jQuery(wrapper).css('top', jQuery(window).height() * 0.4 - wrapper.outerHeight()); The woman responsible for those interviews was the journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who took it upon herself in 1971 to begin the years-long process of researching a biography. Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's read more. } [3] She worked as a high school teacher and free lance writer. Contact Us ("elementType"in e))return!1;var n=null;if(n=e.following?e.following.parentElement:e.inside?e.inside:e.replacing?e.replacing.parentElement:"script"==e.elementType?document.head:document.body,null==n)return!1;var l=document.createElement(e.elementType);delete e.elementType,l=jQuery.extend(l,e),e.replacing?n.replaceChild(l,e.replacing):n.appendChild(l)}; Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer's short, tumultuous life. The description of Holiday as fast would no longer be an appropriate description of a prepubescent girl who had been raped at age 10 and sent to reform school because of it. That voice. The proof existed as early as Symphony in Black, the 1935 rhapsody of black American life in which she sang the broken-hearted "Saddest Tale". [7][3][8] Her archive on Holiday included these interviews on 125 audio tapes[8] as well as "a long paper trail, including police files, transcripts of court cases, royalty statements, shopping lists, hospital records, private letters, muddled transcripts and fragments of unfinished chapters. The scene in Harlem was dense with famous clubs, famous musicians and a seemingly endless supply of white patrons eager to slum and see African American entertainment. } Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's life, but died before its completion. [3] She interviewed almost 200 peoplefriends, family members, band members, peers from 1930s Harlem, piano players, psychiatrists and a pimpand was still finding people in 1978. var popupParams = { var captainformThemeStyle = {}; In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { captainform_preload_form_popup(popupParams); She was a generous person, Id say, in thought anyway. Holiday, who died of heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver at age 44 in 1959, was an iconic jazz singer who was also one of the first African American entertainers to record music speaking out against racial injustice. She was the singer for Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, who were all white. Function: view, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/controllers/Main.php There never was a black critic in swing music. popupTrigger.css('visibility', 'visible'); The Last Dance, which chronicles the rise of basketball superstar Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, won the documentary series Emmy ahead of American Masters, Hillary, McMillion$ and. clearInterval(captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb83722); They were all gathered by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, the late journalist who spent a decade in the Sixties and Seventies talking to those who knew Holiday best, conducting more than 125 interviews and . Maria Bryant, a singer and friend of Holidays, calls Levy a dirty, rotten, stinking bastard., In 1945, Holiday moved on to Louis McKay, who would become her manager and then her second husband. var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63c877fb829bf'); The tapes have never [] Read the full article: Glasgow Film Festival 2020: Billie Glasgow Film Festival 2020 Glasgow Film Festival 2020: Anderson Falls In an archival radio interview, Holiday says, I always knew I could sing, but I didnt know I could make money out of it, until I was working in a little joint called The Hot Cha. Pigmeat Markham, an entertainer who knew Holiday in her early days as a performer, remembers that Holiday had stagefright.. formId: '772605' var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! [3] In 1978 she was found dead on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk,[3][8][10] after attending a Count Basie concert. (Its one of the reasons why biopics about Holiday portray her in very different ways.). [4], She was a Jewish feminist[5] and a fan of Billie Holiday. "[9] However, Kuehl did not complete the book. } Holidays eyes plead, her lips sneer and her single eyebrow rises suggestively and reproachfully. Whatever the real reasons for Holidays exit from the Count Basie Orchestra, her next career opportunity was one that was groundbreaking but controversial at the time. A more pertinent flaw would be the ending montage which shows images of current racism against African Americans over Drummer Papa Jo Jones voice. Jazz singer Billie Holidays rich, sensuous voice had been steeped in a lifetime of pain. Raw and brutally honest, incredible testimonies from Charles Mingus, Sarah . resize77260663c877fb829bf(wrapper); That made her a target of the FBI. Before her death in 1978, Linda Lipnack Kuehl spent eight years trying to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Add a bio, trivia, and more. There might also be a tad too much focus on the woman who made those 125 cassettes, Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who was clearly a gifted writer and smart interviewer. Monroe would become Holidays first husband, whom she married in 1941. Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's life, but died before its completion. She also got a lot of abuse and harassment from racists they encountered. At the time, she had her own girls on the street. type: "text/javascript", Before completing her work, Kuehl died suddenly in February 1978. The book was never completed, but the tapes have been . Considering all the trauma that Holiday had when she was a child (she was also raped more than once when she was a teenager), its no surprise that she ended up way that she did. Dr. James Hamilton, a psychiatrist who interviewed Holiday when she was in prison, had this diagnosis of her. } Various biographies on Holiday have drawn upon Kuehl's material. The songs that she sings in performance clips include Strange Fruit, Blues Are Brewin' (with Louis Armstrong), Fine and Mellow, My Man (Mon Homme), I Loves You Porgy, God Bless the Child and Dont Explain, the song that Holiday said represented her the best. if('' == 'floating') { Eleanoras parents got married when she was 3 years old, and she was raised primarily in Baltimore. Her cousin John says, During them times, she had to survive. Greenwich Entertainment released Billie in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on December 4, 2020. var captainformCustomVars = {}; }); captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb834ac = setInterval(function(){ Kuehl died after attending a Basie concert in Washington, D.C. Luftman says that a big clue for her that it wasnt a suicide was that Kuehl had a cosmetic face mask on, which was her habit when she got ready for bed. Tony Bennett, who says he briefly knew Holiday, sums up the way a lot of people feel about Holiday: She told her own story, just by being herself. Her scholarly papers on Billie Holiday include: Two Gardenias for Civil Rights: Robin Carsons photo of Billie Holiday (read it here), This Bitter Earth: Infertility for Billie, Ella and Sarah. }); The documentary is also organized around approximately 200 hours of interviews conducted over the course of a decade by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who, as the film notes, didn't like seeing Holiday . var popupTrigger = jQuery("#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63c877fb834ac"); [7][3][8] Her archive on Holiday included these interviews on 125 audio tapes[8] as well as "a long paper trail, including police files, transcripts of court cases, royalty statements, shopping lists, hospital records, private letters, muddled transcripts and fragments of unfinished chapters. The documentary doesnt uncover any new visual footage of Billie Holiday. Afterwards she ran errands at a whorehouse where she heard Bessie Smith records which Holiday claimed to be a seminal influence along with Louis Armstrong. setTimeout(function () { BILLIE, directed by James Erskine, is a portrait of legendary singer Billie Holiday based on more than 200 audio interviews conducted by journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl in the 1970s.A compelling look at the jazz legend who should never be forgotten. function resize77260663c877fb829bf(wrapper){ var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? However, Linda's book was never finished and the tapes never heard . You can hear Kuehls excellence as an interviewer asking why repeatedly rather than inserting her own understanding. if ('' == 'left') Message: Undefined variable: user_membership, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php She wasnt like a slut. id: "captainform_js_global_vars", She created Freedoms Song: Music of the Civil Rights Movement and was musical director and curator for the Martin Luther King Institutes Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Presentations and performance on Billie Holiday include: Rethinking Billie Holiday on her Centennial (Google Talk), Blues Legacies and Black Feminism with Angela Davis (SFJAZZ), Your email address will not be published. } Kuehl, in that period of eight years, began to see parts of herself in Holiday. In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. [3]. She was a highly talented and unique star, but she also complicated and deeply troubled. [8], Kuehl's research revealed that Holiday's addictions were "becoming a crutch for a life beset with violence, misogyny and racism."[2]. Holidays birth name was Eleanora Fagan, and she was born to teenage parents in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915. captainformDomReady(function() { Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins in The Sound of Jazz.. } [1], File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb829bf = setInterval(function(){ The first of the two films - "Billie" is a documentary built around some previously unheard audio interviews conducted by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who was working on a comprehensive biography on Billie Holiday before her untimely death in 1978.Ms. append_element({ Theres a lingering sense that Kuehl understood something deeper, but Billie never seems all that curious to find out what that might be. "[9] However, Kuehl did not complete the book. append_element({ Linda Lipnack Kuehl was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. Her family, however, believed otherwise. [4], She was a Jewish feminist[5] and a fan of Billie Holiday. The film opens with footage of Holiday that I had not seen before. Holiday corrects an interviewer saying that she was fourteen when she arrived in New York. Her death was ruled a suicide. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. An avid fan of Holiday, she planned to write a biography of the hero with whom she, perhaps to an unhealthy degree, self-identified. }, 10); I avsikt att skriva en biografi om Billie Holiday intervjuade hon vnner, andra artister och nyckelpersoner i Holiday's liv, men dog innan den slutfrdes. clearInterval(captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb82c45); Because of the power structure, [black people] never had a chance.. Before her mysterious death in 1978, Lipnack Kuehl had taped over 200 hours of interviews. Read the latest opinions on key events by our acclaimed critics today The film highlights a review that scathingly derides Billie for being heavy reminding us that draconian female standards of beauty have been around for a long time. Kuehl is remarkable for interviewing lesser known people who had a lot of contact with Lady Day. The images of her are legion. Function: _error_handler, Message: Invalid argument supplied for foreach(), File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php Like the singer she idolized and identified with, Linda Lipnack Kuehl had her own bad habits, failed relationships and dreams unfulfilled. if('' == 'floating') { She began working on the Holiday biography in 1971 and interviewed an impressive number of people. Then, in 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. jQuery(wrapper).find('a').removeAttr('href'); She interviewed and interviewed. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide. Midgett says that Holiday would talk for hours about how she started in prostitution when she was 13 years old. A talented journalist who wrote a biography about the songstress 20 years after her gradual death, Kuehl dedicated a decade to interviewing the friends and artists who knew Holiday best. Linda Lipnack Kuehl . A side by side comparison of a pop singer singing a Billie Holiday tune compared to Billies version would have illuminated exactly why Holiday is a genius musically. They loved it. Several people in the documentary describe Holiday as a masochist who never knew what it was like to have a healthy love relationship when she was adult. Funeral services Friday February 10th, 11 A.M. Parkside Chapel, 170th St . } var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! Erskine at least benefits from the basic volume of his source material. She was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. This was one of the principal reasons why she left the band. Hammond estimates that Holidays salary with Basie was $125 a week, at the most. She had $750 to her name when she died, according to the documentary. [11] "Police deemed it suicide, Kuehl having supposedly jumped from her hotel room, although there was no proof of this",[3] and her family believes she may have been murdered. It also brings up a few necessary, if rarely confronted questions. Nalley combines music and history in her award-winningTributes to Ella Fitzgerald,Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and Black Broadway. Her playElla: the American Dreampremiered in 2008 and can be viewed onEat My Shorts. [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. A psychiatrist, at one point, weighs in with a diagnosis. captainformThemeStyle['772606'] = ''; Holidays light brown skin contrasts dramaticallywith her dark dresses, and smooth-straightened glossy dark hair and the white gardenias (or lily or orchid.) [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. One thing everyone agrees on is that Holiday grew up rough and grew up fast, which undoubtedly shaped the person she became later in life. A la fin des annes 1960, la journaliste Linda Lipnack Kuehl commence une biographie officielle de l'artiste. Her family, however, believed otherwise. There was a rebellious engine inside both of them. }); As for Holidays love life, several people in the documentary say that Holiday was openly bisexual. The most important takeaway from Jo Jones is that anyone who believes music has no color negates the experiences of African American musicians who lived with racism dictating almost every aspect of their lives. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { Kuehl died in what was deemed. An epilogue at the end of the documentary mentions that because of the destruction of police records, investigations into Lindas death made during the film proved inconclusive., In the documentary, Luftman explains why her sister wanted to write a Billie Holiday biography: Even thought they came from totally different backgrounds, I think she really identified with Billie. else if ('' == 'right') if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ It turned me on., Although Holiday had several male and female lovers, only one woman is mentioned in the documentary as being one of her paramours: actress Tallulah Bankhead. captainformCustomVars['772605'] = ''; window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ Add or change photo on IMDbPro Add to list More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Credits Edit IMDbPro Archive Footage Previous 1 Billie Self (archive footage) 2019 Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content Culture Clash:Holiday battled drug addiction, and several people who knew her say that she was a target of the FBI. setTimeout(function () { Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Documentary Billie squanders its incendiary premise, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Extra 20% off sale using this QVC discount code, Up to 20% off and extra perks with Booking.com Genius membership, $5 off a $20+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 15% off selected items using this eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK January 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this January, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. She also began hanging out at a brothel, which is where she first heard jazz music. Hopefully someday a filmmaker will be able to tackle the intersectionality of Holiday being both Black and a woman when neither had many rights, and Holiday as a jazz genius when singers were considered neither musicians nor geniuses. According to Ida B. On 6 February 1978, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl fell from the balcony of a Washington DC hotel. The film includes rare photos of Billie Holiday taken by Hugh Bell, licensed to the production by Gartenberg Media, the exclusive representative of . As Holidays fame grew, so too did her notoriety for being a drug addict. He reportedly ripped her off. Jimmy Fletcher, an African American who was a narcotics agent for the FBI at the time, says that Holidays agent Joe Glaser worked with the FBI to arrest her in a drug bust for her own good., According to Fletcher, He [Glaser] confided in me that he wanted to save her. Watching the footage of her face singing with no sound could reduce the watcher to tears alone without hearing a single note. Kuehl's extensive interviews of Holiday's contemporaries have been the backbone of many Holiday biographies. window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ [3] She interviewed almost 200 peoplefriends, family members, band members, peers from 1930s Harlem, piano players, psychiatrists and a pimpand was still finding people in 1978. captainformCustomVars['772605'] = ''; Talk:Linda Lipnack Kuehl - Wikipedia Talk:Linda Lipnack Kuehl This article is of interest to the following WikiProjects : Start a discussion about improving the Linda Lipnack Kuehl page Talk pages are where people discuss how to make content on Wikipedia the best that it can be. setTimeout(function () { How Kuehl managed to construct Billies life and Kuehls life is just as interesting as Holidays life in my opinion. Courtesy of the Kuehl family. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Linda Lipnack Kuehl was writing a biography of Holiday when she died suddenly in 1978, though her family believe she may have been murdered, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { } That face! For some eight years in the 1970s, Kuehl interviewed everyone she could find who had a personal association with Holiday musicians, managers, childhood friends, lovers and FBI agents among them. KUEHLLinda (Lipnack). popupTrigger.click(function(){ Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer's short, tumultuous life. var popupParams = { As a woman, Kuehl seems to instinctively know that Holidays last husband, Louis McKay (Holiday filed for divorce but it was not completed before she died), who owned the rights to Billies estate after her death was an unreliable hustler who was prone to say anything to interviewers as long as he was paid for the interview. resize77260663c877fb834ac(wrapper); Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's life, but died before its completion. Culture Representation:The documentary Billie features a group of white and black people, who were associated with Billie Holiday, discussing the life of the legendary jazz singer, who died at the age of 44 in 1959. Jimmy Flashy Monroe [a pimp who became a trombonist in Holidays band] broke them up. window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ She was fired by John Hammond. Jones says that Hammond fired Holiday because she refused Hammonds demands to sing blues music. Line: 478 In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Theres also a clip of her role as Endie in the 1947 film New Orleans., Because Billie is told in chronological order of her life, the documentary has a very easy narrative to follow. One is the subject Billie Holiday and the other, her biographer Linda Lipnack Kuehl. }, 10); Not everyone wanted to share their memories with her. In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Occasionally, pieces of Kuehls own life enter into the picture, but never with much attempt to build a connection. Even though she performed a historic sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall after she was let out of prison in 1948 (at the time, Carnegie Hall was a venue for classical and opera music, not jazz), the damage to her reputation was done. Documentary showcasing American legend Billie Holiday, capturing her depths and complexity through the voices of those who knew her best. Shortly after she became a professional singer as a teenager, Holiday began working with musician/producer John Hammond, who introduced her to Benny Goodman in 1933. In the 1970s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl embarked on a deep dive into Billie Holiday's history with an eye towards writing a more comprehensive and truthful biography than that which was available. Its implied that her addiction issues were inherited, because Sandy Williams, a bandmate of Holidays father Clarence, describes Clarence as a happy-go-lucky guy who loved his booze and was often drunk. ("elementType"in e))return!1;var n=null;if(n=e.following?e.following.parentElement:e.inside?e.inside:e.replacing?e.replacing.parentElement:"script"==e.elementType?document.head:document.body,null==n)return!1;var l=document.createElement(e.elementType);delete e.elementType,l=jQuery.extend(l,e),e.replacing?n.replaceChild(l,e.replacing):n.appendChild(l)}; Like all documentaries there is never enough music and with a woman such as Billie who lived an expansive life in 44 years it would be impossible for one feature length film to cover everything. elementType: "script", }; Recently some articles based on faulty interviews emphasize her persecution in Hoovers war on drugs without realizing this was a fact of life for all African American jazz musicians. Keuhl is also remarkable for not trying to angle the information in a Procrustean manner to fit her argument. Holiday was promptly arrested and did time in Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt); she lied about her age to make sure she did not end up in juvenile until she was the age of majority. clearInterval(captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb829bf); Linda Lipnack Kuehl - Biography - IMDb Edit Linda Lipnack Kuehl Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Linda Lipnack Kuehl yet. Function: view, "Billie documentary review an oral history of Billie Holiday", "Singer, activist, sex machine, addict: the troubled brilliance of Billie Holiday", "Billie is a fanatical yet fascinating portrait of an immortal talent", "Billie a powerful documentary about the life of the singer", "Documentary Billie squanders its incendiary premise review", "Biography covers range of a vocalist (Published 2005)", "Billie review a double tragedy of destruction and obsession", "One Scats, the Other Doesn't (Published 1994)", "Observer review: With Billie by Julia Blackburn", "Billie review a truer, historical spin on the great Billie Holiday", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Linda_Lipnack_Kuehl&oldid=1111802271. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { Wells, African Americans were most often lynched because they were financially successful or not deferential enough. Linda Lipnack Kuehl IMDbPro Starmeter See rank Help contribute to IMDb. Many important details of her life and her musical genius have been overshadowed by a lurid interest in her love life and drug use. In the late '60s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Function: require_once. Holidays career spanned 30 years. She was a perfectionist, according to her sister, which is why it took so long for Kuehl to work on the uncompleted book.

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