1. The Great Depression Billie Holidays 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 Americans in major cities were particularly hard hit by the growing unemployment. While the national average was at 25%, African Americans 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 Dont Buy Where You Cant 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.

2. 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 3. 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 parents 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 mothers 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 mothers 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. Eleanoras 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) 4. Billies great grandmother was a slave on a Virginia plantation and had 16 children by her white, Irish plantation owner Charles Fagan. Billies 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 Holidays and was on 99th Street in New York. On many occasions she asked Billie for money since it wasnt doing well. One time Billie needed money and asked her mother for some but her mother wouldnt give her a dime. Billie said God bless the child thats 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 5. Discussion of Billie Holidays 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 1930s. 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. its 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. Whats ironic about it, is that she spent all her money on drugs and died with very little money to her name. 6. Works Cited Billie Holiday. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2014. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 28 Mar. 2014 . Casa Loma Stomp, Fletcher Henderson Connie's Inn Orchestra. 1932 Hallmark Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03w877DoUiM March 29, 2014 Chilton, John. Billie's Blues: The Billie Holiday Story, 1933-1959. London: Da Capo Press, 1975. Print. Friedman, J.C. (2013). The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music. New York: Taylor and Francis. God Bless the Child. Billie Holiday, 1941 Marks Music Corporation, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_1LfT1MvzI March 29, 2014 Griffin, Farah Jasmine. If you can't be Free, Be a Mystery. New York, New Haven Philadelphia: Simon and Schuster, 2001. Print. Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn . Or Does It Explode?, Black Harlem In The Great Depression. Oxford University Press, USA, print. Heath, Dianne. "Occupation & Jobs In the Late 1930s to Early 1940s: A picture Narrative." Social Science Kilment, Bud. Billie Holiday. New York, New York: Chelsea House, 1990. Print Medley. N.p., 08 OCT 2011. History.com Staff . "Labor Movement." Labor Movement (2009): N.p., Web. 28 Mar 2014. . History.com Staff . "Rosie the Riveter." Rosie the Riveter (2010): N.p., Web. 28 Mar 2014. . Holiday, Billie, and William Dufty. "Billie Holiday Interesting Facts ." Upper Fell's Point Improvement Associan 1985. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar 2014. .` 7. Works Cited Cont. Jeremy, John, dir. "Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day." American Masters. Public Broadcast Service: 04 Aug 1986. Television. . Kilment, Bud. Billie Holiday.New York, New York: Chelsea House, 1990. Print. Lamb, Ashley. "What About A feed Sack Dress?." www.ecu.edu. N.p., 17 Jan 2013. Web. 28 Mar 2014. . Nicholson, Stuart (1995). Billie Holiday. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-303- 5. Riding, Daniel . "A Decade In Fashion: The 1930s." A Decade In Fashion. Mens Fashion Magazine, 14 May 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. . The Great Depression n.d. The Public Broadcasting Channel Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ_lizW5zSI March 29, 2014 "The Official Website of Billie Holiday." Billie Holiday.com. The Bicycle Music Company. Web. 10 Apr 2014. . Web. 28 Mar. 2014. .