Crescendo in Blue

Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant Holiday (1938) Dir. George Cukor

Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday” (1953)

Tampa, FL 1956: Elvis chats with fans outside of his hotel while enjoying a cup of soup.

Sophie Litvak photographed by Georges Dambier for ELLE  1952.

Judy Garland in 1946, photo by Yousuf Karsh

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Here’s Joe E. Brown, Fred Keating, Glenda Farrell, James Cagney, and Pat O’Brien at an outdoor picnic in 1935.

Ava Gardner, 1951

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

Freddie for Roberta, 1935

New York, 1953, photo by Eliot Elisofon

happy birthday, billie holiday // april 7, 1915 - july 17, 1959 // “there’s no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up”

“Behind me, Billie was on her last song. I picked up the refrain, humming a few bars. Her voice sounded different to me now. Beneath the layers of hurt, beneath the ragged laughter, I heard a willingness to endure. Endure- and make music that wasn’t there before.“ President Barack Obama “Once, when [I was] playing at the Apollo, [Billie] was working a block away at the Harlem Opera House. Some of us went over between shows to catch her, and afterward, we went backstage. I did something then, and I still don’t know if it was the right thing to do - I asked her for her autograph.”  Ella Fitzgerald  “With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing." Frank Sinatra "If I hear a record once, I usually never listen to it again. I rarely listen to music - unless it’s Billie Holiday." Barbra Streisand “She could express more emotion in one chorus than most actresses can in three acts.” Jeanne Moreau "I have the ability to sing with emotion and feeling, but if you say I sound like Billie Holiday, that’s cool. Let’s look at who Billie was: she was this person, this singer, this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the slightest gesture of her hand." Erykah Badu "Billie Holiday….she is so subtle, she can milk you with two notes. She can go no farther than from a to b, and she can make you feel like she told you the whole universe." Janis Joplin "My great hero is Billie Holiday." Tim Curry

Debbie Reynolds

Black Excellence. Black Love Matters.