Josephine Baker - The Last of the Great Nude Burleque Artists - Was the Toast of Paris in the Roaring 20s
Josephine Baker was one of the most famous acts of the early 1920's
, one of the first major black stars and one of the last famous burlesque starlets.Early Life
Josephine Baker was born in 1906. She had what might charitivly be called a...very unique look. She was the daughter of a white or perhaps mixed race father and an African American mother who worked as a laundress in St. Louis, Missouri. Her movements were Baker's gangling and had an endearing, goofy grin as seen in most existing photos.
She quit school at age twelve to work and by age 15 was dancing in a chorus line. By 17 she had already been married twice and it was her second husband, a Pullman railroad porter, Willie Baker, whose name she used for the rest of her life.
Taking the Stage by Storm
In 1924 Josephine won a part in the chorus of the famous Harlem Cotton Club show Chocolate Dandies. She also appeared in the Broadway revue Shuffle Along and by 1925 was appearing in Paris's Theatre des Champ-Elysees.
Her entrance electrified the roaring 20's audiences -- she was naked except for a skirt of feathers and slung over the shoulders of a large muscular actor.
Ernest Hemingway, living in Paris at the time, called her "the most sensational woman anyone ever saw."
When the toupe moved to Germany, Josephine stayed behind in Paris and joined the Folies Begere. She appeared in her trademark skirt -- this time of phallic stuffed bananas.
Critics -- Who Remembers Their Names?
Not everyone loved Baker. Critics called her dance "laughable" (the were just comic variations on the Charleston and Camel Walk) and she was harassed by racists who considered her to be inferior to the white French.
But most Parisians loved her. She was something new to them -- a "simple tribal woman" who did acrobatic, semi-nude dances and made a joke of sex while staying somehow intensely provocative.
Success and Fame
Josephine married her manager (after having numerous, public affair with many of the leading men in Paris and elsewhere -- though never Papa Hemingway as far as is known) and he orchestrated her later career.
Her had her name attached to several "memoirs" and "confessions" and even a novel. He had her train her voice and she recorded six songs which became hits. She made several films including Zouzou (in 1934) and Princesse Tamtam (1935). Though she was not an accomplished actress, her fame grew further.
She was also known to arrive at the set with her private zoo -- including a chimp, a piglet, a goat, a snake, multiple parakeets, fish, three cats, seven dogs, and a cheetah (which wore a diamond collar and sometimes escaped, causing the crew to scatter.)
She became a French citizen in 1936 after a disasterous American tour and was active with the Resistance during World War II. She was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1961.
Josephine Baker died in 1975.
Josephine Baker - The Last of the Great Nude Burleque Artists - Was the Toast of Paris in the Roaring 20s
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