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SPEAKER_02: Hi, it's Jenny. We're currently gearing up for season three of Encyclopedia Womanica. In the meantime, we're mixing things up, bringing back some of our favorite episodes in many week-longish themes. Our current theme is storytellers. Stay tuned for a brand new season coming in September. Thanks for listening. This episode of Encyclopedia Womanica is brought to you by Care Of. If you've been listening, you've heard all about my Care Of journey. Started by me taking the Care Of online quiz to figure out what vitamins and supplements are right for me. And I've now been using all the Care Of products I received for about a month. I have to say, I highly recommend doing this for yourself. I've never been very good about taking my vitamins regularly. But because Care Ofs come in these nice packets, I find it really easy to take them every day and I really am feeling great. Care Ofs products are formulated with good for you, clean ingredients that are backed by science. They're super transparent about the research and sourcing behind every product, which is important to me. I wanna know what I'm putting in my body. Check it out for yourself. Go to takecareof.com and use the code ENCYCLOPEDIA for 50% off your first Care Of order. That's takecareof.com and use the code ENCYCLOPEDIA for 50% off, 5-0% off your order. Before we start today's episode, I wanna let you know that it contains mentions of sexual assault. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Today we're talking about one of the most iconic jazz singers in history. She led a short and difficult life filled with trial and tragedy. Though she had no formal musical training, she had a natural gift for jazz, musically and emotionally connecting with audiences. Let's talk about Billie Holiday. Eleonora Fagan was born in 1915 in Philadelphia to teenage parents, Clarence Holiday and Sadie Fagan. Soon after Eleonora's birth, Clarence left the family. He would go on to become a successful guitar and banjo player, but would be largely absent in Eleonora's life. Sadie and Eleonora moved to Baltimore to live with Sadie's older half-sister, Eva Miller, and Eva's mother-in-law, Martha. Eleonora would often be left with Martha as her mother and aunt worked jobs that took them out of the house for weeks at a time. Eleonora, meanwhile, began skipping school. At just nine years old, Eleonora was brought to court on truancy charges and was sent to the house of the Good Shepherd, a reform school. After nine months, Eleonora was paroled, but her homecoming was far from idyllic. Shortly after she returned home, she was sexually assaulted by a neighborhood man. Eleonora was taken back into state custody, this time for nearly two months. Upon her release, she dropped out of school at barely 12 years old. It was at this time that Eleonora, still a child, still recovering from trauma, and working as a house cleaner first heard records by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. In 1928, Sadie, Eleonora's mother, moved from Baltimore to Harlem. The next year, Eleonora joined her. Sadie began working as a prostitute for their landlady out of a brothel on 140th Street. By some accounts, Eleonora ran errands for the brothel. By others, Eleonora herself was a sex worker at barely 14 years old. Over the subsequent three years, Eleonora began developing her singing act, eventually landing a performance slot at a Harlem nightclub. Though she had no formal music training, Eleonora had an innate sense of musical structure and theory. Jazz and blues, genres whose song rely on a singer's well of pain and sadness, were a natural fit for Eleonora. Though just 17, she had already lived and survived a difficult life. She adopted the stage name Billy after Billy Dove, a favorite actress, and started using her biological father's last name. In 1933, Eleonora, now Billy, made her first recordings with Benny Goodman, a band leader known as the King of Swing. Two years later, she recorded again, this time with members of Count Basie's jazz orchestra. All of me, why not take all of me? These records launched Billy's career. Nicknamed Lady Day, she quickly became one of the most recognizable jazz singers of the era. And it wasn't just her voice, which floated and swooped and made every performance feel completely of that moment. It was Billy's performance style, with her signature white gardenias framing her face, which rendered even the simplest lyrics profound. In 1939, Billy began performing Strange Fruit, an anti-lynching ballad. It became an enduring protest song, despite her label's insistence that she not record it. SINGING Southern trees, there's strange fruit.
SPEAKER_02: Blood on the leaves, and blood at the root. But it also placed Billy on the radar of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which was determined to find the link between the jazz scene and drug use. In 1947, at the height of her career, Billy was arrested for drug possession. She later wrote, it was the United States of America versus Billy Holiday, and that's just the way it felt. Billy pleaded guilty and spent nearly a year at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. Though she was released early for good behavior, Billy's conviction had cost her her New York City cabaret card. Still, it didn't deter her fan base. Just 10 days after her release, Billy stepped on stage to a sold-out Carnegie Music Hall performance. SINGING Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.
SPEAKER_02: For the rest of her career, Billy was unable to perform at venues that sold alcohol. She performed instead at concert halls, on Broadway, on television, and toured across Europe. She kept recording, too, but her drug and alcohol abuse continued. She was arrested again for drug possession in 1949. By the early 1950s, her voice had started to fray. In 1956, Billy released an autobiography and an accompanying record, both titled Lady Sings the Blues. Lady sings the blues. She's got a bad feel. She feels so sad. Soon after, she performed at two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, one of which was recorded and released as an album in 1961. Gilbert Milstein, a New York Times writer, wrote the liner notes. He later said of the concert, I was very much moved. In the darkness, my face burned and my eyes. I recall only one thing. I smiled. In the summer of 1959, Billy was admitted to Metropolitan Hospital in New York, where she was diagnosed with both liver and heart disease. Billie Holiday died in 1959 from cirrhosis at just 44 years old. Days before, her room had been raided and she'd been arrested again for heroin possession. Police handcuffed her to her bed. Despite her brief career, Billy remains one of the most iconic jazz singers in history. In singing the truth to power and being unabashed and open with every single emotion she felt on stage, Billy brought an honesty to jazz that still resonates today. Lady still sings the blues.
SPEAKER_03: I'll be seeing you
SPEAKER_02: All month we're talking about musicians. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our Encyclopedia Wamanica newsletter, Wamanica Weekly. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram and Facebook and Instagram. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram and Instagram and Instagram. And you can follow me directly at Jenny M. Kaplan. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the United States of Women is honoring its complicated legacy with a week of action. While women won the right to vote in August of 1920, it's been a fighting for a century to make sure that includes all women. With Michelle Obama's When We All Vote, the United States of Women is hosting the When All Women Vote Week of Action. This week of virtual events and actions will examine the disenfranchisement of black and brown communities and will celebrate the women of color who've continued fighting to make the 19th Amendment's promise a reality. The United States of Women is calling on women like you to take action now by pledging to join the Week of Action and by standing in solidarity to ensure the full protection of voting rights for all women. Take the pledge now at bit.ly slash allwomenvote.
