HOLIDAY, Billie (1915-1959) and Louis ARMSTRONG (1901-1971). The Birth of the Blues, 1947.

Rare concert programme for Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong at Boston's Symphony Hall on 18 April 1947. Sharing a manager in Joe Glaser, Armstrong and Holiday made a number of concert appearances together in 1946 and 1947, at the height of their fame. Less than a month after their show in Boston, Holiday would be arrested for possession of narcotics, leading to a year of incarceration and the loss of her New York City Cabaret Card, while the decline in popularity of the big band saw Armstrong’s band dissolved a few months later in August 1947. Originally wire-stitched, recently resewn in the original light card cover wraps, 310 x 228 mm.

[With:] a concert handbill for Billie Holiday’s two-week engagement at the Palomar Supper Club, Vancouver, from 14 February 1949, 204 x 76 mm.

[And:] two concert handbills for a cancelled appearance by Billie Holiday at the Royal Festival Hall in London, 8 June 1958, each 203 x 130 mm. Although Billie was booked for this single concert in London, on the back of a planned European tour, the dates were ultimately cancelled due to political unrest in France. Holiday would return to Europe that October for a tour of Italy and France, but did not perform in the UK, only returning to London for a television appearance the following February, just a few months before her tragic death on 17 July 1959 at age 44.