Billie Holiday by John Szwed Page A

some musicians (Lucky Thompson, the Woody Herman band) entered the film without seeming to have any relation to one another, and there is even an odd allusion to Kristallnacht during the closing of Storyville.
    When New Orleans opened at the Winter Garden in New York, it was presented as an exploitation film, with posters advertising Storyville’s “18 Blocks of Sin Dives!” and photos of prostitutes smiling out from their “cribs.”
    It was Holiday who had the last word on the film. When she heard that Herbert Biberman had been called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and sent to jail as one of the Hollywood Ten, she wrote, “He should have shown them
New Orleans
. Withall that Uncle Tom stuff in it, and his name on it as one of the authors, he could have beat that mother-huggin’ rap.”
    Holiday on Television
    Holiday made very few TV appearances, but in her first, the ABC series
The Comeback Story
on October 14, 1953, she participated in a reenactment of her life.
Comeback
was an early reality show, one that explored the backgrounds of those who had overcome infirmities and afflictions—a woman athlete who had colon cancer, a blind jazz pianist, an alcoholic radio announcer, a child singer who lost his career when his voice changed, and, in Holiday’s case, a singer who overcame heroin addiction, poverty, and racism. Although it was conceived as a victim’s story—one unintentionally reinforced by her swollen jaw, the result of an infected tooth, which kept her from saying very much—the presence of some famous friends made the program more interesting than it promised to be. Among those who appeared were Artie Shaw, LouisArmstrong, singer Mae Barnes, Arthur Herzog Jr., Leonard Feather, Count Basie, and Pod Hollingsworth, the Harlem club owner who first hired her to sing. Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, and John Hammond, it turned out, refused to appear on the show, the latter because he thought it was in such bad taste.
    Still, the story of Holiday’s life that was presented was a candid one, which involved subjects that were largely forbidden on national television. The program’s moderator was Georgie Jessel, a showbiz stalwart whose fame far exceeded his accomplishments, a man who was often the butt of rude jokes. Jessel was unflinching in his comments, however, and ended the show by telling the audience that Holiday was not able to work in nightclubs in New York City because she couldn’t get a license from the police to perform, even though she had paid her debt to society. Billie,smiling and begowned, exchanged a few words with Jessell and then sang “God Bless the Child.”
    In 1957 CBS producer Robert Herridge asked jazz writers Whitney Balliett and Nat Hentoff to select the best musicians to appear on a TV show, regardless of how well known they were. They picked Count Basie, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan, Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Rushing, Jimmy Giuffre, Red Allen, and others to create an all-star big band and to split off into several smaller groups. It was live television, but it was to be as freewheeling and improvisatory as possible. (There was no script, and the camera operators were told to shoot whatever they liked.)
    The only musician who presented a problem for the producer was Billie Holiday. During a sound check Herridge received a note from a sponsor’s representative that said, “We must not put into America’s homes, especially on Sunday, someone who’s been imprisoned for drug use.” Herridge told the representative that if Holiday was out of the show, then he, Balliett, and Hentoff would leave.The show aired with Billie included on December 8, 1957, as “The Sound of Jazz,” a special production of CBS-TV’s
The Seven Lively Arts
, and it resulted in Holiday’s finest moment on television.
    Lady Sings the Blues
: The Film
    After her