Everyday Black History: Billie Holiday

From An Accident Comes a Legend

Billie Holiday ca. 1933

Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Baltimore on April 7, 1915, the illegitimate child of Sadie Fagan, a domestic and Clarence Holiday, a musician who abandoned Sadie and the young Eleanora for the grind and glory of the road. It is said that he referred to his adoring daughter as an “accident” and “something I stole when I was fifteen.” Young Eleanora stayed with relatives in Baltimore while her mother labored as a domestic in New York City.  The girl spent a good portion of her time at a neighborhood brothel where she would spend hours listening to the music of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong on its Victrola. After almost being raped at the tender age of 10, Eleanora was sent away to an institution ran by Catholic nuns as punishment for allegedly enticing the man who almost stole what little innocence she had. 

'Lady Day' ca. late 1930s

An Extraordinary Career Begins

When she was 18 in 1933, Eleanora Fagan became Billie Holiday and made her first recordings for Columbia Records.  John Hammond, the legendary record producer who first signed her said that Billie “sang popular songs in a manner that made them completely her own. She was absolutely beautiful . . . She was the best jazz singer I had ever heard.”  By the age of 15, Eleanora had joined her mother in New York. She worked first as a maid and then as a prostitute until meeting her natural calling as a singer in small Harlem nightclubs.

Strange Fruit

Billie worked with an impressive list of the most prominent musicians of her time, including Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Fletcher Henderson, Arte Shaw, Count Basie and good friend Lester Young, who gave her the nickname “Lady Day.” In 1935, Billie made her debut at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre, THE place for black entertainers and where she became one of its most popular attractions. In 1939, she recorded “Strange Fruit,”its title referring to lynched black bodies hanging from the limbs of trees.  Billie once said “There are a few songs I feel so much, I can’t stand to sing them, but that’s something else again.” Doubtless, “Strange Fruit” was one of those songs, but it was the one which solidified her career. According to Apollo Theatre owner Jack Schiffman, who objected to the song’s inclusion said that when she finished, “a moment of oppressively heavy silence followed, and then a kind of rustling sound I had never heard before. It was the sound of almost two thousand people sighing.”

The End of an Era

Billie Holiday ca. 1940s

The career of Lady Day was extraordinary -- there were amazing highs and tragic lows, all well-documented. In 1959, after addictions to both alcohol and drugs, Billie Holiday died of lung congestion and other ailments in New York’s Metropolitan Hospital. Billie's storied life was depicted on screen in Lady Sings the Blues, released in 1972 and starring Diana Ross, whose portrayal of ‘Lady Day’ won for the singer/actress both critical acclaim and a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Diana Ross as 'Lady Day'

Everyday Black History - Billy Dee Williams, Entertainment Legend

60 YEARS IN THE BUSINESS OF SHOW

Since his 1959 film debut in THE LAST ANGRY MAN, in which he 

played a headstrong kid from the ghetto, legendary actor Billy Dee Williams has racked up an impressive list of film, stage and television credits.  Billy Dee's mustachioed good looks makes it clear why he was frequently referred to as the "black Clark Gable." Despite the superficial comparison to the 1930s screen icon, Williams was the quintessential black romantic lead , whose onscreen charm is rooted in his vulnerability and the careful, almost tentative manner in which his characters approach romance, during a period in Hollywood when roles for black actors were less plentiful than in the years to follow. 

 

Billy Dee, the "Black Clark Gable"

 A December Both Cool and     HOT!!

Born William December Williams in Harlem on April 6, 1937, Billy Dee Williams began his long and prolific career as a child, appearing on stage in The Firebrand of Florence with German actress Lotte Lenya in 1947.  He studied acting at the High School of Music and Art in New York and later at The National Academy of Fine Arts.  The actor also studied briefly at the Harlem Actor's Workshop  under the expert tutelage of none other than the great Sidney Poitier.

The Sexy, Sensitive Seventies

Billy Dee & James Caan in Brian's Song

The 197os and 8os were fruitful for Billy Dee.  After starring with James Caan in  BRIAN'S SONG (1971), a made-for-TV tearjerker about the relationship between Chicago Bears football players Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo, Williams was signed by Motown’s Berry Gordy to a seven-year  contract.  Film credits he acquired while attached to the Motown film label include LADY SINGS THE BLUES (1972) and MAHOGANY (1975) in which he starred as romantic lead opposite Diana Ross.  Williams also starred in THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS & MOTOR KINGS (1976) and the made-for-television SCOTT JOPLIN (1977). 

Darth Vader, Lando Calrissian and a Stormtrooper in Ep. V

Status Sealed and Delivered

Williams' role as Lando Calrissian in Hollywood blockbusters STAR WARS: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) and EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI (1984) brought the actor the mainstream acclaim that sealed his status as a bona fide screen hero.  A romantic leading man par excellence, Billy Dee has also been a credible advertising pitchman, having appeared for five years beginning in 1986 as the celebrity face of Colt 45 Malt Liquor. In 2016, it was reported that the 78-year-old Williams would revive his role as spokesman for the venerable potable, once the most popular brand of malt liquor. 

Billy Dee Williams appearing on TMZ.com next to a Colt 45 can bearing his image