var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? They are particularly pertinent, showing what kind of child she was and what the neighborhood was like for poor African Americans. Monroe would become Holidays first husband, whom she married in 1941. Shes a psychopath. While interviewer Kuehl can be heard gasping in shock when she hears this description, Hamilton elaborates that Holiday was impulse-driven, strong, talented but not a dependable individual. He noted that he thinks that Holidays inability to control her impulses made her psychopathic. 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. FISHER Satisfies the Appetite, Memorable and Best Forgotten Thanksgivings. By the early Forties, she had worked with Basie and Artie Shaw. elementType: "script", The 2020 documentary Billie, written and directed by James Erskine, pulls together reporting done by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who spent eight years amassing research and interviews including 200 hours of audiotape for a never-finished biography of Holiday. Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer's short, tumultuous life. She was a highly talented and unique star, but she also complicated and deeply troubled. Did someone consider the pairs intimacy a threat? She wasnt like a slut. How Kuehl managed to construct Billies life and Kuehls life is just as interesting as Holidays life in my opinion. Add a bio, trivia, and more. 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. A la fin des annes 1960, la journaliste Linda Lipnack Kuehl commence une biographie officielle de l'artiste. She was 38. 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. 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 . He was 18, she was 16, and I was three" - but was also full of inaccuracies. var readyStateOverflowInterval; The next thing I know, she was using coke.. She wanted to retire and care for orphans. She was the victim of repeated sexual abuse. He was like a visitor, but she was too.. Before her mysterious death in 1978, Lipnack Kuehl had taped over 200 hours of interviews. ("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)}; 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". When she was released from jail at age 14, she left prostitution for good and set her sights on singing for a living. Keuhl is also remarkable for not trying to angle the information in a Procrustean manner to fit her argument. } [11][14][15] Documentary director James Erskine bought the rights to Kuehl's tapes[3] and his subsequent film, Billie (2019), is "a journey through Holiday's life, narrated by the voices on those tapes",[3][14][16][17] including Kuehl's. resize77260663c877fb834ac(wrapper); This documentary offers viewers the rare opportunity to see Billie Holiday through the eyes of those who knew her best. She has also been seen playing folk guitar, singing R&B and spirituals as well as being an avid Lindy Hop and blues dancer. 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. jQuery(wrapper).find('a').removeAttr('href'); A psychiatrist, at one point, weighs in with a diagnosis. }); 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. It is maintained is rich with photos, videos, book information, quotes, and, of course, music.Plan to spend some time there. Holiday is clearly listening to, engaging with, and nodding her approval and at times stony apathy for the licks the instrumentalists take during their solos. if('' == 'floating') { Unearthing a trove of audio recordings from the journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who planned to write a biography of Billie Holiday before committing suicide, James Erskine's approachable documentary Billie dives into the life of Holiday through Kuehl's myriad interviews with the people in the artist's orbit. if('' == 'floating') { 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. Shaw, bassist Sid Weiss, guitarist Al Arola, guitarist Les Robinson and friend Mae Weiss all mention in their documentary interviews that many racist people back then refused to accept a black female singer performing with a group of white musicians. [2] Elle recueille 200 heures de tmoignages incroyables : Charles . }; 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. Linda Lipnack Kuehl . else if ('' == 'right') 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. (Its hard to believe he didnt know.) Kuehl was and still is, posthumously, THE preeminent biographer of Billie Holiday, despite never having completed Holidays biography before she died in 1978. Its an incendiary piece of prologue for James Erskines thorough, informative documentary, simply titled Billie. Holiday deserves a multi-hour Ken Burns treatment on just her life. function resize77260563c877fb83722(wrapper){ Bassist and famous Jazz photographer Milt Hilton said her voice was that of a woman who had suffered ultimate heartbreak. type: "text/javascript", var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! James Erskine's documentary, built around lengthy interviews conducted in the 1970s by journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, demonstrates how dangerous it can be to mesh with one's subject matter. Kuehl's parents were Sol and Ida Lipnack and she had a sister, Myra Luftman. Kuehl, in that period of eight years, began to see parts of herself in Holiday. captainform_preload_form_popup(popupParams); 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. Looking for Linda Kuehl online? By all accounts, he was abusive and a heavy drug user. Linda Lipnack Kuehl - Biography - IMDb Edit Linda Lipnack Kuehl Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Linda Lipnack Kuehl yet. 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. Did Kuehl jump, or was she pushed? [1], File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php Depending on whom you believe, she either quit or was fired. Her predilection for weed, opium and coke gave them the excuse to hound her relentlessly. 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. Function: _error_handler, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/page/index.php Theres a lingering sense that Kuehl understood something deeper, but Billie never seems all that curious to find out what that might be. Oddly enough, the just-released documentary Billie is an intertwining tragic tale of two women. var popupTrigger = jQuery("#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63c877fb829bf"); var popupParams = { Line: 315 [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. Various biographies on Holiday have drawn upon Kuehl's material. She wanted to sing. }); [3] She worked as a high school teacher and free lance writer. KUEHLLinda (Lipnack). Billie certainly encompassed both requirements. }); clearInterval(captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb834ac); UNSUNG HEROES THROUGH THE NIGHT- Special Free Screening Thursday, Jan. 19, NEW YEARS CHEER- A Nostalgic Look at Past New Years Through Images, Movies and Music, They Were Calling It the Twentieth Century, THE ART OF EATING: THE LIFE OF M.F.K. Protest songs became more prevalent in the 1960s, but Holiday was a pioneer. if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ That voice. }); Jones gets very angry in the interview when he hears that Hammond has denied firing Holiday, while Hammond expresses bewilderment in reacting to Jones claims that Hammond fired Holiday. The conditions for African Americans were much more dismal than many people realize and Holidays struggles stand on their own. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { 9.45pm, BBC Two Director James Erskine brings this detailed, fascinating documentary charting the tumultuous life of jazz singer Billie Holiday, based on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted. In his estimation, Holiday was a psychopath strictly in the sense that she was ruled by impulse. Holiday co-wrote her 1956 memoir Lady Sings the Blues with William Dufty, and the book became the basis of the 1972 feature film of the same name, starring Diana Ross, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role as Holiday. 05 January 2023. [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. [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. 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. She was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. The film opens with footage of Holiday that I had not seen before. textContent: 'var frmRef=""; try { frmRef=window.top.location.href; } catch(err) {}; var captainform_servicedomain="app.captainform.com";var cfJsHost = "https://";', else if ('' == 'right') I sometimes see the hardships of being a Black man highlighted but I do not see the same courtesy given to Miss 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. Contact Us Jazz singer Billie Holidays rich, sensuous voice had been steeped in a lifetime of pain. The chief suspect in Lipnack Kuehl's killing was Billie's manager and husband, Louis McKay. Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins in The Sound of Jazz.. }; There never was a black critic in swing music. }); Because of the power structure, [black people] never had a chance.. It ' s constructed from the tapes made by of an arts journalist, Linda Lipnack Kuehl, in the 1970s. 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. Satisfies the Appetite, Memorable and Best Forgotten Thanksgivings de tmoignages incroyables: Charles, la journaliste Linda Lipnack,! She left prostitution for good and set her sights on singing for a living them. 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