Malak Monir,Jessica Durando|USA TODAY
Corrections & Clarifications: The date Billie Holiday starred in the film Symphony in Black was incorrect. Holiday performed in 1935.
One hundred years ago, Billie Holiday, as she later became known, was born in Philadelphia.
The legendary singer would have an enormous impact on jazz and pop music. Here are 100 interesting facts about the highs and lows of her life, those she influenced and her lasting legacy.
1. Her birth name was Eleanora fa*gan Gough.
2. There are discrepancies in her birth accounts, with Holiday claiming to be born in Baltimore in her memoirs while her biographer Donald Clarke notes a time of birth, name of doctor and original spelling of her name on her birth certificate dated April 7, 1915, from Philadelphia general hospital, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
3. Some sources say her birth certificate reads Elinore Harris, according to Biography.com.
4.Her mother, Sadie fa*gan, was a teenager when she gave birth to Holiday.
5. Her father was believed to be jazz musician Clarence Holiday.
6. She grew up in Baltimore in the 1920s.
7. During her childhood, Holiday often skipped school, leading to her mother going to court over truancy.
8. Holiday was raised in poverty.
9. On her childhood, Holiday said, "I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old."
10. Holiday was sent to a facility for troubled girls at 9 years old.
11. Reports say she dropped out of school in the fifth grade and found a job running errands in a brothel, according to PBS.
12. Holiday moved with her mom, who was searching for a better job, to Harlem, N.Y., before her teen years.
13. She was later arrested for prostitution, according to PBS.
14. Holiday was discovered by producer John Hammond at 18.
15. John Hammond said of Holiday, "She was the first girl singer I'd come across who actually sang like an improvising jazz genius."
16. In 1933, she cut her first record and Hammond organized her first commercial recording session with Benny Goodman.
17. In 1935, Holiday starred alongside Duke Ellington in the film Symphony in Black.
18. In 1937, Holiday toured with Count Basie Orchestra.
19. She changed her name to Billie Holiday as an appreciation to film star Billie Dove.
20. She was the first black woman to work with a white orchestra when she paired with clarinetist, composer and bandleader Artie Shaw in 1938.
21. Holiday debuted Strange Fruit in a 1939 performance at Cafe Society, New York's first integrated nightclub.
22. The song Strange Fruit was written by Abel Meeropol as a poem.
23. In 1941, Holiday married James Monroe.
24. It was a brief relationship and the pair divorced.
25. During her relationship with trumpeter Joe Guy in the 1940s, she began using heroin.
26. Holiday's mother passed away in the late 1940s.
27. She signed with Decca Records in 1943.
28. In 1944, Holiday received Esquire Magazine's Gold Award for Best Leading Female Vocalist. She would go on to receive similar awards in the following years.
29. Much to her satisfaction, she appeared with her idol Louis Armstrong in the film New Orleans in 1947.
30. Unfortunately, she played the role of a maid in New Orleans.
31. Holiday was arrested in 1947 for narcotics possession.
32. She was sentenced to a year and a day of prison time and went to a federal rehabilitation facility in West Virginia.
33. Because of her prison term, Holiday was not able to get a license to play in cabarets and clubs.
34. However, she managed to play in New York's Club Ebony with the help of the owner, John Levy, who would become her boyfriend and manager.
35. When she first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1948, Holiday received three curtain calls before a sold-out crowd.
36. After her release from prison in 1948, the singer appeared in a Broadway musical, Holiday on Broadway.
37. Holiday successfully toured in Europe in 1954.
38. Billie releases her next full length album, "Billie Holiday", for Clef Records in 1954.
39. In 1955, Holiday made her first appearance on The Tonight Show hosted by Steve Allen.
40. Her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues was published by Doubleday in 1956.
41. Holiday claimed to have never read Lady Sings The Blues after it was finished.
42. Her nickname was "Lady Day," given by sax player Lester Young, who was part of Count Basie's orchestra.
43. She appeared on the ABC reality series The Comeback Story in 1953.
44. She married Louis McKay in 1957 in Mexico.
45. Her final performance was in New York City in 1959. She died later that year.
46. Holiday was brought to the hospital for heart and liver problems in 1959.
47. She was arrested for possession of heroin while at the hospital.
48. Holiday died of alcohol and drug-related problems.
49. When Holiday died on July 17, 1959, her life savings was $750, according to NPR.
50. More than 3,000 people attended the 44-year-old's funeral.
51. It was held at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in New York on July 21, 1959.
52. Holiday was buried at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in Bronx County, N.Y.
53. In 1972, her autobiography was made into a movie Lady Sings the Blues.
54. Diana Ross played the part of Holiday in the film.
55. Her God Bless the Child single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1976.
56. Her relationships were often abusive and her songs reflected the turbulence in her life, including T'ain't Nobody's Business If I Do and My Man.
57. Billie Holiday was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, years after her death.
58. Music historian Michael Brooks, who produced the compilation Billie Holiday: The Centennial Collection, an anthology of recordings from 1935-1945, says of Holiday: "She was hard-nosed, there's no doubt about it. She didn't care who she fought with or how it affected her career."
59. She clashed with bandleaders Count Basie and Artie Shaw during her lifetime.
60. Holiday described her approach to performing, "I don't think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life."
61. Holiday released 38 charting singles during her career.
62. Holiday never learned how to read music.
63. The U2 song Angel of Harlem pays tribute to Holiday.
64. Holiday had an interesting perspective about her singing career. "Singing songs like The Man I Love or Porgy is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck," she wrote in her autobiography.
65. A statue of Holiday was erected in Baltimore at the corner of Lafayette and Pennsylvania Avenues.
66. The 1,200-pound statue depicts Holiday in a strapless gown with gardenias in her hair and her mouth open.
67. Baltimore sculptor James Earl Reid created the tall bronze statue of Holiday.
68. It cost $113,000 to make the statue, according to the Baltimore Sun.
69. The statue of her in Baltimore stands 8-feet-6-inches.
70. The first dedication of the statue was in 1985 by then-mayor William Donald Schaefer.
71. More than 200 people attended the dedication, the Sun reported.
72. In 2008, $76,000 was spent to restore Holiday's statue in Baltimore, according to the Sun.
73. Billie Holiday was one of Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell's main musical influences.
74. Holiday stood 5-foot-5-inches tall.
75. The U.S. Postal Service honored Holiday with a stamp on Sept. 18, 1994.
76. Holiday endured racial discrimination during her career: At one hotel the management demanded that she use the freight elevator, so as not to offend white clientele.
77. Holiday lacked technical voice training.
78. Some radio stations banned the record Strange Fruit because it was considered too controversial, which made it all the more popular.
79. On relationships, Holiday said, "Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on."
80. During the 1950s, her appearances became less frequent due to her alcohol and drug use.
81. Time magazine declared Strange Fruit the song of the century in 1999.
82. Holiday ranked No. 6 on VH1's "100 Greatest Women in Rock n' Roll" in 1999 as well.
83. Holiday never had children.
84. Strange Fruit was honored by the Library of Congress as one of the 50 songs to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2002.
85. Her voice was actually limited in size and range.
86. Holiday recorded Strange Fruit with an alternate label, Commodore, because Columbia would not allow it because of its subject matter. The piece is about the lynching of a black man.
87. "People don't understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it," Holiday said about being an artist in the music industry at the time.
88. Billie Holiday sang at least 350 different songs during her lifetime.
89. She wore white gardenias in her hair, which would become her trademark.
90. Another trademark of hers was singing with her head tilted back.
91. Holiday was considered to being one of the highest paid performers of her era, but much of her earnings went to her drug addictions.
92. "Crazy He Calls me" single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010.
93. "I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know," Holiday said on her signature voice.
94. Lester Young and Billie Holiday are known for creating some of the best jazz recordings ever, including songs This Year's Kisses and Mean to Me.
95. WNYC radio host Jonathan Schwartz said that Holiday "started to do what Frank (Sinatra) would finish, which is to sing a song from the inside rather than the outside, so that the song became a part of the flesh and blood of the singer. That's why they are the two greatest intimate singers."
96. Billie Holiday was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2011.
97. Five-time Tony winner Audra McDonald played Billie Holiday in the Broadway production Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill in 2014.
98. In 2014, a public relations firm called Strange Fruit changed its name after receiving criticism for being racially insensitive.
99. The Apollo Theater acknowledged Holiday by inducting her into its Walk of Fame on April 6, 2015.
100. On April 10, Grammy-winning artist Cassandra Wilson will headline the Apollo Theater for the first time to honor Holiday on the same stage she performed on first in 1934.
Sources: BillieHoliday.com; Biography.com; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; USA TODAY research
