Kickass Women in History: Josephine Baker

When I was researching my Kickass Women column for February 2016 on Mata Hari, I went down many Internet rabbit holes, as one does. Somehow I found myself on TV Tropes where it was pointed out that Josephine Baker out-Mata Hari’ed Mata Hari by being a very successful dancer-turned-spy for the French Resistance during WWII.

I also discovered that Josephine Baker adopted a ton of children and raised them in a castle. Why does everything I’ve ever read about this woman start with “She was a famous dancer and singer?” Why don’t they lead with “She fought for The French Resistance and raised adopted kids in a castle?” Way to bury the lead!

TW for racism from here, k?

Baker performed in ways that today would be seen as incredibly offensive, but she was also a huge champion of the Civil Rights movement. Her motto may well have been, “If you can’t join them, rock every trope you’re assigned until you’ve demolished those mother fuckers, made a shit ton of money, and conquered the world.” Her performances took racist stereotypes so far that they became parodies of those same stereotypes.

Josephine was born Freda Josephine McDonald in 1906 in Missouri. She grew up poor. As a young child she cleaned houses, babysat white children (her employers would remind her “not to kiss the babies,” ugh) and worked as a street performer. She married Willie Wells when she was just 13 or 14 and working as a waitress (they divorced about a month later).

At fifteen she married again, and again the marriage ended in divorce, but this time she kept her husband’s last name (Baker). Josephine performed in clubs and in tours, often in blackface (at that time, even Black actors often used blackface in certain performances).

Josephine danced in the chorus of the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, the first musical to be produced, written, directed, and performed by African Americans. She had a comedic part and was enough of a hit that she landed a gig with La Revue Negre in Paris.

This was her star-making moment: she danced wearing nothing but a skirt of feathers in an act called “Danse Sauvage” and then started a new act which became her most famous. In “La Folie du Jour” she wore her legendary banana skirt and some not very strategically placed jewelry and often performed with a pet cheetah on a leash. Sometimes it escaped into the orchestra pit – the musicians hated this but audience loved it.

Here are two videos of Josephine dancing – unlike many other videos they are safe for work but the first one immediately segues into a much racier video so be warned. Note the combination of dance styles and physical comedy (and TW for racist stereotypes like HOW):

 

As a performer, Josephine could be funny and sexy. In later years she trained her voice and was able to sing more classically and operatically. She was incredibly popular in Europe and people like Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso adored her.

When she tried to return to the United States, she was met with so much racism that she returned to France, married a Frenchman (Jean Lion) and became a French citizen (surprise – they got divorced).

You can hear her sing in this video tribute (which contains some nudity):

 

Baker’s true badassery came into play during WWII. Baker entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East and toured Europe after the Germans occupied France. Naturally, as Ethan Trex pointed out in Mental Floss, she brought a lot of sheet music with her. She relayed messages for the French Resistance, sometimes in invisible ink on her sheet music and sometimes smuggled among the pages or hidden in her clothing. She also relayed information to the Resistance about conversations German officials had at her performances, and she used her connections and her money to help Jews and endangered French Resistance members escape France.

After the war, Josephine started a new project with the support of her fourth husband, Jo Bouillon (alas, it also ended in divorce, but this marriage lasted for fourteen years). She adopted 12 children from all over the world and named them “The Rainbow Tribe.” She raised them in a castle and built a theme park around it, inviting the world to see the harmonious family. Her dream was to prove that all the races and religions of the world could get along if raised together with kindness and respect. As might be guessed, she had mixed success in trying to be both a politician and a parent. Her relationships with her children were often strained and as they became teenagers, most of them went to live with Bouillon or were sent to boarding school. She also had financial problems and ended up having to leave the castle (she moved, along with many of the kids, into a villa owned by her friend Grace Kelly).  According to some biographers, Josephine was sincere in her desire to do good on a personal and political level, but overbearing in her need to place an agenda of public group perfection over the individual needs of her children.

Josephine was a huge supporter of the Civil Rights movement. She returned to the United States in 1951 and refused to play in segregated clubs. She got in a huge feud with The Stork Club over their policy of “discouraging” black guests, which expanded into a feud with Walter Winchell, a journalist who accused her of being a communist, which in turn damaged her career and her public image.

In 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington, wearing the medals she was given by France for her war work. You can read the full text of the speech here, but here are some excerpts:

Now I know that all you children don’t know who Josephine Baker is, but you ask Grandma and Grandpa and they will tell you.  You know what they will say.  “Why, she was a devil.”  And you know something…why, they are right.  I was too.  I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America too….

You know, friends, that I do not lie to you when I tell you I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents.  And much more. But I cold 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.

 

I am not a young woman now, friends.  My life is behind me.  There is not too much fire burning inside me.  And before it goes out, I want you to use what is left to light that fire in you.  So that you can carry on, and so that you can do those things that I have done.  Then, when my fires have burned out, and I go where we all go someday, I can be happy. You know I have always taken the rocky path.  I never took the easy one, but as I get older, and as I knew I had the power and the strength, I took that rocky path, and I tried to smooth it out a little.  I wanted to make it easier for you.  I want you to have a chance at what I had.  But I do not want you to have to run away to get it.  And mothers and fathers, if it is too late for you, think of your children.  Make it safe here so they do not have to run away, for I want for you and your children what I had.

In the latter part of her life, Josephine (who was bisexual, but only lived with men) had one last romantic relationship, this time with Robert Brady (for more about Josephine’s life as a bisexual woman, check out this article from The Gay and Lesbian Review, by Lester Strong). She feared her career was on the wane, but in the early 1970s she had a career revival. She died in 1975, four days into her sold out revue at The Bobino in Paris, surrounded by copies of rave reviews. She was buried in France with full military honors after a massive funeral procession.

Resources:

Wikipedia

BlackPast.org

Biography.com

The Official Site of Josephine Baker

Spy Museum

Matthew Pratt Gutrel, “Would the perfect family contain a child from every race?” for The Telegraph

Space Invader Joe’s History Blog

Ethan Trex, “5 Things You Didn’t Know About Josephine Baker” for Mental Floss