Josephine Baker, who died 50 years ago this Saturday 12th April 1975, was much more than the ‘girl in the banana skirt’. That skirt, and the performer wearing it, became a symbol of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.
Born in abject poverty in St. Louis in 1906 she grew up to become the toast of Paris, a scintillating dancer and singer, and the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture.
Leaving school at 11 to work in a laundry, dancing on street corners for pennies, she moved to New York where her persistence got her a job in the chorus line of a hit show, Shuffle Along. Fearing she wouldn’t be noticed, she began to add comic touches to her part that definitely got her noticed.
In 1925, aged 19, she set her sights on Paris, and soon became the headline act at the Follies Bergere. She was a sensation and that dance, wearing nothing but a skirt made of bananas and a necklace, caused a scandal.
Beloved of artists and intellectuals, she symbolised a hedonistic, feverish lifestyle that appealed to the expatriots who thronged Paris between the wars. Ernest Hemmingway, Picasso and Jean Cocteau were fans. In 1931 she recorded what would become her signature song, J’ai deux amours (“I have two loves, my country and Paris”) and her assimilation into French popular culture was complete.
She tried to return to the US but encountered racism and segregation at every turn. From being a superstar in Europe, in America she was despised and patronised. She went back to France.
She was a French secret agent during WW11. Her chateau was a centre of resistance activities, storing weapons in its cellar and installing a radio transmitter in order to be in touch with the Allied forces. It was a shelter for resistance fighters and Jewish refugees, providing them with documents and money for food, clothes, and forged documents.
Josephine Baker was awarded the Resistance Medal by the French Committee of National Liberation, the Croix de Guerre by the French military, and was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by General Charles de Gaulle.
Married the first time at age 13, the second time at 15, she soon abandoned those early mistakes although she went on to marry twice more, all ending in divorce. All she took away from her marriages was her name, Baker, from her second husband, which she kept for the rest of her life. Many relationships followed, with men and women, including Belgian novelist Simenon, Swiss architect Le Corbusier, American/French nightclub owner Ada “Bricktop” Smith, French novelist Colette, and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
After the War she was active in the civil rights movement in the US, alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and, after his assassination, his wife, Coretta, asked her to lead the movement. She declined because she had, by then, adopted 12 children and said that they needed her more.
She returned to performing to fund her enormous family, aided by support from her old friend, Princess Grace of Monaco and again met with success in Paris and this time in the US as well.
She died in Paris, 50 years ago this week, of a cerebral hemorrhage, four days after one of the greatest triumphs of her career, a retrospective revue in Paris, financed by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Demand for seating was such that fold-out chairs had to be added to accommodate spectators. The audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.
This touching film tells the story of her struggles, her triumphs and her political awakening.
The post Ruth Leon recommends… Josephine Baker: the Story of an Awakening appeared first on Slippedisc.
