Baker, Josephine, 1906–75, dancer and singer, b. St. Louis, Mo., as Freda Josephine McDonald. In 1923 and 1924 she appeared in Broadway chorus lines. She became a sensation in Paris in La Revue négre (1925), renowned for her jazz singing, dancing, and exotic costumes. Naturalized as a French citizen in 1937, she worked for the Resistance in World War II. She died in Paris after 14 triumphant performances of Josephine, celebrating her 50 years as a performer in Paris.
(born June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.—died April 12, 1975, Paris, France) U.S.-born French entertainer. She joined a dance troupe at age 16 and soon moved to New York City, where she performed in Harlem nightclubs and on Broadway in Chocolate Dandies (1924). She went to Paris in 1925 to dance in La Revue nègre. To French audiences she personified the exoticism and vitality of African American culture, and she became Paris's most popular music-hall entertainer, receiving star billing at the Folies Bergère. In World War II she worked with the Red Cross and entertained Free French troops. From 1950 she adopted numerous orphans of all nationalities as “an experiment in brotherhood.” She returned periodically to the U.S. to advance the cause of civil rights.
Baker, Josephine (b. Freda Josephine McDonald) (1906–75) dancer, entertainer; born in St. Louis, Mo. An amateur singer and dancer by age eight, she ran off at age 13 to tour with a vaudeville show. In 1921 she made her Broadway debut in Shuffle Along and also began to sing in Harlem's Plantation Club. In 1925 she went to Paris with a show called La Revue Nègre, but the show failed and she and many cast members were stranded there. She was hired to appear in an all-black act at the Folies Bergère and became an instant success with her scanty costume, lively dancing, scat singing, and uninhibited cavorting. As the epitome of "le jazz hot, " "Josephine" would remain the toast of France for five decades and also gain an international status that reached her homeland largely as a reputation; she would never accept the second-class status assigned to most blacks in America, so she long boycotted the U.S.A., becoming a French citizen in 1937. Her appearances on stage and in public were distinguished by her exotic costumes and outrageous behavior. During World War II she cooperated with the French Resistance movement by providing intelligence she was able to pick up through her privileged travels abroad. After the war she took up the cause of world brotherhood, adopting 12 children of various races and religions and raising them at her estate in France. In 1951, while touring in the States, she was refused service in the Stork Club and this led to false charges by columnist Walter Winchell that she was a communist and had consorted with Nazis during World War II. In the 1950s she took up the cause of racial equality in America, forcing the integration of several theaters and night clubs, and she was among those who addressed the crowds before the Lincoln Memorial at the 1963 March on Washington. Her plans for a "world village" at her estate, meanwhile, collapsed under financial debt and in order to raise money she made a comeback in 1973–75.
Bibliography
See P. Rose, Jazz Cleopatra (1989); J.-C. Baker and C. Chase, Josephine (1994).
Baker, Josephine
orig. Freda Josephine McDonald)
Josephine Baker.
(credit: H. Roger-Viollet)
Baker, Josephine (b. Freda Josephine McDonald) (1906–75) dancer, entertainer; born in St. Louis, Mo. An amateur singer and dancer by age eight, she ran off at age 13 to tour with a vaudeville show. In 1921 she made her Broadway debut in Shuffle Along and also began to sing in Harlem's Plantation Club. In 1925 she went to Paris with a show called La Revue Nègre, but the show failed and she and many cast members were stranded there. She was hired to appear in an all-black act at the Folies Bergère and became an instant success with her scanty costume, lively dancing, scat singing, and uninhibited cavorting. As the epitome of "le jazz hot, " "Josephine" would remain the toast of France for five decades and also gain an international status that reached her homeland largely as a reputation; she would never accept the second-class status assigned to most blacks in America, so she long boycotted the U.S.A., becoming a French citizen in 1937. Her appearances on stage and in public were distinguished by her exotic costumes and outrageous behavior. During World War II she cooperated with the French Resistance movement by providing intelligence she was able to pick up through her privileged travels abroad. After the war she took up the cause of world brotherhood, adopting 12 children of various races and religions and raising them at her estate in France. In 1951, while touring in the States, she was refused service in the Stork Club and this led to false charges by columnist Walter Winchell that she was a communist and had consorted with Nazis during World War II. In the 1950s she took up the cause of racial equality in America, forcing the integration of several theaters and night clubs, and she was among those who addressed the crowds before the Lincoln Memorial at the 1963 March on Washington. Her plans for a "world village" at her estate, meanwhile, collapsed under financial debt and in order to raise money she made a comeback in 1973–75.
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