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|
Stage Name |
Birth Name |
| Billie Holliday |
Eleanora Gogh McKay-Fagan |
Billie was a social Jitterbug dancer at the
Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, NY. She would later become a Blues singer
and actress. Billie's life was not a glamorous one growing up.
Her grandfather was the son of a slave on a plantation and the
daughter of a child mother of thirteen.
Billie was raised in a house of Prostitution
where poor morals, drinking and drugs were in abundance. While
dancing in nightclubs she learned she could sing. Benny Goodman
gave Billie her first break into the Business. Although very successful,
Billie's life was a troubled one. She was arrested in 1947 and
was jailed on drug charges and again in 1959 for a narcotic addiction,
she died the same year at only 44 years of age. She was one of
the true legends of the Blues.
|
Ballrooms
