In the film, "Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday," shows that Billie Holiday was both a heroic and tragic figure. She was a good woman who endured many hardships at the same time she was entertaining a successful recording career. I have charted some of the events of her life, on the film, that I thought were significant in the duration of her life. I end the short paper with a conclusion. I thought that her voice was beautiful and that she exuded elegance, grace and charm. I agreed with those interviewed on that.

Billie Holiday was born, Eleanor Fagan, in 1915, and went down in Jazz history as one of the greatest singers of all-time. By the time she died of a heart attack, in 1959, Billie Holiday had led both a successful and stormy life. From a rugged childhood, to a successful singing life, and finally an addiction problem, Billie Holiday had give adversity a new meaning.

Her father, Clarence Holiday, a guitarist in the Fletcher Henderson band started to call her Billie. After seeing the elegance and the grace of actress Billie Dove, she finalized her name, as Billie Holiday. Billie had liked to sing from the time she was a young girl, and her stepfather, Wee Wee Hill could remember that she sang from room-to-room through the house.

Billie never got passed the fifth grade, and she did not want to end up being a maid, or beholden to the white infrastructure. By age ten she was placed in a home for wayward children. She started to hang around with hustlers and prostitutes at the bordellos, and it was here that she first heard Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong play on the house music set-up. Both Armstrong and Smith, were early influences of Billie Holiday's. And the one thing that separated the two vocalists, was that Billie sang the "Blues" in a more modern way than Bessie did. Producer, Milt Gabler remarked that Billie could swing in her singing the same way a trumpet player like Louis Armstrong did in his playing.

What made Billie a "Blues" singer is that the material she dealt with was from a developed 12-bar chorus statement. As a Jazz singer she had instant tonality and an ear to listen. By learning to sing by ear, it offset her inability to read music or know the key she was singing in. So, without going on, this alone says how talented of a singer she was. Often, she would be the singer in piano accompaniments.

Billie Holiday became associated with and friends with Lester Young, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw. She met Young at Jam sessions they both attended. And Lester gave Billie the nickname, "Lady Day". And she sang in Count Basie's band. For a time she toured with Artie Shaw, in a band that was integrated. It did not work out to well, as Billie was met with prejudice in the South. As one commentator in the film said, she had to be of quality to sing in Count Basie's band. And that she was a good singer is evident.

Billie sang what is perhaps, known as the first protest song ever. The song was called "Strange Fruit", and it the anti-lynching motive was quite clear. Billie did not have fun in the South when the wrath of prejudice met her, playing with Artie Shaw's band. But, Columbia Records would never allow her to sing it, because of the controversy it might stir in the South, and affect the record dealers there.

Billie went to New York at age twelve at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age, and started singing at tables in Speakeasies and bars. By the 1930's, a wealthy Jazz booster by the name of John Hammond assisted Billie in her career. And in November of 1933, Hammond had cut two recordings of hers.

By the 1940's Billie was the rose to be one of the most popular singers in the country, and her songs started to really play on the radio and juke boxes. She did not need a lot of rehearsals to become a great singer, and it has been said that she didn't always get the best material to work with. Furthermore, it has also been said that she did not improvise that much but stayed straight with the melody. By the 1940's she was one of the highest paid black performers in the country making 2,000.00 per week.

However, by 1942, It became apparent to many that she may have started to have problems with drugs after a "good night" showing up to work late and causing a commotion. In 1947, the hard life of being a singer had caught up to Billie. She did a stint in jail for almost ten months and sarted to use drugs. She made a smashing return to Carnegie Hall after she got out of prison, but there were instant obstacles she had to face when she got out. The New York Liquor Commission banned her from performing in night clubs, where booze was served, so even thoughit affected her lving standards, she was forced to sing in theaters, where alcohol was not present. In 1954, she went on two European tours and sang at the first Newport Jazz Festival. But this was no consolation for the nightclub life that she had really preferred throughout her singing days.

Billie Holiday's last performance was at the Phoenix Theater in 1959 before she died of a heart attack. And before that she was being charged by the authorities with heroin possession. By the time of her death, when she was singing "Lady Satin", Billie's voice had declined, and she had gained weight, but her elgance, and voice effectiveness remained, nevertheless.

In conclusion, it is apparent that the use of drugs and heroin addiction led to the downfall of one of the greatest all-time Jazz singers. Her protest song, "Strange Fruit," is a testament her moral values, and the human qualities she had, and the impact she left in the arts, and her commitment through song on equal treatment, for equal rights, and the objective to be free of prejudice. She is measured in the same breath with greats like Count Basie and Louis Armstrong. The singers of today, like Joni Mitchell continue to pay homage to her legacy. The overwhelming consensus is that Billie Holiday could take a song, move it like a trumpet player could, and make her audience feel warm. But more importantly, in the year 2005, where performers all seem to be spoiled, this was not the case with Billie Holiday. She liked the public and performing. This was evident when the New York Liquor Commission denied her to perform in night clubs anymore. It was perhaps the beginning of the end for Billie Holiday. It seems that wherever she went she exuded a spirit, that lives on today. The beauty of Billie Holiday's story is that she was beautiful on the inside and the outside, despite her addiction, incarceration, and death.

Although many think the 1960's was the age of civil dissent, the movement was underway long before, with people like Billie Holiday. Billie's hit song, "Lover Man" made it into the Records Academy Hall of Fame. Most music observers say that the beautiful voice she had floated above the rhythm accented and shaded notes to make the ballads swing in a cool way. It was this in and of itself, that established Billie Holiday as not a "Blues" singer but a Jazz singer. Her aesthetic quality can never be questioned."Lady Day, might be gone, but not forgotten, as her legacy lives.