The Life of a Phenomenon

Naked at the Feast: A Biography Of Josephine Baker
by Lynn Haney

Reviewed by Paul Wexler

Let me make one thing clear at the start to a generation whose idea of a "star" is Diana Ross.

Josephine Baker was not a star.

She transcended that genre early, in her career. She was a phenomenon. A trendsetter decades ahead of her time, she achieved international acclaim without the benefit of hit records or multi-million dollar movies. She was and is a legend. The legend lives again on the pages of this marvelous biography by Lynn Haney. For those of you too young to have witnessed Josephine Baker's magnificent artistry, here is the perfect opportunity to get a sense of how much you missed.

Ms. Haney has done an excellent job of piecing together the erratic life of Ms. Baker. Naked at the Feast paints a true picture of the era in which she lived. It goes beyond the name-dropping usually found in "celebrity" biographies and deals with the many social issues that were so much a part of Josephine Baker’s life.

Josephine Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis. Her mother was a maid; her father was a drummer who worked in the city's Black nightclubs. Precociously independent, Josephine left school after the fifth grade and refused to go back. At the age of 12, following an argument with her mother, she moved in with the owner of the neighborhood ice-cream parlor. The man was 45 years older than she. This incident personified two characteristics that would remain with her through the rest of her life: an incredible determination and an attraction to older men.

The neighborhood was outraged. When her family intervened, she moved in with her grandmother and became a waitress in a local Black nightclub. It was there that she met her first husband. She married at the age of 13. A year later, bored by married life, she left and joined the Dixie Steppers, a song and dance troupe that was touring the South.

In that atmosphere, Josephine Baker acquired a taste for glory and the adulation of the crowd. At 15 she married again, this time to a railroad porter named Willie Baker. She kept his name throughout her life. For a while, the couple settled in Philadelphia. But one year later, bored again, she badgered her way into the road company of Shuffle Along, the hit Broadway musical by Eubie Blake.

The competition was fierce and she was disliked intensely by the other girls in the cast. She made herself more unpopular by grabbing the spotlight at every opportunity; but the audiences loved her and she was given a feature role in Blake’s next Broadway musical, Chocolate Dandies.

However, she was not content to be just one of many Black performers. The racial climate of the United States at that time prevented her from achieving what she wanted most: stardom. She looked towards Europe. At the age of 19 she arrived in Paris. The year was 1925. The show was a second-rate production titled La Revue Negre. On opening night she appeared on stage wearing "only a strategically placed pink flamingo feather,” and went into her song and dance act. The audience went off. The next day Josephine Baker was the toast of Paris - and a star. One year later, she was featured at the Casino de Paris and the Folies-Berger. It was at the latter that she appeared in her most famous costume: a girdle of rhinestone-studded bananas.

During the ensuing 50 year career in France, she became an international celebrity and one of the legendary performers of thejazz age. Her circle of friends included kings and queens. The top designers of the day, Bamain, Balenciage, Dior, were honored when she wore their designs. When she walked town the Champs Elysees, swathed in Russian sable, and guiding two rhinestone-collared leopards on a leash, traffic came to a stand-still.

While she had realized all of her professional ambitions, her personal life was filled sadness. She never found a man that could hold her interest. And beneath all the glamor was a woman much different from her public image. She could be very vindictive and never forgot anyone who crossed her.

But on another level, she was a humanitarian who fought for causes all of her life. During the Second World War she worked with the French Resistance. After the war she was awarded a medal for her services. And in spite of all the acclaim, she never forgot she was Black. In 1951, she returned to the United States for a critically acclaimed tour.

She played to standing room only audiences across the country. She refused to appear, however, in cities that would not give her first class accommodations in first class hotels. She refused to appear in theatres that did not hire Black stagehands. She gave generously to the NAACP and wrote letters protesting racism to then President Eisenhower.

Unable to have any of her own, she adopted thirteen children, each of a different nationality and religion. She intended to establish an international village of brotherhood on her estate outside of Paris. This effort bankrupted her.

She died in Paris on April 14, 1975. She was In the midst of yet another comeback. Her death came five days after a celebrity-packed celebration honoring her 50th anniversary in show business. She was given a 21-gun salute and thousands of mourners attended her nationally-televised funeral. It was a grand finale to a grand life.. And Josephine Baker would not, h ave had it any other way.