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Promo Photo of Holliday in New Orleans

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. Holiday joined Count Basiein 1937 and Artie Shawin 1938, becoming one of the first black singers to be featured with a white orchestra.

   - Although very successful, Billies 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.

Birth Place

Birth Date

Spouse

Offspring

Baltimore, MA 4/7/1915 - 7/17/1959 n/a n/a
 

Dance Types

Dance Partners

Music Titles

Jitterbug n/a Strange Fruit
            Gloomy Sunday (1941)
            Fine and Mellow (1939)
            $ CD - Best of Lady Day
            $ Billie Holiday Complete Columbia Set
            $ Billie Holiday Complete Decca Set
            $ Billie Holiday Complete Verve Set
 

Night Clubs

Theaters

Stage

Monette's (Harlem) ANTA Playhouse (1976) 1948 - Holiday on Broadway
Pods' and Jerry's Mansfield Theatre (1948) 1976 - Bubbling Brown Sugar
Savoy Ballroom (NY)            
 

Films

Television

Publications

1935 - Symphony in Black * n/a 1972 - Lady Sings The Blues (Bio)
$1946 - New Orleans [DVD]            
$1957 - Sound Of Jazz            
1962 - Eva (Singer)            
1986 - Monterey Jazz: 40 years [DVD]            
$1987 - Tribute to Charlie Parker            
$1989 - Lady Sings The Blues [DVD]            
$1991 - Many Faces of Billie [DVD]            
1992 - Lester Young & Billie Holiday            
$1997 - Paramount Musical Shorts 3 *            
Presenting Billie Holiday [DVD]            
             
NOTE:
May 20, 2003
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