Summary

A Billie Holiday album titled 'The Billie Holiday Story Volume I'. It consists of two vinyl records in their original plastic sleeves within the album cover. It was recorded in the USA and distributed in 1972. Lindsay and Sylvia Motherwell both enjoyed a variety of music, from jazz to musicals.

Sylvia Boyes (a South African-born orphan) and Lindsay Motherwell (a Melbourne-born drummer) met in Cape Town, South Africa in 1967 through their theatre connections. They fell in love but due to apartheid laws were forced to leave South Africa to marry in London. They subsequently relocated permanently to Melbourne in 1970.

Physical Description

Two 12" records with 33 1/3 RPM, in their original plastic sleeves within a cardboard album cover. The front cover consists of four black and white photos of Billie Holiday, taken 1935-1946. There is also a panel which contains the title of the album and a list of all the featured artists across the two discs. The album opens to a large double-page spread of text. The title is "THE BILLIE HOLIDAY STORY . Volume I" There is a foreword by John Hammond, and the rest of the text is written by Ralph J. Gleason. On the back is a lsit of all the songs on each album with credits to all the artists involved.

Significance

Statement of Historical Significance:
This collection provides a significant opportunity to represent political and personal freedom as a motivation for migrating to Australia within the international context of both apartheid in South Africa and the end of the White Australia policy in Australia. The personal narrative is well documented and the objects provide a material way to follow the lives of both Lindsay and Sylvia, both separately and where they coincide in South Africa and onwards together to Melbourne. While this is ultimately a love story, it plays out through the collection against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa, sixties London and an increasingly multicultural Australia.

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