Life before email, and a friendship carried on through the mail.
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Lady Day, 1939, with Bud Freeman, Zutty Singleton, and Hot Lips Page, at “The Friday Club,” photograph by Charles Peterson, inscribed to Moore.
The erudite bookseller Brad Verter, of CARPE LIBRUM BOOKS in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, acquired a collection of thirty letters written by Billie Holiday to the young admirer-singer Marilyn Leilani Moore (11 July 1921 – 7 Mar 1999). To be exact:
Holiday, Billie (born Eleanora Fagan, 7 April 1915 – 17 July 1959). A collection of 30 letters, possibly in the hand of her mother, to Marilyn Leilani Moore (11 July 1921 – 7 Mar 1999). New York, 20 June 1939 to 19 August 1941. Together 30 letters totaling 60 pages, nearly all with original hand-addressed postmarked envelopes, most on 10 x 8 in. lined paper, a few smaller notes variously signed “Billie” or “B. Holiday.” [WITH] A portrait of Holiday with bandmates inscribed to Moore, 1939 [WITH] A tearsheet for a concert at the Apollo Theater featuring Holiday, February 1941. All in superb condition. Individually filed in an archival box. Provenance: Christies, sale 2272 (June 24, 2009), lot 77.
Before you begin checking your bank balance, the collection will not be sold to an individual, but rather to an institution willing to share its treasures with the public. As Brad writes, “Price on request” because it’s for sale to institutions only. I’m against the private ownership of historically important materials and these need to be studied, not put on a trophy shelf.
Click https://www.carpelibrumbooks.com/billie-holiday-and-the-showgirl-a-correspondence-archive-1939-to-1941 to read excerpts from the letters, with Billie’s comments on Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, John Hammond, weight loss, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, racism, Freddie Green, Big Joe Turner, the music business, sisterly advice, and more. Fascinating and wholly revealing.
Is there a hip librarian or archivist reading this post? We live in hope, as my mother used to say.
And here’s some music, the way Moore would have heard it:
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(For those entranced by those recordings, with lovely playing from Benny Carter, Bennie Morton, Bill Coleman, and George Auld, YouTube has the alternate take of each performance, although often in poorer sound.)
May your happiness increase!
JAZZ LIVES 