Josephine Baker sashayed onto a Paris stage during the 1920s with a comic, yet sensual appeal that took Europe by storm. Famous for barely-there dresses and no-holds-barred dance routines, her exotic beauty generated nicknames “Black Venus,” “Black Pearl” and “Creole Goddess.” Admirers bestowed a plethora of gifts, including diamonds and cars, and she received approximately 1,500 marriage proposals. She maintained energetic performances and a celebrity status for 50 years until her death in 1975. Unfortunately, racism prevented her talents from being wholly accepted in the United States until 1973.
Visit her official website.
Josephine Baker was branded a Communist by Walter Winchell, the most famous NBC news commentator of his day… all because she supported the Scottsboro Boys defense. She went into exile in France because of Joseph McCarthy’s “Red Scare”. I remember her tears, in not being able to return to her home country.