The iconic image of Josephine Baker is of her performing in a Paris club in the 1920s wearing only a skirt made of artificial bananas and a necklace. Her 1927 performance at the Folies Bergère in the revue Un vent de folie encapsulated the newfound sexual freedom of the Roaring Twenties and the jazz age.
Baker was much more than a cabaret performer. During her life she was a celebrated singer, a civil rights activist and, during World War II, a French Resistance agent.
Born on this day in St Louis, Missouri, in 1906, her birth name was Josephine McDonald. Growing up in a poverty‑stricken area filled with rooming houses, brothels and apartments without interior plumbing, she often went hungry.
Dropping out of school at 12, she was married at just 13 to her first husband. Divorced a year later, she married a second time in 1921 when she was just 15. She kept her married name for the remainder of her life but was divorced again six years later.
Finding success as a comic dancer in St Louis, she later moved to New York and found further success in Broadway revues. In 1925 she sailed to Paris and became a theatrical sensation. Alongside her acclaimed number featuring the banana skirt, she also appeared on stage with her pet cheetah, who wore a diamond collar.
In Paris, Baker was friends with writer Ernest Hemingway, posed as a model for Picasso and was a contemporary of playwright Jean Cocteau. Soon she began travelling to other countries to perform, but her appearances were often opposed by churches that deemed her performances immoral.
In the 1930s she starred in silent films and began recording music. She returned to America to perform on Broadway in the 1936 show Ziegfeld Follies but was savaged by critics. When she returned to France she married industrialist Jean Lion, renounced her American citizenship and became a French citizen.
During World War II Baker worked with the French Resistance, passing on information about German troop movements that she overheard at parties. After the war she was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by French President Charles de Gaulle.
In the 1950s she returned to the USA for a successful nightclub tour, where she refused to perform for segregated audiences. In turn she was accused of having communist sympathies and her working visa was revoked. She would not perform in the USA again for another decade.
In the 1960s she added her voice to the civil rights movement and joined Dr Martin Luther King Jr at his historic March on Washington in 1963, where she was the only woman to deliver a speech. Notably, she said:
“I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could 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.”
Baker continued performing throughout the 1960s and 70s. In 1975 she starred in a new revue that looked back on her 50 years as a performer. The show was a massive success and its opening‑night audience included Shirley Bassey, Mick Jagger, Sophia Loren, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.
Four days after the opening, Baker was found unconscious in her room surrounded by glowing newspaper reviews. She had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died aged 68 on 12 April.
Married four times, her third marriage to Jean Lion lasted three years, and in 1947 she married her fourth husband, French composer Jo Bouillon. They divorced in 1961. Baker was bisexual and had many relationships with women throughout her life. Blues singer Clara Smith, novelist Georges Simenon, jazz singer Ada “Bricktop” Smith and novelist Colette were among her lovers. It is also suggested she may have had a relationship with painter Frida Kahlo.
Baker had ten adopted children. She wanted to show that people from different backgrounds could live together harmoniously, and adopted children of various ethnicities, describing them as her “rainbow tribe”.
In August 2019 Josephine Baker was one of the honourees of the Rainbow Walk of Fame in San Francisco’s Castro district.
Over the years Baker has been an inspiration to many Black female performers. Shirley Bassey has cited her as a major influence, Diana Ross has paid tribute to her in shows, Beyoncé has portrayed her on stage many times, and many miniseries, films and plays have been created about Baker’s life.
Happy Birthday to Magda Szubanski
Australian icon Magda Szubanski was born in Liverpool, England, on this day in 1961. She grew up in Melbourne and, while at university, was recognised for her talents in creating sketch comedy.
The ABC developed the show The D‑Generation around the talents of Szubanski and her university friends Tom Gleisner and Michael Veitch. Also in the cast were Marg Downey, Rob Sitch and Santo Cilauro. She later went on to be part of the cast of Fast Forward, where she created many memorable characters.
In 1995 Szubanski teamed up with Gina Riley and Jane Turner to create Big Girl’s Blouse, the first all‑female sketch comedy on Australian television. One of the sketches from this series was developed into the long‑running series Kath & Kim, where Szubanski played Sharon Strzelecki.
She would go on to star in the television series Dogwoman, and gain international fame for her role as Mrs Hoggett in the Babe films, as well as for her voice acting in the animated film Happy Feet.
Szubanski has also found success in musicals, appearing in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Guys and Dolls and the film version of Bran Nue Dae.
Szubanski memorably came out as a lesbian on the television program The Project. Her declaration on Valentine’s Day 2012 is remembered as a major boost to the campaign for marriage equality, which was achieved five years later.
OIP Staff, this post was first published in 2021 and was subsequently updated.
