HOLIDAY, Billie (1915-1959).

Souvenir photo folder cover for Club Ebony, New York, 1950s, signed in ballpoint pen by Billie Holiday. Billie’s association with Club Ebony began following her release from prison in 1948, when the club’s co-manager John Levy leveraged his influence and connections to allow her to perform there undisturbed, despite the revocation of her New York City Cabaret Card. According to biographer Meg Greene, Holiday ‘worked hard to overcome her bad reputation: she showed up on time and performed every night… Her success at the Ebony led to radio appearances and additional bookings at the Strand Theater, where she drew the largest crowds seen there in years’. Inevitably, she became romantically involved with Levy, continuing a pattern of abusive relationships that would contribute to her destruction. Greene, 93.

Printed in black on textured cream card stock, the signature somewhat faded, 221 x 276 mm. Provenance: Lelands, New Jersey, 4 December 2003, lot 176 – RR Auctions, Boston, 14 June 2017, lot 494.

[With:] an original table photograph of Billie Holiday in corresponding souvenir photo folder from the short-lived Bop City, New York, 1949. Vintage sepia-toned gelatin silver print, with date-stamp ‘AUG 24 1949’ verso, 254 x 206 mm. Provenance: The Collection of Norman R. Saks.