“Billie’s Blues, “Billie Holiday and her Orchestra; Billie Holiday, 1936.

Billie Holiday, Joe Guy, her trumpeter-husband, and Mister, her dog, photographed in Billie’s dressing room at the Downbeat Club. Photo by Skippy Adelman.

“One of the these days things will get better,” she sighed. “They’ll get better for everybody. We’ll all have a chance to eat and sleep in peace. I just know it will come about. It will take a long time, but it will come about. It won’t be in my lifetime, though. Oh, no, I’ll never profit by it.”

PM, 1945, Photos by Skippy Adelman.

“Why Was I Born?“, Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, John Jackson, Lester Young, Joe Jones, Walter Page, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, Jerome Kern, 1937.

New York Post, 1945.

“I Must Have That Man!“, Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, John Jackson, Lester Young, Joe Jones, Walter Page, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, Fields, McHugh, 1937.

Manhattan Phone book, 1940.

“Fine and Mellow,” Billie Holiday and her Orchestra, Frankie Newton, Billie Holiday, 1939.

Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit. Billie says: “It depresses me every time I sing it. It reminds me of how Pop died. But I have to sing it. Things are still going on in the south.
PM, 1945, Photos by Skippy Adelman.

“Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday and her Orchestra, Sonny White, Lewis Allan, 1939.

Billie Holiday (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959).