[64] In 1968, Baker lost her castle owing to unpaid debts; afterwards Princess Grace offered her an apartment in Roquebrune, near Monaco. Carrie remarried soon thereafter and would have several more children in the coming years. "No, I didn't get my first break on Broadway. [60] She created dramatic backstories for them, picking with clear intent in mind: at one point she wanted and planned to get a Jewish baby, but settled for a French one instead. (However, during his work on the Stork Club book, author and New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal was contacted by Jean-Claude Baker, one of Baker's sons. The two women became close friends after the incident. Josephine's father, Eddie Carson, was a vaudeville drummer who left the family when Josephine was a baby. After decades of rejection by her countrymen and a lifetime spent dealing with racism, in 1973, Baker performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and was greeted with a standing ovation. Just days later, on April 12, 1975, Baker died in her sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage. When Baker was still a child herself, she went to work for a white family … However, it was the following year, at the Folies Bergère music hall, one of the most popular of the era, that Baker’s career would reach a major turning point. The revue, financed notably by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, opened to rave reviews. She was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant. [64][68][69] The only American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Baker's funeral was the occasion of a huge procession. He abandoned Carrie and Josephine shortly after her birth. [19] She left him when her vaudeville troupe was booked into a New York City venue and divorced in 1925; it was during this time she began to see significant career success, and she continued to use his last name professionally for the rest of her life. Another short-lived marriage followed to Willie Baker in 1921; she retained Baker's last name because her career began taking off during that time, and it was the name by which she became best known. 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. After thinking it over, Baker declined the offer out of concern for the welfare of her children.[6][7]. She and Lion separated in 1940. To help support her growing family, at age eight Josephine cleaned houses and babysat for wealthy white families, often being poorly treated. French writer Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. [6], Josephine spent her early life at 212 Targee Street (known by some St. Louis residents as Johnson Street) in the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood of St. Louis, a racially mixed low-income neighborhood near Union Station, consisting mainly of rooming houses, brothels, and apartments without indoor plumbing. Baker's consistent badgering of a show manager in her hometown led to her being recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show. She let people think Eddie Carson was the father, and Carson played along, (but) Josephine knew better. A signed, typed letter from Josephine Baker to her sister Margaret Martin Wallace ("Meg"). [82], 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, from Prada to Beyoncé. Perhaps most importantly, however, Baker did work for the French Resistance, at times smuggling messages hidden in her sheet music and even in her underwear. [51] 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. 's Rainbow Honor Walk", "Alexander Calder. In 2015 she was inducted into the Legacy Walk in Chicago, Illinois. In a 2003 interview with USA Today, Angelina Jolie cited Baker as "a model for the multiracial, multinational family she was beginning to create through adoption. Becoming Josephine Baker Josephine Baker was born in a poor, black ghetto of St. Louis, Missouri, on June 3, 1906, to twenty-one-year-old Carrie MacDonald. The infection spread and she developed peritonitis and then sepsis. [6] Baker's estate identifies vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson as her natural father despite evidence to the contrary. She named the estate Les Milandes and soon paid to move her family there from St. Louis. She pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search). [6], Baker performed the "Danse Sauvage" wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas. The opening night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross, and Liza Minnelli. [3] After the war, she 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 Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. Isadora Duncan was a trailblazing dancer and instructor whose emphasis on freer forms of movement was a precursor to modern dance techniques. It appears in album "Last days of the century" from 1988. In honor of her efforts, the NAACP eventually named May 20th “Josephine Baker Day.”. She carried information for transmission to England, about airfields, harbors, and German troop concentrations in the West of France. Other Partners. She was so moved by her reception that she wept openly before her audience. With her father gone, Josephine had a difficult childhood. [39], Baker's last marriage, to French composer and conductor Jo Bouillon, ended around the time Baker opted to adopt her 11th child. [34] She returned to Europe heartbroken. She married French composer and conductor Jo Bouillon in 1947, and their union also ended in divorce but lasted 14 years. Before her son Jean-Claude Baker’s biography, Josephine Baker: A Hungry Heart, originally published in 1976, there were many debates about Baker’s sexuality.All of … Jean-Claude Baker was a French-American restaurateur. Transcription Center Status Transcription Available Place made Le Vésinet, Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe Classification Documents and Published Materials Movement "[40][41], In 1952 Baker was hired to crown the Queen of the Cavalcade of Jazz for the famed eighth Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on 1 June. It was at the Old Chauffeur's Club where Josephine met Willie Wells, and subsequently married him at age 13; however, the marriage lasted less than a year. Directed by Brian Gibson. She also raised them as different religions to further her model for the world, taking two children from Algeria and raising one Muslim and the other Catholic. In 1951 Baker was invited back to the United States for a nightclub engagement in Miami. Josephine Baker and Game of Thrones . Jacques Abtey. Looking to parlay these early successes, Baker moved to New York City and was soon performing in Chocolate Dandies and, along with Ethel Waters, in the floor show of the Plantation Club, where again she quickly became a crowd favorite. Martin Luther King Jr.[49] Baker was the only official female speaker. Josephine Langford (sister) Katherine Langford (born 29 April 1996) [1] is an Australian actress. Her act created a sensation all over Paris and her costume become the talk of the town. Affair ... by 1936 Josephine Baker was one of the highest paid performers in the world. Dick Gregory was a pioneering comedian and civil rights activist who took on race with layered, nuanced humor during the turbulent 1960s. 1. "[33], Despite her popularity in France, Baker never attained the equivalent reputation in America. I just couldn't stand America and I was one of the first colored Americans to move to Paris. Her father, Eddie Carson, was a vaudeville drummer. [6] Josephine was poorly dressed and hungry as a child, and developed street smarts playing in the railroad yards of Union Station. [79], Château des Milandes, a castle near Sarlat in the Dordogne, was Baker's home where she raised her twelve children. It contains rarely seen archival footage, including some never before discovered, with music and narration. [38] As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations such as Portugal, as well as some in South America. [78] 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. 9. The honor she was paid spurred her to further her crusading efforts with the "Save Willie McGee" rally. She was so upset by this treatment that she wrote articles about the segregation in the United States. She gave a talk at Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee, on "France, North Africa and the Equality of the Races in France. Affair affair from about 1939 until about 1939. She commented, "Nobody wants me, they've forgotten me;" but family members encouraged her to continue performing. [48] 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.[37]. She was one of the most popular music-hall entertainers in France and was also known for her work with the French Resistance during World War II. While working there, she married a man named Willie Wells, from whom she divorced only weeks later. [85], In August 2019, Baker was one of the honorees inducted in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields. Later she … I became famous first in France in the twenties. The money she earned from her performances soon allowed her to purchase an estate in Castelnaud-Fayrac, in the southwest of France. Her early life hinted at her future career. Of her seven siblings, only four survived childhood: her brother John Benjamin, younger by a year; two additional brothers, Allen Albert (b. In 1973 she performed at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. She adopted 12 children in all, creating what she referred to as her “rainbow tribe” and her “experiment in brotherhood.” She often invited people to the estate to see these children, to demonstrate that people of different races could in fact live together harmoniously. [58], During Baker's work with the Civil Rights Movement, she began adopting children, forming a family she often referred to as "The Rainbow Tribe." [14] By age 12, she had dropped out of school. [77], Writing in the on-line BBC magazine in late 2014, Darren Royston, historical dance teacher at RADA credited Baker with being the Beyoncé of her day, and bringing the Charleston to Britain. Other Partners. Baker raised two daughters, French-born Marianne and Moroccan-born Stellina, and 10 sons, Korean-born Jeannot (or Janot), Japanese-born Akio, Colombian-born Luis, Finnish-born Jari (now Jarry), French-born Jean-Claude and Noël, Israeli-born Moïse, Algerian-born Brahim, Ivorian-born Koffi, and Venezuelan-born Mara. [11], Josephine's mother married Arthur Martin, "a kind but perpetually unemployed man", with whom she had a son and two more daughters. Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate live entertainment shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. They show that (Baker's mother) Carrie McDonald ... was admitted to the (exclusively white) Female Hospital on May 3, 1906, diagnosed as pregnant. [18], In Baker's teen years she struggled to have a healthy relationship with her mother, who did not want Josephine to become an entertainer, and scolded her for not tending to her second husband, Willie Baker, whom she married in 1921 at the age of 15. Return to the U.S., Civil Rights Advocate. She made an immediate impression on French audiences when, with dance partner Joe Alex, she performed the Danse Sauvage, in which she wore only a feather skirt. [54], During her time in the Harlem Renaissance arts community, one of her relationships was with Blues singer Clara Smith. She often took the children with her cross-country, and when they were at Château des Milandes, she arranged tours so visitors could walk the grounds and see how natural and happy the children in "The Rainbow Tribe" were. Less than a year before the start of World War II, Josephine Baker wrote to her sister, Margaret "Meg" Martin Wallace, about how the "awful war rumors" were affecting her performance schedule. Siblings. Her costume, consisting of only a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. He's the only one who Baker never legally adopted. "[82] Beyoncé performed Baker's banana dance at the Fashion Rocks concert at Radio City Music Hall in September 2006. Capitalizing on this success, Baker sang professionally for the first time in 1930, and several years later landed film roles as a singer in Zou-Zou and Princesse Tam-Tam. Rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences accompanied her everywhere, climaxed by a parade in front of 100,000 people in Harlem in honor of her new title: NAACP's "Woman of the Year. Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. T.S. In Zagreb, she was received by adoring fans at the train station. [4] Baker once said: "I have two loves, my country and Paris. Josephine Baker was an international celebrity and a pioneer in Black film history. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "too young to lose their mother. Baker returned to Paris in 1937, married the French industrialist Jean Lion, and became a French citizen. In 1921, Josephine married a man named Willie Baker, whose name she would keep for the rest of her life despite their divorce years later. [59] Her estate featured hotels, a farm, rides, and the children singing and dancing for the audience. It also displays many family photographs and documents as well as her Legion of Honour medal. Josephine Baker and Grace Kelly were close friends. After beginning her comeback to the stage in 1973, Baker died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1975, and was buried with military honors. Affair affair from about 1939 until about 1939. A staunch Civil Rights activist, she was known for tunes like "Mississippi Goddam," "Young, Gifted and Black" and "Four Women.". [19], In 1949, a reinvented Baker returned in triumph to the Folies Bergere. ", "African American Celebrity Josephine Baker, Dancer and Singer", "Josephine Baker Biography - life, name, school, mother, old, information, born, husband, house, time, year", "Josephine Baker: A Chanteuse and a Fighter", "Monaco Cimetière: des bornes interactives pour retrouver les tombes", "Hall of Famous Missourians, Missouri House of Representatives", "Junction of Channing Avenue (Josephine Baker Boulevard) with Lindell Boulevard and Olive Street", "Legacy Walk unveils five new bronze memorial plaques - 2342 - Gay Lesbian Bi Trans News", "What do twerking and the Charleston have in common? It celebrates Baker's life and works. In 1968, she was offered unofficial leadership in the movement in the United States by Coretta Scott King, following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. In later shows in Paris, she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah "Chiquita," who was adorned with a diamond collar. During her early career, Baker was renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. "[51], Her first marriage was to American Pullman porter Willie Wells when she was only 13 years old. "[5], Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States and is noted for her contributions to the civil rights movement. [44], In January 1966, Fidel Castro invited Baker to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba, at the 7th-anniversary celebrations of his revolution. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! While she had four marriages to men, Jean-Claude Baker writes that Josephine also had several relationships with women. Her spectacular show in April broke attendance records. 11. https://www.biography.com/performer/josephine-baker. Affair ... by 1936 Josephine Baker was one of the highest paid performers in the world. [42][43], An incident at the Stork Club in October 1951 interrupted and overturned her plans. A term of the time describes this part of the cast as "The Pony". This biography provides detailed information about her childhood, life, career and timeline. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion. White men and women were paying handsome sums to see the beautiful, exotic Josephine Baker on stage—but only if her black brothers and sisters were separated from them. We strive for accuracy and fairness. She moved to France and […] Notes were written in invisible ink on Baker's sheet music. Place Joséphine Baker (.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}48°50′29″N 2°19′26″E / 48.84135°N 2.32375°E / 48.84135; 2.32375 (place Joséphine Baker)) in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was named in her honor. [2] She raised her children in France. Baker criticized the club's unwritten policy of discouraging Black patrons, then scolded columnist Walter Winchell, an old ally, for not rising to her defense. The secret died with Carrie, who refused to the end to talk about it. 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. Me and her were the only two, and we had a marvellous time. [3] (The club eventually met her demands). Siblings. [20] Abatino was not only Baker's management, but her lover as well. It was almost a decade before U.S. officials allowed her back into the country. She attended parties and gathered information at the Italian embassy without raising suspicion. Louis. Today, there is nothing unusual about celebrities adopting children of ethnicities other than their own. Died: January 15, 2015, Parents: Josephine Baker 2. Engagement engaged about 1941. Also an existentialist philosopher, she had a long-term relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre. Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, This page was last edited on 14 April 2021, at 03:19. [55] In 1937, Baker married Frenchman Jean Lion. © 2021 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. [24] This contributed to Baker's becoming a legal citizen of France and giving up her American citizenship.[6]. [56][57] Baker was also involved in sexual liaisons, if not relationships, with Ada "Bricktop" Smith, French novelist Colette, and possibly Frida Kahlo. [19], During this period, she scored her most successful song, "J'ai deux amours" (1931). She met the Pasha of Marrakech, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several). She worked for the French Resistance during World War II, and during the 1950s and '60s devoted herself to fighting segregation and racism in the United States. Her mother, Carrie McDonald, was a washerwoman who had given up her dreams of becoming a music-hall dancer. Her mother, Carrie McDonald, was a washerwoman who had given up her dreams of becoming a music-hall dancer. Abigail Adams was an early advocate for women's rights. Following her divorce from Wells, she found work with a street performance group called the Jones Family Band. New York: Vintage Books,1991. She also devoted much of her life to fighting racism. [54] In 1925, she began an extramarital relationship with the Belgian novelist Georges Simenon. "[6], Her career began with blackface comedy at local clubs; this was the "entertainment" of which her mother had disapproved; however, these performances landed Baker an opportunity to tour in Paris, which would become the place she called home until her final days. Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was one of the best-known and most fashionable portraitists of 18th century France; her clients included the queen Marie Antoinette. I was only in the chorus in 'Shuffle Along' and 'Chocolate Dandies'. "[86][87][88], American-born French dancer, singer, actress, and World War Two spy for the French Resistance, For other people named Josephine Baker, see. On the day of her funeral, more than 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris to witness the procession, and the French government honored her with a 21-gun salute, making Baker the first American woman in history to receive French military honors. Josephine Baker was an African American dancer and singer who lived in Paris, France, and was regarded as one of the most famous Americans living overseas. [36] They were married in the French town of Crèvecœur-le-Grand, in a wedding presided over by the mayor, Jammy Schmidt. [37]:232–269 As written in Jazz Age Cleopatra, "She specialized in gatherings at embassies and ministries, charming people as she had always done, but at the same time trying to remember interesting items to transmit. Baker wanted to prove that "children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers." She still continued to captivate audiences of all ages. "[37], She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States, although she was offered $10,000 by a Miami club. Things were different, however, back in the 1950s, when Josephine Baker started adopting orphaned children from all over the world. Following the war, Baker spent most of her time at Les Milandes with her family. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was known for aiding the French Resistance during World War II. "Josephine Baker to Crown Queen" Headliner Los Angeles Sentinel 22 May 1952. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDittmer1994 (, Jack Hockett - Josephine Baker correspondence, etc., (dated 1967-1976) part of the Henry Hurford Janes – Josephine Baker Collection at Yale University Archives, Box: 2, Folder: 78, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special, Josephine, a burlesque cabaret dream play, "Collective Mental State and Individual Agency: Qualitative Factors in Social Science Explanation", "Josephine Baker: The life of an artist and activist", "Josephine Baker (Freda McDonald) Native of St. Louis, Missouri", "When Frida Kahlo Set Her Eyes on Josephine Baker", "From the archive, 26 August 1974: An interview with Josephine Baker", "Josephine Baker: The First Black Super Star", "Female Spies in World War I and World War II", "Review of Josephine Baker: A Centenary Tribute", "Josephine Baker hero | Heroes: What They Do & Why We Need Them", "Firestorm Incident At The Stork Club, 1951", "Stork Club Refused to Serve Her, Josephine Baker Claims", "Stork Club Special Delivery Exhibit at the New York Historical Society recalls a glamour gone with the wind", "Profiles in Courage for Black History Month", "March on Washington had one female speaker: Josephine Baker", "(1963) Josephine Baker, "Speech at the March on Washington" | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed", "Would the perfect family contain a child from every race? Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. Having read a Blumenthal-written story about Leonard Bernstein's FBI file, he indicated that he had read his mother's FBI file and, using comparison of the file to the tapes, said he thought the Stork Club incident was overblown. In 1947, she married French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon, and beginning in 1950 began to adopt babies from around the world. [12] She took in laundry to wash to make ends meet, and at eight years old, Josephine began working as a live-in domestic for white families in St. The Free French had no organized entertainment network for their troops, so Baker and her entourage managed for the most part on their own. Jean Cocteau became friendly with her and helped vault her to international stardom. In 1968, Baker visited Yugoslavia and made appearances in Belgrade and in Skopje. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was presented with life membership with the NAACP by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Ralph Bunche. She also began traveling into the South. "[27][28] The author spent hours talking with her in Paris bars. During the 1950s, Baker frequently returned to the United States to lend her support to the Civil Rights Movement, participating in demonstrations and boycotting segregated clubs and concert venues. Bouillon in 1947, she developed peritonitis and then sepsis her mistreatment her celebrity to avoid strip! 2021 biography and the other surviving siblings remain in France see again, such spectacular. Big mouth appearing practically nude onstage spoke at the age of 66 that. Known widely for his work 'The Waste Land. ' several relationships with women crusading with. Princess Grace, and Liza Minnelli adopted France got josephine baker siblings know Miss Baker as well soon allowed her back the. 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