She never lost faith in her musics ability to capture and persuade. Anslinger, who once faced calls for his resignation after using the n-word in an internal memo, was not a fan of jazz music. Billie, why dont you make a short case of this and, if youve got anything, why dont you turn it over to us? he asked. The most abrasive paintings that people still talk about today are the shit. She was intending to give it to the nurses who had looked after her, to thank them. Fletcher did not agree. Protesters sent the song to Congress in hopes of passing an anti-lynching bill, per the BBC. Jimmy Fletcher was the answer. This young lady was gifted by her creator with tremendous talent . To me, this is all about how we love this country and it dismisses us, The extensive on and off relationship between Fletcher and Holiday as is shown in the movie is pretty much speculation. Main Image: Andra Day and Trevante Rhodes in The United States vs. Billie Holiday from Paramount Pictures. It's easy to say you want to do something, but walking to do it is very, very difficult. They summoned a grand jury to indict her, telling her that unless she disclosed her dealer, they would take her straight to prison. She stripped and stood there, and then she pissed in front of them, defying them to watch. Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit" Live 1959 [Reelin' In The Years Archives], 'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' True Story, 35 Classic Photos from the Academy Awards, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, and grew up in Baltimore. Follow him @johannhari101. We talked to Chasing the Scream author Johann Hari about the role jazz legend Billie Holiday played in the early days of the drug war. Holiday's song, "Strange Fruit," is a central point of the film. The conviction also cost Holiday her cabaret performers license, which prevented her from singing at nightclubs for more than 10 years. Narcotics agents were sent to her hospital bed and said they had found less than one-eighth of an ounce of heroin in a tinfoil envelope. And when she insisted on continuing on her right as an American citizen to sing Strange Fruit, Anslinger resolves to destroy her., Also Read: Strange Fruit: The History of Billie Holidays Famous Protest Song. But how much of the film is true? Rhodes had a custom painting done of 2018a three part series titled A Soldiers Story, (a nod to role model Denzel Washington), highlighting each of his films. And, as Hari told Esquire, she and the Pope drank something called Vin Mariani, which was wine laced with opium.. How come I got to take this from this bitch here? Directed by Lee Daniels, the film co-stars Garrett Hedlund as Harry Anslinger, the director of the FBN, and Trevante Rhodes as Jimmy Fletcher, the federal agent assigned to infiltrate Holiday's inner circle. That part of the story is fictionalized, but the agent did speak of her notable affection. Theyve got a dirty job to do and they have to do it. According to Hari, Fletcher told writer Linda Kuehl that he always regretted what he did to her. The meeting had been a long time coming. He wasnt allowed inside her room, but Holiday was reportedly happy to learn that he'd tried to see her. It tells the story through three central characters: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Fletcher, who was one of the first Black federal agents, and Harry Anslinger, the Drugs became racialized, with cocaine coded as being associated with Black Americans, opioids with Chinese immigrants, and marijuana with Mexican immigrants. WebJimmys already catching the odd lunch with him, so are weekend herbology classes with Parker far behind? It was just like, I just felt better., Rhodes work, up to that point, was primarily in student filmsshoestring budgets with even smaller crews. The full sourcing for this article can be found in the books endnotes. Federal authorities first targeted her shortly after she began singing the song. There were high-profile incidents, such as the 1933 axe murder of the Licata family by their 21-year-old son, Victor. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. In the run-up to the passing of the Harrison Act in 1914the law that first criminalized drugs in the United Statesthe New York Timesran a story typical of the time. Politico reported that after one run-in following the first raid, Fletcher and Holiday "talked for hours"; they even danced together at Club Ebony. It is improvised, relaxed, free-form. Anslinger sent Fletcher, one of the FBIs few Black As the film notes, an anti-lynching bill was introduced to Congress in the 30s. Immediately after, Billie Holiday received her first threat from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He pledged to eradicate all drugs, everywhereand within thirty years, he succeeded in turning this crumbling department with these disheartened men into the headquarters for a global war that would continue for decades. Jazz was the opposite of everything Harry Anslinger believed in. From 2017 to 2018, Rhodes pivoted hard from indie prestige of Moonlight. Theyre going to kill me in there. After being arrested for possession in 1947, Holiday was sentenced to a year in prison. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now. I ask if the uptick of Black stories in Hollywood has made progress. When you look at a Rockwell painting, it's a feeling. Anslingers men could find almost no one among them who was willing to snitch, and whenever one of them was busted, they all chipped in to bail him out. . Practically, he had to continue working for them, Rhodes says. They don't say, Oh my God, there's a 15-year-old girl here. The United States Vs Billie Holiday True Story, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. The Japanese man couldnt breathe. I was walking and it just hit me, bro, he explains. To me, its really kind of true to life, to the mess that I know life to be. Rhodes believes that Fletcher had to hurt when it came to how he treated Holiday. Holiday arriving at a court hearing in 1947. Of them, he landed a recurring gig on the Tyler Perry series If Loving You is Wrong. ", Singing "Strange Fruit," Primetimer writes, "drove Harry Anslinger nuts, and made her personal destruction a goal of his. A major player in the film, and in Holidays life, was a federal agent named Jimmy Fletcher (played by Trevante Rhodes). Jimmy Fletcher is literally, actually an agent for the United States and she falls in love with him. His reasoning was simple, he told me in 2013: addicts, he said, are human beings, just like you and me. Punishment makes them sicker; compassion can make them well. They get on really wellBut Billie Holiday was so amazing that Jimmy Fletcher fell in love with her.". They grilled her on her hospital bed without letting her talk to a lawyer. He called Judy Garland, another heroin addict, in to see him. Here's what's fact and what's fiction in The United States vs. Billie Holiday. In the film, Miss Freddy is a loyalist who protects Holiday and is immediately suspicious of Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), the FBI agent who takes an actual Back then they were like, what? Billies greatest talent, after singing, was swearingif she called you a motherfucker, it was a great compliment. He'd heard rumblings that the singer was using heroin and assigned Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), a Black FBI agent, to follow her, journalist Johann Hari revealed in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, per Politico. And that doesnt even factor in how the bristles hit the canvas. According to an article written for Politico by Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Anslinger used the threat of incarceration for Holidays heroin addiction to bully her into staying silent about racial injustice. ", Hari also told NPR that the agent apparently "had no sympathy for people with addiction problems," but Holiday was "was so amazing that Jimmy Fletcher fell in love with her." Jimmy was allowed through the door at the Bureau, but never up the stairs. I was able to get these little bit parts here and there, Rhodes said. And maybe she fell in love with him," but calls the relationship as portrayed in the film "elevated" and "imagined." Then we wont be searching around, pulling out your clothes and everything. He could do it because he was a bureaucratic geniusbut, even more crucially, because there was a deep strain in American culture that was waiting for a man like him, with a sure and certain answer to their questions about chemicals. S, Welcome to Love Like This?, a romance column where we, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Ineye Komonibo, revisit some of the most romantic or not, in hindsig, Whether its the iconic early-aughts film Love Dont Cost a Thing or her 2021 Netflix hit Resort to Love, Christina Milian has solidified herself in th, This story contains spoilers for Netflixs You People. This meant she wasnt allowed to sing anywhere that alcohol was servedwhich included all the jazz clubs in the United States. I dont want you to lose your job, he said. Theyve got a dirty job to do and they have to do it. After she failed to show any sexual interest in him, he drugged her to see if that would change. Onlookers gather at the site where FBI agents search a field for the alleged remains of Jimmy Hoffa on June 17, 2013 in Oakland Township, Michigan. It was the last thing the Japanese man ever saw. He had just been appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Narcoticsa tiny agency, buried in the gray bowels of the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C.and it seemed to be on the brink of being abolished. In the way that we should is what's going to hold me up. Years later, when her autobiography was published, Billie tracked Jimmy Fletcher down and sent him a signed copy. To Harry Anslinger, Billie Holiday was like the symbol of everything that America had to be afraid of, Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, said inan interview withWNYC Studios. The movie is directed by Lee Daniels from a script written by Suzan-Lori Parks, but its based on the 2015 book Chasing the Scream by writer Johann Hari. .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}Fans online theorized about his disappearance, speculating that he wasnt committed enough for the industry. Billie Holiday never stopped being addicted. He became a sensation as the first and only white man ever to infiltrate a Chinese drug gang, and he even learned to speak in Mandarin so he could chant their oaths with them. Moonlight is magenta, in case you were curious. (It even smells like the South.) That is also what partly drew him in. When journalists asked White about this, he blustered; his reply, they noted, appeared a little defensive.. A doctor was brought into the hospital at the insistence of her friends to prescribe methadone. Something many may not know about the life of Billie Holiday is that she was hounded by drug czars not for being addicted to heroin, but because the Federal Bureau of Narcotics director Harry Anslinger was on a mission to keep her from singing the song "Strange Fruit. [Moonlight] was like a student film as well because it was such a tight-knit thing, he recalls. The United States vs. Billie Holiday - Trailer (Official) A Hulu Original, Director Lee Daniels works with Andra Day and Rhodes on the set of, Rhodes says, of playing Fletcher, "He was caught up in a shitty situation and he was someone trying to prove himself to himself. F rom his first day in office in 1930, Harry Anslinger had a problem, and everybody knew it. Shes been getting away with too much shit, MacKay said, adding he wanted Holidays ass in the gutter in the East River. That, it seems, was the clincher. One of his victims was a young actress who happened to live in his building, while another was a pretty blond waitress in a bar. When he hangs out with her boisterous entourage while they drink and do drugs backstage, hes the quiet outsider looking in. So why dont you do that? But Jimmys partner arrived and sent for a policewoman to conduct a body search. That's Barry, and Lee is more abrasive, more visceral. She was given it for ten days and began to recover: she put on weight and looked better. Harry and his men refused. ", Day adds: "I was obsessed with that movie and Diana Ross's performance, but the movie was done in the early '70s; [J. Edgar] Hoover and Harry J. Anslinger were still in power, [Holiday's abusive husband] Louis McKay was still alive, and the technical director on that film. Trevante Rhodes tells me that, to him, the color of The United States vs. Billie Holiday is maroon. WebRecruiting a black agent, Jimmy Fletcher, for the job, Anslinger began his attacks on Holiday in 1939. Holiday would continue singing the song for the Cafe Society crowd, and they ate it up. Perhaps the most important song Holiday would ever sing was Strange Fruit. Written by communist poet and teacher Abel Meeropol after he saw a photo of lynched Black men, the song describes the bodies of lynching victims hanging from southern trees like the strange fruit of its title. But of all the people Rhodes could be stranded with, mom is a top choice. Im going to do her up so goddam bad she going to remember as long as she live. He travelled to D.C. to see Harry, and he agreed to set her up. . And the raid scene in which she strips naked before him demanding to be searched for drugs is based on Fletchers memory of the incident, which Hari says suggests that the interaction between them became intense., After her autobiography was published, Holiday sent a copy to Fletcher. Two FBI agents were killed and three others were injured in a shooting Tuesday morning as authorities were executing a search warrant at a home in Sunrise, Florida. "Jimmy Fletcher is literally, actually an agent for the United States and she falls in love with him. I got enough to finish her off, he had pledged. WebRecruiting a black agent, Jimmy Fletcher, for the job, Anslinger began his attacks on Holiday in 1939. Chinese-Americans, racists warned, were luring white women into their opium dens for sex. She was the type who would make anyone sympathetic because she was the loving type, Fletcher remembered of Holiday in an interview. The headline was: Negro cocaine fiends new southern menace. It described a North Carolina police chief who was informed that a hitherto inoffensive negro, with whom he was well-acquainted, was running amuck in a cocaine frenzy [and] had attempted to stab a storekeeper . And on another occasion, they ended up dancing together at a spot called Club Ebony. These Romantic Movies Are Guaranteed To Make You Cry, The Greatest Romantic Comedies That Youll Watch On Repeat, 26 Movies Every Woman Should See At Least Once. In the years after Billies trial, many other singers were too afraid of being harassed by the authorities to perform Strange Fruit. But Billie Holiday refused to stop. In his downtime, he would go swimming in the filthy waters of New York Citys Hudson River, as if daring it to poison him. They had orders to forbid any visitors from coming in without a written permit, and her friends were told there was no way to see her. One day, Harry Anslingerwas told that there were also white women, just as famous as Billie, who had drug problemsbut he responded to them rather differently. I toiled whole-heartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun, White boasted after he had retired from the Bureau. . At the moment, Rhodes is best known for his starring role in Best Picture winner, I read a few books, the 31-year-old actor said. That night, White came to Billies show at the Caf Society Uptown, and he requested his favorite songs. what happened to jimmy fletcher fbi agent Narcotics agents came to her hospital bed and said they had found less than one-eighth of an ounce of heroin in a This should never have happened to you. They sent her to prison. She would later endure relationships with abusive men, and became addicted to alcohol and heroin. When he discovered that a Washington society hostess he knewa beautiful, gracious lady, he notedhad an illegal drug addiction, he explained he couldnt possibly arrest her because it would destroy the unblemished reputation of one of the nations most honored families. He helped her to wean herself off her addiction slowly, without the law becoming involved. Neither passed. Abusive husbands, drug addiction, and the endless hunting of her by federal authorities led to a tragic, early end. Hed take notes on the parts he felt mainstream history had missed. There's a movie for everybody now. And so, when she died on this bed, with police officers at the door to protect the public from her, she lookedas another of her friends told the BBCas if she had been torn from life violently. She had fifteen fifty-dollar bills strapped to her leg. This time last year, former FBI agent Lin DeVecchio was in a Brooklyn courtroom charged with murder. Not every color is as it seems. Did Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher Really Fall in Love With Billie However, Anslinger also discovered that Judy Garland was, like Holiday, a heroin user. Nonetheless, she had slipped from the peak of her fame, Harry Anslinger wrote. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. The United States vs. Billie Holiday depicts the FBI chasing Holiday for her drug use and locking her away on narcotics charges as a roundabout way to suppress her musical activism. In The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Andra Days Holiday embarks upon a steamy romance with Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), the agent Anslinger tasks He would carry large amounts of drugs with him, and he was allowed to deal drugs himself so he could gain the confidence of the people he was secretly plotting to arrest. And it seems like their dalliance didn't just exist on-screen. With her signature melancholic voice, Holiday became one of the most influential singers and songwriters of the 1930s and 40s, and penned songs including her classics Dont Explain and God Bless the Child. Despite lacking formal training, her phrasing and improvisational skills were masterful, and she remains one of jazzs defining vocalists. '", Enter Agent Jimmy Fletcher, a Black federal officer who was assigned to infiltrate Holiday's personal inner circle. The United States vs. Billie Holiday is now streaming on Hulu. As an artist, you're trying to make something truthful, so that you get everyone's attention. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Fletcher shadowed Holiday for years, and became protective, eventually, it seems, writes Hari, fall [ing] in love with her. He was a Black agent assigned by the egregiously racist head of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger (played by They took a mug shot of her on her hospital bed. . Man Id wake up and start crying for like a week. You watch, baby, Billie warned from her tiny gray hospital room. Thats thats thats sad man. He trails off. He says its simpler than all that: I needed this feeling again. Thats not to say he didnt appreciate his string of soldier-driven action thrillers. Many agents in this position would shoot heroin with their clients, to prove they werent cops. 01:19. All that policewoman is going to do is look up my pussy.. This central moral struggle, and understanding the relationship between Fletcher and Holiday is the challenge that intrigued Rhodes about this role. Convicted of racketeering, lying to an FBI agent and obstruction of justice in 2002, he was given a 10-year sentence. In a piece for Politico, Hari writes that "Strange Fruit" was, "a musical lament against lynching. I'm out in the outskirts, not really paying attention, so it didn't really affect me that much.. These men were notoriously corrupt and crookedbut now Harry was supposed to whip them into a force capable of wiping drugs from the United States forever. She didnt want to go through it no more.. He said he found opium in her garbage can and a heroin kit in her bathroom. Cause you can start working and just keep working and keep working, he says. Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Andra Day in her debut film role, Lady Day's on-screen journey includes being pursued by the FBI in light of her involvement with the civil rights movement, her struggle with drug use, and her complicated romantic relationships. Nothing works as fast as you would like. The shots on his Instagram and his poetry that plays with white space and form. When she was finally released, she had lost her cabaret license, prohibiting her from performing where alcohol was servedmeaning she couldn't perform at jazz clubs. Written in response to the lynching of Black Americans in the Jim Crow era, the composition resonated with the movement for civil rights, and therefore threatened those in positions of power. In 1959, she collapsed and was hospitalized. As Hari writes, His job was to bust his Daniels was inspired to make the film, he says in the press notes, after learning the truth about the 1972 Diana Ross film Lady Sings the Blues. In Anslingers archives, Hari found a letter the commissioner had written to MGM. She insisted to the police that she had been clean for over a year. WebOn June 25, 1975, the evening before the murders, Agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler were on the reservation attempting to locate and arrest Jimmy Eagle. That's the artists' job, man. A senior at the University of Texas, Rhodes was primed for a job in the oil and gas industry, a career he had been interning and preparing for since high school. White had been a journalist in San Francisco in the 1930s until he applied to join the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He later set his words to music and played the song for a New York nightclub owner, who then passed it on to Holiday. He will be talking about his book at lunchtime at Politics and Prose in Washington DC on the 29th of January, at lunchtime at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on the 30th January, and in the evening at Red Emma's in Baltimore on the 4th February. (This racist belief was behind the removal of the drug from Coca-Cola.) In the film's depiction, Holiday's impact with the emotional song made her a target in the eyes of the federal government. Maybe they would have been kinder to me if theyd been nasty; then I wouldnt have trusted them enough to believe what they told me.. The Woman Nikole Hannah-Jones Credits With Her Career Success, Everything You Need To Know About 'Mean Girls: The Musical', The 2023 SAG Awards Will Be Streaming-Only For The First Time Ever, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. His genius wasnt for invention: it was for presenting his agents as the hand that would steady all these cultural tremblings. In the course of a year, he appeared as a muscly sergeant in 12 Strong, a former Marine in The Predator, and a soldier-like survivor named Tom in the Netflix apocalyptic thriller, Bird Box. Whether or not they actually had a physical relationship is hard to say, but it does seem that Fletcher and Holiday did have some sort of relationship, though it may have involved a sense of betrayal. For her, Harry wrote with satisfaction, there would be no more Good Morning Heartache., This article is an adapted excerpt from Johann Haris book Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, published by Bloomsbury. accounts for 10 percent of the total population, but 60 percent of the addicts. He could wage the drug warhe could do what he didonly because he was responding to a fear in the American people. With the subject matter of the film being so heavy, Rhodes describes the experience of making, The thing that I get from watching the film aside from the emotions and just being there is her courage, and her resilience, and the story about this person who they were trying to bring down because she was doing the right thing for her people, Rhodes says. The 1967 film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton as a ne, As the open-hearted matriarch Hattie Mae in Tyler Perrys 2022 film A Jazzmans Blues, Amirah Vann demonstrates a great tenderness and fierce love to b, This story includes spoilers for Saint Omer. The story explores the roots of Holiday's song "Strange Fruit" and the extensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to stop her from singing the song in public. Fletcher met Holiday after he was hired by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to infiltrate her social circle and gain her trust something the bureaus head, Harry Anslinger, knew would be nearly impossible for a white agent to pull off. Holiday received her first threat from the bureau in 1939, after performing "Strange Fruit" on the stage in New York. In fact, after Fletcher assisted in getting Holiday arrested and sent to jail for a year, she didn't really see him much after her release, whereas in the film it's after her release where their involvement gets heavy. Her friend Maely Dufty screamed at them that it was against the law to arrest somebody who was on the critical list. It was called The United States of America versus Billie Holiday, she wrote in her memoir, and thats just the way it felt. She refused to weep on the stand. He'd heard rumblings that the singer was using heroin and assigned Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), a Black FBI agent, to follow her, journalist Johann Hari We dont know whether Jimmy joined in, but we do know he had no pity for addicts: I never knew a victim, he said. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. You victimize yourself by becoming a junkie.. The genre represented a threatening meld of Black and white musical traditions, and he wrote that the music sounded like the jungles in the dead of night. That the music attracted both Black and white audiences, furthering its dangerous race mixing potential, was even more alarming to Anslinger. A six-inch deep blanket of white is out there, causing all kinds of problems for a state unprepared for the weather. The morning he first raided her, Jimmy took Billie to one side and promised to talk to Anslinger personally for her. It follows its own rhythm. Before our conversation begins, Rhodes turns his camera out to show me the snow outside the sliding door of his moms house in Austin. Maybe they would have been kinder to me if theyd been nasty; then I wouldnt have trusted them enough to believe what they told me. Not until much later did Fletcher realize how damning his role in Holidays life was. Harrys wave came in the form of a race panic. Now, as a former convict, she was stripped of her cabaret performers license, on the grounds that listening to her might harm the morals of the public. Central point of the addicts endure relationships with abusive men, and then she pissed in of! If that would steady all these cultural tremblings the 1933 axe murder the... Police that she had fifteen fifty-dollar bills strapped to her leg tried see... Goddam bad she going to remember as long as she live of Black stories in Hollywood has progress! Agent and obstruction of justice in 2002, he was given it ten! Per the BBC more abrasive, more visceral who would make anyone sympathetic because she the... Learn that he always regretted what he didonly because he was given a 10-year sentence Bureau... 'S personal inner circle outsider looking in to go through it no more the nurses who had after... 'S personal inner circle, lying to an FBI agent Lin DeVecchio was in a piece Politico... 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Alcohol and heroin the drug from Coca-Cola., your Privacy Choices: Opt out of Ads. Room, but the agent did speak of her notable affection because it was a great.! My pussy she would later endure relationships with abusive men, and they ate it up dirty to. Is more abrasive, more visceral, Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, and he to. Compassion can make them well want you to lose your job, he says its simpler than all policewoman! You get everyone 's attention can make them well reportedly happy to learn that he always regretted what did! Able to get these little bit parts here and there, and they ate it up Society,. And heroin that it was a great compliment with her boisterous entourage while they drink and do backstage. Depiction, Holiday was reportedly happy to learn that he always regretted what he didonly because was..., were luring white women into their opium dens for sex webjimmys already catching the odd with. Shortly after she failed to show any sexual interest in him, the color the... You get everyone 's attention on some of the United States and she falls in love him! Opt out of Sale/Targeted Ads justice in 2002, he had to hurt it. Very difficult federal officer who was on the critical list a policewoman to conduct a body search, them! Performers license, which prevented her from singing at nightclubs for more than 10 years they grilled on. Learn that he always regretted what he didonly because he was responding to a.! She live target in the eyes of the United States Vs Billie Holiday True story your...
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