Billie Holiday began her career during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This was a time of widespread hardship and unemployment in the United States, especially for African Americans. By 1935, unemployment had reached 25% nationally and 33% among African Americans in New York City. It was against this backdrop of economic struggle that Holiday launched her career as a jazz singer, going on to record songs that addressed issues of racism like "Strange Fruit." Despite the difficulties of the era, Holiday's talent allowed her to find success as an entertainer.

2. The Great Depression
Billie Holiday’s World.
Billie Holiday began her career in jazz as the jazz age was coming to a close. Instead her early
career took place during the Great Depression. It was a time of great hardship for people worldwide. The first
widely acknowledged indicator in the US would be the stock market crash of 1929, known as Black Tuesday. By
1935 the US had reach 25% unemployment. At the same time the Midwestern United States was being hit
with a devastating period of drought and erosion that has become to be known as the Dust Bowl. The
Midwest was facing dust storms so great they could turn the sky black.
Billie Holiday would have been working in Harlem jazz clubs at the time. African American’s in
major cities were particularly hard hit by the growing unemployment. While the national average was at
25%, African American’s in New York were facing a 33% unemployment rate. This gross disparity led to growth
of many grass roots political movements, including a campaign urging Harlemites to “Don’t Buy Where You
Can’t Work.” These grass roots movements along with tightening voter margins between Republicans and
Democrats made African American community a needed constituent group for New York politicians.
(Greenberg)
It was a time when people had to choose not between their wants, but between their needs. A
time where disposable income for entertainment was slim to none, Billie Holiday was so talented that she
managed to become a hit entertainer.

6. Strange Time For Strange Fruit
• Strange Fruit was the first song to speak of
racism or lynching.
• Recorded in 1939 (1.)
• Inspired by photo of a lynching
• Strange Fruit raised social and political
conscious about racism though it never
actually mentions lynching
• In 1999, Billboard named Strange Fruit “Song
of the Century”

8. The Early Years
Billie Holiday: An Artists Struggle.
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia on April 7th 1915. Eleanora had a troubled
childhood. She was born to unwed parents Sarah Fagan and Clarence Holiday. Sarah, 19 at the time, was
ejected from her parent’s home for her out of wedlock pregnancy and having no where to else to go, she sent
her daughter to live with her half sister while she took jobs working on passenger trains.
With the exception of her mother’s brief marriage, Eleanora was left with her aunt until the age
9, when after being brought to juvenile court for truancy, she sent to The House of the Good Shepherd, a
reform school, where she stayed for nine months before being released into her mother’s custody. She began
working long hours in her mothers restaurant, and by age 11 had dropped out of school. A year later Holiday
was attacked and raped by a neighbor and placed back at The House of the Good Shepherd, this time for
protective custody. She was released three months later.
Eleanora’s mother then moved to Harlem where she to took work as a prostitute. Before too
long, Eleanora, thirteen at the time, began working as prostitute as well. She was arrested and sent to prison
in May of 1929. She was released in October of 1920 she was released. At the age of fourteen, having
shouldered a life that would crush most adults, she took the name Billie Holiday and started her musical
career. (Stuart)

9. Billie’s great grandmother was a slave on a Virginia plantation and had
16 children by her white, Irish plantation owner Charles Fagan. Billie’s
grandfather was named after him.
When Billie lived on S. Durham Street (first at 217 and then at 219), her
family was the first in the neighborhood to have gas and electricity. It made the
neighbors mad when the gas pipes were installed as it brought out the rats.
Her mother wanted to start her own restaurant and Billie gave her
money. The restaurant was called Mom Holiday’s and was on 99th Street in New
York. On many occasions she asked Billie for money since it wasn’t doing well.
One time Billie needed money and asked her mother for some but her mother
wouldn’t give her a dime. Billie said “God bless the child that’s got his own” and
walked out. A few weeks later, she co-wrote the lyrics for that song, which soon
became a big hit. The song reached number 25 on the charts in 1941. In 1976 it
was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Little Known Facts

10. Discussion of Billie Holiday’s Work
Billie Holiday was an extremely influential artist, performing Jazz and Blues to many a happy listener. As did many of
the artists of her time , she performed songs by other composers but was not limited or constrained to the sheet
music. She was a competent and capable artist that breathed life into every song she sang, rarely singing a song the
same way twice. She also co-wrote the lagendary tune “God Bless The Child”. Take a listen to Lady Day talk about one of
her favorite styles of music, The Blues, in this brief blabberize clip.
one aspect of Billie holiday that made her so interesting was that when she recorded music, she rarely had sheet
music in hand and improvised most of her songs. This was true when she was recording under Brunswick Records and
of note, she was only paid a flat fee instead of royalties for her works. At the height of her career, she was said to have
around a quarter of a million dollars. This is not much by today's standards but in her time, she was one of the highest
paid female artists.
Lady Days popularity spanned several decades but the height of her popularity peaked in the late 1930’s. As her
popularity and reputation exploded, she began to perform with popular orchestras led by the likes of Count Basie and
Artie Shaw. Two very popular band leaders in their own right.
Being a musician was a full-time job for Billie Holiday. In the early years, she performed in night clubs up to six times
a week until she got her big break and started singing with orchestras. With a lengthy studio career, she also stayed
busy singing to sold out crowds, most notably her performance at Carnegie Hall in 1948 as well as touring Europe. She
even made television appearances on The Tonight Show as well as a reality show on ABC. She also appeared in a short
film “Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet" in 1950. Billie was quite a busy lady and all
careers must come to an end. Hers ended with her last performance in New York City in 1959. Billie Holiday died later
that year.
it’s interesting to note that it is said that when she died, she had $750 strapped to her leg. It is believed that this is
due to her fear of poverty, having lived in it for so long at an early age. What’s ironic about it, is that she spent all her
money on drugs and died with very little money to her name.

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13. Works Cited Cont.
Jeremy, John, dir. "Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day." American Masters. Public
Broadcast Service: 04 Aug 1986. Television.
<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/billie-holiday/introduction/68/>.
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