
Billie Holiday spent much of her career being adored by fans. In the 1940s, the government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial ballad, "Strange Fruit."

Billie Holiday

Jimmy Fletcher

Harry Anslinger

Reginald Lord Devine

Miss Freddy

Mrs. Fletcher

Tallulah Bankhead

Louis McKay

Roslyn
In a scene from The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Billie (Andra Day) is about to sing “Strange Fruit” in concert, which Harry J. Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), the first commissioner of the US Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, had forbidden her to do. Behind the audience is a row of uniformed policemen. Billie goes straight for the first verse (even though “Strange Fruit” actually features a long instrumental intro). The cops start moving toward the stage, from which Billie is promptly spirited away by her own camp. This happens after one of Anslinger’s underlings has mad...
Status Released
Original LanguageEnglish
Budget-
Revenue -