Billie Dove.) Born to an unwed teenage mother, Sadie Fagan, Holiday's childhood was one of poverty. Her father, Clarence Holiday (later a jazz guitarist) married Sadie three years later. He never lived with the family,
Previous biographical treatments of Holiday — among them the 1972 Diana Ross vehicle,Lady Sings the Blues; the 2016 play adaptation,Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill; and 2019’s documentary featureBillie— have shed light on her harrowing childhood experiences of sexual predation and her conse...
Boys told me they masturbated to pictures of my mom in Star Wars, and I'd run home crying. My mom would say, 'You know what you do? Turn around and say, "Me too." ' That's when I realized that my childhood wasn't 100 percent normal. ...
Her parents, she says, lived separate lives for most of her childhood but finally parted, relatively amicably, when she was 12.'I remember telling my friend at school that my parents were getting divorced and she said, "Oh, I thought they already were." So it wasn't traumatic. Dad ...
Born to an unwed teenage mother, Sadie Fagan, Holiday's childhood was one of poverty. Her father, Clarence Holiday (later a jazz guitarist) married Sadie three years later. He never lived with the family, choosing his musical career over them. As a child Billie started working very young,...
Boys told me they masturbated to pictures of my mom in Star Wars, and I'd run home crying. My mom would say, 'You know what you do? Turn around and say, "Me too." ' That's when I realized that my childhood wasn't 100 percent normal. ...