Josephine Baker

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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 was also mixed with Apalachee/Native American descent. She became a French citizen in 1937.

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Early Life

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 and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues Shufflin' Along and The Chocolate Dandies.

On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, 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, who was 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.


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Rise To Fame

In a short while she was the most successful American entertainer working in France—whereas in the U.S., she would have suffered from the racial prejudices common to the era. 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 became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, and sculptors including Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso.

She was so well-known and popular that even the Nazis, who occupied France during World War II were hesitant to cause her harm. In turn, this allowed Baker to show her loyalty to her adopted country by participating in the Underground. In one apocryphal story, Hermann Göring himself invited her to dinner one evening, already suspecting her of involvement in the Resistance. 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 version of the Ziegfeld Follies (being replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee later in the run); her personal life similarly suffered, and she went through six marriages, some legal, some not. During this time, when Baker returned to the United States, she was allegedly at a dinner party and began to speak in French as well as English with a French accent. An African-American maid was reputed to tell her, "Honey, you is full of shit. Speak the way yo' mouth was born". She had the woman fired.

Image:JosephineBakerBurlesque.JPG

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Civil Rights Involvement

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, Nevada. 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 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 at Club Bobino 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 at the age of 68, and the show was cancelled.

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Marriages and Relationships

Josephine Baker went through six marriages:

  • 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)
  • American artist Robert Brady (1928-1986, married 1973, also not legally binding, separated 1974).

There is also some speculation that Josephine Baker was bisexual [1]. Some believe that one of the lesbian lovers of the lead character in the movie Frida is a portrayal of Baker.

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Later Life

Baker wrote several autobiographies, each containing a different story about her family and career.

She became the first American-born 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. "Place Josephine Baker" in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was named in her honor. She has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

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Quotes

  • “Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in my daily life.” —Josephine Baker
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Pop Culture

  • In the French film Les Uns et les Autres an African-American vaudeville performer appears who is clearly based on Josephine Baker.
  • “Josephine Baker ranked in at #8 on "Wayne's Top Ten Babes of All Time" in a Wayne's World skit on Saturday Night Live. "See, Josephine Baker was a babe from the 20's, while though she was a victim of the provailing racial mores of her native United States, became the toast of Paris known primarily for her exotic banana dance, ok." - Wayne "It's so obvious!" - Garth
  • The animated film The Triplets of Belleville featured a half-nude caricature of Baker. Director Sylvain Chomet states in one of the commentary segments that this scene was the reason the film got a PG-13 rating in America.
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Filmography

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References

  • Kraut, Anthea, Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham, Theatre Journal 55 (2003): 433–50.
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External links

da:Josephine Baker de:Josephine Baker es:Josephine Baker eo:Josephine Baker fr:Joséphine Baker gl:Josephine Baker it:Joséphine Baker nl:Josephine Baker ja:ジョゼフィン・ベーカー no:Joséphine Baker pl:Josephine Baker sv:Joséphine Baker

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