The Story Is Told
Did The Earth Move Billie?

​"I had just started doing Strange Fruit then; the record was selling and I always got a request for it in about every show. I remember the night this white boy stayed around just to bug me. When I started singing it, he'd start kicking up a storm of noise, rattling glasses, calling me n****r .... After two shows of this I was ready to quit ..."

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"It was then that Bob Hope came in. He came over to me, God bless him, with Jerry Colonna and Judy Garland and I'll never forget it. "Listen," said Hope, "you go out there and sing. Let that sonofabitch say something and I'll take care of him." So I did and he did. It was a real mess. When the cracker boy started, I stopped singing and Bob took the floor. Hope traded insults with that cracker for five minutes before he had enough and left. After Hope finished with him, I went back singing."

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"When I did my last encore the joint was still ringing with applause and Bob Hope was waiting for me in the dining room with a big bucket of champagne. I hate champagne, but I drank it that night. After a couple of swigs I looked around and the mirrors in the joint were shaking and the chandeliers were swinging. "Man, this is powerful stuff," I said. ... "Look Bob," I said. "I don't usually drink this stuff, but this champagne is crazy."

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"Look, girl," he said, "don't you know we just now had one of the worst earthquakes anybody ever had around here? ..."

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(From Lady Sings The Blues by Billie Holiday with William Dufty)