The Great Depression made it difficult to get a job or become successful because it limited the number of workers and the amount each person or business could have, but one person proved it. that it was possible to succeed. Billie Holiday was a young girl with no future, but she grew up to be so much more. In her life, she experienced many triumphs which brought her many glories. In this article you will discover all this. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Billie was born on April 7, 1915 as Eleanor Fagan. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sadie, her mother, was only 19 when she had Billie with a man who would be known as Clarence Holiday, a successful jazz musician. Her father, being a successful musician, almost never came to visit Billie and Sadie. Billie didn't have a father until three years after she was born. When Billie's mother married Phillip Gough in 1920, Billie had a stable home for a few years. Before this marriage, Billie had taken her grandfather's last name. This marriage didn't last more than a few years and Billie had some difficulty living at home. There were times when Billy had to live with other people until her mother could take care of her again. Billie started skipping school and getting into trouble. shortly after the divorce. Billie and her mother went to court over his absence, where Billy was sent to the House of the Good Shepherd. This house was a facility for troubled African-American women; as Billie was only 9 years old, she was one of the few youngest girls in the area. She was sent there in January and sent home in August (of the same year). In 1926, Billie was sexually assaulted and sent home and the man who attacked her was sent to prison. Billie left at the age of 13 to go to New York to visit her mother. On the way, she decided to stop and get off at Pennsylvania Station and visit Harlem first. She ended up getting lost; a social worker found her and took her to a hotel where she lived. This hotel turned out to be the YWCA. It was there that she became a prostitute and also began singing in local clubs and bars (this is where she renamed herself Billie). Billie had also started using drugs like marijuana. IN 1928, Billie and her mother moved to New York where her mother worked as a housekeeper. In 1929, the Great Depression hit and Sadie lost her job. In 1932, Billie had decided to audition for clubs as a dancer, but when she was rejected, she decided to give it a try. sing instead. When Billie was 18, she sang at a local jazz club in Harlem, where John Hammond, a music producer, discovered Billie. Hammond made his recording with Benny who played clarinet and was also a conductor. She had her first commercial release Your Mothers Son-in-Law with Benny. In 1934, she had her first top ten hit singing Riffin the Scotch. She again began singing in nightclubs and theaters in Harlem. Shortly after her first top 10 hit, she began recording with a man named Teddy Wilson, who was a jazz pianist. While performing with Teddy Wilson, she released other singles such as: What a Little Moonlight Can Do and Miss Brown to You. Also in 1935, Billie starred in the film Symphony in Black with Duke Ellington. Billie had started recording with Count Basie and a year later she began recording with Artie Shaw. Billie became the first singer.