(MUSIC) HOLIDAY BILLIE [HERMAN LEONARD] Billie Holiday NYC 1

Sale 2239 - Lot 411

Price Realized: $ 1,200

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(MUSIC.) HOLIDAY, BILLIE. [HERMAN LEONARD]. Billie Holiday, NYC, 1949. Gelatin silver print, 11-3/4x9-5/8, signed and titled by Leonard. Nd, later print

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Billie Holiday (1915-1959) one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, was born into poverty, in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of a 13 year-old unwed mother. Against all odds, she rose to the top of her field, but her addiction to heroin brought arrests and harassment. In late 1947, at her own request, Billie Holiday was put into a Federal Rehabilitation Center for the term of a year and a day. Ten days after her release, she gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, where this photograph was taken. Unfortunately, the authorities then cancelled her "cabaret card," essentially her license to perform in the U.S., thus taking away her means of earning a living. In 1954, she toured Europe to wide acclaim, and in 1958 made a memorable appearance in the television special "The Sound of Jazz," surrounded by an all-star ensemble which included the three reigning tenor saxophone kings, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Lester Young, her beloved "Prez." Billie Holiday died in New York City's Metropolitan Hospital a year later of complications following heart failure. She was 45 years old.