Josephine Baker (47 page)

Josephine with her glittering friends—Jean Cocteau, Mistinguett, Katherine Dunham, Jean Marais, and a dancer—at the opening of Dunham's dance company, Paris, 1949.
(Courtesy Katherine Dunham)

Josephine charming students at Fisk University in Nashville, 1947.
(Courtesy Donald Wyatt)

Creating a furor in 1951 Havana with yet another new look with the help of hairdresser Jean Clement.
(Courtesy Jean Clement)

Powdering her legs backstage in Cuba, a rare private moment getting ready for the public.
(Courtesy Julio sendin)

Coccinelle, the most famous transsexual of France, with Marlene Dietrich. To Josephine, Coccinelle was always “my daughter” and Dietrich was always “that German cow.”
(Courtesy Coccinelle)

“Thank God for making men like Perón,” said Josephine, here pictured in Buenos Aires, 1952, with her hero.
(Courtesy Koffi and Diane Bouillon)

Members of the Rainbow Tribe with “Uncle Fidel,” Havana, 1966.
(Courtesy Jarry Bouillon-Baker)

Newly decorated with the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre with palm, Josephine stands at attention with Commandant Cournal at Les Milandes, August 1961. (France-Dimanche)

Josephine and daughter Stellina with Golda Meir in Israel, 1974.
(UPI)

Carrie McDonald Martin Hudson gets a kiss from her first-born child backstage at the Folies-Bergère, 1949.
(Courtesy Maryse Bouillon)

The self-crowned Universal Mother choreographing her dance of world brotherhood. Josephine holds in her arms Brahim and Marianne while looking down on Moise, Luis, Jean-Claude, Akio, Jari, and Janot.
(Reporters Associés)

The Rainbow Tribe “protected” from the outside world but still on display at Les Milandes, the “Capital of Universal Brotherhood.”
(Courtesy Arthur Prevost)

Lunch,
en famille
, in the kitchen of the château with the two “uncles,” Monsieur Marc and Monsieur Rey. Aunt Margaret is seated in front of the large American refrigerator. (France-Dimanche)

“A poor old lady alone in the rain.” A dream comes to an end. (Paris Match)

Luce Tronville, my natural mother. The virginal convent girl with the perpetually sad face and full heart.

Eleven-year-old “Yan-Yan” with my sisters, Marie-Jo, Marie-Annick, and Martine in St. Symphorien, 1954.

Josephine loved this faunlike portrait of me—and my natural mother was ashamed of it.