Granny G – Google

I read this book in 1975 and lost my copy. I remember the book being a lot different than the movie starting with the age difference between her and her Mother. Her Mother was a very young girl around 14 when she had Billie, not an older women as the movie has. Add to that her band member was not the first to give her drugs according to her own autobiography. I will be reading it again if I'm lucky enough to find it. The book is better than the movie hands down.

I saw this movie the day it was release at a theater in New York City in 1972. My sister was 8 months pregnant. We wanted to leave her home but we decided to bring her with us. By my sister being so pregnant (lol) the manager saw us on the long line and brought us up front in order to prevent her from having to wait too long. Once we were settled and ready for the show I realized that the cast of characters looked nothing like the people that were in Billie Holiday's life especially the women who played the part as Billie Holiday's Mother. Billie's Mother was only 13 or 14 years older than Billie but the movie depicted her as being a woman in her 60's or 70's. All the acting was superb. Diana Ross herself sounded NOTHING like Billie Holiday, and had NONE of the facial feathers of Holiday. Decades later someone depicted Halle Berry as Dorothy Dandridge and did what I call a reincarnation moment of Dandridge through Hallie Berry. Diana Ross was NOT the one who should have played Billie Holiday. Let's add a little more by saying Louis Mckay was the first person to give Holiday drugs and was not the only man in her life. Read Billie Holiday's book and get the truth about her life.