April 18, 1947: The film New Orleans premiered and became jazz star Billie Holiday’s only appearance in a feature film. She later recalled that she signed on thinking the deal was she would be playing herself, then was cast as a maid. She was additionally upset with this casting choice because she viewed it as a type of role typically given to Black women to reinforce race and gender norms. One positive for Holiday was that her good friend and fellow jazz musician Louis Armstrong also starred in the film. The film’s produced seemingly thought that by casting two of the most influential jazz musicians in a film about the Jazz Age, they would have a hit. Holiday later reflected on the film’s critical reception, writing: “By the time the picture opened on Broadway I was already far from the scene. I never got to read what the critics said about it until just now. Most of them were rough on the picture—almost as rough as they should have been. Some of them were kind to me, maybe kinder than they should have been.”
Citations: Billie Holiday and William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues (New York: Broadway Books, 2006 [1956]), 136-140, Kindle edition; Khanya Mtshali, “Introduction,” in Billie Holiday: The Last Interview and Other Conversations, ed. Khanya Mtshali (Brooklyn: Melville House: 2019), xiii, Kindle edition; Joe Glaser, “Photograph of Billie Holiday,” photograph (location unknown, December 1943), public domain, collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C.), https://www.si.edu/object/photograph-billie-holiday:nmaahc_2013.46.25.80.
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