When I research early film history, all roads seem to eventually lead to Josephine Baker - especially in the bedroom. This sexy, trailblazing Black actress and dancer was an international sensation at the height of silent films. Personally, I don't think we have given her enough respect for all of her work. Well, today I'm changing that! For Throwback Thursday we are going to do a deep dive into the life and nudity of the one and only Josephine Baker.
Josephine Baker was originally from St. Louis where he was born to former slaves. Of Native American and African descent, Josephine had an alluring look that was undeniable even in the very segregated city that she grew up in. She started dancing in shows as a young woman in St. Louis, but she had enough self-confidence and self-worth to know that her skills and good looks should be treated better. Not only that, but her mother really disapproved of Josephine's desire to make it in show business. So what was a young girl like her to do? She had the means from her dancing career to move out of the very racially turbulent city she lived in - and country! - so she moved to France in the 1920s and became an integral part of gay Paris at only 19-years-old.
She found freedom in France! In the book The Hungry Heart, she talked about how the first thing she noticed in France was being openly kissing in the streets. She said, “This freedom amused me….In the theaters, women could show themselves without clothing. I could not believe it, so I bought dozens of pictures of nude women.”
She was best known for her skintillating costumes that showed off her fit and flirty body with each and every shimmy and shake she made onstage. Her famous banana skirt - designed by artist Jean Cocteau - is STILL paid homage to by celebrities and dancers. While she mostly stuck to her erotic dance shows where she danced the Charleston topless, she also went topless in the 1927 film Siren of the Tropics where the nude Josephine took a delightful little bath.
She had a series of live shows that propelled her to superstardom in France. She was all the rage! Not only that, but she lived her life exactly how she wanted. Back in America, she had been married to two different men by the time she was 15. In France? She married and slept with whomever she pleased. How wonderful that she ended up moving to France where she had more freedom to be herself because this sexy, openly-bisexual performer was known to be a lover of many, many prominent men and women at the time. While she was very open, many others were not so free which is why a lot of her lovers are subjugated to the "alleged" category. That being said she was "allegedly" tied to Bessie Allison, Greta Garbo, director Max Reinhardt, and most famously to Frida Kahlo. She was the Parisian jazz hit sensation that had Ernest Hemmingway enraptured. Even Pablo Picasso was so captivated by her beauty that he referred to her as "the Nefertiti of now". Two men even dueled with swords for her attention in Budapest until Baker stopped the fight. Has there ever been a more admired woman in history? (Step aside, Helen of Troy and Cleopatra!)
Baker was also one of a handful of performers who served their country during World War II as a spy. Seriously! She used her shows as an excuse to travel all over Europe and she hid secret messages to and from the government in her sheet music after seducing men all over the world for secrets. She traveled to Morocco where she seduced royals and government officials, including the Pasha of Marrakesh. At one point Baker got sick in Morocco and it was rumored that one of the Pasha's wives poisoned Baker's soup. That's a fun story, but the more important thing here is that she helped European Jews get Moroccan passports to help them escape. She literally saved lives! Poisoned soup be damned, nothing could stop Josephine.
Josephine was a huge hit in Europe, but America was still not as warm to her. She said that she had a hard time finding hotels in America when she was given gigs here. She also refused to perform in segregated clubs which was why she initially turned down a whopping $10,000 to perform in a segregated show at a Miami club. The club eventually decided to let her perform in a non-segregated show which was their very first racially integrated performance. She helped usher them into the new age!
She has often been compared to Angelina Jolie, not just for the way that people around the world would bend over backward for her, but also because she adopted 12 children. She called them her "rainbow tribe" and made headlines as a prominent Black woman who adopted some white children. She passed away in 1975, after returning to the United States to help with the Civil Rights Movement. Josephine dipped her hands into every possible thing that she cared about and that is why she deserves to be praised and remembered today. What a woman!
In the HBO show Lovecraft Country, there was an episode where a character wished that she could dance in Paris with Josephine Baker even though she doesn't really know how to dance or do the choreography. Watch this funny scene from the show that stars Ilia Jessica Castro as the one and only Josephine:
