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Josephine Baker
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Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American expatriate entertainer and actress. She became a French citizen in 1937. Most noted as a singer, Baker also was a celebrated dancer in her early career. She was given the nicknames the "Bronze Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nations. In France, she has always been known as "La Baker".
Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer.
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Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American expatriate entertainer and actress. She became a French citizen in 1937. Most noted as a singer, Baker also was a celebrated dancer in her early career. She was given the nicknames the "Bronze Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nations. In France, she has always been known as "La Baker".
Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during the Second World War and being the first American-born woman to receive the highest French military honor, the Croix de Guerre, and for being an inspiration to generations of African American female entertainers and others.
Biography
Early years
Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Carrie McDonald. Baker's true ethnic background is unknown. Her father's identity is debated among historians. Nevertheless her estate credits vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson as her natural father, but according to a biography written by her foster son Jean-Claude Baker:
Her mother, Carrie, was adopted in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1886 by Richard and Elvira McDonald, both of whom were former slaves of both African and Native American descent.
When Josephine was 8 she was sent to work for a white woman who abused her and burned Josephine's hands when she put too much soap in the laundry. She later went to work for another woman who treated her fairly.
photo shoot.]]
Baker dropped out of school at the age of 12 and lived as a street child in the black slums of St Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food in garbage cans. Her street-corner dancing attracted attention and success for her, and she was recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show at 15. She then headed to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, performing at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues Shuffle Along (1921) and The Chocolate Dandies (1924). She performed as the last dancer in a chorus line, a position in which the dancer traditionally performed in a comic manner, as if they were unable to remember the dance, until the encore, at which point they would not only perform it correctly, but with additional complexity. She was then billed as "the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville."
On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théatre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts. She performed the Danse sauvage, wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas.
Baker's success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave us the term "Art Deco", and also with a renewal of interest in ethnic forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion.
In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show.
Rise to fame
After a short while she was the most successful American entertainer working in France. Ernest Hemingway called her "… the most sensational woman anyone ever saw." In addition to being a musical star, Baker also starred in three films which found success only in Europe: the silent film Siren of the Tropics (1927), Zouzou (1934) and Princesse Tam Tam (1935). Although Baker is often credited as a movie star, her starring roles ended with Princesse Tamtam in 1935.
At this time she also scored her greatest song hit, "J'ai deux amours" (1931) and became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers, and sculptors including Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior.
Under the management of Giuseppe Pepito Abatino — a Sicilian former stonemason who passed himself off as a Sicilian count — Baker's stage and public persona, as well as her singing voice, went through a significant transformation. In 1934 she took the lead in a revival of Jacques Offenbach's 1875 opera La créole at the Théâtre Marigny in the Champs-Élysées of Paris, which premiered in December of that year for a six month run. In preparation for her performances she went through months of training with a vocal coach.
In the words of Shirley Bassey, who has cited Baker as her primary influence, "… she went from a 'petite danseuse sauvage' with a decent voice to 'la grande diva magnifique' … I swear in all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer."
Baker was so well known and popular with the French 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, smuggling intelligence to the resistance in Portugal coded within her sheet music. After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.
Despite her popularity in France, she never obtained the same reputation in America. 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.
Her 1935–36 US performances received poor reviews. Baker returned to Paris in 1937, married Frenchman Jean Lion, and became a French citizen.
In January 1966 she was invited by Fidel Castro to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba. Her spectacular show in April of that year led to record breaking attendance.
In 1973, Baker opened at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation.
, 1926]]
Civil rights activism
Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting 12 multi-ethnic orphans, whom she called the "Rainbow Tribe." They were: Akio (Korean son), Janot (Japanese son), Luis (Colombian son), Jari (Finnish son), Jean-Claude (Canadian son), Moïse (French Jewish son), Brahim (Algerian son), Marianne (French daughter), Koffi (Ivorian son), Mara (Venezuelan son), Noël (French son), and Stellina (Moroccan daughter).
For some time she lived with all of her children and an enormous staff in a castle, Château de Milandes, in Dordogne, France. Baker bore only one child, stillborn in 1941, an incident that precipitated an emergency hysterectomy.
She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States. Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1951, Baker made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in New York, where she had been refused service. Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing to never return (and she never did). The two women became close friends after the incident. Testament to this was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco).
Baker also worked with the NAACP. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr. Wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur, she was the only woman to speak at the rally. After King's assassination his widow, Coretta Scott King, approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "… too young to lose their mother."
Personal life
Marriages
- Willie Wells (foundry worker, 1919)
- William Howard Baker (Pullman porter, 1920–23)
- Jean Lion (French sugar magnate, 1937–38)
- Jo Bouillon (orchestra leader, 1947–57)
She also went through two non-legal wedding ceremonies to Giuseppe Pepito Abatino in 1926 and American artist Robert Brady in 1973.
On April 8, 1975, Baker starred in a retrospective revue at the Bobino in Paris — Josépine à Bobino 1975, celebrating her 50 years in show business. The revue, financed by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, opened to rave reviews. Demand for seating was such that fold-out chairs had to be added to accommodate spectators. The opening-night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.
Death
Two days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She had a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died aged 68 on April 12, 1975.
Her funeral was held at L'Église de la Madeleine. She was interred at the Cimetière de Monaco in Monte Carlo.
Legacy
Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music during the Second World War and because of this, she became the first American-born woman to receive the highest French military honor, the Croix de Guerre. "Place Joséphine Baker" in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was named in her honor. She has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and the Hall of Famous Missourians. Her name has also been incorporated at Paris Plage, a man-made beach along the river Seine .
Two of Baker's adopted sons, Jean-Claude and Jarry (Jari), grew up to go into business together, running the restaurant Chez Josephine on Theatre Row, 42nd Street, New York, which celebrates Baker's life and works.
Baker's iconic performance style has also been influential. Diana Ross, a long-time admirer of Baker, performed in Bob Mackie-designed outfits similar to Baker's and reenacted similar poses of the latter in many photo sessions. Whitney Houston pays tribute to Baker in her "I'm Your Baby Tonight" music video to represent the Harlem Renaissance. Baker's banana skirt, in particular, has made numerous media appearance. A dancer wore one in Sir-Mix-A-Lot's 1991 video for "Baby Got Back", and singer Beyoncé Knowles wore one when performing for CBS's 2006 Fashion Rocks. During her performance, images of Baker were projected on a large screen above the stage.
Portrayals
- In 1991, Baker's life story, "The Josephine Baker Story", was broadcast on HBO. Lynn Whitfield played Baker, beating more than 500 actresses for the role, including Whitney Houston. The performance won her the Emmy for "Best Actress In A Mini-Series or Special".
- The first scene of the 2003 French animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville is of a 1930s-style cartoon parody that features a caricature of Baker
- The 2004 erotic novel Scandalous by British author Angela Campion uses Baker as its heroine and is inspired by Baker's sexual exploits and later adventures in the French Resistance. In the novel, Baker, working with a fictional black Canadian lover named Drummer Thompson, foils a plot by French fascists in 1936 Paris. The novel is said to be the first time a historical figure has been used as the heroine in a modern erotic novel.
- In 2006, the director of the Opéra-Comique of Paris, Jérôme Savary, presented his À la Recherche de Joséphine (Searching for Josephine), a musical inspired by Baker's musical revues and songs from her early career. It tells the story of a French director in search of a star for his Parisian show in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He finds Baker, who becomes the toast of Paris. It was a huge success and has toured in Louisiana.
- In the 1997 animated film "Anastasia", Baker appears with her cheetah during the musical number "Paris Holds the Key (to Your Heart)"
- A German submariner mimics Josephine Baker's "Danse banane" in the film Das Boot.
Filmography
Further reading
- (call number M1297; 3 linear ft.) are housed in the at
- Kraut, Anthea, Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham, Theatre Journal 55 (2003): 433–50.
- Schroeder, Alan, Ragtime Tumpie (Little, Brown, 1989), a children's picture book about Baker's childhood in St. Louis and her dream of becoming a dancer.
- Schroeder, Alan, Josephine Baker (Chelsea House, 1990), a young-adult biography.
External links
- *
- -- review essay of dance style and contemporary critics
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