Bitter crop, p.37
Bitter Crop, page 37
But for six weeks starting on July 16: Bill Higgins, “Hollywood Flashback: In 1948, a Hurricane Hit Bogart and Bacall in ‘Key Largo,’ ” Hollywood Reporter, Sept. 13, 2017.
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With doors opening: Higgins.
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“As very few singers”: Quoted in Donald Clarke, Wishing on the Moon (New York: Da Capo Press, 2000), 283.
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Billie’s salary: Higgins, “Hollywood Flashback.”
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“It was the first time I saw her”: Dan Morgenstern, interview by the author, July 2020.
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Or, as Ned Rorem later wrote: Ned Rorem, Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir (New York: Open Road Media, 2013).
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It was, as James “Stump” Cross remembered: Linda Kuehl book manuscript, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections.
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She had become a theater star: Hugh Leonard, “The Darling of the Gallery Girls,” Irish Times, Dec. 7, 1996.
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The 1930s saw Bankhead: Entry for Tallulah Bankhead, IMDb.
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The Little Foxes: Brooks Atkinson, “Tallulah Bankhead Appearing in Lillian Hellman’s Drama of the South, The Little Foxes,” New York Times, Feb. 16, 1939, 16.
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The Skin of Our Teeth: “Premiere Tonight for Wilder Play,” New York Times, Nov. 18, 1942, 30.
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She finally made a memorable picture: Bosley Crowther, “Lifeboat, a Film Picturization of Shipwrecked Survivors, with Tallulah Bankhead, Opens at the Astor Theatre,” New York Times, Jan. 13, 1944, 17.
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Tallulah was born: For information about Bankhead’s youth, see Joel Lobenthal, “Lace Curtains,” chap. 1 in Tallulah!: The Life and Times of a Leading Lady (New York: Regan Books, 2004).
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Tallulah’s father: Murray Schumach, “Tallulah Bankhead, the Vibrant and Tempestuous Stage and Screen Star, Dies Here at 65,” New York Times, Dec. 13, 1968, 1.
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Tallulah’s grandfather: Schumach.
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In fact, even though in 1937: “Tallulah Bankhead Is Married to Actor,” New York Times, Sept. 1, 1937, 14.
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“Tallulah was”: Kuehl manuscript.
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Near the end of the run: “Star Chat,” Alabama Tribune, Aug. 27, 1948, 2.
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The newspaper noted: “Star Chat.”
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All the while: Schumach, “Tallulah Bankhead.”
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“To Tallulah, Billie was beautiful”: William Dufty, interview by Joel Lobenthal, Aug. 22, 1994.
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“Billie wasn’t impressed”: Dufty interview.
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Lobenthal believes: Joel Lobenthal, interview by the author, June 2020.
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He was, according to The New York Age: “Harlem Era Ends.”
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“He was,” to quote one account: John Wesley Noble and Bernard Averbuch, Never Plead Guilty (New York: Bantam Books, 1955), 188.
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Here was how Billie described: Billie Holiday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues (New York: Doubleday, 1956; repr., Harlem Moon/Broadway Books, 2006), 175.
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The development prompted: Billy Rowe, “Billy Rowe’s Notebook,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 24, 1948, 22.
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“Banky was about the only person”: Kuehl manuscript.
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Charles “Honi” Coles: Kuehl.
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Tallulah was ringside: “Billie Holiday Star at Ebony,” New York Age, Sept. 21, 1948, 26.
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Then again, Levy: “Billie Holiday Drawing Celebs to Club Ebony Show,” New York Age, Oct. 1, 1948, 9.
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The opening was such an event: “Billie Holiday Drawing.”
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(She later discovered it was not): Joel Lobenthal, correspondence with the author, Mar. 2021.
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Tallulah was so involved: Daily Press (Newport News, Va.), Oct. 11, 1948, 12.
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During a four-week run: “Berg Night Spot in New Law Clash,” Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 7, 1949, 44.
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A group of friends: “Nightclub Star Accused in Brawl,” Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 4, 1949, 3.
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A report in the Los Angeles Daily News: “Nightclub Star Accused.”
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It turned out that John Levy: Julia Blackburn, With Billie: A New Look at the Unforgettable Lady Day (New York: Vintage Books, 2006), 206.
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A week into the engagement: J. W. Ehrlich, The Lost Art of Cross-Examination (New York: Dorset Press, 1970), 136–37.
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Billie made a mad dash: Ehrlich, 137.
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Still, White succeeded: Ehrlich, 137.
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One report noted: “Singer Held in Dope Raid,” San Francisco Examiner, Jan. 23, 1949, 1.
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Upon departing the building: “Singer Nabbed on Dope Charge,” Oakland Tribune, Jan 23. 1949, 23.
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“She [embraced] the mic”: Noble and Averbuch, Never Plead Guilty, 191.
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Two days later: Herb Coen, “It’s News to Me” column, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 27, 1949.
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With Billie in obvious jeopardy: Lobenthal, Tallulah!, 409.
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She set up a three-way telephone call: John Szwed, Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth (New York: Penguin Books, 2015), 37.
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On February 7: Sara Ramshaw, “ ‘He’s My Man!’: Lyrics of Innocence and Betrayal in The People vs. Billie Holiday,” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 16, no. 1 (2004): 98.
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Two days later, Tallulah pressed her case: The letter from Tallulah Bankhead to J. Edgar Hoover is contained in the FBI file for Billie Holiday.
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(Her father died in 1940): Lobenthal, Tallulah!, 323; and “Speaker Bankhead Dies in Washington,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 1940, 1.
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“I would have never asked”: Bankhead letter to Hoover.
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At the Sahara Hotel: Les Devor, “Vegas Vagaries” column, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Oct. 12, 1958, 13.
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“The Sahara in Vegas”: Ivan Paul, “Around Town,” San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 4, 1958, 9.
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Jimmy Lyons: Ralph J. Gleason, “The West Coast Gets Its First Big Jazz Event,” San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 28, 1958, 131.
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A who’s who: C. H. Garrigues, “Jazz Fete Opens Today,” San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 3, 1958, 14.
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For the occasion tonight: Billie Holiday was photographed at the Monterey Jazz Festival by Nat Farbman for Life.
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The applause washed over: At Monterey, 1958, an album, was recorded on October 5, 1958, and released by Black Hawk Records in 1986. The following scene is based on the recording.
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Ralph Gleason declared: Ralph Gleason, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 7, 1958, 11.
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A critic for the Los Angeles Mirror: Roger Beck, “Off the Records,” Los Angeles Mirror, Oct. 11, 1958, 41.
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A writer for Down Beat: John Tynan, “It Happened at Monterey,” Down Beat, Nov. 13, 1958, 50.
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As Miles Davis put it: Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 216.
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On Monday, October 6: Ken Vail, Lady Day’s Diary: The Life of Billie Holiday 1937–1959 (Chessington, UK: Castle Communications, 1996), 198.
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Once again, she had been: Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner, Corky Hale Uncorked! (Los Angeles: Corky Hale Publications, 2018), 46.
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“The bandleader had just announced”: Leichtling and Sarner, 46.
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“That’s the piano player?”: Leichtling and Sarner, 46.
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“For all her fame”: Leichtling and Sarner, 48.
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Many African Americans: John Przybys, “1954 Article Refers to Las Vegas as ‘Mississippi of the West,’ ” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Apr. 1, 2018.
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“We were staying at the Sahara Hotel”: Alice Vrbsky, interview by Norman Saks, Feb. 8, 1985.
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“It cost me almost a thousand dollars”: Holiday with Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues, 185.
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Reports later identified: Ramshaw, “ ‘He’s My Man!,’ ” 98.
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“Holiday willingly underwent”: Ramshaw, 99.
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Ehrlich’s plan: Ramshaw, 101.
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Billie confirmed: Ramshaw, 101.
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Appearing “somewhat unkempt in a beige suit”: Noble and Averbuch, Never Plead Guilty, 194.
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Asked about her condition: Ralph Gleason, “Broke, Alone, Bille Goes Back to Work,” Down Beat, July 15, 1949, 3.
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Ehrlich asked her if she had seen: This exchange, based on the official transcript, appears in Noble and Averbuch, Never Plead Guilty, 206.
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Eventually, Ehrlich requested: Noble and Averbuch, 206.
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“Now,” Ehrlich said: Noble and Averbuch, 206.
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“Yes, there was a phone call”: Noble and Averbuch, 201.
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On cross-examination: Noble and Averbuch, 202.
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On multiple occasions: The cross-examination of White by Ehrlich, a portion of which is reproduced in the chapter entitled “The Case of Billie Holiday” in Ehrlich, The Lost Art of Cross-Examination, 135–47, is taken from the official trial transcript.
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Producing the photograph: Ehrlich.
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Startled, White attempted: Ehrlich.
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The jury foreman: “Billie Holiday Free on Opium Charge,” Stockton (Calif.) Evening and Sunday Record, June 4, 1949, 4.
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In February 1950: “Billie Holiday Off for West Coast Tour,” Chicago World, Feb. 4, 1950, 4.
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One press report: “Billie Holiday Off.”
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Stump and Stumpy: Bob Goddard, “At the Night Spots,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Jan. 22, 1950, 53.
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The following month, in March: New York Daily News, Mar. 17, 1950, 42.
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“The split in forces”: “La ‘Lady Day’ Drops Levy,” New York Amsterdam News, Aug. 5, 1950, 1.
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Tallulah became so frightened: Mel Helmer, “My New York,” Daily Notes (Canonsburg, Pa.), Mar. 19, 1951, 4.
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One newspaper observed: Daily Notes, 4.
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Annie Ross remembers: Annie Ross, interview by the author, Dec. 2019.
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As for Levy: “Harlem Era Ends.”
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For some time, he had owned: “Harlem Era Ends.”
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A press account of his funeral: “Many Mourned Sportsman Here,” New York Age, Dec. 22, 1956, 2.
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At present, the Number 1: Carl Wilson, “The Story of Tommy Edwards, the Top 100’s First Black Artist to Hit No. 1,” Billboard, Aug. 2, 2018.
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She had accepted two gigs: The contracts are held in a private collection.
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Next, on the afternoon: An advertisement for the show appeared in the Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Mass.), October 18, 1958, 2.
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For the event: “Jazz Greats, Billie Holiday and Maynard Ferguson, at UM on Oct. 19,” Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Mass.), Oct. 8, 1958, 23.
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“The details of the cancellation”: Peter Munroe, “Stars Fail to Show,” Massachusetts Collegian, Oct. 20, 1958.
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Whatever the reason: Record (Hackensack, N.J.), Oct. 23, 1958, 59.
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“Her voice wasn’t the way it was”: Harry Sheppard, interview by the author, Mar. 2021.
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CHAPTER 8: GOODBYE TO THE CITY OF LIGHTS
In the 1920s: Amanda Vaill, Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
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Hemingway called her: The widely known quote about Josephine Baker is referenced in Heather Hartley, “Even Her Feet Were Ravishing,” Tin House, Apr. 29, 2013.
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In the mid-1950s: Adam Clayton Powell III, interview by the author, Jan. 2021.
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