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Billie Holiday, 1915-1959: The Lady Sang the Blues |
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She was one of the greatest jazz singers in America. Transcript
of radio broadcast: |
VOICE
ONE:
I'm
Shirley Griffith.
VOICE
TWO:
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Billie
Holiday |
And I'm
Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.
Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United
States. This week, we tell about Billie Holiday. She was one of the
greatest jazz singers in America.
(MUSIC:
"God Bless the Child")
VOICE
ONE:
That
was Billie Holiday singing one of her famous songs. She and Arthur Herzog
wrote it. Billie Holiday's life was a mixture of success and
tragedy. Her singing expressed her experiences
and her feelings.
VOICE
TWO:
Billie
Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in nineteen fifteen in Baltimore,
Maryland. Her parents were Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday. They
were young when their daughter was born. Their marriage failed because
Clarence Holiday was not at home much. He traveled as a musician with
some of the earliest jazz bands.
Sadie
Fagan cleaned people's houses. But she could not support her family on
the money she earned. So she moved to New York City where the pay was
higher. She left her daughter in Baltimore with members of her family.
VOICE
ONE:
The
young girl Eleanora Fagan changed her name to Billie, because she liked a movie
star, Billie Dove. Billie Holiday loved to sing. She sang and
listened to music whenever she could. One place near her home had a
machine that played records. The building was a brothel where women who
were prostitutes had sex with men for money.
Billie
cleaned floors and did other jobs for the prostitutes so she could listen to
the records. It was there that young Billie first heard the records of famous black American blues artists of the
nineteen twenties. She heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. And she
heard Louis Armstrong play the horn. Both musicians had a great influence
on her.
VOICE
TWO:
Billie
Holiday once said: "I do not think I'm singing. I feel like I am
playing a horn. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight
singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That is
all I know."
Here is
Billie Holiday singing a popular song of the Nineteen
thirties, "More Than You Know."
(MUSIC)
VOICE
ONE:
Billie
Holiday had a tragic childhood. When she was ten, a man sexually attacked
her. She was accused of causing the man to attack her and sent to a
prison for children.
In
nineteen twenty-seven, Billie joined her mother in Harlem, the area of New York
City where African-Americans lived. Billie's mother mistakenly sent her
to live in a brothel. Billie became a prostitute at the age of
thirteen. One day, she refused the sexual demands of a man. She was
arrested and spent four months in prison.
VOICE
TWO:
Two
years later, Billie's mother became sick and could not work.
Fifteen-year-old Billie tried to find a job. Finally, she was given a job
singing at a place in Harlem where people went at night to drink alcohol and
listen to music.
For the
next seventeen years, Holiday was one of the most popular nightclub singers in
New York. She always wore a long white evening dress. And she wore
large white flowers in her black hair. She called herself "Lady
Day."
VOICE
ONE:
In the
early nineteen thirties, a music producer, John Hammond, heard Billie Holiday
sing in a nightclub. He called her the best jazz singer he had ever
heard. He brought famous people to hear her sing.
Hammond
produced Holiday's first records. He got the best jazz musicians to play.
They included Benny Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Ben Webster on saxophone.
They recorded many famous songs with Billie Holiday. "I Wished on the
Moon" is one of them.
(MUSIC)
VOICE
TWO:
In the
late nineteen thirties, Billy Holiday sang with Artie Shaw's band as it
traveled around the United States. She was one of the first black singers
to perform with a white band. But racial separation laws in America made
travel difficult for her.
During
this time, a new nightclub opened in the area of New York called Greenwich
Village. It was the first club that had both black and white
performers. And it welcomed both black and white people to hear the
performers. The nightclub was called Cafe Society.
It was
here that Billy Holiday first sang a song called "Strange
Fruit." A school teacher named Lewis Allan had written it for
her. The song was about injustice and oppression of black people in the
southern part of the United States. It told about how mobs of white men
had killed black men by hanging them from trees.
Many
people objected to the song. It was unlike any other popular song.
But it was a huge hit. Here is Billie Holiday singing "Strange
Fruit."
(MUSIC)
VOICE
ONE:
In the
nineteen forties, Holiday started using the illegal drug heroin. Soon her
body needed more and more of the drug. It began to affect her health.
In
nineteen forty-seven, Billie Holiday was arrested for possessing illegal
drugs. She was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison.
When she was released, New York City officials refused to give her a document
that permitted her to work in any place that served alcoholic drinks.
This meant Holiday no longer could sing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. She
could sing only in theaters and concert halls.
Ten
days after her release from jail, she performed at New York's famous Carnegie
Hall. People filled the place to hear her sing. This is one of the
songs she sang at that concert. It is called "I Cover the
Waterfront."
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
In
nineteen fifty-six, Billie Holiday wrote a book about her life. The book
was called “Lady Sings the Blues.” A friend at the New York Post
newspaper, William Dufty, helped her write the book. A few months later,
she was arrested again for possessing illegal drugs. But instead of going
to prison, she was permitted to seek treatment to end her dependence on
drugs. The treatment was successful.
That
same year, she performed her second concert at Carnegie Hall. Here is one
of the songs Holiday sang that night. It is called "Lady Sings the
Blues." She and Herbie Nichols wrote it.
(MUSIC:
"Lady Sings the Blues")
VOICE
ONE:
Billy
Holiday's health was ruined by using illegal drugs and by drinking too much
alcohol. Her last performance was in nineteen fifty-nine. She had
to be led off the stage after singing two songs. She died that
year. She was only forty-four. But Lady Day lives on through her
recordings that continue to influence the best jazz singers.
(THEME)
VOICE
TWO:
This
Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced
by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE
ONE:
And I'm
Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE
IN AMERICA program on VOA.