Billie was born into a nomadic family. Her mother was ejected from Baltimore when she was only 19 years old to be with a man she fell in love with whom was hated by her family. As these things inevitably go the man left her mother and young Billie alone Philadelphia. Her mother not being able to take care of her daughter let her stay with a half-sister in Baltimore for a time. So its fitting that as I thought about doing a blog about Billie I found her ties to the city we just saw erupt in fire more was than ironic; it was comme il faut.
Billie Holiday was the real deal. She was the antithesis of the unfiltered gla-MOUR of Lena Horne and the more lived-in older sister of the coquettish sweet sultriness of the ingenue Dorothy Dandrige. Contemporary artist like Jill Scott, Erykah Badu and Amy Winehouse sing in her footsteps with the pain and truth of the love-lorn and addicted. Billie lived her life open and for every one to see. She was often abused by men and drugs and like Baltimore she crumbled and faltered. She was made an example of and mistreated. But when you heard those tones in her voice you knew she knew about the things she was singing about.
Voices and souls like hers are fleeting. Shining beacons that flare bright and burnout young. At the early age of 17 she had her own night club gig at Club Covan in Harlem. Within a year she had recorded her first two records with Benny Goodman no less. "Riffin' the Scotch" became her first big hit. Soon she was introduced to Louis Armstrong and by 1935 she had a small role as a woman being abused by her lover in Duke Ellington's short Symphony "Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life". In her scene, she sang the song "Saddest Tale". A poetic situation that would be all too true.
But like Baltimore, there was more to her than the glamorous ruin we remember from Diana Ross's masterful performance in Lady Sings the Blues. She was alive in all senses of the word. She was no stranger to scandal and those close to her said she relished the drama. Her list of lovers was long and notorious from the actor Charles Laughton to the director Orson Welles to the actress Tallulah Bankhead, their public falling out became the stuff of legend; There were rumors of others like Lester Young, Greta Garbo and Carmen McCrae. She was married twice but cheated on both. She was an avid animal lover (though she wore fur and lots of it) and would take her dogs everywhere. Even when she was arrested on narcotics charges. She was both funny and infuriating. She was complicated.
But whatever you think of Lady Day or Lady Baltimore from the few images of her singing with her iconic gardenia or the glimpse of the now iconic burning pharmacy. The one thing that is true is that neither of their stories has fully been written.
The Legend, The Icon, The Lady Day
Billie Holiday
I don't see you!
Billie Holiday at 20
Ms. Holiday kept few things hidden in her life
Styling and profiling for your nerves
After her narcotics arrest in 1956 with
her favorite companion
On the stage at Carnegie Hall, 1947
Ms. Holiday is not feeling the detectives
Jamming in a session
A tale of 2 Billies. Billie Holiday and
William Faulkner
The girl in the middle, darling. Notorious Harlem playboy Dickie Wells and Tallulah Bankhead
Buddy DeFranco, Red Norvo, Beryl Booker, Leonard Feather, Billie Holiday, Louis McKay, 1954
One last cigarette. A portrait by Dennis Stock, 1954.
Tempest in a turban, Duke Ellington, Ms. Holiday and critic, pianist and composer Leonard Feather
Billie and Ella, back together now
Riffin the Scotch
Cover Girl, 1949
I always thought that Charles Laughton was queer. It came as a surprise to see it written that he had an "affair" (usually means sex, no?) with Holiday, or any woman, though, for show, he was married to English actress Elsa Lanchester. Also, I'd never heard that Holiday went both ways--which seems the case if Tallulah Bankhead bedded with her....
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Orson Welles is no surprise. I hate him lol. He had Dolores del Rio, Rita Hayworth and, as I now learn, Billie Holiday.