Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 -
April 12, 1975), born Freda Josephine
McDonald, was an African American dancer, actress and singer,
sometimes known as "the Black Venus". She became a French citizen in 1937.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Eddie Carson and Carrie McDonald, she entered vaudeville as a teen, gradually heading toward New York
City during the Harlem Renaissance, performing at the
Plantation Club.
On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris
at the Théâtre Champs-Elysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and appearing practically naked on
stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she returned to France, where she starred at the Folies Bergère, setting
the standard for her future acts. Already a star, she performed in a skirt made only of bananas, often accompanied by her pet leopard, Chiquita, adorned with a
diamond collar. The leopard frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it
terrorized the musicians, adding yet another element of excitement to the show. In a short while, she was the most successful
American entertainer appearing in France, whereas in the U.S., she would
have suffered from the racial prejudices common to the era. Writer Ernest Hemingway called her "the most sensational woman anyone ever saw."
In addition to being a musical star, Baker also starred in several successful films, among them Zouzou (1934) and Princesse
Tamtam (1935).
Upon marrying her manager, Giuseppe Pepito Abatino, a Sicilian stonemason who passed himself off successfully as a Sicilian
count, Baker transformed her stage and public persona into a sophisticated cultural figure (the marriage was reportedly a
publicity stunt and not legally binding). At this time she also scored her greatest song hit J'ai deux amours (1931) and
she became a source of inspiration for contemporary painters and sculptors alike.
She was so well-known and popular, that even the Nazis, who occupied France during
World War II were hesitant to touch her. In turn, this allowed Baker to
show her loyalty to her adopted country by participating in the underground. According to an apocryphal story, Hermann Göring himself invited her to dinner one evening, already suspecting
her of involvement in the Underground. Realizing that the wine he forced her to drink was poisoned, she managed to excuse herself
and escaped from the chalet through a laundry chute. After the war, Baker was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her underground activity.
Yet despite her popularity in France, she was never really able to obtain the same reputation at home. Upon a visit to the
United States in 1936, she starred in a failed show with the Ziegfeld Follies; her personal life similarly suffered, and she went
through six marriages, some legal, some not.
Though based in France, she supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s, and protested racism in her own
unique way, adopting twelve multi-ethnic orphans, which she called her "Rainbow Tribe." For some time she lived with all of her
children and an enormous staff in a castle in France. (Baker had only one child of her own, stillborn in 1941, an incident that
precipitated an emergency hysterectomy). On tours of the United States, she refused to perform in segregated nightclubs, and her
insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las
Vegas. Nevertheless, her career was on a downturn and she was near bankruptcy until she was bailed out and given an apartment
by her close friend, Princess Grace of Monaco, another expatriate American entertainer living in Europe.
On April 8, 1975, her fortunes seemed to be
turning to the better when she was the star of a retrospective show in Paris, Joséphine, celebrating her fifty years in
the theater. The show opened to rave reviews, but Baker never benefited from it. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage less than a
week later, and the show was cancelled.
Josephine Baker went through six wedding ceremonies: foundry worker Willie Wells (1919, divorced), Pullman porter William
Howard Baker (1921, divorced), Giuseppe Pepito Abatino (1926, publicity stunt, not legally binding), French sugar magnate Jean
Lion (1937-1940, divorced), French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon (1947, separated 1957, eventually divorced), and American artist
Robert Brady (1928-1986, married 1973, also not legally binding, separated 1974).
Baker wrote several autobiographies, each containing a different story about her family and career.
She became the first American woman to receive French military honors at her funeral, which was held at L'Église de la Madeleine. She was interred at the Cimetière de Monaco.
Link to photo gallery: http://silent-movies.com/Ladies/PBaker.html
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