Josephine Baker (44 page)

The Honeysuckles on bended knee in
Shuffle Along:
“The preacher will be waiting when the knot am tied.” A smiling Josephine is fifth from left.
(Courtesy Robert Kimball, Sissle-Blake Archives)

A sartorially splendid Josephine, long before Paris fashion claimed her. This photo was inscribed to Mr. and Mrs. Eubie Blake.
(Courtesy Robert Kimball)

The entire company of
Shuffle Along:
Josephine is down front, second from right, a standout in taffeta and ruffled skirts—always a scene-stealer.

Program from the Plantation Cafe.
Inset:
Josephine clowns at Revere Beach, 1924, with Howard Nelson
(center)
, violin, and Edgar Campbell, clarinet.
(Courtesy Marion Cumbo)

Plantation Cafe, on the boardwalk, Atlantic City.
(Courtesy Johnny Hudgins)

At the curtain call of
Chocolate Dandies
(1924), in the arms of Johnny Hudgins while Lew Payton looks on. “To be funny then, colored comedians had to cork up,” said Hudgins.
(Courtesy Robert Kimball)

The great Florence Mills, the first black to headline the New York Palace Theatre, 1925. Josephine loved her, even when reviewers compared them—to her disadvantage: Josephine “. . . is a rat who kicks with so much spirit! The other is an island bird.”
(Courtesy Joe Attles)

Maude Russell, the “slim princess” of the T.O.B.A. (Tough on Black Asses) circuit. Beautiful, talented, and unfailingly honest. “You learned a lot in those days, baby.”
(Courtesy Maude Russell)

A random search in an old thrift shop brought this precious discovery: the
Berengaria
passenger list of Wednesday, September 16, 1925. The very date of Josephine's departure for Paris—and destiny.

Josephine
(foreground)
looking like an urchin on the deck of the
Berengaria
during a mine alert, September 18.
1) Mabel Hopkins
2) Josephine Baker
3) “Jack,” an actor on his way to England
4) Spencer Williams
5) Maud de Forrest
6) Bea Foote
7) Marguerite Ricks
(Courtesy Claude Hopkins)

September 22, 1925. “Bonjour, Paris!”
La Revue Nègre
in all its elegance at the Gare Saint-Lazare.
(Courtesy Claude Hopkins)

The calm before the storm. Josephine and Joe Alex rehearsing “La Danse de Sauvage.” “Barbaric . . . naughty . . . a return to the customs of the dark ages,” a critic would say.
(Courtesy Claude Hopkins)

The famous banana costume from the 1926 Folies-Bergère. Many will claim to have invented it, but only Josephine would dare to strategically fashion herself a substitute phallus.
(Roger-Viollet)

Imitating Johnny Hudgins in blackface, Folies-Bergère, 1927.