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Josephine Mcdonald was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 3, 1906 to washer
woman Carrie Mcdonald and Vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson. Eddie then abandoned them shortly
aftwerward. Baker’s mother had remarried
to Arthur Martin, they had three kids.
At eight years old she started cleaning houses and babysitting for
wealthy white families. Then at age
thirteen she then started waitressing at the Old Chauffeur’s Club. At this club she met her first husband Willie
Wells, who she soon divorced a few weeks later.
In 1919 Josephine then started touring the U.S. The Jones Family Band and the Dixie Steppers, performing various comical skits. Once the band had split she had tried to advance as a chorus girl for the Dixie Steppers in Sissle and Blake’s production “Shuffle Along”. She was rejected because she was to skinny and to dark. Josephine was determined though. She learned the chorus lines routines while working as a dresser. Even though she was just a replacement for when another dancer left, the audience loved her. She was a box office hit. Baker brought comedy to the show. Looking to parlay her early successes Baker moved to New York City and was soon performing in Chocolate Dandies and in the floor show at the Plantation Club, with Ethel Waters, where she quickly became a crowd favorite. In 1925, at the peak of Baker’s career she traveled to Paris to perform in La Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Josephine made an immediate impression on the French audiences Joe Alex performed the Danse Sauvage. The following year, at the Folies Bergère music hall, one of the most popular of the era, Baker’s career would reach a huge turning point. In a performance called La Folie du Jour. This show was highly popular with Paristan audiences and Josephine was soon among the most popular and highest paid performers in Europe. She then earned the names “Black Venus” and “Black Pearl”. 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. Baker used the money she earned from her performances to purchase an estate in Castelnaud-Fayrac, in the southwest of France. She named the estate Les Milandes, and soon paid to move her family there from St. Louis. In 1936 Josephine returned to the United States to perform in the Ziegfield Follies, anticipating to establish herself as a performer here too. Baker soon then married Jean Lion (less than a year later they had split) and she obtained citizenship from the country that embraced her as their own. When WWII started Baker worked for the Red Cross and also entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East. Josephine worked for the French Resistance smuggling messages in her sheet music and underwear. At Wars end, Josephine was awarded both the Croix De Guerre and the Legion of Honour with the Rosette of Resistance. Two of Frances highest military honors. Following the war, she spent most of her time at Les Milandes with her family. In 1947, she married French Orchestra leader Jo Bouillon. In 1950, she started to adopt babies from all around the world she adopted 12 children in all, creating what she called “Rainbow Tribe” and her “Experiment in Brotherhood”. Josephine repeatedly returned to the United States to lend support in the Civil Rights Movement, participating in demonstrations and boycotting segregation and concert venues. In 1963, Baker participated with Martin Luther King Jr. in the March on Washington and was a notable speaker that day. The NAACP eventually had announced that May 20th would be “Josephine Baker Day.” In April 1975 Josephine Baker performed her last performance at the Bobino Theater in Paris, in the first of a series of performances celebrating the 50th anniversary of her Paris debut. Just days later, on April 12, 1975, Baker died in her sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage (uncontrolled bleeding in the brain, can occur from an injury or as a result of a leaky or burst blood vessel). She was 69 years old. |
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