Youth
It is clear that the conditions in which Josephine grew up were more than modest. In addition, in 1907, when she also had a brother, her father left the family. True, in 1911, Josephine's mother managed to get married a second time, and so she had two more sisters. They miraculously survived the massacre in St. Louis on July 2, 1917. And what Josephine saw then made her an ardent fighter against racism for the rest of her life.
The girl, like many mulatto women, was developed beyond her years, so when she turned 13, her mother married her off to a man much older than her. And it is not surprising that after only a few weeks, their marriage, if it can be called a marriage, fell apart.
It took a living, and what can girls with African roots do best? Sing and dance, of course. So Josephine got a job as a statistician at the Booker Washington Theater in the same St. Louis. In 1921, Josephine remarried the railway conductor Baker. True, then she divorced him in 1925, but she left his last name.
Banana skirt
Already at the age of 16, Josephine danced on stage in Philadelphia, and then in New York she got a role in vaudeville and toured the United States for six months.
From 1923 to 1924, she was a musical comedy chorus girl, performed in Negro revues and at the popular New York Plantation Club. Then they began to notice her, and she got a job in the "Negro revue", with which her theater went to Paris on tour. So on October 2, 1925, at the Theater on the Champs Elysees, Josephine was seen by the French public. I saw and … Josephine conquered her! In addition, it was in her performance that the French saw the Charleston dance, and they really liked it.
Sensational journalists called her "Black Venus", so the public flooded with the "Negro Review". Then Brussels and Berlin began to applaud her.
She performed in her famous banana skirt and … nothing else, which for a fairly puritanical 20s was the height of relaxedness. Therefore, one should not be surprised that Berlin nudists invited Josephine to visit them, which is why she very politely but decisively refused. It was in her dances that even then there were elements of hustle, tap, and even hip-hop, and break, which appeared among the masses only years later!
But at the end of 1926, Josephine, and with great fanfare, married … the Sicilian stonemason Giuseppe Pepito Abatino, who somehow got into her show at that time. The funny thing is that he pretended to be Count Di Albertini and in that capacity became first her lover, and then her manager. However, this only added piquancy to her image, since she thus became the first African-American woman with a title of nobility.
But her incredible costumes became the reason for the ban of her performances in Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Munich, which, however, made this dancer even more popular for the public.
Tickets for her performances in those cities where they were allowed were bought and resold, and people crossed the borders and bought them for big money just to boast in their circle that they saw a "live Baker". On board the Giulio Cesare liner, Josephine sang in Le Corbusier's cabin, and the latter not only painted her naked, but also created buildings “in the spirit of her dances”, although, as it may be in reality, it is difficult even to imagine. In any case, it was precisely by meeting with Josephine that Le Corbusier built his famous "Savoy" villa.
She toured Eastern Europe and South America and gradually began to dance less and sing more, which she also did well. In the movie, she played the main roles in the films "Siren of the Tropics" (1927), "Zuzu" (1934) and "Tam-Tam" (1935).
Lieutenant
Finally, in 1937, she received French citizenship. And during the Second World War, she thanked her second homeland by speaking to the soldiers in both France and North Africa and at the same time working for … military intelligence.
She learned to fly and even received a pilot's license, she was awarded the rank of lieutenant, and for her participation in the Resistance movement she was awarded the Resistance medals (with a rosette) and Liberation medals, the Order of the Military Cross. In 1961, she received the most honorable award of the French Republic - the Order of the Legion of Honor. She remarried in 1947, but divorced her next husband in 1961.
In a very interesting way, Josephine spoke out against racism in the United States. She adopted 12 orphans of different skin colors and tried to replace their mother. She lived quite modestly in the village of Miland in Perigord in the south of France. At first she left the stage in 1956, but it turned out that she could not live without her. And in 1961 she began performing again, and in 1973 she also sang at Carnegie Hall.
1975 was a fatal year in her life. She suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died on April 12, 1975. But in her death, she managed to bypass everyone else, becoming the first African-American woman who was buried with military honors in France, although not quite in France, but in Monaco.
Although Josephine was condemned for her frank outfits and outrageous behavior, she was the muse of many sculptors, poets, artists and even architects. So, Adolph Loos created the "House of Josephine Baker", she inspired Alexander Calder to create her own wire sculptures, Gertrude Stein - poetry in prose, and Paul Colin wrote many portraits of Baker, and also made even more lithographs and … advertising posters. Picasso also painted it in different forms, although these of his works have not survived. But with Matisse in Dansez Creole and Jazz, the spirit of Josephine is easily recognized.
But she also had another side of life - the military. Using her charm and rotating among the diplomats at the prima in the embassies, she collected valuable intelligence information. And in North Africa, she was engaged in establishing contacts between American and French troops, and at the same time continued to collect intelligence information, under the guise of her speeches. So it is not at all surprising that she was promoted to lieutenant, and so many medals and orders were awarded - the information she obtained was worth it.
At her last performance in 1975 in Paris, she sang and danced at the age of 68 and in great shape! The money for the new show was given by the princely couple of Monaco and almost the same famous woman - Jackie Kennedy-Onassis. There were so many celebrities at the premiere that you can't count everyone: Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, Jeanne Moreau, Alain Delon and many others. Josephine's performance was an incredible success. And a few days later she was struck by a stroke, and that was the end.
After the farewell ceremony, Princess Grace took her ashes to Monaco. And what can I say? She was born into the family of a black laundress, but she took care of her burial of the husband of the Prince of Monaco.
