The documentary includes archival news video footage of Joan Allen, a correctional officer who worked at the federal rehabilitation facility in Alderston, West Virginia, where Holiday served her prison time. Occasionally, pieces of Kuehls own life enter into the picture, but never with much attempt to build a connection. append_element({ 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. Contact Us if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { }, 10); var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? The biopic will follow Holiday's life through the eyes of Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who as a fan and literary journalist in 1970 began a biography of Holiday. Culture Mix Survey }, 10); [6] In 1971, she began plans for a biography of Holiday, who had died aged 44 in 1959. resize77260663c877fb834ac(wrapper); In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. The book was never completed, but the tapes have been . Eleven years after Billie Holiday died at the age of 44, from heart failure due to drug and alcohol abuse, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, a Lady Day devotee, interviewed as many people as. Several people in the documentary say that New York City doormen (especially on 52nd Street) would regularly supply her with drugs. 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. She sang in clubs in Harlem and. Both died young Holiday at age 44, of liver cirrhosis. She had also recorded her most important song, Strange Fruit a battle cry against Americas vicious history of lynching, sat right at the dawn of the civil rights movement. They had an instantaneous and passionate romance, married, and in 1963, Linda gave birth to their first child, Heather Louise. Skinny Davenport, a pimp who knew Holiday in her prostitution days, describes how the hookers in the neighborhood were treated: Knock em down, kick em in the ass. Kuehl was and still is, posthumously, THE preeminent biographer of Billie Holiday, despite never having completed Holiday's biography before she died in 1978. setTimeout(function () { In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Be the first to contribute! Although Luftman couldnt be sure if Basie and her sister had a sexual affair, she thinks those threats might have had something to do with Kuehls death. The official cause of death was ruled a suicide, but her younger sister Myra Luftman (who is not interviewed on camera) says in the documentary that Kuehl probably died from foul play because of the research that Keuhl was doing for the book. Jones insists: She didnt leave the band. Her body as usual is still as a statue; only her hands wave occasionally in small restrained circles. (Photo by George Rinhart). Kim Nalley, a PHD Candidate in History at University of California Berkeley, is a historian, playwright, and actress and is most known as jazz & blues singer with a powerful, 3 1/2 octave range that can go from operatic to gritty blues on a dime, projection that can whisper a ballad yet is capable of filling a room with no microphone, and the ability to scat blistering solos without ever losing the crowds interest or the intense swing. [2] Various other writers' biographies on Holiday have drawn upon Kuehl's material, as did the film Billie (2019), which is narrated by Kuehl's recorded interviews. Olika andra frfattares biografier p Holiday har anvnt Kuehls . var readyStateOverflowInterval; You can hear Kuehls excellence as an interviewer asking why repeatedly rather than inserting her own understanding. Over 8 years, she tracked down and tape-recorded over 200 hours of interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer's short, tumultuous life. Before her death in 1978, Linda Lipnack Kuehl spent eight years trying to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Line: 208 This documentary offers viewers the rare opportunity to see Billie Holiday through the eyes of those who knew her best. These incredible testimonies reveal Holiday's . setTimeout(function () { John Fagan, a cousin of Holidays, says in the documentary of their upbringing in East Baltimore: It was a nice community to live. Many important details of her life and her musical genius have been overshadowed by a lurid interest in her love life and drug use. That made her a target of the FBI. 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. setTimeout(function () { ("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)}; How Kuehl managed to construct Billies life and Kuehls life is just as interesting as Holidays life in my opinion. Eleanoras parents got married when she was 3 years old, and she was raised primarily in Baltimore. He reportedly ripped her off. Her death was ruled as a suicide. Kuehl died in what was deemed. Pigmeat Marham and white record producer John Hammond (instrumental in the lives of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Benny Goodman and more) both claim to have discovered her. }, true); Sign up for a chance to win prizes (such as free gift cards) and get priority alerts or invitations to the hottest lifestyle/culture news, discounts and promotions. textContent: 'var frmRef=""; try { frmRef=window.top.location.href; } catch(err) {}; var captainform_servicedomain="app.captainform.com";var cfJsHost = "https://";', Here, Erskine has been given the opportunity to illuminate the lives of two women by seeing where they intertwine. There are so many photos in circulation of Holiday at the end of her life when she was skeletal it might be shocking for some to realize that for most of her life she was plump. captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb83722 = setInterval(function(){ It is maintained is rich with photos, videos, book information, quotes, and, of course, music.Plan to spend some time there. The journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl worked for years on a Billie Holiday biography before Kuehl's sudden death in 1978. Most Popular So, in the late 1960s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of. Hammond says of Goodman, He slept with Billie. The book was left unfinished, Kuehls tapes buried away until now. Then in the late 1960's journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Function: _error_handler, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/page/index.php }); To describe it any other way is to diminish her musicianship. In the documentary interview, Hammond says, There was a real problem between Billie and Basie. Linda Lipnack Kuehl . However, drummer Jo Jones has a entirely different recollection of why Holiday parted ways with Basie. formId: '772606' [3] The interviews were a major source for the text in Robert O'Meally's book of photographs Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (1991)[12] and around the same were used for the script for a Masters of American Music series documentary of the same name. }); var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772605EmbedPopup63c877fb83722'); 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. Looking for Linda Kuehl online? Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 February 6, 1978)[1] was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. In the 1970s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl recorded over 200 hours of interviews for a biography she intended to write about Billie Holiday. if ('' == 'left') The film consists almost entirely of Kuehls recordings she had 125 cassettes worth of interviews and snippets of her writing, the latter played out over dramatic reconstructions of hands hovering above a typewriter. resize77260663c877fb829bf(wrapper); [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. She began working on the Holiday biography in 1971 and interviewed an impressive number of people. She has also been seen playing folk guitar, singing R&B and spirituals as well as being an avid Lindy Hop and blues dancer. Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's read more. He was 18, she was 16, and I was three" - but was also full of inaccuracies. Watching the footage of her face singing with no sound could reduce the watcher to tears alone without hearing a single note. }); Linda Lipnack Kuehl - Biography - IMDb Edit Linda Lipnack Kuehl Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Linda Lipnack Kuehl yet. captainform_create_form_popup(popupParams); 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. On 6 February 1978, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl fell from the balcony of a Washington DC hotel. 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. 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. 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. On tour, especially in the U.S. South, they encountered a lot of vicious racism. elementType: "script", Kuehl spend eight years interviewing the artist's friends, relatives, peers, business associates, even an FBI narcotics agent and a prison corrections officer, accruing 200 hours of . 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. Josephson sums up the usual complaint that he got was: We came to your nightclub to be entertained. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide. Linda Lipnack Kuehl (24. tammikuuta 1940 - 6. helmikuuta 1978) oli yhdysvaltalainen taidetoimittaja New Yorkissa. id: "captainform_js_global_vars", var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? if('' == 'floating') { For news, music (including some previously unreleased live recordings), complete discography, videos and much more visitKims websiteand many more performances can be found on herYouTube channel. 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 popupTrigger.click(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. I would expect that at least they could have found a child with the same coloring as Holiday. It was a different kind of poor We were happy with what we had. Mary Pony Kane, a childhood friend of Holidays, remembers that Eleanor was foul-mouthed, even as a child. Billie Holiday is the subject of the documentary, and theres expected archival footage of her in her film. Her archive passed to a private collector and was later used in other writers' biographies of Holiday. captainform_create_form_popup(popupParams); 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. Joe Guy, a trumpet player in her band, was also one of her main drug connections. Sarah Julia Sadie Fagan (a maid) was 13 when she gave birth to Eleanora, and Clarence Halliday (a musician) was 15. Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 - February 6, 1978) was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. The project is centered around 200 hours of previously. Then, before she could finish her biography, Kuehl died: In 1978, her body was found on a Washington, D.C. street. Despite her early hardships, Billie Holiday pioneered the refinement of microphone technique, minimalism, and jazz phrasing for subsequent generations. 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. clearInterval(captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb834ac); See was a rugged, powerfully built man; handsome, athletic and. Being a solo act gave Holiday the freedom to record whats considered the most important and most controversial song of her career: Strange Fruit. Written by Abel Meeropol under the alias Lewis Allan, and released in 1939, the song is a poetically brutal commentary on racial injustice, particularly in describing the lynching of black people in the South. Memry Midgett, an Oakland pianist who played with Holiday in the 1950s and remained close with her, said Holiday confided that she was worried about the sins of her youth and Gods forgiveness. if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ 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 was twice-divorced with no children, while Basie was married with children. popupTrigger.click(function(){ (document.removeEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",d),window.removeEventListener("load",d)):(document.detachEvent("onreadystatechange",d),window.detachEvent("onload",d))},d=function(){t||!document.addEventListener&&"load"!==event.type&&"complete"!==document.readyState||(t=!0,n(),e())};if("complete"===document.readyState)e();else if(document.addEventListener)document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",d),window.addEventListener("load",d);else{document.attachEvent("onreadystatechange",d),window.attachEvent("onload",d);var o=!1;try{o=null==window.frameElement&&document.documentElement}catch(a){}o&&o.doScroll&&!function c(){if(!t){try{o.doScroll("left")}catch(d){return setTimeout(c,50)}t=!0,n(),e()}}()}}; if('' == 'floating') { Line: 479 clearInterval(captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb82c45); One of Holidays most poignant recordings, Lady in Satin, is a lush string album and her last album is made multidimensional by the testimonies of the musicians who played with her and friends she was close with. 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. John Levy became her manager and lover, even though he was married at the time. However, Linda's book was never finished and the tapes never heard . ("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)};