Billie Holiday Was the ‘Strange Fruit’ She Sang About

Holiday
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Holiday

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” was released February 21, 2021, on Hulu. The movie was originally slated to be played in theaters.  Because of the pandemic and movie closures, Paramount Pictures sold the rights to Hulu, a video-on-demand service owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Andra Day made her acting debut, portraying Holiday, who made headlines not only for her singing but from her constant drug use, arrests, and the controversial song “Strange Fruit,” a song that protests lynchings of Black people.

Day originally turned down the role. After reading the script and feeling like the film cleans up Holiday’s legacy, she agreed to do the film with Lee Daniels, director. She once commented that filling the jazz singer’s shoes was “hard as hell.”

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning Suzan-Lori Parks, the movie follows Holiday’s struggles. Though Holiday, born Elanora Fagan in 1915, was not born when the Harrison Act, a law that banned cocaine and heroin, her life mirrored it in every way.

Early in the movie, viewers find out Holiday is a drug addict. In one scene, Her mom was a woman of ill repute and suggested her daughter follow her lead. In 1933, Holiday, with a naturally raspy voice, started her career singing in a nightclub in Harlem with Benny Goodman. Years later, after recording with Teddy Wilson and a few Count Basie’s band members, her career as a jazz singer soared to higher heights.

She went from singing in bars to Carnegie Hall, but not with ease. Her life was filled with prostitution, abuse, beaten, and being raped as a child.

HolidayAs the movie title depicts, Holiday’s run-ins with the U.S. haunted her till the day she died. Holiday would continue to sing the song “Strange Fruit” during the civil rights movement, after being told not to, making Harry Anslinger anxious and somewhat afraid of her. He made it a point to destroy her. Holiday first sang the song in 1939 at New York City’s Cafe Society, the first racially integrated nightclub.

The movie also shows how both her husbands helped the government frame her by putting drugs on her. She always went back to them, portraying a happy couple to the media while being beaten and robbed of her earnings.

The Black FBI agent, Jimmy Fletcher, played by Trevante Rhodes, was hired to find something the government could use to jail her, succeeding more than once. Ironically, Fletcher fell in love with Holiday (a story that is rumored to be fictitious), eventually becoming her lover and close friend. Unfortunately, she did not think much of herself, suggesting he find a “nice girl because she wasn’t it.”

Day stated that Holiday sang what she felt, and people flocked to her because of it. “She sang and spoke about all the things that women — or people — thought about but didn’t necessarily say.”

The actress won the Golden Globe award for best actress in a drama, the second Black person to win this award. Whoopi Goldberg won in 1985 for “The Color Purple.” Both Day and Goldberg were nominated for Oscars, but neither won.

Holiday was and continued to be liked by Black and white fans. Her music was the sound of that era and she used her voice to bring attention to the hatred and prejudice in the world. Her troubled childhood caused her to turn to drugs, possibly to numb the pain of all the abuse even by her mother, who urged her to use her body to make money. No wonder she attracted men who disrespected and used her; it is all she knew. Through it all, she made an impact on the world, and 60 years later, “Strange Fruit” is still happening.  I find that kind of “strange.”

Written by Brenda Robinson
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware

Sources:

E! News: The Infuriating True Story Behind The United States vs. Billie Holiday; by Natalie Finn
PBS: Andra Day On Portraying Billie Holiday’s Signature Voice And Power; by Joshua Barajas and Jeffrey Brown
STUFF: The United States vs. Billie Holiday: What A Difference A Day Makes; Graeme Tuckett
MovieMaker:  Did Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher Really Fall in Love With Billie Holiday? by Margeaux Sippell

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Janice Marie Foote’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Philip Shropshire’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License

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