Editing Billie Holiday (section)

===1947–1952: Legal issues and Carnegie Hall concert===
By 1947, Holiday was at her commercial peak, having made $250,000 in the three previous years.{{Sfn|Holiday & Dufty,|1956|pp=147–149}} She was ranked second in the ''DownBeat'' poll for 1946 and 1947, her highest ranking in that poll.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=155}} She was ranked fifth in ''Billboard''{{'}}s annual college poll of "girl singers" on July 6, 1947 ([[Jo Stafford]] was first). In 1946, Holiday won the ''Metronome'' magazine popularity poll.{{Sfn|Chilton,|1975|pp=92–93}}

[[File:Billie Holiday mug shot.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Mug shot]] of Holiday after being arrested in 1947]]

On May 16, 1947, Holiday was arrested for possession of [[narcotic]]s in her New York apartment. On May 27, she was in court. "It was called 'The United States of America versus Billie Holiday'. And that's just the way it felt", she recalled.{{Sfn|Holiday & Dufty,|1956|p=146}} During the trial, she heard that her lawyer would not come to the trial to represent her. "In plain English, that meant no one in the world was interested in looking out for me," she said. Dehydrated and unable to hold down food, she pleaded guilty and asked to be sent to the hospital. The [[district attorney]] spoke in her defense, saying, "If your honor please, this is a case of a drug addict, but more serious, however, than most of our cases, Miss Holiday is a professional entertainer and among the higher rank as far as income was concerned." She was sentenced to [[Federal Prison Camp, Alderson|Alderson Federal Prison Camp]] in West Virginia. The drug possession conviction caused her to lose her [[New York City Cabaret Card]], preventing her working anywhere that sold alcohol; thereafter, she performed in concert venues and theaters.{{Sfn|Lahr, December 20,|2018|p=}}

[[File:Billie Holiday, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., ca. Feb. 1947 (William P. Gottlieb 04251).jpg|thumb|left|Holiday at the [[Downbeat Jazz Club]], New York,{{Sfn|''Guardian'', May 3,|2015|p=}} {{nowrap|c. February 1947}}]]

Holiday was released early (on March 16, 1948) because of good behavior. When she arrived at [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]], her pianist [[Bobby Tucker]] and her dog Mister were waiting. The dog leaped at Holiday, knocking off her hat, and tackling her to the ground. "He began lapping me and loving me like crazy", she said. A woman thought the dog was attacking Holiday. She screamed, a crowd gathered, and reporters arrived. "I might just as well have wheeled into [[Pennsylvania Station (Newark)|Penn Station]] and had a quiet little get-together with the [[Associated Press]], [[United Press]], and [[International News Service]]", she said.{{Sfn|Holiday & Dufty,|1956|p=165}}

Ed Fishman (who fought with Joe Glaser to be Holiday's manager) thought of a comeback concert at Carnegie Hall. Holiday hesitated, unsure audiences would accept her after the arrest. She gave in and agreed to appear. On March 27, 1948, Holiday played Carnegie Hall to a sold-out crowd. Two thousand seven hundred tickets were sold in advance, a record at the time for the venue. Her popularity was unusual because she did not have a current hit record.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|pp=165–167}} Her last record to reach the charts was "Lover Man" in 1945. Holiday sang 32 songs at the Carnegie concert by her count, including [[Cole Porter]]'s "[[Night and Day (song)|Night and Day]]" and her 1930s hit, "Strange Fruit". During the show, someone sent her a box of [[gardenia]]s. "My old trademark", Holiday said. "I took them out of box and fastened them smack to the side of my head without even looking twice." There was a hatpin in the gardenias and Holiday unknowingly stuck it into the side of her head. "I didn't feel anything until the blood started rushing down in my eyes and ears", she said. After the third curtain call, she passed out.{{Sfn|Holiday & Dufty,|1956|pp=168–169}}

On April 27, 1948, Bob Sylvester and her promoter Al Wilde arranged a Broadway show for her. Titled ''Holiday on Broadway'', it sold out. "The regular music critics and drama critics came and treated us like we were legit", she said. But it closed after three weeks.{{Sfn|Holiday & Dufty,|1956|pp=172–173}}

Holiday was arrested again on January 22, 1949, in her room at the Hotel Mark Twain in [[San Francisco]] by [[George Hunter White]].{{Sfn|''Reuters'', July 4,|2008}} Holiday said she began using hard drugs in the early 1940s. She married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. While still married, she became involved with trumpeter Joe Guy, her drug dealer. She divorced Monroe in 1947 and also split with Guy.

[[File:Billie Holiday, 1949.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Holiday in court over a contract dispute, late 1949]]

In October 1949, Holiday recorded "[[Crazy He Calls Me]]", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010. Gabler said the hit was her most successful recording for Decca after "Lover Man". The charts of the 1940s did not list songs outside the top 30, making it impossible to recognize minor hits. By the late 1940s, despite her popularity and concert power, her singles were little played on radio, perhaps because of her reputation.{{Sfn|Clarke,|2002|p=327}}

In 1948, Holiday played at the Ebony Club, which was against the law. Her manager, John Levy, was convinced he could get her card back and allowed her to open without one. "I opened scared", Holiday said, "[I was] expecting the cops to come in any chorus and carry me off. But nothing happened. I was a huge success."{{Sfn|Holiday & Dufty,|1956|p=175}}

Holiday recorded Gershwin's "[[I Loves You, Porgy]]" in 1948. In 1950, Holiday appeared in the [[Universal Pictures|Universal]] short film ''[[Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet]]'', singing "God Bless the Child" and "Now, Baby or Never".{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=181}}

The loss of her cabaret card reduced Holiday's earnings. She had not received proper record royalties until she joined Decca, so her main revenue was club concerts. The problem worsened when Holiday's records went out of print in the 1950s. She seldom received royalties in her later years. In 1958, she received a royalty of only $11.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|pp=167, 229}} Her lawyer in the late 1950s, Earle Warren Zaidins, registered with [[Broadcast Music, Inc.|BMI]] only two songs she had written or co-written, costing her revenue.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=215}}