Take legendary Motown diva Diana Ross and let her portray legendary jazz diva Billie Holiday, and well, of course, you’ll get an iconic ‘behind the music’ style biopic that is Lady Sings the Blues (1972). Starting with Holiday thrown in prison on drug charges and flashing back to a childhood filled with rape and prostitution, there’s no sugar-coating Holiday’s life story, even if the events depicted in this movie are only a rough outline of the way it happened. Timelines and places are vague, multiple people are combined into fewer and fictionalized characters, but essence is there, making for a compelling film.
Ross does an admirable job at portraying Holiday’s emotional swings, her heroin addiction, and her affair with Louis McKay (standing in for all three of Holiday’s real husbands, played by Billy Dee Williams). The music is an excellent combination of Diana Ross as herself, not exactly imitating Billie Holiday, but incorporating some of her techniques to make Holiday’s songs recognizable.
The film hints at the racism of the 1930s-1950s when Holiday performed and attempts to link the torment of these experiences to her drug addiction. For example, while touring through the Jim Crow South with an all-white band, Holiday sees a lynched man, and this scene merges into a brief performance of the song “Strange Fruit.” In another scene, the tour bus is actually attacked by a Klu Klux Klan rally. Later, when her band leader tries to line up a radio performance, Holiday is passed over in favor of two white singers, while the radio station pointedly runs a live commercial for a ‘white as snow’ brand of soap. While these are all fictional events, the real Billie Holiday was frequently forced to use service entrances instead of the front door like her white band and was heckled by white audiences, while securing recording contracts was difficult, and the legal troubles that plagued her until days before her death were undoubtedly influenced by racism.
In between the tragedies, Lady Sings the Blues does showcase Billie Holiday’s (and Diana Ross’) amazing talent, and the film adds a melodramatic and touching love story between Holiday and McKay. It’s worth noting that, while Ross was already a star from The Supremes, Billy Dee Williams was still a rising talent, and this film being a box-office hit made him a certified heartthrob.
There’s a story floating around that Miss Ross hated the costumes for this film and had them redesigned after just a few days of shooting. That might explain why three designers get credit, Norma Koch (this is her final screen credit!), and the design team of Bob Mackie and Ray Aghayan. The later two had worked with Ross on her gowns since she left The Supremes, and their style — often just called Bob Mackie’s style — is obvious in the supposedly period looks.
Her stage-show gowns all very much have a contemporary style with the barest hint of 1930s-1940s, usually in the accessories. The daywear more distinctly tries to look of the period, however, Ross’ hairstyle is all over the place in terms of what decade it’s supposed to evoke. In a couple scenes, her hair looks ’30s, and then it goes full ’60s, especially when you compare to photos of Holiday. Considering that her arrest happened in 1947 and Carnegie Hall concert was in ’48, more of the clothing and hair styles should reflect this period than earlier.
Are you a Billie Holiday or Diana Ross fan? Have you seen Lady Sings the Blues?
I am not a Ross fan though I thought the movie was good. I agree with a reviewer who many years ago described her voice as ‘reed thin’. My understanding is that she was placed as the the front woman for the Supremes based on her looks and not her (underwhelming) voice. Her bandmates had better voices than she and I feel sorry for them.
In addition to looking “whiter,” Ross was also believed to sound whiter than Florence Ballard—the original leader (who had a gospel-music background)—and was moved to the front in order to attract more crossover audiences.
As for emulating Holiday’s voice and style, Audra MacDonald used her classical technique to come a lot closer than Ross.
Another version of backing Ray Charles with those awful white-bread choruses so he’d sound less black and scary or whatever.
Admittedly, I saw “Lady” long ago, just after it came out, and I had been smoking hash, so the movie itself seemed entrancing. But I’m not a Ross fan, either. She gave a fine star performance, but she’s nothing at all like Holiday, physically or vocally. (Speaking of the Supremes, I wonder what Flo Ballard could have done with the role?)
…Just watched McDonald singing Holiday on YouTube. Now there’s a star who’s also a real musician.
Big Holiday fan here. Her voice is what led me to start a vast CD collection of African American Jazz and Blues Women singers from the early 1900’s to the the 1940’s. The complexity of emotions and atmosphere conveyed in blues is a must when writing historical fiction of the early 20th century in the States.
Their biographies/biopics need to be heard and seen more! Thank you for this post!
More of a fan of Ross’s daughter Tracee Ellis Ross than her per se, but I have seen Mary Wilson live in concert and her performance was incredible.
Love, love, love TER!
I was never a fan of Holiday and felt guilty for that, since her story is so hard and she was treated like crap so unfairly so many times. Not a Ross fan either, for reasons in comments above, and because she seemed much more about the fame and ego than actual talent, and I read some autobiographies of those who worked with her. (Sorry folks who disagree–just my opinion.) I do however give her credit for helping Adam Ant, who was pretty much the lone white face invited to perform at the big Motown anniversary in the 80s or so, and he was told to do Where Did Our Love Go?, and he felt like a real fish out of water during it until Diana Ross came onstage, all unscripted, to flirt with him during the song and thus give it her stamp of approval (as per his autobiography). I thought that was handsome of her to do so.
I remember this film being a huge hit when it came out but have not seen it in decades, if ever. Thanks for the writeup and the reminder to see it again. Even with costume mileage varying, the music and story seem worthwhile.
I did a lot of research on Billie Holiday when I wrote Scandalous Women, so I watched the film as part of it. Not a huge fan of this film. I think that Audra MacDonald came much closer to the spirit of Billie Holiday than Diana Ross. She had none of the real rawness of Holiday who wasn’t afraid to throw down, nor did they really touch that much on Billie’s bisexuality in the film. Man, she had some terrible husbands as well.
Interesting so many comments are not really about the Oscar nominated acting but more about the person of Miss Ross. Then the comparison to an Audra McDonald one night concert play as opposed to a full length feature film ??? A parody compared to a biographical piece.meant to tell a woman’s STORY not to mimic just ONE of her more pitifully drugged out performances ….which by the way even Ross was wise enough to know NOT to try to mimic a woman who CANNOT be duplicated in any way! Well that is why she was nominated in the first place….because the PERFORMANCE not Diana’s personality ….was what was nomination worthy a GREAT film LOVELY music LOVELY vocals! YES I do love Miss Ross’ work however i KNOW the film is GREAT because as much as I love to see her performance it is a hard watch and I watch sparingly because there is a foreboding darkness about the film, the tragic undertone of the facts of Billie’s life are hard to watch. I feel her pain & Diana captures it perfectly because she is the opposite personality type of Billie YET she takes me there. The scene where Louis comes to her aid after piano man dies ??????? WHAT soulless being could NOT see the EXCELLENCE of emotion Diana put in that scene ALONE? Yes you have to see the FILM ITSELF on IT”S MERITS and not moan about a book that speaks about those who worked for Diana Ross the person. Or grieve how Florence might have played a part when she made it clear she was not to be put to task by anyone let alone a man like bossy Berry Gordy as she is quoted that she could NOT be controlled or what have you where is Diana took Berry’s direction as a challenge to give her BEST (yeah you kinda want to impress the boss as opposed to pissing him off) she is quoted as saying if he believed she could do it she found she would do it & do it WELL! This chain is about THE FILM not about Diana Ross the person FOCUS …btw it was a GREAT FILM point blank period LOL!