ABSTRACT
Billie Holiday is known as a hometown celebrity in Baltimore, she was actually born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 7, 1915. Not until she received an eviction notice in 1930 did Billie Holiday launch her career as a singer. To avert her forthcoming eviction, she sought work as a dancer at Pod's and Jerry's, a Harlem speakeasy. In 1933, when Prohibition was repealed, the speakeasies became legitimate jazz clubs, and jazz enthusiast John Hammond heard Holiday perform in Monette's, a jazz club on 133rd Street. A few days after her twentieth birthday, Billie Holiday appeared for her first performance at the Apollo Theater. That same year, she recorded with some of the finest jazz musicians of the time under the direction of Teddy Wilson. Her life reflected the racism of a white entertainment industry and the sexism within a male-dominated jazz world. Billie Holiday commands attention because of the unique blues-inspired jazz singing that she contributed to American music.
