Remembering Josephine Baker

By Arnie Greenberg

Contact Arnie at: ultours@gmail.com

(The great American singer, Josephine Baker, pictured on an old poster above -- All images, copyright, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission. All rights reserved)

Did you know that when ladies fixed their hair like Josephine Baker in the Twenties, it was called a BAK-AIR FIXE? Well, they don't do it anymore, but they still listen to her music and revere the American who came to Paris to entertain, remained there for the rest of her life, and lies buried in Southern France.

I bought an old Bak-air CD today and have been enjoying it. Not that she had a great voice, but the songs she sang became famous. I've been listening to "J'ai Deux Amours" (I Have Two Loves). It's not what you think. She refers to her country and Paris. It's easy for me to be here and sing along with her. I too have two loves, my country and Paris.

Where Did It All Start?

I often wonder where it all started. Could it be early films, my history
courses, my university work in modern history, the names like Lafayette,
Robespierre, Danton, St.-Exupéry, Beaumarchais, Manet, Armentières, the Somme, General Leclerc , Edith Piaf or Josephine Baker?



(Josephine Baker took France by storm)

But she was an American. Yet this Southern Black entertainer took France by storm in the twenties and became a French citizen and a holder of the Legion d' Honneur for the work she did spying for France.

She was only part of what draws me here.

The French went wild over this scantily clad singer, who had a shrill voice but a phenomenal personality and stage presence. Who else could get on a stage and play to a standing ovation while dancing in a scanty costume made of bananas?

And it didn't have much to do with just nudity. Nude dancers and
performers were part of the scene here for years. Shows with nude or nearly nude clad girls abound in modern Paris.

Josephine Was a Trendsetter

Josephine was a trendsetter, and nobody will forget her. She made and lost a fortune over the years and even retuned to North America, where she performed in New York and Montreal.



(Josephine Baker also performed in New York and Montreal)

She adopted children from all over the world, and it was through the fund raising by Grace Kelly (Princess Grace of Monaco) that she was able to pay her bills.

Yet she died very much in debt, even though there were times when she walked the streets with an exotic animal on a gold chain and a gem-studded collar around the animal's neck.

Josephine Baker, a poor kid from the American South, had a celebrity funeral, the likes of which even Paris wasn't used to.

She remains here in the southern sun. Everyone knows the name Bak-air and everyone knows "J'ai Deux Amours."