Hulus Oscar-nominated The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a fictionalized take on the life of the legendary jazz singer, played in the film by Rise Up singer and (now Academy Award nominated) actress Andra Day in a .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}Golden Globe-nominated performance. Billie Holiday has become a mythic presence in absentia. When she was ten years old, she was raped by an adult neighbor. Meeropol later set the poem to music, and the resulting song found its way to Holiday. Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Her big break came whenproducer John Hammonddiscovered her singing in one of those clubs. They don't say, Oh my God, there's a 15-year-old girl here. I want to sing the damn song, all right? A damn woman let out a scream. She was nicknamed Lady Day. Everybody hollered at me that the bus had swerved and made me shoot it over. Im a jailbird. Dont you say that! she exclaimed. My boxer dog Mister was in the back seat whimpering, scared. While its widely known that Coca-Cola used to contain actual cocaine, that wasnt the only place you could find now-illegal drugs. [It's about a] Black American woman living in America who's been in love with her country her whole life. Twenty years ago when I was in 'Dreamgirls,' I was always a joke because I was huge. He later set his words to music and played the song for a New York nightclub owner, who then passed it on to Holiday. Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, and grew up in Baltimore. 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. Others panicked, began to holler for the police to protect them; there were screams that a mad dog attacked a woman. Say, who needs you, needs you every minute? But having Billie leave her band stranded down South in the middle of a tour is a low blow. The legends singing stuck with Day because her songs were rooted in truth.. 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. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. I was filthy dirty and had holes in the knees of my stockings, but I had sixteen hundred bucks and some change. Drugs became racialized, with cocaine coded as being associated with Black Americans, opioids with Chinese immigrants, and marijuana with Mexican immigrants. Take a bath, man, I said, dont explain.. Billie decided to give love a second chance and got married to Jimmy Monroe. Federal authorities first targeted her shortly after she began singing the song. You don't have to take three guesses. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now. Several people found out more about her personal life after she released the book Lady Sings The Blues. In it, Billie had detailed how hard her life had been and the struggles she had to overcome to achieve success. Well, I didn't break the chair; it was just really wobbly. In real life, Anslinger served as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a predecessor to the Drug Enforcement Administration, from 1930 to 1962. Across the pond, the pharmacist for Queen Victoria, the global paragon of propriety, prescribed the royal family cocaine and heroin. Despite the fact that Sensational Lady and Billie assert that an adult man raped Holiday when she was 10, and that she began performing sex work with her mother when she was 13, few if any of the subjects interviewed appear to recognize how such experiences could perpetually reverberate through a persons life, or affect her You've heard those lyrics. All dope can do for you is kill youand kill you the long slow hard way. What you looking at him for? 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. In the Broadway musical production of "Your Arms Too Short To Box With God", her performance earned her a 1981 Drama Desk nomination. At 10, Billie was But Holidays world was shattered at the age of 10 when a man she calls Mr. Dick attempted to rape her. Politico reported that after one run-in following the first raid, Fletcher and Holiday "talked for hours"; they even danced together at Club Ebony. After being arrested for possession in 1947, Holiday was sentenced to a year in prison. Slate is published by The Slate The United States vs. Billie Holiday focuses on the later period of the legendary jazz singers career up until her death in 1959and the U.S. governments relentless persecution of her throughout that time. 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. Things had happened to me that no amount of time could change or heal, she writes. Holiday returned the favor, choosing to rename him "Pres" (or "Prez" depending on the source). Holiday's song, "Strange Fruit," is a central point of the film. And like the Diana Ross movie, this one invents a good and loving man who faithfully stands by her. This is true to Anslingers biography. The United States vs. Billie Holiday depicts the FBI chasing Holiday for her drug use and locking her away on narcotics charges as a roundabout way to suppress her musical activism. All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors. She was previously married to Rev. In the 1990s, Holliday lost a substantial amount of weight and talked about her health battles with clinical depression. A previous headline misspelled Billie Holiday's last name as Holliday. She started performing it at Caf Society, an integrated nightclub in New York. 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.). It is around this time that we see Fletcher start to court Holiday romantically, including by showing up at the funeral for her chihuahua Chiquitawho was in fact one of Billies beloved dogs, but who did not die in 1947. She died addicted. 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. By the early 1940s she was hooked on heroin. He reviewed "The United States Vs. Billie Holiday," which premieres on Hulu today. A brilliant, generous, hard-partying artist, Holiday loved nothing more than the camaraderie of epic jam sessions with peers like Harry James, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington. Trouble is a thing Ive learned to smell, Holiday writes. Her great talent, however, was later diminished by bad relationships and alcohol and drug abuse. 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. Shes also one of our great actorsand is at last getting her showcase. He's one in a line of her abusive mates. Man, this is powerful stuff, I said. If someone had dropped a pin, it would have sounded like a bomb. Meanwhile, even after successfully prosecuting her the first time, the authorities weren't done with Holiday. There were high-profile incidents, such as the 1933 axe murder of the Licata family by their 21-year-old son, Victor. Up came eleven. Over the next decade, Holiday continued drinking heavily, smoking, and abusing heroin. Though Andra Day plays the jazz legend with conviction, The United States vs. Billie Holiday fictionalizes the particulars of Holiday's life, where the real story is dramatic enough. 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. Based on a poem written by Lewis Allen, the private, painful meaning of the song never left her. While she lay dying, a by-then retired Fletcher attempted to visit Holiday in the hospital. Holiday even appeared in a film with Duke Ellington. For almost two years I didnt see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, Holiday writes of her time touring with the famous orchestra. Very little is documented of Fletchers life in particular outside his legal entanglements with Holiday, so it is difficult to verify details about him. 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. Most federal agents are nice people. She was first married to Joe Guy. 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. Send me updates about Slate special offers. When she was ten years old, she was raped by an adult neighbor. HOLIDAY: (Singing) Who loves you? Even his wife is a Holiday fan. She took enough of it to know, she 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. He learned of Anslinger's 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. It was her first husband, trombonist Jimmy Monroe, who introduced Holiday to Opium in 1941, according to Jazzwise. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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. Whether the two had such a long affair, however, is impossible to verify. Or the word love, Holiday wrote of her life experiences. The singer managed to become a well-known name in the 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 Scarred by Vaughans reception, Holiday hid in the back of the Strand Theater watching Lena Horne rehearse. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. In an effort to avoid regaining the weight, Holliday had gastric bypass surgery. Singer Billie Holiday became a trending topic after the release of The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Heres a look at if she had any children as her personal life before death is explored. So as a popular protest song, "Strange Fruit" helped galvanize an anti-lynching movement across the country. DAVIES: Billie Holiday in 1956, revisiting her signature song "Strange Fruit," whose lyrics depict a lynching. As a child, she even took a job doing chores and running errands for a local madam in exchange for a chance to play records on the madam's Victrola. The best of movies, TV, books, music, and more, delivered to your inbox three times a week. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. When I finished, everybody in the joint was crying in their beer. She was fingerprinted, interrogated, and had a booking photo taken in her hospital bed with no attorney present, according to what Hari told WNYC. | There is, however, one curious part of the sequence that rings true to life: a mention of Orson Welles waiting at the club for Holiday. Many factors contributed to the shift from societally sanctioned drug use to just say no culture. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. | 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 2023 hulu The United States vs. Billie Holiday Watch Now What really did her in was when her abusive husband, Louis McKay, got involved. ", 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." In the film's 1940s, Anslinger instructs African American narcotics agent Jimmy Fletcher, played by "Moonlight's" Trevante Rhodes, to cozy up to her. 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. It sold more than a million copies and rose to number 16 on the charts. I didnt listen or stop for nothing. 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. The song's lyrics came from a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher and social activist. She earned a Doctor of Music Degree from the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She wrote the lyrics for her much-beloved work "God Bless the Child" after a fight with her mother about money, according to Holiday's autobiography. 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). The United States vs. Billie Holiday According to Holiday herself, she really was forced off the stage after singing Strange Fruit at Philadelphias Earle Theater in 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. 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. People pay good money to come here and hear me sing it. 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?. However, she had two godchildren who she cared about deeply. .css-o05pt{display:block;font-family:Didot,Didot-fallback,Georgia,Times,serif;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0rem;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;text-shadow:0 0 0 #000,0 0 0.01em transparent;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-o05pt:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-o05pt{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.25rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-o05pt{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-o05pt{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-o05pt{font-size:1.39461rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}The Weeknd's 'The Idol' to Premiere in 2023, Elijah Wood on What Walter and Misty Will Dig Up, See the First Looks of 'Wicked's Elphaba & Glinda, 'And Just Like That' Season 2 Wraps Filming, List of Yellowjackets Season 2 Fan Theories. And I expected shed be glad to see me. This should never have happened to you. They sent her to prison. She would later endure relationships with abusive men, and became addicted to alcohol and heroin. She continued to play and record music, with much of her money going to support her drug habit and that of her husband. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Columbia, her record label at the time, didn't want her to record the song at first because of its controversial subject matter. The pair became friends in the mid-1930s and later toured together with Count Basie. Baby, darling, why, oh why didnt you come backstage to see me? Honey, dont you know? I told her. 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. Still, he stayed true to his job. I saw the lipstick. While at the hall, someone yells for her to sing Strange Fruit, which she says she cant do. This is true: A bill was introduced in the chamber early that year but was filibustered out of further consideration, although a version of the bill would be passed by the House in the spring. Most artists belong to their times, but Billie Holiday, born 100 years ago Tuesday, fits in the present. 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. "Even after I lost weight, I was still the same person. But her dog, Mister, had other plans. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. "Billie Holiday's styling fulfilled the bitterness and the shocking quality I had hoped the song would have," Meeropol said, according to The Guardian. All rights reserved. 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. 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