneth Paltrows sister, and Nicolas Cages estranged wife. Holiday after being arrested for heroin possession in 1947. It would later be set to music by Meeropol himself and was recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939 as Strange Fruit. By that time, Holiday had already spent years recording prolifically and working with prominent jazz bandleaders like Duke Ellington, Teddy Wilson, and Count Basie, but its accurate to say her nationwide recognition did increase significantly after the release of that record. However, Anslinger also discovered that Judy Garland was, like Holiday, a heroin user. And then Anslinger's men cut it off.". Let that sonofabitch say something and Ill take care of him. When the heckler began hurling abuse, Hope was ready. Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze. Then we'd have something closer to the real Billie Holiday story. She continued to play and record music, with much of her money going to support her drug habit and that of her husband. Holiday serves about a year at the prison before being let out early, by March 1948, for good behavior. DUSAN DUKIC: (As Joe Glaser) I cut "Strange Fruit.". Billy Holiday is likely the most celebrated female jazz singer in American history, yet substance abuse and addiction would plague her until her death at only 44 years old. 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. 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 Take it from Lady Day. 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.. Twenty years ago when I was in 'Dreamgirls,' I was always a joke because I was huge. According to Biography, White busted Holiday at San Francisco's Mark Twain Hotel, even though she claimed to have been clean for a year. Her father And she kept singing "Strange Fruit" (posted on YouTube). We talked to Chasing the Scream author Johann Hari about the role jazz legend Billie Holiday played in the early days of the drug war. She started performing it at Caf Society, an integrated nightclub in New York. It sold more than a million copies and rose to number 16 on the charts. 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. When she's 15, the police raid the brothel, says Hari. I think the only way to tell Billie She had a rough childhood, moving to Baltimore to live with her aunt while her mother worked long hours on passenger trains. The whole joint quieted down. He was supporting the adoption of a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for first-time offender drug dealers. All dope can do for you is kill youand kill you the long slow hard way. And thats the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.. 5. 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. We exchanged a few words. Holiday was sent to a brutal Catholic reformatory, where as punishment she was locked in a room with a dead student. 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. However, Carnegie Halls own website mentions Strange Fruit in the setlist for Holidays March 27, 1948, concert. Things werent much better when she arrived in Hollywood. She respected her fellow musicians too much for that. A voice-over from Devine mentions that a cast of important figures in Holidays life were all there that night, including singer and activist Lena Horne, actress Tallulah Bankhead, manager Joe Glaser (Dusan Dukic), and Holidays then-husband Jimmy Monroe (Erik LaRay Harvey). 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. "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. The actor revealed that his pet died after being hit by a truck on the second anniversary of his father's death. We may earn a commission from these links. She told The Hollywood Reporter, "I could see this love affair that she has with Jimmy Fletcher, because it tells the story of the love affair that Black Americans have with America. [Expletive], I'm the one pays you. Racism was a constant foe; at the Fox Theater in Detroit, management insisted she darken her face before she sang with the all-Black band. Billie never had any children of her own. Still, he stayed true to his job. 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. She died on July 17, 1959, at the age of 44. The bureau puta guard outside of her room and took the flowers and letters fans and friends had sent, and even took her record player, according to Legacy. (This racist belief was behind the removal of the drug from Coca-Cola.) She was busted by the police in her hospital room for drug possession that June. By the early 1940s she was hooked on heroin. He'd heard rumblings that the singer was using heroin and assigned Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), a Black FBI agent, to follow her, journalist Johann Hari revealed in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, per Politico. RHODES: (As Jimmy) Never heard you sing it. Also at the club that night is undercover federal agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes). They also recorded together on a number of different projects, including her 1957 television special The Sound of Jazz. Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. 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). All of this is sadly true to Billies life. As the Treasury agent came towards us, I stepped on the gas. She wouldnt give me a cent. 2023 Black Americans love this country, often at our peril.". Perhaps the most important song Holiday would ever sing was Strange Fruit. Written by communist poet and teacher Abel Meeropol after he saw a photo of lynched Black men, the song describes the bodies of lynching victims hanging from southern trees like the strange fruit of its title. Jennifer Holliday was born on October 19, 1960 in Houston, Texas, USA. It wasnt the pneumonia that killed him, it was Dallas, Texas. BILLIE HOLIDAY: (Singing) Southern trees bear a strange fruit. Whether the two had such a long affair, however, is impossible to verify. Cocaine supposedly made Black people almost superhumanly strongNEGRO COCAINE "FIENDS" ARE A NEW SOUTHERN MENACE blared a 1914 New York Times headline. But the humiliation was terrible." Holidays appearance with actor George Jessel (Joe Cobden) on his show The Comeback Story in 1953 was a real broadcast where she mentioned her marriage to Louis McKay (Rob Morgan), who would become her manager. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. All rights reserved. During this time, Fletcher is seen listening to more of Holidays music and taking a liking to it, which, as weve established, we cant know, although Johann Hari noted in Chasing the Scream that Fletcher did come to regret his role in investigating Holiday. Ask a real person any government-related question for free. But not everyone was so callous. Ever since the movie has come out, people have been reacting to it on Twitter. 1937 was the year a teachers union journal published Bitter Fruit, a poem written by Jewish educator and anti-racist activist Abel Meeropol in protest of the continued lynching of Black Americans. This is heartbreaking. 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. He was moved to write a poem, feeling appalled by racism in America and particularly disturbed by a photograph of a lynching that he said "haunted" him "for days," according to NPR. Even his wife is a Holiday fan. The two had a well-documented affair in the early 40s. Politico reported that after one run-in following the first raid, Fletcher and Holiday "talked for hours"; they even danced together at Club Ebony. Up came eleven. 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