1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,440 Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:08,360 Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is 3 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:22,760 Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Billy Holliday 4 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: are insane. She was institutionalized for being raped. She ran 5 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 1: errands for call girls at just six years old, and 6 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 1: was later imprisoned for refusing to prostitute herself. She had 7 00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: a heroine hound that inconspicuously delivered packets of dope to 8 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: her front door. Her double crossing manager helped the FEDS 9 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: buster for narcotics anyway. She was a master of her 10 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: own sensuality, despite the trauma inflicted upon her as a 11 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: young girl. Billy Holiday grew up fast, but her voice 12 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:58,760 Speaker 1: was slow sweet. She sang jazz in a way that 13 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:03,000 Speaker 1: hung in the air that mesmerized millions of people. She 14 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: could bring a room to a hush or a roar 15 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 1: with a single syllable because Billie Holiday made great music. 16 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: Unlike that music I played for you at the top 17 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,399 Speaker 1: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a 18 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:21,920 Speaker 1: loop from my melotron called Shortcake Strut MK one. I 19 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,759 Speaker 1: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights 20 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: to Manyana is soon enough for Me by Peggy Lee 21 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of 22 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 1: sultry cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the 23 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: number one song in America on March twenty seventh, nineteen 24 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: forty eight, And that was the day Billie Holiday performed 25 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 1: to a sold out Carnegie Hall, proving that no prison sentence, 26 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: no betrayal, and no drug habit could keep her down. 27 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: On this episode call Girls heroin House Betrayal, bringing down 28 00:01:55,840 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: the house at Carnegie Hall in Billie Holiday, Jake Brennan 29 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:30,080 Speaker 1: and this is disgrace Land. Ten days out of prison. 30 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:35,160 Speaker 1: Nothing tasted as sweet and strange as this freedom on 31 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:40,520 Speaker 1: stage again lost in song, literal blood, sweat and tears. 32 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:44,080 Speaker 1: Blood from the hat pin she used to fasten her 33 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: trademark Ardenias to her hair, sweat from giving her all 34 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:53,920 Speaker 1: on stage, and tears of joy. Ten months in prison 35 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: and there was no telling whether she'd have a career 36 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,440 Speaker 1: at all afterward, never mind her rabbit and supportive audience, 37 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: just days removed from the shame of incarceration. The Carnegie 38 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 1: Hall concert wasn't her idea, It was the promoter's. He 39 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: must have known what he was talking about. Promoting was 40 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: his business. Singing and doing time was Billy Holliday's business. 41 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: Tickets moved like Harlem numbers runners quick. Billy Holiday's triumphant 42 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: return was barely announced before it sold out. Thirty five 43 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,800 Speaker 1: hundred capacity seats sold, including standing room only tickets which 44 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: extended to the actual stage. Come showtime, two thousand people 45 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: jammed Seventh Avenue and fifty seventh Street in hopes of 46 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:41,360 Speaker 1: finding their way in to see the woman they called 47 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: Lady Day. Billy hadn't sung a stitch in prison, not 48 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:49,920 Speaker 1: a known but you wouldn't know it from listening to 49 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:53,040 Speaker 1: her on stage at Carnegie Hall that night. She was 50 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: in possession of all her powers, commanding, sensual, sultry, the 51 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: most unique and experienced voice in the business. You listened 52 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: to Billie Holiday, and you knew the woman who owned 53 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: that voice had seen some things. It was sultry and sensual, yes, 54 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 1: and it was also experienced. Billy Holliday would rather have 55 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,040 Speaker 1: done without some of that experience. It was what led 56 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 1: her to this point tonight. She tried blocking it out. 57 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,279 Speaker 1: She dug into the field. She sang one of the 58 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 1: first songs she wrote, God Blessed the Child. The title 59 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: was only half of it. The whole phrase, God blessed 60 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 1: the child that's got his own hinted at the full story, 61 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:39,920 Speaker 1: and the full story started with this. As a child, 62 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: Billy Holliday didn't have much of her own anything, save 63 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:47,240 Speaker 1: for her mother's love. Her father, a working musician, split early. 64 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,279 Speaker 1: He left Billy for a life playing the banjo, but 65 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: he also left behind a shared love of music. Billy 66 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: had a fend for herself most days while her mother 67 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,800 Speaker 1: worked as a maid cleaning rich people's homes. In Baltimore's 68 00:04:59,839 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: Way neighborhoods, there was a man, a neighborhood man forty 69 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: and big, mister Dick. Billy was ten years old. Physically, 70 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: she had started developing early before most of the other 71 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:16,760 Speaker 1: young girls in her neighborhood. Mister Dick noticed. He told 72 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 1: Billy her mom had asked him and his wife to 73 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 1: watch Billy until her mom returned later that night, and 74 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: that Billy was supposed to go with the couple to 75 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,960 Speaker 1: their home down the street. Billy Holiday was ten years 76 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 1: old and innocent. She believed the two adults who then 77 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: brought Billy into their home, locked her in their bedroom, 78 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:39,919 Speaker 1: held her down, and proceeded to rape her. She screamed, 79 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 1: she scratched. She saw her mother and a policeman break 80 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: down mister Dick's door. That mister Dick was arrested. Billy 81 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: and her mom gave their statements at the station, and 82 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 1: incredibly young Billy Holiday, at age ten, a rape victim, 83 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: was thrown in jail. The cops didn't believe her. Look 84 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: at her, She must have enticed mister Dick. It couldn't 85 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: have been all his fault. Look at this girl, developed 86 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: beyond her years. Surely she deserved some of the blame 87 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:14,640 Speaker 1: as well. So went the incredibly ignorant and insensitive thinking 88 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:18,400 Speaker 1: from authorities at the time. Billy spent two nights in jail, 89 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:23,840 Speaker 1: then court, Mister Dick got five years in something approaching justice. 90 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,279 Speaker 1: Billy Holiday, on the other hand, got sent to Catholic 91 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:30,800 Speaker 1: girl's reform school. She needed to be sorted out, taught 92 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:34,080 Speaker 1: a lesson, broken of whatever wild spirit brought on this 93 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:37,960 Speaker 1: terrible incident, for it couldn't happen again. It was Billy 94 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: Holliday's first taste of institutional injustice, and it was horrifying. 95 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: The reform school was its own type of prison. The 96 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,599 Speaker 1: treatment of the young girls was barbaric. They were beaten, isolated, 97 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:56,200 Speaker 1: mentally abused, and inside the walls of the school, physical 98 00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:59,839 Speaker 1: abuse wasn't beyond the realm of possibility if Billy wasn't careful. 99 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:05,160 Speaker 1: In short, it was dangerous, danger around every corner, even 100 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: in the most seemingly innocent of places. On the playground, 101 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 1: Billy sat on a bench, kicking her shoes, watching one 102 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 1: of the other girls on a swing. The girl kept 103 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,200 Speaker 1: pushing it, pumping her legs and propelling herself higher and 104 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:23,080 Speaker 1: higher and higher, until she swung so high she was dead, 105 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: even on a line with the crossbar that the swing's 106 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: chain swung from. She pumped some more, higher, more higher still, 107 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: until the swing's chains broke from the crossbar and the 108 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: girl and the swing flew through the air. The girl 109 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: screamed in horror as Billy watched the girl fly high 110 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 1: over the school yard and what seemed like slow motion, 111 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: then over the yard's fence. The girl screamed the whole way. 112 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 1: She flew out of the yard into the yard next door, 113 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: and crashed down violently. The scream went dead, so too 114 00:07:54,440 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 1: did the girl. Her neck broken. She died instantly. Billy 115 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 1: saw most of it, heard at all something in her 116 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:06,600 Speaker 1: that day died a little too. It was traumatic, upsetting, 117 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: to say the least. She melted out to the mother Superior, 118 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: and for her punishment, they threw Billy in here, locked 119 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 1: in the front room of the reform school, with the 120 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,320 Speaker 1: body of the dead girl. It would be a day 121 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: or so before the morgue could make it out to 122 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: collect the body, and for tonight, anyway, ten year old 123 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:29,920 Speaker 1: Billy Holiday would be keeping the body company. Dead girls 124 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: don't make much noise, But every little sound within and 125 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: in earshot of that room, every spin of the overhead fan, 126 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 1: every creek in every floorboard of the house, every foundational shift, 127 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: every scurry from every road inside the old homes walls, 128 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:50,280 Speaker 1: the scattering cockroaches, every distant voice, every scuffle outside on 129 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: the sidewalk, every random car horn. All of it conspired 130 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,959 Speaker 1: to come together in a symphony of horror. That soundtracked 131 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: the living nightmare playing out in Billy's headed. The moment 132 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:05,480 Speaker 1: she screamed bloody murder, banged on the door, pleaded and cried, 133 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:09,319 Speaker 1: None of it mattered. All that went unheard, unnoticed, unattended 134 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 1: to young Billy Holliday might as well have been as 135 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:18,320 Speaker 1: dead as that girl. No one cared, not like they 136 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 1: did now. Anyway, Billy Holiday was somebody, a bold faced 137 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: person of note. The thousands of fans and attendance before 138 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:29,440 Speaker 1: her Carnegie Hall cared. Her fellow musicians cared, The press, 139 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: the reporters who wrote about not only her music but 140 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,040 Speaker 1: her legal troubles cared. And of course, just like they 141 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: did back when she was ten years old, the authorities 142 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:40,200 Speaker 1: cared in their own way. That is, except now it 143 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:43,079 Speaker 1: wasn't backward thinking local cops who had Billy Holiday on 144 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:46,680 Speaker 1: the brain. It was federal agents. And unlike the press 145 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 1: or the fans who obsessed over Billy's music, her records, 146 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:53,760 Speaker 1: her stunning on stage performances and appearances on screen, the 147 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: Feds cared about one thing, the same thing Billy cared about, 148 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 1: the thing that supplanted the music. Music was great. Sure, 149 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: music was the only thing that came close to restoring 150 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: that innocence, that innocence that was ripped away from Billy 151 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:13,040 Speaker 1: when she was raped and subsequently institutionalized for the first 152 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:16,560 Speaker 1: time as a ten year old, and music transported Billy 153 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: out of herself and into another place completely. It was sublime. 154 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:25,080 Speaker 1: But that was on stage, Off stage, Billy needed something 155 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:28,520 Speaker 1: else to transport her, to take her away, to free her, 156 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: to make up for that loss of innocence, and for 157 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:35,480 Speaker 1: Billy Holiday in nineteen forty eight, going as far back 158 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:38,439 Speaker 1: as her adult brain would take her, that one thing 159 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:41,679 Speaker 1: was indeed the thing that federal agents cared so much 160 00:10:41,679 --> 00:11:10,720 Speaker 1: about as well heroin. They were there in the audience 161 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:15,440 Speaker 1: that night, federal agents clocking Billy's new post prison moves 162 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:19,640 Speaker 1: as always, if she was high on stage, they couldn't tell. 163 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: Compared to themselves, every jazz musician seemed at least a 164 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 1: little high. The Feds didn't understand what made these junkie 165 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:32,320 Speaker 1: musicians tick, what made heroin so appealing. The drug wiped 166 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:35,120 Speaker 1: you out, rendered you unable to do anything except not 167 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:38,000 Speaker 1: out and vomit if it was good anyway, And then 168 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,839 Speaker 1: when the high were off, all you wanted was more, 169 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:44,080 Speaker 1: more drugged, more that high, and you spent nearly every 170 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,360 Speaker 1: waking moment chasing it, scheming for it, stealing for it, 171 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:50,679 Speaker 1: fucking over your friends and your family for it. Except 172 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,840 Speaker 1: Billie Holiday hadn't hit that sort of bottom yet. She 173 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:56,880 Speaker 1: wasn't fucking over anyone for heroin. Before prison, she was 174 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,400 Speaker 1: living large from fat paycheck to fat paycheck. Wasn't in 175 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:02,960 Speaker 1: the position of having to steal for her drugs. Quite 176 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:09,480 Speaker 1: the opposite. She was the one being worked over. On stage, 177 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:12,760 Speaker 1: she leaned into the effortless chill of my Man. The 178 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:17,160 Speaker 1: song cut Deep made her think of Joe. Like most men, 179 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:22,120 Speaker 1: Billy Holliday involved herself with Joe Glazer, her manager manipulated her. 180 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,160 Speaker 1: But unlike John Levy before him, or Lewis McKay after, 181 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:30,439 Speaker 1: Joe's con was more complicated. He wasn't after Billy's hard 182 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:32,559 Speaker 1: earned money that she generated as one of the country's 183 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: premier singing talents. Joe was up to something else, always 184 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:42,079 Speaker 1: up to something else. Joe also represented another artist, one 185 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:46,800 Speaker 1: of Billy's favorite artists, megastar of stage and screen, Louis Armstrong. 186 00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:49,720 Speaker 1: Armstrong was no doubt the bigger of the two artists 187 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: on Glazier's roster and definitely his priority. Billy felt this. 188 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:57,920 Speaker 1: She didn't like it, but she accepted it. Billy accepted 189 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:00,640 Speaker 1: a lot of things as far back as she could remember. 190 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:04,679 Speaker 1: She accepted the fact when she was thirteen years old 191 00:13:04,679 --> 00:13:06,280 Speaker 1: that if she were going to make any money, that 192 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,559 Speaker 1: there was unfortunately only one job available to her at 193 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: the time, the oldest profession in the world, prostitution. Billy 194 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:21,240 Speaker 1: Holliday was drawn to the whorehouse as a young child. 195 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:24,640 Speaker 1: It was a hub of activity in the neighborhood. Good 196 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 1: looking men coming and going at all hours, fancy cars 197 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,840 Speaker 1: pulling up and pulling out, off towards some other reality, 198 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:33,720 Speaker 1: far away from the grind of the Baltimore grime. Billy 199 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:36,880 Speaker 1: and her mom were struggling through. But more than the 200 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:40,439 Speaker 1: promise of something different, something else, there was the music. 201 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: The madam kept a big Victrola record player pumping around 202 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,200 Speaker 1: the clock, and out of its big horned speaker, the 203 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:50,600 Speaker 1: sounds of Bessie Smith and Billie Holliday's future colleague Louis 204 00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:55,320 Speaker 1: Armstrong filled the air. The music was infectious. It flowed 205 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:58,439 Speaker 1: through the whorehouse windows onto the street. It called out 206 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,800 Speaker 1: to Billie Holiday. The age of six, Billy was running 207 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:05,640 Speaker 1: errands for the madam, washing basins, putting out towels and soap. 208 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:08,480 Speaker 1: Billy didn't even want to get paid, She just wanted 209 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:11,000 Speaker 1: to be around the music. It knocked her out. It 210 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:13,760 Speaker 1: was jazz music, but Billy Holiday didn't know it at 211 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:15,800 Speaker 1: the time. She called it what everyone else in the 212 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:21,440 Speaker 1: neighborhood called it horrorhouse music. By the time Billy turned 213 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: thirteen and had relocated to Harlem from Baltimore with her mother, 214 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 1: she knew where the action was in her new neighborhood, 215 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,920 Speaker 1: the horrorhouse. Billy quickly found employment once again as an 216 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: errand girl, and then quickly elevating herself to working girl, 217 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: or to the status of what was commonly referred to 218 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:42,160 Speaker 1: at that time as twenty dollars girl, two regulars a week, 219 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:45,600 Speaker 1: white dudes twenty spots a pop five each to the Madam, 220 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:48,400 Speaker 1: and now, instead of doing laundry for other people as 221 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 1: her mother did, Billy at thirteen had housegirls who also 222 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:55,120 Speaker 1: worked for the madam doing her laundry. Billy vibed on 223 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: her suddenly flushed purse. The sex, however, scared the hell 224 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:02,000 Speaker 1: out of her. Two times a week with nice, polite 225 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,400 Speaker 1: white dudes running around behind the backs of their wives 226 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:08,280 Speaker 1: was one thing. In her autobiography, Billy told a story 227 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,360 Speaker 1: about a man she called mister Dick. She said she 228 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:14,120 Speaker 1: was still terrified from her experience with him a few 229 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:17,760 Speaker 1: years earlier, even though he was paying for it and 230 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: paying for well a fifty spot for Billy alone, he 231 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,640 Speaker 1: was way worse. He nearly put Billy in the hospital. 232 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,920 Speaker 1: She said she couldn't walk for two days. Her mother 233 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:30,720 Speaker 1: called the ambulance and the ambulance man gave Billy a 234 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:34,800 Speaker 1: crooked smile, But Billy remembered the rumors young black girls 235 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: in the late nineteen twenties being admitted into the hospital 236 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: for pneumonia and coming out sterile, having had their ovaries 237 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 1: involuntarily removed. No thank you, Billy told the ambulance man 238 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:49,800 Speaker 1: she wasn't going anywhere. She'd take the pain and heal 239 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:52,640 Speaker 1: on her own in her mother's home, and from then on, 240 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:55,880 Speaker 1: Billy wrote, she made a pack to herself that she'd 241 00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:59,520 Speaker 1: only take work from white guys. Now I realized that 242 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,240 Speaker 1: in Teeth twenty one that sounds a lot like a 243 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:05,320 Speaker 1: stereotype that we'd rather not talk about. But to understand 244 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:08,440 Speaker 1: Billy Holiday, you need to understand who she thought she 245 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,600 Speaker 1: was in that moment, because that's what she told a 246 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 1: neighborhood gangster named Big Blue Rainier. There was no way 247 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:18,560 Speaker 1: she was taking his trick, not for twenty, not for fifty, 248 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:21,600 Speaker 1: not for one hundred. But Big Blue didn't want to 249 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:24,480 Speaker 1: hear it. He had connections and he wasn't about to 250 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,960 Speaker 1: take this humiliation from a twenty dollars horror, so he 251 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:32,520 Speaker 1: had Billy arrested for prostitution because she wouldn't take his 252 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:36,440 Speaker 1: money to sleep with him. Incredibly, the hypocritic Fink move 253 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: worked and Billy, at fifteen years old, was sent off 254 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:47,760 Speaker 1: to Welfare Island. Welfare Island, New York City, nineteen twenty nine. Lunatics, 255 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:52,000 Speaker 1: the insane, the infirm, criminally bent, ill, fit for society, 256 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:54,640 Speaker 1: isolated off in the middle of the East River to 257 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: keep the Five Borrows safe. If real reform was actually 258 00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:01,280 Speaker 1: part of the plan, you couldn't hell from the facilities. 259 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:06,879 Speaker 1: Institutional drab bordering on horror, trash, filth, rats the size 260 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,199 Speaker 1: of housecats. Violence imbued into every nook and cranny of 261 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:15,560 Speaker 1: the island, Predatory guards, predatory inmates, predatory patients. Billy kept 262 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:17,760 Speaker 1: her head down, did her time, and when she was 263 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:20,959 Speaker 1: released four months later, she slid past the predatory pimps 264 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,119 Speaker 1: waiting for her and the rest of the recently freed 265 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:25,400 Speaker 1: young women who hit the shore in Manhattan to get 266 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:31,320 Speaker 1: back to their lives. Billy Holliday had other plans. Recently 267 00:17:31,359 --> 00:17:34,359 Speaker 1: released from incarceration as a teenager, it was clear to 268 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,879 Speaker 1: her that whrring wasn't the way, but maybe, just maybe, 269 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:44,679 Speaker 1: horror house music was. Billy jumped into her singing career 270 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: the only way she knew how. Headfirst, she started at 271 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:51,320 Speaker 1: Pods and Jerry's, an integrated club in Harlem where the 272 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:54,200 Speaker 1: gin flowed freely and the reef of smoke permanently hung 273 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 1: in the air. Crooning down on one hundred and thirty 274 00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,520 Speaker 1: third Street earned her eighteen dollars a week. She was 275 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,240 Speaker 1: sixty years old and already soaking in the speakeasy spotlight. 276 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:07,120 Speaker 1: As she branched out to Covin's in the Harlem Mahambra, 277 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: her social circle mushroomed, Count Basie and Arti Shah became fans. 278 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:15,880 Speaker 1: Better yet, it became her bandmates. She took the work 279 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:17,480 Speaker 1: where she could, even if it meant she had to 280 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:19,959 Speaker 1: walk through the kitchen to enter a venue, even if 281 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:21,840 Speaker 1: she had to sleep on the bus while touring with 282 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:25,199 Speaker 1: Arty's White Band, who slept in the White Motel. She 283 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:29,200 Speaker 1: endured it all. By nineteen thirty nine, she had signed 284 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: with Columbia Records, and they knew her potential, saw the 285 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,160 Speaker 1: way the crowds hung on her every low, lwed, syllable. 286 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:39,840 Speaker 1: Her voice mesmerized people. It lured people in, ensnared them, 287 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,920 Speaker 1: just like the way that cocaine and heroin had suddenly 288 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: ensnared her. Billie Holiday was on top, one of the 289 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: country's biggest stars. With that feeling didn't do enough. Billy 290 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:54,200 Speaker 1: needed more. Call it senses numbed, Call it stolen youth. 291 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:58,119 Speaker 1: Call it some twisted idea of freedom. Whatever it was, stardom, 292 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,119 Speaker 1: adoring fans, the rush of live for me, none of 293 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:05,959 Speaker 1: it did what getting high did liberated her. First it 294 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:10,840 Speaker 1: was reefer, then alcohol, cocaine, then heroin, then cocaine and 295 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 1: heroin at the same time. By the time Billy Holliday 296 00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:16,920 Speaker 1: was twenty five years old, getting high was a daily thing. 297 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:20,440 Speaker 1: Performing didn't matter. Billy could do the gig while stoned, 298 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,800 Speaker 1: and then after the gig she'd be some more. Billy 299 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,159 Speaker 1: Holliday's constitution was Depression era tough. There was no fucking 300 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: with her, but that meant she needed drugs regularly, and 301 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,240 Speaker 1: for a woman of her profile, that was no easy task. 302 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:39,679 Speaker 1: She knew she was being watched, cops, locals, feds whoever. 303 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,480 Speaker 1: She knew she was a potential prize scout a bold 304 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:44,880 Speaker 1: faced name, capable of putting a shine on the name 305 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: of the arresting officer in the papers. She couldn't be 306 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,119 Speaker 1: holding everyone who was too risky. She could be searched 307 00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: at any moment without cause. She was a black woman 308 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,680 Speaker 1: in a very white man's world at the time, so 309 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:04,640 Speaker 1: a plan was hatched. Mister Mister was Billy's dog, a boxer. 310 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:07,200 Speaker 1: Mister was smart, smarter than some of the men in 311 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: Billy's life, and definitely smarter than some of the drummers 312 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:14,639 Speaker 1: she'd known. Mister was capable, Mister was trained. Mister loved Billy. 313 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,360 Speaker 1: Mister was obedient. Mister was crooked as fucked. Mister got 314 00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:21,399 Speaker 1: recruited by Joe Guy. Joe Guy was recruited by Billy, 315 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:23,879 Speaker 1: first to blow a trumpet in her band, then to 316 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:26,520 Speaker 1: blow her away in the sack, then to run mister 317 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: for her. Joe Guy every day, every day, bought an 318 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:33,600 Speaker 1: ounce of heroin up on Eighth Avenue. Then he'd find mister, 319 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 1: give mister a treat. Mister would sit. Joe Guy would 320 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:41,119 Speaker 1: attach that ounce of heroin to Mister's caller inconspicuously. Next 321 00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:44,760 Speaker 1: time for mister's daily walk down Morningside Drive, over to 322 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:47,800 Speaker 1: the Braddock Hotel. With the Braddock sign in his sights, 323 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,440 Speaker 1: Mister would know what time it was time to see 324 00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: the man in the funny hat who operated the elevator 325 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,600 Speaker 1: for another treat. Mister would run around the back of 326 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:59,160 Speaker 1: the Braddock Joe guy his work gone would bounce, Mister 327 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 1: would scratch the the man and the funny hat would appear. 328 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,200 Speaker 1: Mister would follow him into the hotel and into the elevator. 329 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:07,360 Speaker 1: He'd go and have his new treat tossed to him 330 00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:11,320 Speaker 1: before the doors would close up. Then the doors would open, 331 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:15,200 Speaker 1: and that meant another treat, this tree from Billy, who'd 332 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:16,879 Speaker 1: be waiting for mister on the other side of the 333 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:19,640 Speaker 1: opening elevator doors on the top of the floor. Out 334 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 1: of the elevator and into Billy's arms. Mister would go first, 335 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,360 Speaker 1: He'd get his treat. Then he'd gets smothered with love 336 00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:28,920 Speaker 1: from his mistress. Then she'd detach the special package mister 337 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 1: had brought her. She'd sit, she'd shoot, she'd sail away wild. 338 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:42,920 Speaker 1: She was a star, a very high star. She descended 339 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:45,800 Speaker 1: from the rough and tumble streets of Baltimore, then Harlem, 340 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,080 Speaker 1: through reform school, whorehouses, welfare Island to the top of 341 00:21:49,119 --> 00:21:51,919 Speaker 1: the music game with a bad habit, but able to 342 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,199 Speaker 1: satiate that habit from a penthouse suite via a trained 343 00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:58,159 Speaker 1: canine who ran drugs for her on orders from a 344 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:03,920 Speaker 1: man who worked for her. Billy Holliday Stone Cold, Surreal. 345 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:15,440 Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this word word word. It 346 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 1: was time a time in the set everyone was always 347 00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:22,119 Speaker 1: waiting for would she or wouldn't she? Play it? That 348 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:29,879 Speaker 1: is Strange Fruit. The song became her trademark, its words 349 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,480 Speaker 1: written by Abel Merripol. Billy first performed it back in 350 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:37,160 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine at Cafe Society. It brought the house 351 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:39,480 Speaker 1: down then, and it would bring the house down now. 352 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:45,119 Speaker 1: Strange Fruit was loaded. It was Billy Holliday's most powerful weapon, 353 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:48,879 Speaker 1: more potent than her sexuality, and Billy loaded that weapon 354 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: every night with hard emotion. The sting of racism she 355 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 1: experienced daily, be it in prison, on the streets of 356 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,880 Speaker 1: New York, gone tour throughout the Jim Crow South, being 357 00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:02,800 Speaker 1: led in through the back doors of clubs she'd headline, 358 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,040 Speaker 1: forced to always pack a sandwich in her purse because 359 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:08,439 Speaker 1: you never knew when whichever restaurant you were forced to 360 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,639 Speaker 1: stop that wouldn't serve you. The countless trips into the 361 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,639 Speaker 1: woods on the side of the road as a woman 362 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 1: traveling in bands that were almost entirely made up of 363 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:22,600 Speaker 1: men to relieve yourself so humiliating. It's stun So too 364 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:25,000 Speaker 1: did the thought of her daddy in the wrong part 365 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:28,760 Speaker 1: of the country when his lung disorder worsened Dallas, Texas. 366 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:31,640 Speaker 1: They wouldn't see him at the white hospital, and by 367 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:33,919 Speaker 1: the time he found his way to the black hospital, 368 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,200 Speaker 1: it was too late. It was a Conner dead at 369 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:42,159 Speaker 1: thirty eight and entirely preventable. And then there was the 370 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 1: fear the lynchings. She knew how prevalent they still were, 371 00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:49,840 Speaker 1: so prevalent, in fact, that the NAACP's fight for anti 372 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,520 Speaker 1: lynching legislation was still going strong in nineteen thirty nine 373 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: and facing fierce resistance from Connerce. She knew how white 374 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,159 Speaker 1: men were still peddling postcards depicting lynchings like door to 375 00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:04,199 Speaker 1: door candy salesman. It sickened her almost as much as 376 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: it scared her. The song captured the outrage in the 377 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:13,280 Speaker 1: horror of seeing black bodies swinging from southern trees strange fruit. Indeed, 378 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:17,119 Speaker 1: Billy channeled every ounce of fear and disgust into her 379 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:20,920 Speaker 1: performance of Strange Fruit, and the audience loved it. Most 380 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: of them anyway. Some didn't want politics mixed up into 381 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,200 Speaker 1: their cosmopolitan knights on the town, but they were a minority. Oddly, 382 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:32,040 Speaker 1: Count Bassie was a part of this minority. Back when 383 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:35,040 Speaker 1: Billy was coming up and touring in Bassie's band, Bassi 384 00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 1: wouldn't let her perform the song. It was too political, 385 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 1: he reasoned, But Bassie was a bit backward. He doubled 386 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,320 Speaker 1: down on that. Mammy bullshit pleased the white crowd. Even incredibly, 387 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,520 Speaker 1: had Billy wear blackface because she was so light skinned, 388 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 1: and that fucked her up. That made it into the 389 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:56,320 Speaker 1: performance of Strange Fruit. To this day, Harry Ainslinger was 390 00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:00,359 Speaker 1: also part of the minority that didn't love Strange Fruit. Mishner, 391 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,560 Speaker 1: the Federal Bureau of Narcotics didn't want politics mixed up 392 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:07,359 Speaker 1: into anything social, least of all politics he didn't agree with, 393 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,560 Speaker 1: and that's exactly what he and his federal agents intended 394 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 1: on stopping. Strange Fruit was a protest song at a 395 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:18,320 Speaker 1: time when popular protest songs barely existed, not in the 396 00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:22,040 Speaker 1: mainstream anyway, of course, This was before Bob Dylan, before 397 00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,200 Speaker 1: Nina Simone, before Chuck d Shit. When it was performed, 398 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,479 Speaker 1: it was even before Woody Guthrie. What angered angzeing Are 399 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,200 Speaker 1: more was the fact that this particular song was being 400 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,920 Speaker 1: sung by a black junkie musician, and a popular one 401 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: at that. Except that's where the rub was. A Billie 402 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:42,640 Speaker 1: Holiday bust meant headlines. Headlines meant Harry got his name 403 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,480 Speaker 1: and maybe even his square mug in the papers. He 404 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:52,439 Speaker 1: saw an in Joe Glazer, Billy's manager. Joe also managed 405 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:56,679 Speaker 1: Louie Armstrong. Louis was a chronic reefer man, smoked twenty 406 00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,879 Speaker 1: four to seven, carried constantly. He was an easy target 407 00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:03,560 Speaker 1: and a massive name, almost too big to bust. Beloved 408 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:07,200 Speaker 1: in some ways too. Blacks and whites worshiped Louis Armstrong. 409 00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:10,439 Speaker 1: They'd come up with them, and not just cosmopolitan whites, 410 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:14,359 Speaker 1: Middle America whites as well. Louis was practically an institution 411 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,359 Speaker 1: busting and would bring on more headaches and was necessary. 412 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,800 Speaker 1: So Harry aimed lower to just a ring or two 413 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,919 Speaker 1: below the bullseye and set his sights on Joe Glazer's 414 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,399 Speaker 1: other client, Billy Holliday, a big enough name to carry 415 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: the bust on the wires, a small enough name to 416 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: avoid any long legal hassles or result in bad pr in. 417 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,760 Speaker 1: The genius move was he could leverage Louis Armstrong's rea 418 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 1: for madness against the manager of both Louis Armstrong and 419 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:44,200 Speaker 1: Billy Holliday, Joe Glazer. Give us the fucking girl, Joe, 420 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:48,119 Speaker 1: or we're taking Louis down. So went thinking, cooperate with 421 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,479 Speaker 1: us on busting Billy Holliday and we won't bust your 422 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:54,920 Speaker 1: bigger client, your cash cow, Louis Armstrong. Joe Glazer had 423 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,119 Speaker 1: no choice. He rationalized it as he was doing Billy 424 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,000 Speaker 1: a favor. It was the only way to get her 425 00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:02,680 Speaker 1: clean the bust, off of the stage and off to 426 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:09,000 Speaker 1: prison to get down with the cold Turkey Cortet, Philadelphia, 427 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:12,360 Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven. The plan was to bust Billy Holiday 428 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:16,320 Speaker 1: with the heroin. The heroin was in Billy's Cadillac two ounces, 429 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,159 Speaker 1: but the warrant was late waiting on the judge. The 430 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:23,040 Speaker 1: agents stowed someone tipped off Billy. Chauffeur tied a bounce 431 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:25,159 Speaker 1: out of the City of Brotherly Love Billy and co 432 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:28,640 Speaker 1: Va Moost. The agents freaked. There goes their target, There 433 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,679 Speaker 1: goes their heroin, there goes their headlines. They pulled their 434 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 1: pieces and fired off round after round. Billy ducked into 435 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,840 Speaker 1: the back seats. Bullets lodged into the passenger side door. 436 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,320 Speaker 1: The chauffeur gunned, The agents gave pursuit. The chauffeur ran 437 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,040 Speaker 1: back street to hot routs. The agents couldn't keep up 438 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: North to NYC into Harlem. Free for the night, Billy 439 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,240 Speaker 1: breathed a sigh of relief until she was busted. The 440 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:54,680 Speaker 1: next day. Billy pleaded guilty possession of narcotics. The judge 441 00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:56,639 Speaker 1: brought down the gavel. A year and a day in 442 00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:04,000 Speaker 1: Alderson Federal Correctional Facility, Billy did her time, she bounced, 443 00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:07,119 Speaker 1: and now ten days later she was back in the 444 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:32,440 Speaker 1: spotlight on stage, free, if for only a moment. Billy 445 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:36,040 Speaker 1: Holliday's Carnegie Hall concert, just ten days after being released 446 00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:41,200 Speaker 1: from prison, was a success. The headline screamed, Billy is back. 447 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: But her time in prison did have negative ramifications. For 448 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,480 Speaker 1: one thing, it resulted in the loss of her cabaret card, 449 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,720 Speaker 1: effectively the piece of bureaucratic paper that allowed her to 450 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:54,560 Speaker 1: perform in New York City. It was small time local 451 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,680 Speaker 1: politics bullshit, but it mattered. It meant Billy had a 452 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,400 Speaker 1: fine work out of town, which was easy, but still 453 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: not being able to work in town was humiliating. Billy's 454 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,640 Speaker 1: reputation followed her or wherever she went, so too did 455 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,960 Speaker 1: federal agents. Nothing changed, There was no presumption of rehabilitation, 456 00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:15,040 Speaker 1: and there was no real rehabilitation. Billy went back to 457 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,040 Speaker 1: performing and went back to getting high, this time in 458 00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: lockstep with her new man and manager, John Levy. He 459 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:24,160 Speaker 1: was married and had a kid, but that didn't seem 460 00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:26,440 Speaker 1: to stop him or Billy from taking up an affair. 461 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,320 Speaker 1: Levy managed Billy as well. Then There was no fine romance. 462 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,600 Speaker 1: It was piss and vinegar from the start, pretty much, 463 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: the two fought endlessly. Levy drank Levee scam side trim 464 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,600 Speaker 1: Levey ignored Billy's sire. Levy beat Billy. Levy pushed Billy 465 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,160 Speaker 1: back up on stage. Levey collected checks at the end 466 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,720 Speaker 1: of the night. Levy let Billy have just enough. Levy, 467 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: like Joe Laser before him, was an informant, but from 468 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,680 Speaker 1: way back the FED sponsored Levy. The Fed's let Levy 469 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:55,800 Speaker 1: be Levy in exchange for Boku finked her. Billy was 470 00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,480 Speaker 1: small time and attic, a user, not a trafficker, but 471 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,640 Speaker 1: she had that name that Levee kept and lights. Levy 472 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,640 Speaker 1: ratted his woman out. In San Francisco, Billy Holliday got 473 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 1: busted again, this time for smoking hop opium Levy van Moost. 474 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,320 Speaker 1: Billy got shrink jail, Billy got out. Billy got a 475 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,920 Speaker 1: new man, worse than the first, slightly better than less, 476 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,960 Speaker 1: Louis McKay. He may have been her husband, but he 477 00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:22,840 Speaker 1: managed Billy doped up and working, work, work, and more work. 478 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:28,560 Speaker 1: Billy's health deteriorated before everyone's eyes. Didn't matter. Those performance 479 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,080 Speaker 1: fees were large. Louis McKay knew how to get his 480 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:34,040 Speaker 1: girl to earn. Billy may have dodged the pimps coming 481 00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,800 Speaker 1: off of Welfare Island years ago, but she worked as 482 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,160 Speaker 1: hard or harder for the predatory men in her life 483 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,200 Speaker 1: ever since, even as of late in her mid forties. 484 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:45,280 Speaker 1: At least horrors get to retire after a while, and 485 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:51,000 Speaker 1: there was no retiring for Billie Holiday. Just work, tours, sessions, press, repeat. 486 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:56,920 Speaker 1: Through it all, she somehow remained irrelevant and impactful artist, 487 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 1: appearing numerous times on television Steve Allen, Mike Wallace, art Ford. 488 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:04,280 Speaker 1: Even with that old pain in the ass count Basie. 489 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 1: Billie Holliday's trademark sensual performance style was now perforated with 490 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,480 Speaker 1: hard earned experience. You can see it on screen and 491 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:16,160 Speaker 1: hear it on record. Billy's last recordings are some of 492 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:20,480 Speaker 1: her best, particularly nineteen fifty eight's All or Nothing at All. 493 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,720 Speaker 1: You can still hear in Billy's recorded performance that movement, 494 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: that freedom, that dizzying high effect. Her voice was capable 495 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,720 Speaker 1: of conjuring whether or not she felt that freedom. That 496 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,880 Speaker 1: feeling she felt on stage when things were really clicking 497 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,720 Speaker 1: POD's and Jerry's back, when she was getting her start 498 00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:43,200 Speaker 1: Carnegie Hall after prison, was something that only she knew. Regardless, 499 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,840 Speaker 1: she kept using drugs, kept searching for that feeling, that 500 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:51,120 Speaker 1: freedom in the needle, And it was no secret. America 501 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,800 Speaker 1: was wise, and America was watching and listening to see 502 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:57,720 Speaker 1: if their junkie pop songstress would nod out right there 503 00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,280 Speaker 1: in front of them on screen and on record. It 504 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:03,400 Speaker 1: was a slow moving train wreck, the Billie Holiday story. 505 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:06,120 Speaker 1: Everyone knew how it was going to end, and they 506 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 1: knew it was going to end soon, but no one 507 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:15,040 Speaker 1: knew it was going to end like this. May thirty first, 508 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:19,360 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine, Billy Holiday's few remaining close friends checked 509 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:23,200 Speaker 1: her into New York's Metropolitan Hospital. Billy was forty four 510 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,640 Speaker 1: years old and in bad shape cirrhosis of the liver. 511 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,680 Speaker 1: She'd lost twenty pounds in much of her strength. Billy 512 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,960 Speaker 1: wasn't going anywhere. The doctors knew it. This was the 513 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,600 Speaker 1: short coda before the stage exit. There'd be no encore. 514 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,960 Speaker 1: Death was thick in that hospital air, but that didn't 515 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,640 Speaker 1: stop g Man Narco Fucko Henry j Anslinger. As long 516 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,800 Speaker 1: as Billie Holiday was above ground, Billy Holliday was a threat. 517 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:54,000 Speaker 1: Ainsinger hadn't forgotten strange fruit protest music from a black entertainer, 518 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:58,040 Speaker 1: a black female entertainer. Ainslinger was never going to let 519 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,320 Speaker 1: it go. The stakes for him were too high. He 520 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:05,200 Speaker 1: had an entire nation social order to maintain. Everyone had 521 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,040 Speaker 1: their place from Ainslinger's point of view, and Billie Holiday 522 00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,480 Speaker 1: clearly didn't know hers or her people. So judgment was 523 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:16,120 Speaker 1: swift and punishment a must. Ainsinger thought of Psalm seven 524 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:19,000 Speaker 1: to eleven. God is an honest judge. He is angry 525 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:23,120 Speaker 1: with the wicked every day. Simple true, but that passage 526 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:27,000 Speaker 1: didn't jazz. Ainsinger's eyre complete. He pulled from his memory 527 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:32,200 Speaker 1: Timothy three one dash five. But understand this that in 528 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:35,600 Speaker 1: the last days there will come times of difficulty, for 529 00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:45,720 Speaker 1: people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, 530 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:50,920 Speaker 1: without self control, brutal, treacherous, swollen with conceit, lovers of 531 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: pleasure rather than lovers of God. Avoid such people. Henry 532 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,920 Speaker 1: Ainslinger did the opposite. He didn't avoid avoid such people, 533 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:05,400 Speaker 1: people like Billy Holliday. He confronted and crushed such people 534 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:10,080 Speaker 1: so that America could avoid such people. Junkie jazz musicians 535 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,239 Speaker 1: were a scourge. That was the Fed mantra, especially those 536 00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:17,040 Speaker 1: with high minded ideas about equality. Billy Holiday, with her 537 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,279 Speaker 1: fur coats, her cadillacs, her heroine and her protest song, 538 00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:24,560 Speaker 1: Who did she think she was? Ainslinger knew who she was. 539 00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:27,479 Speaker 1: Uncle Sam knew who she was, and sure as shit, 540 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:32,200 Speaker 1: God knew who Billy Holliday was. As she lay dying 541 00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,640 Speaker 1: in her hospital bed, Henry Ainslinger and his federal agent 542 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,920 Speaker 1: stormed into her hospital room and arrested Billy Holliday her 543 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:43,640 Speaker 1: possession of illegal narcotics heroin. Her new arraignment would be 544 00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:48,000 Speaker 1: in a few weeks. Billy Holiday died before being judged 545 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:54,000 Speaker 1: one more time in her hospital bed, handcuffed offstage on drugs. 546 00:34:54,520 --> 00:35:00,800 Speaker 1: The opposite of free. So incredibly sad, Such a disgrace. 547 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this this Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created 548 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,320 Speaker 1: by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. 549 00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,839 Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show 550 00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:37,640 Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as 551 00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:40,960 Speaker 1: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. 552 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:43,759 Speaker 1: We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become 553 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:47,200 Speaker 1: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com 554 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:51,560 Speaker 1: slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland 555 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:55,560 Speaker 1: ad free, Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode 556 00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:59,800 Speaker 1: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episode, special audio collections, and 557 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:04,760 Speaker 1: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgrayslampod dot com 558 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,960 Speaker 1: slash membership for details, rate and review the show, and 559 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,840 Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram. TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at Disgrace Slampod, 560 00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:16,840 Speaker 1: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at Disgraceslampod, 561 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:21,680 Speaker 1: Rock a Roller. He's the bed don Man.