Whether the two had such a long affair, however, is impossible to verify. Hari told WNYC, "She's diagnosed with very advanced liver cancer and she starts to go into heroin withdrawal. According to Biography, White busted Holiday at San Francisco's Mark Twain Hotel, even though she claimed to have been clean for a year. 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. They started approaching her limo, and Holiday took action: I had never driven a car in my life before. The Prince of Wales made a surprise trip to Warsaw this week where he also paid a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She was previously married to Rev. Billie Holiday was born Eleanor Fagan in Philadelphia, PA on April 7, 1915. She started singing when she was in her early teens and by the time she was 18, record labels were fighting for her. And some part of it must have come across. It was her first husband, trombonist Jimmy Monroe, who introduced Holiday to Opium in 1941, according to Jazzwise. Toward the end of one tour, Holiday despaired about coming back to her mother broke. RHODES: (As Jimmy) Never heard you sing it. Who's there for you from the start? 2023 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. Send me updates about Slate special offers. In fact, a timeline on the Library of Congress shows that 106 Black Americans were reportedly lynched in the year 1900 alone. Holiday had a top 10 hit with a song called "Riffin' the Scotch" in 1934, and the 1930s continued to be a time of career growth for the singer. The singer found herself addicted to drugs during her marriage to Monroe. 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. In 1947 she was arrested on drug charges and spent 10 months in federal prison, Legacy reported. Her father was often out of the picture, himself a jazz musician. The pair ended up separating. From how she got the nickname "Lady Day" to the origins of "Strange Fruit," here are some facts about the famed jazz singer. So she's given methadone and she starts to recover. Pretty soon there were plenty of lights, cameras, and action. Holiday never stood trial for the charges, however. "And I had so many close conversations with her, about so many things," Fletcher had said in a rare interview. For years, American pharmacists sold a product called Mrs. Winslows Soothing Syrup, which contained morphine and alcohol. All contents It is true that Fletcher was assigned by Anslinger to tail Holiday undercover, a job Fletcher took on because of his own hatred of drugs and their effect on Black Americans. (SOUNDBITE OF BILLIE HOLIDAY'S "WHO LOVES YOU"). However, she had two godchildren who she cared about deeply. Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Andra Day in her debut film role, Lady Day's on-screen journey includes being pursued by the FBI in light of her involvement with the civil rights movement, her struggle with drug use, and her complicated romantic relationships. The whole joint quieted down. DAY: (As Billie, singing) Southern trees. Most of my other songs just about love. Holiday later got a chance to work with Louis Armstrong with the two of them starring in the 1947 musical New Orleans. As in "Lady Sings The Blues," she plays Carnegie Hall in 1948 with a big band and strings, not a quartet as in real life. Well, spot the difference.. Born Eleanora Fagan, the American jazz and swing music singer died on July 17, 1959, at the young age of 44. Holiday was sent to a brutal Catholic reformatory, where as punishment she was locked in a room with a dead student. 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. I thought he looked a little pale. Oh, who just longs for your caresses? Shortly after that arrest, Billie Holiday diedon July 17, 1959, the result of "alcohol- and drug-related complications," according to Biography. Holiday once said she'd been asked to stop singing "Strange Fruit" during a weeklong stand at Philadelphia's Earle Theater in 1947, just before the drug bust that sent her to prison for a year. Holiday and the band worked themselves ragged, playing rough dance halls, hotels and a whole string of riffraff joints throughout the country. This newspaper does serve as an introduction to another major figure: Harry J. Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), then head of the Treasury Departments Federal Bureau of Narcotics and one of the primary leaders of the governments effort to stifle Holiday. Now comes Hulu's "The United States Vs. Billie Holiday," directed by Lee Daniels from a script by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. [It's about a] Black American woman living in America who's been in love with her country her whole life. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Through all this, one thing that helped Billie keep calm was music. The name "Billie" came from silent movie star Billie Dove, whom Holiday adored. She continued to play and record music, with much of her money going to support her drug habit and that of her husband. Per Legacy, Holiday was arrested in her hospital bed by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who said they found heroin in her room. All of this is sadly true to Billies life. Before she found fame as a singer, Holiday did whatever it took to survive, including working a prostitute for a while. Slate is published by The Slate One of the people responsible for Americas turn from this laissez-faire approach to drug consumption was Harry Anslinger, whos played in The United States vs. Billie Holiday by Garrett Hedlund. Her raw, all-consuming vocal version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" made the Tony-winning performer a cult phenomenon. He leaped at me, kicked my hat off, and knocked me flat on my can in the middle of that little station. DAY: (As Billie) "Strange Fruit." Still, he stayed true to his job. A victrola was a big deal in those days, and there werent any parlors around that had one except Alices. How Fucking Lucky Am I?: Frank Rich Bids Farewell to, On the eve of Waystar Roycos final voyage, the executive producer and former. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY"). According to Holidays autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, she was arraigned there on drug charges stemming from the hotel raid and sentenced to serve at least a year at the all-woman Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. 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?. Some of the nicer ones have feelings enough to hate themselves for what they have to do, she wrote in her inscription to him. replacement behaviors for hitting, hopsack vs nailhead suit, is jennifer holliday related to billie holiday, herzing financial 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. At 10, Billie was And the chauffeur was in the front seat the same way. The man was arrestedbut Holiday was sent to a reformatory. All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors. 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. As is seen in the movie, the feds tailed her even while she was in this condition, planting drugs in her room and attempting to get her to name her dealer. 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. The two went their separate ways. We may earn a commission from these links. In the film's depiction, Holiday's impact with the emotional song made her a target in the eyes of the federal government. Louis McKay, played by Rob Morgan, is no angel in this picture. Things werent much better when she arrived in Hollywood. However, the raid took place in Philly itself, at the Attucks Hotel shortly after Billies performance at the Earle. All Ive learned in all those places from all those people is wrapped up in those two words. I was crazy for her." 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). 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. They also recorded together on a number of different projects, including her 1957 television special The Sound of Jazz. Accuracy and availability may vary. 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. Billie herself would tell the same story several ways. Still, there are chronicles of Holidays life from this period we can reference to figure out: How much of The U.S. vs. Billie Holiday is true to history? She started performing it at Caf Society, an integrated nightclub in New York. 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. 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. Her label, Columbia, wouldn't allow it, but let her record with the Commodore label, pairing the record with the ballad "Fine and Mellow." "She's really haunted by what Jimmy Fletcher did to hereven years later," Hari added. 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 couple divorced, but Holiday kept her addiction. Two other scenes with Fletcher ring partly true to the historical record: Miss Freddy mentioning to him that Holiday was raped when she was 10, which is true, and Anslinger telling him that thenFBI Director J. Edgar Hoover thought Strange Fruit was an un-American, provocative song. Biographer Farah Jasmine Griffin described Young as Holiday's "creative soulmate.". Andre Woods and Billy Meadows. However, it was originally written by poet, teacher, and activist Abel Meeropol, from New York. Two years later, Holiday was once again caught with drugs by the police. And tell me who thinks of you a million times a day and who's blue and lonely, honey, when you're away? You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Neither of these two characters are real, though Daniels told Variety that Devine was based on a fusion of Quentin Crisp and Skip E. Lowe. Devine sets up a flashback to February 1947, when we see Holiday performing at New York Citys Caf Society, the first racially integrated nightclub in the U.S. and the venue where Holiday had debuted Strange Fruit eight years prior. And like the Diana Ross movie, this one invents a good and loving man who faithfully stands by her. January 12th 1954 (Live) Billie Holiday Let's Do It Vol. All rights reserved. There are few legends whose lives have been as mythologized as Billie Holidays. Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. Let that sonofabitch say something and Ill take care of him. When the heckler began hurling abuse, Hope was ready. It sold more than a million copies and rose to number 16 on the charts. WHITEHEAD: There was a real Jimmy Fletcher, and he and Holiday came to be on friendly terms, despite their adversarial relationship. 'Never Have I Ever' Season 4 Arrives in June. She died addicted. Billie covers biographical details about Holiday that have filled past books and articles: drug use, her sexuality, and the abuse she experienced before her death in 1959. 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. DUKIC: (As Joe) I've told you a hundred times, people in high places don't like you singing that song. In the 1947 feature "New Orleans," she played a white opera singer's housemaid. 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. When she was ten years old, she was raped by an adult neighbor. RHODES: (As Jimmy) Why don't you ever sing "Strange Fruit"? WHITEHEAD: Later, after he's exposed, Jimmy shoots heroin with her one time, which somehow makes him flash back to her unhappy childhood, a narcotic mind-meld. Billie had been three times. 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. 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 I try to improvise What comes out is what I feel.". The fashion designer famous for besequining the stars from Marilyn to Cher on the importance of investing in a full-length mirror. Or the word love, Holiday wrote of her life experiences. Playing Holiday was Days first-ever acting role. Politico reported that after one run-in following the first raid, Fletcher and Holiday "talked for hours"; they even danced together at Club Ebony. If someone had dropped a pin, it would have sounded like a bomb. She carries the movie with conviction and looks kind of like the real Holiday, with those gardenias in her hair. He's one in a line of her abusive mates. "Dreamgirls" earned her not only a Tony, but Drama Desk and Theatre World Awards; she also won a Grammy Award for her recorded version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going". A previous headline misspelled Billie Holiday's last name as Holliday. Ask a real person any government-related question for free. 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). We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Two years later she was caught again by the police. She was raised in Baltimore, mostly by her mothers half-sister Eva Miller and her relatives. 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.". For Holiday, singing was a magical form of connection and expression. 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. 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 Newspapers reported that he committed the gory killings while in the grip of a marijuana-induced nightmare. The singer endured an exhausting legal battle with the FBI over drug usage and her song "Strange Fruit.". Meeropol later set the poem to music, and the resulting song found its way to Holiday. So she joined the bands crap game, much to the mens chagrin: I got on my knees, and the first time up it was a seven. 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. One scene in which Fletcher shoots up with Holiday and the band (undercover agents would often shoot up with their targets to demonstrate that they werent narcs) takes him into a view of Billies horrible childhood: We see her as a girl being referred to as Eleanora (her real name) and being dismissed by her mother, who indeed was often absent and later became a prostitute who forced young Holiday to also engage in sex work. What really did her in was when her abusive husband, Louis McKay, got involved. Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, and grew up in Baltimore. DAY: (As Billie) And I've asked you over a hundred times, what people, Joe? When she was ten years old, she was raped by an adult neighbor. The singer managed to become a well-known name in the industry after struggling for many years. It wasnt the pneumonia that killed him, it was Dallas, Texas. Her great talent, however, was later diminished by bad relationships and alcohol and drug abuse. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. In the movie, a fed orders local cops to shut down her Philly show the second it starts when she defiantly opens with that song. 5. A damn woman let out a scream. 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 Slate Group LLC. In the Broadway musical production of "Your Arms Too Short To Box With God", her performance earned her a 1981 Drama Desk nomination. I got to be pretty high to sing that one. He said he found opium in her garbage can and a heroin kit in her bathroom. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. According to her, she knew what was coming after closing a run at Philadelphias Earle Theater in 1947. The case was called The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and in a memoir, she wrote, "That's just the way it felt." ", Screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks said that when she was approached for the film, she could see the story "right away." In the book, Hari tells stories of the casualties of the drug war, from its 20th century origins to profiles of contemporary dealers and users. [July 2004]. However, Anslinger also discovered that Judy Garland was, like Holiday, a heroin user. DAVIES: Kevin Whitehead is the author of the new book "Play The Way You Feel: The Essential Guide To Jazz Stories On Film." Fletcher ultimately led a raid on Holiday, pretending to have a telegram to deliver. But meanwhile, decades before the protest songs of the 1960s, Holiday shouldered massive personal risks by performing Strange Fruit. Even though some white audience members left her shows when she performed the song, Holiday wrote it into her contracts that she would sing it each night. 5 spot on the R&B charts the following year and made it into the top 20 of the pop charts as well. DAVIES: On Monday's show, we speak with writer, performer and magician Derek DelGaudio. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Born Eleanora Fagan in Baltimore (or some say Philadelphia) in 1915, Holidays childhood was marred by horrific abusedespite the best efforts of her beloved mother, Sadie, who was only 13 when she had Holiday. The phrase "Don't Explain" is what Holiday uttered to her first husband, Jimmy Monroe, when he came home with lipstick on his collar. "She was the type who would make anyone sympathetic because she was the loving type. And also, she was resisting white supremacy.". But as her star rose, so did her reliance on alcohol, and eventually she moved on to harder drugs. In her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, she wrote, "I don't think I missed a single picture Billie Dove ever made. 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. 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. The courtroom scene implies that Glaser was responsible for setting Holiday up in this instance, which is true. She was mad with me and I was mad with her, Holiday writes. Two years after losing her insurance, Jennifer Holliday finally got the operation she needed to regain the use of an arm mangled in a shotgun blast. The nickname was short for president of the saxophone, according to Donald Clarke's Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon. 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. The legends singing stuck with Day because her songs were rooted in truth.. We waited for Sarah to come off between sets. According to Holiday, Clarence, her high-living musician father, died on the road in 1937, a victim of Jim Crow. His new memoir recalls the days when he used his sleight-of-hand skills to cheat other players in a high-stakes private poker game. To be fair, biographical movies are entertainments, not history lessons. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. GARRETT HEDLUND: (As Harry Anslinger) Hoover says it's un-American. Please try again. In the 1972 biopic "Lady Sings The Blues," she was played by Diana Ross, who looked and sounded nothing like her. Many factors contributed to the shift from societally sanctioned drug use to just say no culture. Also at the club that night is undercover federal agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes). She saw her voice as a musical instrument, as she explained in Hear Me Talkin' To Ya by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff: "I feel like I am playing a horn. Then he began lapping me and loving me like crazy, she writes. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. My boxer dog Mister was in the back seat whimpering, scared. It's pure poppycock, but Andra Day and Trevante Rhodes have good sexual chemistry onscreen, bringing some charm and romance to a mostly dreary narrative. Official Sites. DUSAN DUKIC: (As Joe Glaser) I cut "Strange Fruit.". Russell Crowe Shares Sad News That 16-Month-Old Dog Louis Died in My Arms. The effort goes through and the prestigious venue sells out, priming the path for Holidays comeback. KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: The movies have not been kind to Billie Holiday. 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. Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks based her screenplay for the new movie on Johann Haris bestseller Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, specifically on the chapter about the federal agents who targeted Holiday. Scarred by Vaughans reception, Holiday hid in the back of the Strand Theater watching Lena Horne rehearse. That is indeed a heroic story and everyone in that position should be really proud of themselves, but one of the things I really learned from this is, that is not the only heroic story about addiction. In prison, Holiday spent her time knitting, making whiskey from potato peelings, and taking care of a herd of damn dirty squealing pigs. One thing she didnt do was sing. Have something to tell us about this article? | Billy Holiday is likely the most celebrated female jazz singer in American history, yet substance abuse and addiction would plague her 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. This is hardly the first biopic to invent stuff when the real story is dramatic enough. 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). 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. 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