Freda Josephine Baker (néeMcDonald; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized asJoséphine Baker, was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French silent filmSiren of the Tropics, directed byMario Nalpas andHenri Étiévant.[3]
During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of theFolies Bergère inParis. Her performance in its 1927revueUn vent de folie caused a sensation in the city. Her costume, consisting only of a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of theJazz Age and theRoaring Twenties. Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the "Black Venus", the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess".[4] Born inSt. Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S. citizenship and became aFrench national after her marriage to French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937.[5] She adopted 12 children which she referred to as Rainbow Tribe and raised them in France.
Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald inSt. Louis, Missouri.[9][14][15] Baker's ancestry is unknown—her mother, Carrie, was adopted inLittle Rock, Arkansas, in 1886 by Richard and Elvira McDonald, both of whom were formerslaves of African andNative American descent.[9] Baker's estate identifies vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson as her natural father despite evidence to the contrary.[16] In 1993, Josephine Baker's foster sonJean-Claude Baker published a biography titledJosephine: The hungry Heart, which was the culmination of decades of exhaustive research into Baker's life and career. In the book, he discusses at length the circumstances surrounding Baker's birth:
The records of the city of St. Louis tell an almost unbelievable story. They show that (Baker's mother) Carrie McDonald ... was admitted to the (exclusively white) Female Hospital on May 3, 1906, diagnosed as pregnant. She was discharged on June 17, her baby, Freda J. McDonald having been born two weeks earlier. Why six weeks in the hospital? Especially for a black woman (of that time) who would customarily have had her baby at home with the help of a midwife? ... The father was identified (on the birth certificate) simply as "Edw"... I think Josephine's father was white—so did Josephine, so did her family...people in St. Louis say that (Baker's mother) had worked for a German family (around the time she became pregnant)... I have unraveled many mysteries associated with Josephine Baker, but the most painful mystery of her life, the mystery of her father's identity, I could not solve. The secret died with Carrie, who refused to the end to talk about it. She let people think Eddie Carson was the father, and Carson played along, (but) Josephine knew better.[9]
Josephine McDonald spent her early life on 212 Targee Street (known by some St. Louis residents as Johnson Street) in theChestnut Valley neighborhood of St. Louis, a racially mixed low-income area near Union Station, consisting mainly of rooming houses, brothels, and apartments without indoor plumbing.[9] She was poorly dressed, hungry as a child, and developedstreet smarts playing in the railroad yards ofUnion Station.[17]
Her mother married Arthur Martin, "a kind but perpetually unemployed man", with whom she had a son and two more daughters.[18] She worked in a laundry; her mother placed her there due to her family being impoverished;[19] she worked there in order to increase the income of her family and, at eight years old, Josephine began working as a live-in domestic for white families in St. Louis.[20] One womanabused her, burning Josephine's hands when the young girl put too much soap in the laundry.[21]
In 1917, when she was 11, a terrified Josephine McDonald witnessedracial violence in East St. Louis.[22] In a speech years later, she recalled what she had seen:
I can still see myself standing on the west bank of the Mississippi looking over into East St. Louis and watching the glow of the burning of Negro homes lighting the sky. We children stood huddled together in bewilderment ... frightened to death with the screams of the Negro families running across this bridge with nothing but what they had on their backs as their worldly belongings... So with this vision I ran and ran and ran...[23]
By age 12, she had dropped out of school.[24] At 13, she worked as a waitress at the Old Chauffeur's Club at 3133 Pine Street. She also lived as astreet child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters, scavenging for food in garbage cans,[25] making a living withstreet-corner dancing. It was at the Old Chauffeur's Club that Josephine met Willie Wells, whom she married at age 13, but the marriage lasted less than a year. Following her divorce from Wells, she found work with a street performance group called the Jones Family Band.[26]
In her teens, she struggled to have a healthy relationship with her mother, who opposed her becoming an entertainer and scolded her for not tending to her second husband, William Howard Baker, whom she had married in 1921, at age 15.[27] She soon left him when her vaudeville troupe was booked into a New York City venue. They divorced in 1925, during a period when her career success was beginning. Still, she continued to use his last name professionally for the rest of her life.[9] Though Baker was often on the road, returning with gifts and money for her mother and younger half-sister, larger career opportunities drew her farther afield, to France.[28]
Baker's unrelenting badgering of a local show manager led to her recruitment for the St. Louis Chorusvaudeville act. At the age of 13, she headed to New York City[23] during theHarlem Renaissance and performed at the Plantation Club,Florence Mills's old stomping ground. After several auditions, she secured a role in thechorus line of a touring production of the groundbreaking and hugely successfulBroadway revue "Shuffle Along" (1921)[29] that helped bring public attention to Florence Mills,Paul Robeson, andAdelaide Hall.[30][31]
In "Shuffle Along", Baker was a dancer at the end of a chorus line. Fearing she might be overshadowed by the others, she used her position to introduce a hint of comedy into her routine, making her stand out from her fellow dancers. She began in "Shuffle Along" with one of the U.S. touring companies, but, once she came of age, she was transferred to theBroadway production, where she remained for several months, until the show closed, in 1923. Next, Baker was cast in "The Chocolate Dandies", a revue that opened on September 1, 1924. Again, she was relegated to the chorus line. The show ran for 96 performances, finally closing on November 22, 1924.
"No, I didn't get my first break on Broadway. I was only in the chorus in 'Shuffle Along' and 'Chocolate Dandies.' I became famous first in France in the twenties. I just couldn't stand America and I was one of the firstcoloured Americans to move to Paris. Oh yes,Bricktop was there as well. Me and her were the only two, and we had a marvellous time. Of course, everyone who was anyone knew Bricky. And they got to know Miss Baker as well."[34]
In Paris, she became an instant success for hererotic dancing and for appearing practically nude onstage. After a successful tour of Europe, she broke her contract and returned to France in 1926 to star at theFolies Bergère, setting the standard for her future acts.[9]
Baker performed theDanse Sauvage, wearing little more than a skirt of strung-together artificial bananas. Her success coincided with the 1925Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave birth to the term "Art Deco", as well as a renewed interest in non-Western art forms, including those ofAfrican origin, which Baker would represent. In later shows in Paris, she was often accompanied on stage by her petcheetah, "Chiquita", donning adiamond collar. Chiquita frequently escaped into theorchestra pit, terrorizing the musicians and adding another element of excitement to the show.[9]
After a while, Baker became the most successful American entertainer in France.Ernest Hemingway called her "the most sensational woman anyone ever saw."[35][36] The author spent hours talking with her in Parisian bars.Picasso depicted her alluring beauty.Jean Cocteau became friendly with her and helped vault her to international stardom.[34] Baker endorsed a "Bakerfix" hair gel, as well as bananas, shoes, and cosmetics, among other products.[37]
In 1929, Baker became the first African-American star to visitYugoslavia, which she included on a tour throughCentral Europe via theOrient Express. InBelgrade, she performed at Luxor Balkanska, then the city's most luxurious venue. In a nod to local culture, she included aPirot kilim in her routine, and donated some of the show's proceeds to poor children ofSerbia. InZagreb, adoring crowds greeted her at the train station, but opposition from localclergy and morality police led to the cancellation of some of her shows.[38]
During her travels in Yugoslavia, Baker was accompanied by "Count" Giuseppe Pepito Abatino.[38] At the start of her career in France, Abatino, aSicilian formerstonemason who passed himself off as acount, persuaded her to let him manage her.[39] He became not only Baker's manager, but her lover as well. The two could not marry because she was not yet divorced from her second husband, Willie Baker.[40]
1930 drawing by Louis Gaudin, depicting Baker being presented aflower bouquet by a cheetah
During this period, she released her most successful song, "J'ai deux amours" (1931).[41] The song expresses the sentiment that "I have two loves, my country and Paris." In a 2007 book, Tim Bergfelder, Sue Harris, and Sarah Street claimed that "by the 1930's, Baker's assimilation into French popular culture had been completed by her association with the song."[42] She starred in four films, which found success only in Europe: thesilent filmSiren of the Tropics (1927),Zouzou (1934) andPrincesse Tam Tam (1935). She starred inFausse Alerte in 1940.[43] Bergfelder, Harris, and Street wrote that the silent filmSiren of the Tropics "rehearses the 'primitive-to-Parisienne' narrative that would become the staple of Baker's cinema career, and exploited in particular her comic stage persona based on loose-limbed athleticism and artful clumsiness."[42] Thesound films "Zouzou" (1934) and "Princesse Tam Tam" were bothstar vehicles for Baker.[44]
A stylized depiction of Baker in a poster by Jean Chassaing, from 1931.
Under the management of Abatino, Baker's stage and public persona, as well as her singing voice, were transformed. In 1934, she took the lead in a revival ofJacques Offenbach's operaLa créole, which premiered in December of that year for a six-month run at theThéâtre Marigny on theChamps-Élysées of Paris. In preparation for her performances, she went through months of training with a vocal coach. In the words ofShirley Bassey, who has cited Baker as her primary influence, "... she went from apetite danseuse sauvage with a decent voice tola 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."[45]
Despite her popularity in France, Baker never attained the equivalent reputation in America. Her star turn in a 1936 revival of "Ziegfeld Follies" on Broadway was not commercially successful, and later in the run she was replaced byGypsy Rose Lee.[46][47]Time magazine referred to her as a "Negro wench ... whose dancing and singing might be topped anywhere outside of Paris", while other critics said her voice was "too thin" and "dwarf-like" to fill theWinter Garden Theatre.[46] She returned to Europe heartbroken.[32] This contributed to Baker's becoming a legal citizen of France and giving up her American citizenship.[9]
Baker returned to Paris in 1937, married the French industrialist Jean Lion, and became a French citizen.[48] They were married in the French town ofCrèvecœur-le-Grand, in a wedding presided over by the mayor, Jammy Schmidt.
Between 1933 and 1937, Baker was a guest at the start of theTour de France on four occasions.[49] In 1938, after enduring severe hostility in Germany and Eastern Europe during the late 1920s—where she was targeted by storm troopers with ammonia bombs and told to "Go back to Africa"—Josephine Baker became a French citizen by marrying Jean Lion in 1937. This significant event in her life spurred her to actively participate in the French Resistance against the Nazis.[50]
In September 1939, when France declared war on Germany in response to the invasion of Poland, Baker was recruited by theDeuxième Bureau, the French military intelligence agency, as an "honorable correspondent". Baker worked with Jacques Abtey, the head of Frenchcounterintelligence in Paris.She socialized with the Germans at embassies, ministries, night clubs, charming them while secretly gathering information. Her café-society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in the know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian andVichy bureaucrats, reporting to Abtey what she heard. She attended parties and gathered information at the Italian embassy without raising suspicion.[51] The Deuxième Bureau shared information withWilfred Dunderdale at Secret Intelligence Service in London, and when it had to go underground, Baker reported to London directly-and in North Africa she reported via the American diplomate spies to London.[52]Baker's espionage work went beyond merely gathering information at social events.[53]She had a pilot´s license and during thePhoney War she flew missions.[54] She collected detailed intelligence on German troop movements, as well as the locations and activities of airfields and harbors. Confident in her celebrity status and the protections it afforded, Baker believed she could operate without raising suspicion. To covertly transport sensitive information, she used ingenious methods, such as writing notes on her hands and arms, pinning them inside her clothing, and using invisible ink. Her boldness paid off, allowing her to smuggle intelligence across borders and deliver critical reports to the French Resistance.[55]
When theGermans invaded France in 1940, Baker left Paris and went to theChâteau des Milandes, her home in theDordognedépartement in the south of France. The Château des Milandes became, especially in World War II, one of the most important hideaways; she would shelter resistance fighters and Jewish refugees, providing them with documents and even money for food, cloth, and forged documents she usually financed herself. Her estate also provided the center ofFrench Resistance activities, including the installation of a radio transmitter in order to be in touch with the Allied forces and storing weapons in its cellar.[56] As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations such as Portugal, as well as some in South America. She carried information for transmission to England, about airfields, harbors, and German troop concentrations in the West of France. Notes were written in invisible ink on Baker's sheet music.[57][58] As described inJazz Cleopatra, "She specialized in gatherings atembassies and ministries, charming people as she had always done, but at the same time trying to remember interesting items to transmit".[38]
Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to theFrench colonies in North Africa. The stated reason was Baker's health (since she was recovering from another case of pneumonia), but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain. She pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear. She met thePasha of Marrakech, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several). After the miscarriage, she developed an infection so severe it required ahysterectomy. The infection spread and she developedperitonitis and thensepsis. After her recovery (which she continued to fall in and out of), she started touring to entertain British, French, and American soldiers in North Africa. The Free French had no organized entertainment network for their troops, so Baker and her entourage managed for the most part on their own. They allowed no civilians and charged no admission.[59]
In 1949, a reinvented Baker returned in triumph to the Folies Bergère. Bolstered by recognition of her wartime heroism, Baker the performer assumed a new gravitas, unafraid to take on serious music or subject matter. The engagement was a rousing success and reestablished Baker as one of Paris' pre-eminent entertainers. In 1951, Baker was invited back to the United States for a nightclub engagement in Miami. After winning a public battle over desegregating the club's audience, Baker followed up her sold-out run at the club with a national tour. Rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences accompanied her everywhere, climaxed by a parade in Harlem in honor of her new title:NAACP's "Woman of the Year".[60][61]
An incident at theStork Club in New York in October 1951 interrupted and overturned her plans. Baker criticized the club's unwritten policy of discouraging Black patrons, then scolded columnistWalter Winchell, an old ally, for not rising to her defense. Winchell responded swiftly with a series of harsh public rebukes, including accusations ofCommunist sympathies (a serious charge at the time). The ensuing publicity resulted in the termination of Baker's work visa, forcing her to cancel all her engagements and return to France. It was almost a decade before U.S. officials allowed her back into the country.[64]
In January 1966,Fidel Castro invited Baker to perform at the "Teatro Musical de La Habana" inHavana, Cuba, at the seventh-anniversary celebrations of his revolution. Her spectacular show in April broke attendance records. In 1968, Baker visited Yugoslavia and made appearances in Belgrade and inSkopje. In her later career, Baker faced financial troubles. She commented, "Nobody wants me, they've forgotten me"; but family members encouraged her to continue performing. In 1973 she performed atCarnegie Hall to a standing ovation.[65]
The following year, she appeared in aRoyal Variety Performance at theLondon Palladium, and then at theMonegasque Red Cross Gala, celebrating her 50 years in French show business. Advancing years and exhaustion began to take their toll; she sometimes had trouble remembering lyrics, and her speeches between songs tended to ramble. She still continued to captivate audiences of all ages.[66]
Although based in France, Baker supported theAmerican Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. When she arrived in New York with her husband Jo, they were refused reservations at 36 hotels because of racial discrimination. This led her to write several articles about segregation in the United States. She also traveled in the South, giving a talk atFisk University, ahistorically black college inNashville, Tennessee, on "France, North Africa and the Equality of the Races in France".[67] In the 1950s the FBI tracked everything she did; opening a file on her. The intent of doing so was to deter other countries from allowing her to take the stage. During her travels to foreign countries, she would leverage her influence to bring light to the racial discrimination in the United States which created a rift between her and her homeland.[68]
On October 16, 1951, Josephine Baker experienced a public incident where she was said to have been refused service at the upscale Stork Club in New York City. Determined to expose this injustice, Baker set out to publicize her story, expecting support from one of America's most powerful conservative journalists and one of the regulars at the club: Walter Winchell. Instead of solidarizing with Baker, Winchell launched a media attack on her. He labeled her as an anti-American communist sympathizer, which turned the public attention away from the discrimination she had to face. This was an incident that proved that, on one hand, Baker faced racism, while on the other, influential people were also up against her efforts to fight against the same. Undaunted by such opposition, she continued to use her platform to advocate for civil rights and challenge systemic injustice.[50]
She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States, although she was offered $10,000 by a Miami club;[6] the club eventually met her demands. Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate live entertainment shows in theLas Vegas Valley.[10] After this incident, she began receiving threatening phone calls from people claiming to be from theKu Klux Klan but said publicly that she was not afraid of them.[69]
In 1951, Baker made charges of racism againstSherman Billingsley'sStork Club in Manhattan, where she had been refused service.[64][70] ActressGrace 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 never to return (although she returned on 3 January 1956 withPrince Rainier of Monaco). The two women became close friends after the incident.[71]
When Baker was near bankruptcy, Kelly—by then theprincess consort—offered her a villa and financial assistance. (During his work on the "Stork Club" book, author and "New York Times" reporter Ralph Blumenthal was contacted byJean-Claude Baker, one of Baker's sons. He indicated that he had read his mother'sFBI file and, using comparison of the file to the tapes, said he thought the Stork Club incident was overblown.[72])
Baker also worked with theNAACP.[6] Her reputation as a crusader grew to such an extent that the NAACP had Sunday, May 20, 1951, declared "Josephine Baker Day". She was presented with life membership with the NAACP byNobel Peace Prize winnerRalph Bunche. The honor she was paid spurred her to further her crusading efforts with the "Save Willie McGee" rally. McGee was a black man in Mississippi convicted of raping a white woman in 1945 on the basis of dubious evidence, and sentenced to death.[73] Baker attended rallies for McGee and wrote letters toFielding Wright, the governor of Mississippi, asking him to spare McGee's life.[73] Despite her efforts, McGee was executed in 1951.[73] As the decorated war hero who was bolstered by the racial equality she experienced in Europe, Baker became increasingly regarded as controversial; some black people even began to shun her, fearing that her outspokenness and racy reputation from her earlier years would hurt the cause.[74]
In 1963, she spoke at theMarch on Washington at the side of Rev.Martin Luther King Jr.[76] Baker was the only official female speaker. While wearing herFree French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur, she introduced the "Negro Women for Civil Rights".[77]Rosa Parks andDaisy Bates were among those she acknowledged, and both gave brief speeches.[78] Not everyone involved wanted Baker present at the March; some thought her time overseas had made her a woman of France, one who was disconnected from the Civil Rights issues going on in America. In her speech, one of the things Baker said:
I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens, and into the houses of presidents and much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. And when I get mad, you know that I open my big mouth. And then look out, 'cause when Josephine opens her mouth, they hear it all over the world ...[79][80]
After King's assassination, his widowCoretta Scott King approached Baker in the Netherlands to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "too young to lose their mother."[78][81]
Baker's first marriage was to AmericanPullman porter Willie Wells when she was only 13 years old. The union was reportedly very unhappy, and the couple divorced soon after marrying. Another short-lived marriage followed in 1921, to William Howard Baker. Since her career was already taking off under that last name, she retained it after the divorce. Jean-Claude Baker wrote that Josephine wasbisexual and had several relationships with women.[82]
In 1925, she allegedly began an extramarital relationship with theBelgian novelistGeorges Simenon.[83] On an ocean liner, in 1929, en route from South America to France, Baker had an affair with the Swiss-French architectLe Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret).[84] In 1937, Baker married Frenchman Jean Lion, but they separated in 1940. She married French composer and conductor Jo Bouillon in 1947, and their union lasted 14 years before also ending indivorce. Later, she was involved with the artist Robert Brady for a time, but they never married.[85] Speculation exists that Baker was also involved in sexual liaisons, if not relationships, with blues singerClara Smith,Ada "Bricktop" Smith, French novelistColette, andFrida Kahlo.[82][86]
During her participation in thecivil rights movement, Baker began to adopt children, forming a family which she often referred to as "The Rainbow Tribe". Baker wanted to prove that "children of differentethnicities andreligions could still be brothers." She often took the children with her cross-country, and when they were atChâteau des Milandes, she arranged tours so visitors could walk the grounds and see how natural and happy the children were in "The Rainbow Tribe".[87] Her estate featured hotels, a farm, rides, and the children singing and dancing for the audience. She charged an admission fee to visitors who entered and partook in the activities, which included watching the children play.[88]
She created dramatic backstories for them, picking them with clear intent in mind: at one point, she wanted and planned to adopt aJewish baby, but she settled for a French one. She also raised them in different religions in order to further her model for the world, taking two children fromAlgeria and raising one child as aMuslim and raising the other child as aCatholic. One member of the Tribe, Jean-Claude Baker, said: "She wanted a doll".[89]
Baker raised two daughters, French-born Marianne andMoroccan-born Stellina, and 10 sons,Japanese-born Janot (born Teruya) and Akio,[90][91]Colombian-born Luis,Finnish-born Jari (now Jarry), French-born Jean-Claude, Noël, and Moïse,Algerian-born Brahim (later Brian),Ivorian-born Koffi, andVenezuelan-born Mara.[92][93] Later on, Josephine Baker would become the legal guardian of another boy, also namedJean-Claude, and considered him an unofficial addition to the Rainbow Tribe. For some time, Baker lived with her children and an enormous staff in the château inDordogne, France, with her fourth husband, Jo Bouillon. Bouillon claimed that Baker bore one child, though it was stillborn in 1941, an incident that precipitated an emergency hysterectomy.[94]
Baker forced Jarry to leave the château and live with his adoptive father, Jo Bouillon, inArgentina, at the age of 15, after discovering that he wasgay (though it appears that the two were able to reconcile in later years.)[95][96][97] Moïse died of cancer in 1999, and Noël was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was in a psychiatric hospital as of 2009.[98]Jean-Claude Baker, the unofficial addition to the Rainbow Tribe, committedsuicide in 2015, aged 71.[99]
Baker was back on stage at theOlympia inParis in 1968, inBelgrade and atCarnegie Hall in 1973 and at the Royal Variety Performance at theLondon Palladium and at the "Gala du Cirque" in Paris in 1974. On April 8, 1975, Baker starred in a retrospective revue at theBobino in Paris, "Joséphine à Bobino 1975" celebrating her 50 years in show business. The revue, financed byPrince Rainier, Princess Grace, andJacqueline 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 includedSophia Loren,Mick Jagger,Shirley Bassey,Diana Ross andLiza Minnelli.[102]
Four days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She was in a coma after suffering acerebral hemorrhage. She was taken toPitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died, aged 68, on April 12, 1975.[102][103]
In 2015, she was inducted into theLegacy Walk inChicago, Illinois.[112] The Piscine Joséphine Baker is a swimming pool along the banks of the Seine in Paris named after her.[113]
Writing in the onlineBBC Magazine in late 2014, Darren Royston, historical dance teacher atRADA, credited Baker with being theBeyoncé of her day, and bringing the Charleston to Britain.[114] Two of Baker's 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 City. It celebrates Baker's life and works.[115]
Château des Milandes, a castle near Sarlat in theDordogne, was Baker's home where she raised her twelve children. It is open to the public and displays her stage outfits including her banana skirt (of which there are apparently several). It also displays many family photographs and documents as well as herLegion of Honour medal. Most rooms are open for the public to walk through including bedrooms with the cots where her children slept, a huge kitchen, and a dining room where she often entertained large groups. The bathrooms were designed in art deco style but most rooms retained the French chateau style.[116][117]
Baker continued to influence celebrities more than a century after her birth. In a 2003 interview withUSA Today,Angelina Jolie cited Baker as "a model for the multiracial, multinational family she was beginning to create through adoption."[118] Beyoncé performed Baker's banana dance at theFashion Rocks concert atRadio City Music Hall in September 2006.[118]
As a commemoration of Baker's one hundredth birthday, a multi-media performance was written and shown in 2006. The following year,Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot! was recorded from the Baker inspired production byImani Winds.[119][120]
Writing on the 110th anniversary of her birth,Vogue described how her 1926 "danse sauvage" in her famous banana skirt "brilliantly manipulated the white male imagination" and "radically redefined notions of race and gender through style and performance in a way that continues to echo throughout fashion and music today, fromPrada to Beyoncé."[121]
On June 3, 2017, the 111th anniversary of her birth,Google released an animatedGoogle Doodle, which consists of a slideshow chronicling her life and achievements.[122]
On Thursday, November 22, 2018, a documentary entitledJosephine Baker: The Story of an Awakening, directed by Ilana Navaro, premiered at the Beirut Art Film Festival. It contains rarely seen archival footage, including some never before discovered, with music and narration.[123]
TheStaatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums) hosted an exhibition "Josephine Baker: Icon in Motion" from January 26 through April 28, 2024.[127] The show displays photographs, film, and drawings covering her entertainment career through her involvement in civil rights. The exhibit includes Baker inspired works by her contemporaries.[128]
Josephine Baker appears on the French 20-cent euro coins released in March 2024.[129]
In May 2021, an online petition was set up by writer Laurent Kupferman asking that Joséphine Baker be honoured by being reburied at thePanthéon in Paris or being granted Panthéon honours, which would make her only the sixth woman at the mausoleum alongsideSimone Veil,Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz,Marie Curie,Germaine Tillion, andSophie Berthelot.[130] In August 2021 the French President,Emmanuel Macron, announced that Baker's remains would be reburied at the Panthéon in November 2021, following the petition and continued requests from Baker's family since 2013.[131] Her son Claude Bouillon-Baker, however, toldAgence France-Presse that her body would remain in Monaco and only a plaque would be installed at the Panthéon.[132] It was later announced that a symbolic casket containing soil from various locations where Baker had lived, including St. Louis, Paris, the South of France and Monaco, would be carried by theFrench Air and Space Force in a parade in Paris before a ceremony at the Panthéon where the casket was interred.[133] The ceremony took place on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, and Baker thus became the first black woman to be honored in the secular temple to the "great men" of the French Republic.[12][134]
A biopic about the life of Josephine Baker was announced in November 2022. It will be directed by French directorMaïmouna Doucouré and produced by French production companyStudiocanal.[150][151]
In 1986, Helen Gelzer[152] portrayed Baker on the concept albumJosephine – "a musical version of the life and times of Josephine Baker" with book, lyrics and music by Michael Wild.[153] The musical director was Paul Maguire. The album was produced in conjunction with Baker's longtime friend Jack Hockett and Premier Box Office.[154] AWest End stage production ofJosephine was premiered at theFortune Theatre on June 4, 1989.[155] It was produced by Ian Liston and financed in conjunction with Jack Hockett and Premier Box Office. Jack Hockett died in 1988 before the show was staged. Heather Gillespie played the lead role of Josephine Baker, and Baker's husband Pepito was played by Roland Alexander.Peggy Phango playedBricktop.[156]
In 2006,Jérôme Savary produced a musical,A La Recherche de Josephine – New Orleans for Ever (Looking for Josephine), starringNicolle Rochelle. The story revolved around the history of jazz and Baker's career.[157][158] Also in 2006,Deborah Cox starred in the musicalJosephine at Florida'sAsolo Theatre, directed and choreographed by Joey McKneely, with a book byEllen Weston and Mark Hampton, music bySteve Dorff and lyrics byJohn Bettis.[159] In July 2012, Cheryl Howard opened inThe Sensational Josephine Baker, written and performed by Howard and directed by Ian Streicher at the Beckett Theatre of Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York City, just a few doors away from Chez Josephine.[160][161] In July 2013,Cush Jumbo's debut playJosephine and I premiered at theBush Theatre, London.[162] It was re-produced in New York City at The Public Theater's Joe's Pub from February 27 to April 5, 2015.[163]
In June 2016,Josephine, a burlesque cabaret dream play starring Tymisha Harris as Josephine Baker premiered at the 2016San Diego Fringe Festival. The show has since played across North America and had a limited off-Broadway run in January–February 2018 atSoHo Playhouse in New York City.[164] In late February 2017, a new play about Baker's later years,The Last Night of Josephine Baker by playwright Vincent Victoria, opened in Houston, Texas,[165] starring Erica Young as "Past Josephine" and Jasmin Roland as "Present Josephine".[166] ActressDeQuina Moore portrayed Baker in a biographic musical titledJosephine Tonight atThe Ensemble Theatre in Houston, Texas, from June 27 to July 28, 2019.[167] In September 2021,Theatre Royal, Bath, in conjunction withOxford Playhouse andWales Millennium Centre produced a UK touring production ofJosephine co-written by Leona Allen and Jesse Briton who also directed the show. It toured the UK and featured Ebony Feare in the lead role as Josephine Baker.[168]
Since 2016 Dynamite Lunchbox Entertainment of Orlando Florida has been touringJosephine, a burlesque cabaret dream play,[169] co-created by and starring Tymisha Harris, to Fringe Festivals around Canada and the U.S. It played at the Montreal Fringe Festival in 2022. It was part of the 2022–2023 official season at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts in Montreal (Spring 2023) asJosephine, A Musical Cabaret.
Baker appears in her role as a member of the French Resistance inJohannes Mario Simmel's 1960 novel,Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein (C'est pas toujours du caviar).[170] The 2004erotic novelScandalous by British author Angela Campion uses Baker as itsheroine and is inspired by Baker's sexual exploits and later adventures in the French Resistance. In the novel, Baker, working with a fictionalBlack Canadian lover named Drummer Thompson, foils a plot by French fascists in 1936 Paris.[171] Baker was heavily featured in the 2012 bookJosephine's Incredible Shoe & The Blackpearls by Peggi Eve Anderson-Randolph.[172] In his novelNoire, la neige, Marseille, Editions Parenthèses,ISBN978-2-86364-648-9, Pascal Rannou evokes the relationship betweenValaida Snow and Josephine Baker, who is one of the main characters of this story.
The Italian-Belgian francophone singer composerSalvatore Adamo pays tribute to Baker with the song "Noël Sur Les Milandes" (albumPetit Bonheur – EMI 1970). The British band Sailor paid tribute on their 1974 self-titled debut albumSailor with the Georg Kajanus song "Josephine Baker" who "...stunned the world at the Folies Bergère..." The title track of the 1987 Premiata Forneria Marconi albumMiss Baker was written in honor of the American dancer Josephine Baker. British singer-songwriterAl Stewart wrote "Josephine Baker" about her, a song which appears on the albumLast Days of the Century, from 1988.
Beyoncé Knowles has portrayed Baker on various occasions. During the 2006Fashion Rocks show, Knowles performed "Dejá Vu" in a revised version of theDanse banane costume. In Knowles's video for "Naughty Girl", she is seen dancing in a huge champagne glass à la Baker. InI Am ... Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas, Beyoncé lists Baker as an influence of a section of her live show.[176] In 2010,Keri Hilson portrayed Baker in her single "Pretty Girl Rock".[177] In January 2022, Laquita Mitchell sang the title role in theNew Orleans Opera production ofJosephine byTom Cipullo.[178]
In 1927,Alexander Calder createdJosephine Baker (III), a wire sculpture of Baker, which is now displayed at theMuseum of Modern Art.[179] A nude portrait of Baker byJean de Botton was the "cynosure for all eyes" when it was shown at theSalon d'Automne in Paris in 1931.[180] When auctioned in Paris in 2021 the painting set a world record (EUR 179,200) for the artist.[181][182]Henri Matisse created a mural-sized cut paper artwork titledLa Négresse (1952–1953), possibly inspired by Baker.[183][184]Hassan Musa depicted Baker in a 1994 series of paintings calledWho needs Bananas?[185] Season 14 of the Duolingo French Podcast is titled The Secret Life of Josephine Baker. The season finale was released in November 2023.
In 2006, Annette von Wangenheim directed the documentaryJoséphine Baker: Black Diva in a White Mans World, about Baker's life and work from a perspective that analyses images of Black people in popular culture.[186]
In 2007, Mark Miller published his biography ofValaida Snow:High Hat, Trumpet and Rhythm (Toronto, Mercury Press), in which he evokes Valaida's partnership and rivalry with J.Baker: p. 8, 38, 44–45, 52, 57, 61, 94, 107, 120–121.
In 2018,Josephine Baker: The Story of an Awakening, directed by Ilana Navaro,[187] premiered at the Beirut Art Film Festival in 2018.
In 2022,Damien Lewis published an extremely detailed account of her spying role in WWII, Agent Josephine: American beauty, French hero, British spy,[188] just 2 years after the French government had released the secret files of their WWII espionage activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.[189]
^Williams, Iain Cameron (2003).Underneath a Harlem Moon ... The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall. Continuum Int. Publishing.ISBN978-0-8264-5893-3.
^ab"About Josephine Baker: Biography".Official Josephine Baker website. The Josephine Baker Estate. 2008.Archived from the original on November 9, 2007. RetrievedJanuary 12, 2009.
^Shack, W. A. (2001).Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story Between the Great Wars. University of California Press. p. 35.ISBN978-0-520-92569-4.
^Joyce, Dr Robin (March 5, 2017)."Josephine Baker, 1906–1975".Women's History Network.Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. RetrievedSeptember 6, 2020.
^Reed, Tom (1992).The Black music history of Los Angeles, its roots: 50 years in Black music: a classical pictorial history of Los Angeles Black music of the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s: photographic essays that define the people, the artistry and their contributions to the wonderful world of entertainment (1st, limited ed.). Los Angeles: Black Accent on L.A. Press.ISBN978-0-9632908-6-1.OCLC28801394.
^"Josephine Baker to Crown Queen". Headliner.Los Angeles Sentinel. May 22, 1952.[page needed]
^ab"Josephine Baker".Notable Black American Women. 1992.Archived from the original on September 9, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 9, 2021 – via Gale in Context: Biography.
^Guterl, Matthew (2014).Josephine Baker and the Rainbow Tribe. Belknap Press. p. 154.ISBN978-0-674-04755-6.
^"Hall of Famous Missourians". Missouri House of Representatives. March 29, 1995.Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. RetrievedDecember 5, 2013.
^Composer, Known Only to God and Anna Neagle: the autobiography of Michael Wild as related to Cyd Slater, Michael Wild and Cyd Slater,ISBN978-1-7242-5399-6, publ. 2018, Chapter 11,Josephine, pp. 121–127
^Josephine (state musical), Fortune Theatre, London, June 4, 1989 premier, Theatricalia:JosephineArchived May 25, 2023, at theWayback Machine, retrieved May 25, 2023
^Anderson-Randolph, Peggi Eve (2012).Josephine's Incredible Shoe and the Blackpearls. Vol. 1. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.ISBN978-1-4775-7015-9.
^Jeffery, Alex (May 6, 2021).Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.ISBN978-1-5013-5548-6.Curiously, Morali's 1978 concept album about Josephine Baker (Josephine Superstar, sung by later Cosby show star Phylicia Allen) charts the reverse march eastwards [as compared to Village People's Go West], as Baker passes through "St. Louis" and "Broadway," en route to success and infamy in Paris.
^Billboard. Vol. 90 #37. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. September 16, 1978.Can't stop Sigma Sound from turning Hits! THE RITCHIE FAMILY, Brazil, Best Disco In Town, Lady Luck, African Queens and Now American Generation VILLAGE PEOPLE San Francisco, Macho Man PATRICK JUVET I Love America PHYLICIA ALLEN Josephine Superstar GYPSY LANE Predictions{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
^Hauptman, Jodi (2014). "Bodies and Waves". In Buchberg, Karl D.; Cullinan, Nicholas; Hauptman, Jodi; Sirota, Nicholas; Friedman, Samantha; Frigeri, Flavia (eds.).Henri Matisse: the cut-outs. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 196.ISBN978-0-87070-915-9.OCLC859305247.
Atwood, Kathryn J. & Olson, Sarah (2011).Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.ISBN978-1-55652-961-0.
Baker, J.C. & Chase, Chris (1993).Josephine: The Hungry Heart. New York: Random House.ISBN978-0-679-40915-1.
Baker, Jean-Claude & Chase, Chris (1995).Josephine: The Josephine Baker Story. Adams Media Corp.ISBN978-1-55850-472-1.
Baker, Josephine & Bouillon, Jo (1995).Josephine. Marlowe & Co.ISBN978-1-56924-978-9.
Bergfelder, Tim; Harris, Sue & Street, Sarah (2007). "French Cinema in the 1930s: Space, Place, and National Identity".Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination: Set Design in 1930s European Cinema. Amsterdam University Press.JSTORj.ctt46mscn.7.
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