“Lady Sings the Blues” (1972) is a Motown film based on the 1956 book of the same name about the life of jazz singer Billie Holiday. It was the first film to star Diana Ross. Also in it are Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor.
It did well: it was made for $12 million (6 million crowns) and brought in $20 million. That made it possible for Diana Ross to go on to do “Mahogany” (1975) and “The Wiz” (1978). It also got five Oscar nominations, among them one for Best Actress for Diana Ross. It did not win anything, but it was the first time a black-made film ever received any nominations at all.
People had been wanting to make this film for quite a while – Dorothy Dandridge was even considered for the lead before she died in 1965. Abbey Lincoln, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll and Lola Falana were also considered. But in the end it went to Diana Ross, the girlfriend of the man who ran Motown.
The best thing about the film is also the worst thing about the film: Diana Ross herself. It is great to see Diana Ross sing Billie Holiday songs, yet she makes no attempt to sing like Billie Holiday. Arguably a wise move on her part, though not for a film about a famous singer. And while I like watching the beautiful and charming Diana Ross it is hard to forget that I am watching the beautiful and charming Diana Ross and not Billie Holiday. It kept me from throwing myself into the story.
It was also great watching the love story between Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams, but there was nothing like that in Billie Holiday’s life. If you listen to her songs the men in her life beat her and took advantage of her – which is something she not only sang but lived. Her life was the opposite of a Hollywood love story, but that did not stop Hollywood from pasting one of their big, old, fat love stories right across her life.
Billie Dee Williams’s character is based on Holiday’s second husband, Louis McKay. McKay worked for the Mafia in Harlem, he beat her and in the end left her. None of that is made clear in the film.
Even the songs were Hollywoodized: For example, the dark parts of “Strange Fruit”, a song about lynching, and “My Man”, a song about domestic violence, are left out.
Billie Holiday’s life can be honestly and movingly presented, something she did in her very own songs – but something that Hollywood seems incapable of.
On the other hand, the film is good at showing how American drug possession laws are like something out of the dark ages. Billie Holiday was hooked on heroin – a terrible thing, as the film shows. She needed the help of a doctor but even when she tried to do that the government arrested her and put her in prison instead – in a cage as if she were a dangerous, wild animal.
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I hate totally inaccurate historical fiction, because for many this is the only history or biography they get. I know black people don’t like to air “dirty laundry”, but if done right there can be lessons learned from accurate portrayal of Black people.
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True. But reality and accuracy is always scarified when it comes do movies or novels. The problem is, for many people, it’s the only way to learn about something and it just make them get all the things wrong.
I know black people don’t like to air “dirty laundry”, but if done right there can be lessons learned from accurate portrayal of Black people.
On the other hand, this is also true, and it’s not like I don’t understand it.
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Very good post, Abagond.
Here is the Hollywood watered-down version of this very truthful and painful song, written in 1939 by Abel Meerpol, a Jew:
“Strange Fruit””
Here are the full lyrics:
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
“My Man”:
Diana (Lady Day), sings this song near the end of the film at her Carnegie Hall comeback (after she had to fight to reclaim her cabaret licence).
You are right, the “Man” song is definitely about abuse, if one listens to the lyrics:
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/billie+holiday/my+man_20017796.html
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I wish they would make a good solid film about the Lady. I read her biography while back and was really moved. She had a hell of a life, but still lived on untill all the strains came too much.
She had intellect and good sense of humor, and most of all divine way of singing. And if anyone she deserves a good movie about her.
I have also seen the movie starring Diana Ross and was dissapointed. It was too polished and censored. Billie Holiday was not trying to act better than what she was but she was always herself. That was part of her magic. The movie falls short.
Maybe it would be a good time to do the story again, with the real Stranger fruit and Man in it. There are lots and lots of brilliant black directors and actresses who could do it. Lets hope that it happens sooner than later!
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I loved Diana Ross in this movie, I have to admit back then I was a huge Diana Ross fan, but I wondered about her being an actress, she did a great job in the film. I loved her in Mahogany as well. It was a while before I learned about her relationship with Berry Gordy, so he probably pulled some strings for her in getting this job as Billie Holiday. I still love her today.
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I loved the movie but as I look back this was a sanitized version of Billie Holiday.
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Time for a remake. Macy Gray as Billie.
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