Josephine Baker: The Story of an Awakening (2018) - full transcript
(♫ BAND PLAYS ♫)
(♫♫)
(♫ DRUMMING ♫)
(♫ BAND PLAYS ♫)
Parisians had never
seen anything like it.
It wasn't ballet or burlesque,
it wasn't a tribal dance.
It was the spirit of an era.
It was about laughter,
desire, freedom.
In front of white audiences,
Josephine played out her life.
(♫ MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES ♫)
Because below the surface,
emotions welled inside her.
Memories of her childhood,
the stinging pain of segregation.
The plight of her
people across the ocean.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
Josephine would have to wait 40 years
before she could
cast off this burden.
I have a dream today!
(CHEERING)
Josephine Baker!
Gone were the feathers,
the sequins and glitter.
It was in a fighters uniform
that she celebrated
this great moment of victory.
I want you to know…
…that this is the happiest day
of my entire life.
(CHEERING)
She turned her fame into
a weapon to fight injustice.
This is the story of the
first black star in history.
(♫ SWING BAND PLAYS ♫)
Dancing to survive, dancing to
escape the harsh Missouri winter.
These steps passed down
since the days of slavery
would stay with Josephine
throughout her life.
Josephine was seven when her mother
sent her work for white families,
a succession of mistresses who never
treated her like a human being.
Josephine gritted her teeth
and hung on.
Until that day she
would never forget.
VOICE OF JOSEPHINE: I let
the dish water boil too long
and the plates got broken.
Mistress was so angry,
that she pushed my hands
into the boiling water.
I screamed.
I prayed to God, "Please let me die.
I'm too miserable."
Running away to survive,
Josephine left St Louis
at the age of 13
to join an all-black travelling
vaudeville troupe.
Her mother said, "If that's the life
she's chosen, let her live it."
Josephine Baker growing up in
St Louis, Missouri was tough.
It was not an easy place to be.
Although coming out of
the Civil War, St Louis was on the
right side, it was a Union city,
it was a very tough and
very segregated pace.
And black folks were kind of pushed
in certain parts of the city,
it was very poor, the
opportunities were not great.
There was of course a
burgeoning black middle class,
but Baker did not belong to that.
And she endured a lot of
tragedies, abuses,
she married young, twice.
And so, she was willing to take
risks that others would not.
Josephine aimed for the sky.
And her journey took her to New York.
The capital of music halls was slowly
opening up to black America.
The more adventurous white folk went
slumming to black cabarets in Harlem.
Josephine knew that this was
the audience she had to win over.
But wanting to please this
new clientele, black producers
only cast light-skinned chorus girls.
"Too short, too skinny, too dark."
Josephine didn't fit the bill.
But she went ahead and got
herself hired as a dresser.
A few weeks later, she was on stage.
To attract attention, Josephine
played the clown from St Louis.
She crossed her eyes, grimaced,
flung her limbs about.
Audiences roared with laughter.
They came back every night,
just to see her.
JOSEPHINE: One night, a white
woman was waiting to see me
after the show. She was a producer
recruiting for an all-black show
in Paris, and she
wanted to sign me up.
(FOGHORN BLARES)
Josephine knew that this was her
big break. So, off she sailed.
The day we left,
I didn't see a thing.
I stayed in my cabin the whole day.
I was so afraid.
Afraid of the ocean, afraid of
Europe, afraid on the unknown.
Sidney Bechet whispered to me,
"Don't be scared.
"You'll see. People in Paris
don't care about our colour."
And he was right.
I was amazed to be treated
as an equal by whites,
and to be able to mingle with them.
Everywhere, we were
greeted with a smile.
Now, that's what freedom is.
Josephine instantly
fell in love with Paris.
Its narrow streets, cafe terraces,
the constant clamour
of honking horns.
Lovers kissing in the street.
Yet her dreams of Paris were
already starting to slip away.
The show's promoters were in a panic.
La Revue Negre was too American,
too prudish,
when they had promised
audiences African savagery.
They had three days to come up
with an idea to save the show.
Everyone's eyes turned to Josephine.
Of all the dancers, she was
the funniest, the sexiest.
And she certainly wasn't shy.
She had to be the star.
For one of the acts, she
would dance bare-breasted.
That was something Paris audiences
would not forget.
Critics, artists, high society.
Everyone was there.
For Josephine, it was
a moment of truth.
If she won them over,
fame could be hers.
The lights went down.
The show was one.
(♫ TRAD JAZZ PLAYS ♫)
JOSEPHINE: Blinded by
the blazing stage lights,
possessed by some kind of devil,
I improvised.
I was spellbound by the music,
driven wild by the theatre
packed to the doors. Even my
teeth and eyes burned with fever.
With every leap,
I seemed to touch the sky.
And when I returned to earth,
it felt like it was mine alone.
Alternating between the
clown and the seductress,
the primitive and the American…
…Josephine hit Paris
like a bombshell.
She broke new ground, embodying
the audience's fantasies,
taking them to new heights.
(APPLAUSE)
It was a smash hit.
Two camps quickly formed. The
old guard saw Josephine as poison,
a symbol of decadence. For the
modernists, she was the heroine
of the much-needed
artistic revival of Europe.
(FIREWORKS EXPLODE)
I collected press clippings.
They were my first French lessons.
"She brings the breath of the
jungle, a primal strength and beauty
"to the tired stages of
Western civilisation."
Better still, "She is the black
Venus who haunted Baudelaire."
But also on a more cruel note,
"La Revue Negre is nothing more than
"lamentable transatlantic
exhibitionism that takes us back
"to the ape in less time
than we descended from it."
In conservative circles, the success
of La Revue Negre was alarming.
This black American modernity
was subversive,
and French people would
do better to visit
the highly popular
Colonial Exhibition.
There at least, everyone
was in their rightful place.
Black Africans were in
replica villages,
while white men paraded through
their conquered territory.
The French Empire was here to stay.
To reinforce the demonstration,
almost naked young African men
have to dive into a pond,
to retrieve coins.
Josephine was well aware that
she also personified the savage.
But she had her own way of
interpreting this troubling role.
She drew on her spectators'
fantasies, appropriated them,
remodelled them. Wearing a string
of bananas around her waist,
she turned the ultimate racist symbol
into a phallic trophy
that she gyrated before
thrilled spectators.
Artists and writers adored this
dancer, who shocked conformists
with such charm and wit.
Simenon became her
secretary and her lover.
Poiret dressed her, Hemingway
frequented her new show,
Colette wrote letters to her,
Calder sculpted her body,
Van Dongen painted her, and Picasso
called her "the Nefertiti of today."
African art was extremely
popular during that time,
and the Surrealists were very
appreciative of African art.
For them, it was just the embodiment
of art that was not impacted
by Western influences.
Blacks oftentimes represented
that in its purest way,
and Baker was right in the centre of
it, and Josephine in her posing -
deliberately posing
in certain ways -
also understood what
she was embodying.
She was a very clever woman
in that sense.
♪ I don't know why ♪
♪ I made you cry… ♪
Josephine adored the image
artists had of her.
She revelled in playing the African
statue that all of a sudden,
breaks into dance.
♪ ..I'll try to forgive and forget… ♪
Sophisticated and impulsive,
her temperament fit perfectly
with the Roaring '20s,
a giddy time when living
to excess became vital.
Anything to forget loved ones
who didn't come back from the War.
Dancing, going naked, running wild.
Imitating these savages who
never had the strange idea
of inventing a world war.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
JOSEPHINE: I was at a new hotel
in the Rue des Batignolles,
a charming white building.
The chambermaid was white, the
porter who delivered my breakfast,
also white. They took care of
my every need as I lounged on my
white pillows, after all those years
of working as a maid for whites.
It was absolutely an
overwhelming experience for her.
France becomes a citadel,
a refuge for African-Americans,
and she's like,
"Come, the water's warm here.
"Leave that cold water over there,
and come here where you will be
"welcomed, you don't have to deal
with these sorts of things."
And so, it allows the French to
have a certain idea, a puffed up
sense of themselves with
respect to race relations.
That's mythic, but in Baker's mind,
certainly in Baker's world
and what she represented,
it was very much true.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
Her success was phenomenal.
Josephine needed support, an ally.
She met Pepito, an Italian
adventurer who styled himself
as Count Abatino.
He was an inspired businessman
and had an eye for opportunity.
He became her manager and her lover.
(DOVES FLAPPING)
Pepito thought it was
time for Josephine
to target the female market.
French women were looking
for a model to aspire to
in their struggle to
break free of the past.
Black, glamorous and defiant,
Josephine projected an
image of emancipation.
He launched a line
of beauty products,
Bakerfix hair gel and
Bakerskin darkening lotion.
They were a hit.
In Paris and beyond,
fashionistas at the time
went wild over anything with
Josephine Baker's name on it.
Even children had their
own Josephine dolls.
Josephine was unstoppable.
She became a singer, performed at
the opera, danced classical ballet
and launched a career as an actress.
That was Modernist freedom.
You know, the woman, you know…
…taking the city,
taking to the street.
Being in nightclubs, dancing
naughtily and boldly,
bursting into song!
And then, she learned
the nakedness was wonderful but
she also became a fashion icon.
And that, would change her hair-dos
and they'd walk down the street
with a leopard. All of
these are signs of daring.
The theatrics of free modernity.
All of Europe wanted Josephine.
She set out on a tour.
For almost two years, she travelled
from Germany to Romania,
Sweden to Italy.
Everywhere, crowds flocked
to see this black dancer
who defied the norms of old Europe.
She received thousands
of love letters
and hundreds of marriage proposals.
The infatuation was
almost overwhelming.
(CHEERING)
JOSEPHINE: For the first time,
I was scared by the crowds.
Their curiosity, their affection,
their enthusiasm.
White folks' imagination sure is
something when it comes to blacks.
While some people
smothered her with love,
others didn't hide their contempt.
In Vienna, church bells rang out
to warn churchgoers
to stay off the streets
to avoid catching sight
of this shameless black woman.
Pamphlets circulated
with the headline,
"Let That Immoral Woman
Be Punished As She Deserves."
(♫ TRAD JAZZ PLAYS ♫)
I had become a symbol
of moral decadence,
a threat to the people of Austria.
If only they knew that this
little negress prays every night,
no matter how tired
she is after the show.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
I began to feel uneasy
about being a curiosity,
even if it was written in
my contract to amuse people.
It had to be at times, terrifying.
Because she was always a spectacle.
And she was also always
under a kind of surveillance.
Almost a kind of visual
and cultural policing.
"What's she going to do now?
Is this winning
"or is this in some way,
maybe a little presumptuous,
"a little degrading? Is this art?
"Is she advancing art
and the art of the race?
"Or is she just playing, trivially?"
She didn't want us to be thinking
about the drama of what it meant
to be the first
international black star.
I think she wanted us
to see it as a divine comedy.
Comedy to hide dramas,
disappointments.
Not one of the white men she
had loved since coming to France
had ever spoken of marriage.
Josephine's love life mirrored
the role she played in movies.
It was fine to fool around with her,
but marriage was out of the question.
She responded in typical style.
In song, with a big smile.
(HORN BLOWS)
Life in Europe wasn't perfect,
but this was where Josephine
created her destiny.
Where she became a leading figure
in the entertainment industry.
Where she discovered the
power of being a star.
But after 11 years away,
she had one desire.
To settle the scores.
To show Americans La Baker.
JOSEPHINE: When the ocean liner
pulled into the docks,
I saw black folk
waiting on the wharf.
Had they come to see me?
We disembarked. All the
black folk crowded the gangway.
I realised then that they were
porters, chauffeurs, maids,
waiting for their employers.
I wanted to laugh at myself.
At the hotel, things got worse.
"A suite for Miss Baker?" The
receptionist eyed me suspiciously.
"There must be a mistake."
My manager protested,
but they just repeated,
"Miss, there must be a mistake."
That was it. Nothing could be done.
In the eyes of the receptionist,
I was just a negress.
From one hotel to the next,
the same frosty smile,
the same shrug of the shoulders,
the same outright refusal.
Appalling.
The demons of my childhood
came back to me.
I remembered the time
my terrified mother
woke us in the middle of the night.
Outside, we heard
screams coming closer.
My brother thought it was a storm,
but no, it was the whites.
The words of our pastor
echoed in my head.
In a spine-chilling voice, he
preached about the apocalypse.
We saw huge flames leaping up
from the river bank.
People were running
in every direction.
It was as if the entire
black community was fleeing,
driven away like ants
from an anthill.
Someone shouted,
"A white woman was raped!"
I didn't understand the words,
but I knew it was a catastrophe.
Like the apocalypse.
Josephine hoped that the success
she achieved in Europe
would protect her from racism.
Far from it.
After her opening on Broadway,
scathing reviews consistently pointed
to the colour of her skin.
She thought she was coming back as
a star of a major Broadway show,
Ziegfeld Follies, and she
assumed that she would triumph,
with critics as well
as with audiences.
And when the show opened,
the reviews were
patronising to contemptuous.
Basically, the tone was, "We're
trying to be tolerant about it,
"but who is this little negress?
You know, who left some time ago
"as a tiny little player
in the theatre,
"and then mysteriously achieved
all this fame in Paris."
And it appeared that American
culture had to belittle and mock
and even degrade her for what they
decided to see as pretensions,
not accomplishment.
Bitter, humiliated,
Josephine returned to Paris.
(CHEERING)
At the train station,
Josephine kept up the act.
She was pleased to be back in Paris,
but her heart was heavy.
Pepito had died suddenly
while she was away.
He had been by her side for 10 years.
Her partner, her manager,
her faithful friend.
Without him, she would
have to reinvent her life.
"Darling," Colette said to me,
"don't be forlorn."
The French language has such sweet
words, like the word "forlorn".
So, I went to galas and cocktails.
I was a patron here,
cheer-woman there.
That's when I met Jean Lion,
a businessman.
He was young and rich,
women adored him.
But he only had eyes for me.
It was flattering.
We got married.
I became Madame Jean Lion.
I had a French passport
and I was expecting a baby.
I no longer felt forlorn.
Josephine had finally
found her Prince Charming.
At first, she loved the
role of Madame Jean Lion,
but she soon tired of it.
She was a free woman, not a homebody.
When she miscarried, she knew
it wasn't the life for her.
She divorced and
returned to the stage.
(CHEERING)
But it was no longer enough.
Josephine wanted to give
her life a deeper meaning.
She found it in the French Resistance
fighting the Nazis.
I asked for only one thing.
To serve the country to which
I am eternally grateful.
France made me what I am,
accepting me unconditionally.
I was ready to give her my life.
That war represents such a turn.
And probably, the trip to
America a few years before,
where she had been attacked
in so many political ways
and had been addressed by many
of the black leaders she met.
She'd been asked, "What are you
going to do about civil rights?
"Are you?" She'd been challenged
in a way that said,
"Are you just a shallow, superficial
self-absorbed entertainer
"or is there more to you?
"You owe a debt."
In terms of her visit to America,
that was put in largely racial terms
but of course, civil rights
linked up with anti-fascism, etc.
When she went back to France,
she had to start thinking
about her role there, too.
The war enabled Josephine
to take a new step,
to share in a common battle.
She became a spy for
the Free French Forces.
She risked her life
on many occasions.
While on tour in hostile territories,
she used her sheet music
to conceal plans of German
military installations
written in invisible ink.
It can help to be Josephine Baker.
The customs officers
asked for my papers.
But all they wanted was autographs.
I was able to pass on
the plans without a hitch.
(♫ SINGS ♫)
Her popularity served as a cover.
She always travelled with her
so-called assistant, Jacques Abtey.
And intelligence agent
for the resistance.
(♫ SINGS IN FRENCH ♫)
Her undercover missions
brought her out of herself.
Behind the star was
a fearless fighter.
When American soldiers landed
in Morocco in November 1942,
Josephine was already there,
working for the resistance.
A symbol of the
Franco-American alliance,
she sang to the troops
to boost their morale.
(APPLAUSE)
(♫ PIANO PLAYS ♫)
From Morocco to Syria,
Josephine performed
for black and white Americans,
Arabs and Europeans.
She dreamed of a better, united world
after the defeat of the Nazis.
Bravo, seigneur!
(APPLAUSE)
Josephine was, in a way, she was
turning her international audience
from La Baker days into a kind of
audience but a community,
if you will.
It was one of her early
experiences, I think,
with thinking about very
diverse people as…
As peoples she could bring into,
she could by the power of her
talent, her will, her vision,
bring into a kind of community.
(CHEERING)
Josephine returned from
the war in the spotlight,
hailed as a heroine of France for
her participation in The Resistance.
Soon after marrying the orchestra
conductor Jo Bouillon,
she accepted an invitation
to sing in the United States.
She felt sure that after
conquering the Nazis,
her homeland would at last be able
to confront its racist demons.
But when she arrived in New York,
she saw that nothing had changed.
Just like before the war,
hotels refused her a room.
She and her white husband
might offend Southern clients.
So, I decided to leave.
If a star like me was
treated that way in New York,
I hated to think what
could happen down south.
I made up my mind to
look the beast in the eye.
I planned my trip well.
I wouldn't travel as
Josephine Baker, the French star.
I wanted to be a
simple black American,
an ordinary Miss Brown.
I found the name amusing.
Everywhere I went, there
were two of everything.
Two waiting lounges, two
coffee shops, two rest rooms.
I went into the coffee shop
with a sign saying "white".
As I passed the tables,
everyone stared at me.
"Two sandwiches, please," I asked.
The waitress quickly handed me
my sandwiches and took my money,
as if trying to get rid of me.
Then I went into the
black folks coffee shop.
I expected at least to see
an approving smile,
a knowing glance. Not a chance.
All I got was scowling,
disapproving faces.
Some people even looked horrified.
We cannot at all underestimate
the risk that she
did take doing that.
There were a lot of people
who wouldn't have done that.
But the problem again is
she's Josephine Baker.
She's going into a
segregated establishment,
thumbing her nose at customs.
Many social customs in
certain parts of the South
that have simply been accepted, as
that is the way it's going to be,
it's not going to change.
And black folks know their place,
and here she comes,
giving them ideas about
them out of their place.
And then, she goes. All right?
That's the problem.
Was she going to stay and fight? Was
she gonna deal with the aftermath
of the repercussions of her actions?
Therein lies the critique.
For many African-Americans, when
she crossed the colour line,
she didn't cross back. She
didn't take anyone with her.
Um, and so, that was also a problem.
It's not like Josephine Baker
created an entourage on which
she helped other acts along
or did whatever. It was Josephine
Baker and only Josephine Baker.
On the one hand, there was fierce
pride that she had made it.
And on the other hand, there was
a great deal of criticism
because only she had made it.
And so, she did not
necessarily open doors.
Josephine was deeply hurt by the
criticism from the black community.
After 20 years away, she had
lost touch with the everyday life
of African-Americans.
Now, she knew that despite
her ups and downs,
her fame had shielded her from
the brutality of segregation.
It was time to use her privileges to
fight for the rights of her people.
Three years later, she returned to
the States to perform in Florida.
This time, she set her conditions
before crossing the Atlantic.
It was simple.
I wouldn't sing anywhere
my people were not accepted.
I would only agree to
come to the United States
if black patrons were
admitted to my shows.
The producer of her show felt sure
it was the right time
to launch Josephine in the States,
and agreed to all her conditions.
Well, it seems that you do love me.
I'll never let you down, ladies and
gentlemen, sisters and brothers.
Never! (CHEERING)
Her contract stipulated
that patrons were to be admitted,
regardless of race, colour or creed.
It was a historic event.
For the first time in Miami, black
people were admitted to grand hotels
and exclusive cabarets.
It was a triumph.
People in the audience were in tears.
Are you ready? Come on, here we go!
(♫ SINGS ♫) ♪ Tu me quieres, ♪
♪ la la la la! ♪
♪ Tu me adoras, come on! ♪
♪ Me quieres, me adoras ♪
♪ Esto es felicidad, hey! ♪
♪ Tu me besas, la la la la! ♪
♪ Tu me miras, la la la la! ♪
♪ Me besas, me miras ♪
♪ Esto es… ♪
(APPLAUSE)
News of the concert spread
across the United States.
Josephine sang in St Louis, Los
Angeles and many other cities.
In Las Vegas, she publicly denounced
the racist comments
of a nightclub owner.
She came out in support Willie McGee,
a black man sentenced to death
for the alleged rape
of a white woman.
Josephine could at last use her
success to fight for her people.
♪ It brings back the sun, ♪
♪ the music so tender ♪
♪ It brings back the nights, ♪
♪ tropical splendour… ♪
But an incident disrupted
this honeymoon.
One evening at the famous
Stork Club in New York,
where she was dining with friends,
Josephine waited a long time
to be served, a very long time.
Until she understood that
her meal would never come.
It made her blood boil.
She stormed out of the club, called
the leading civil rights association,
and made an official
report of the incident.
The next day, militants
organised a picket line
to block the entrance to the club.
The affair blew up.
Josephine had become a trouble-maker,
was accused of Communist sympathies
by FBI director, J Edgar Hoover.
HOOVER: The experience
of people in other lands,
who suddenly found themselves…
Josephine was declared an
enemy of the United States.
She left for Latin America,
where she publicly condemned
her country's racial policies.
It was war.
The FBI pressured
Latin American countries,
and one by one, her concerts
were cancelled in Peru, Colombia,
Cuba and Haiti.
She was told she may never be
allowed to return to the USA.
She was devastated.
JOSEPHINE: Whatever had we done.
I had done my best during the War
to fight the Nazis
and their racist policies.
But I saw the same attitude,
just as insidious, just as ugly,
in those who had opposed the Nazis.
So, I went back to France.
Since before the War, the
place I felt most at home
was at my chateau in Dordogne.
During my travels around the world,
I saw that people were
mixing more and more.
It seemed obvious that racial
purity would gradually disappear.
But I wanted it to happen
through love, not hate.
To prove that all the peoples of
the world could live in harmony,
Josephine adopted 12 children
of different nationalities
and raised them in her chateau.
She called her family
The Rainbow Tribe.
And she was their prophetess.
(♫ SINGS IN FRENCH ♫)
The French had followed Josephine's
adventures for over 30 years.
They revered her as a dancer,
a singer, an actress,
and honoured her as a
heroine of the Resistance.
They even awarded her the
Legion of Honour at her chateau,
surrounded by her Rainbow Tribe.
And yet, something was still missing.
She yearned for the
love of her native land,
where she was still refused entry.
But in America, times were changing.
A young minister, Martin Luther King,
had taken the lead of
the Civil Rights Movement.
In August 1963,
he called on blacks and whites
to march together in Washington
to protest against segregation.
Josephine had achieved what no
black woman before her ever had,
and King wanted her to be there.
Bobby Kennedy intervened
to lift her travel ban.
At the march, Josephine was
the only woman to make a speech.
I want you know…
…that this is the
happiest day of my entire life.
The results today of
seeing you all together
is a sight for sore eyes.
You're together as salt and pepper,
just as you should be.
Just as I've always wanted you
to be, and peoples of the world
have always wanted to be.
You are a united people at last.
You are on the eve
of complete victory.
Continue on, you can't go wrong.
The world is behind you.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
Josephine arrives at
this major, major event
that we now know was
mostly organised by
male civil rights leaders.
The women who were involved
kept being pushed
a little to the side.
That's a parentheses,
but it matters.
Josephine arrives, like
an emissary from abroad.
And that international
aspect is not be belittled.
And she is wearing…
Miss Sex Symbol, the glamour object,
she wearing the uniform
of the Free French Army.
And she didn't have to come.
Just the fact that she flew across
the Atlantic, not for her career,
but to link generations
of black achievement,
of black entertainment,
and of black struggle…
…was absolutely thrilling.
JOSEPHINE: Until
The March On Washington,
every time I went to the States,
my stomach was in knots.
For the first time, I returned
to France with a sense of freedom.
My struggle had been right.
I went to Washington to pass on the
torch to those who wanted to listen,
so that they could have
the same chances I had
without having to run away.
Now that my message had been heard,
I could leave in peace.
Fate had played a
funny game on Josephine.
She had taken the role of the
first black star in history,
but her battle against racism
had been a lonely one.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, in her twilight years,
her fight for justice resonated with
a world finally ready for change.
Her journey now belonged to history,
and even made her laugh.
(♫ BAND PLAYS ♫)
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
♪ I'm blue, just ♪
♪ as blue as I could be ♪
♪ Every day is a cloudy day for me ♪
♪ Then good luck came ♪
♪ knocking at my door ♪
♪ Skies are grey but ♪
♪ they're not grey anymore ♪
♪ Blue skies, smiling at me… ♪
(♫♫)
(♫ DRUMMING ♫)
(♫ BAND PLAYS ♫)
Parisians had never
seen anything like it.
It wasn't ballet or burlesque,
it wasn't a tribal dance.
It was the spirit of an era.
It was about laughter,
desire, freedom.
In front of white audiences,
Josephine played out her life.
(♫ MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES ♫)
Because below the surface,
emotions welled inside her.
Memories of her childhood,
the stinging pain of segregation.
The plight of her
people across the ocean.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
Josephine would have to wait 40 years
before she could
cast off this burden.
I have a dream today!
(CHEERING)
Josephine Baker!
Gone were the feathers,
the sequins and glitter.
It was in a fighters uniform
that she celebrated
this great moment of victory.
I want you to know…
…that this is the happiest day
of my entire life.
(CHEERING)
She turned her fame into
a weapon to fight injustice.
This is the story of the
first black star in history.
(♫ SWING BAND PLAYS ♫)
Dancing to survive, dancing to
escape the harsh Missouri winter.
These steps passed down
since the days of slavery
would stay with Josephine
throughout her life.
Josephine was seven when her mother
sent her work for white families,
a succession of mistresses who never
treated her like a human being.
Josephine gritted her teeth
and hung on.
Until that day she
would never forget.
VOICE OF JOSEPHINE: I let
the dish water boil too long
and the plates got broken.
Mistress was so angry,
that she pushed my hands
into the boiling water.
I screamed.
I prayed to God, "Please let me die.
I'm too miserable."
Running away to survive,
Josephine left St Louis
at the age of 13
to join an all-black travelling
vaudeville troupe.
Her mother said, "If that's the life
she's chosen, let her live it."
Josephine Baker growing up in
St Louis, Missouri was tough.
It was not an easy place to be.
Although coming out of
the Civil War, St Louis was on the
right side, it was a Union city,
it was a very tough and
very segregated pace.
And black folks were kind of pushed
in certain parts of the city,
it was very poor, the
opportunities were not great.
There was of course a
burgeoning black middle class,
but Baker did not belong to that.
And she endured a lot of
tragedies, abuses,
she married young, twice.
And so, she was willing to take
risks that others would not.
Josephine aimed for the sky.
And her journey took her to New York.
The capital of music halls was slowly
opening up to black America.
The more adventurous white folk went
slumming to black cabarets in Harlem.
Josephine knew that this was
the audience she had to win over.
But wanting to please this
new clientele, black producers
only cast light-skinned chorus girls.
"Too short, too skinny, too dark."
Josephine didn't fit the bill.
But she went ahead and got
herself hired as a dresser.
A few weeks later, she was on stage.
To attract attention, Josephine
played the clown from St Louis.
She crossed her eyes, grimaced,
flung her limbs about.
Audiences roared with laughter.
They came back every night,
just to see her.
JOSEPHINE: One night, a white
woman was waiting to see me
after the show. She was a producer
recruiting for an all-black show
in Paris, and she
wanted to sign me up.
(FOGHORN BLARES)
Josephine knew that this was her
big break. So, off she sailed.
The day we left,
I didn't see a thing.
I stayed in my cabin the whole day.
I was so afraid.
Afraid of the ocean, afraid of
Europe, afraid on the unknown.
Sidney Bechet whispered to me,
"Don't be scared.
"You'll see. People in Paris
don't care about our colour."
And he was right.
I was amazed to be treated
as an equal by whites,
and to be able to mingle with them.
Everywhere, we were
greeted with a smile.
Now, that's what freedom is.
Josephine instantly
fell in love with Paris.
Its narrow streets, cafe terraces,
the constant clamour
of honking horns.
Lovers kissing in the street.
Yet her dreams of Paris were
already starting to slip away.
The show's promoters were in a panic.
La Revue Negre was too American,
too prudish,
when they had promised
audiences African savagery.
They had three days to come up
with an idea to save the show.
Everyone's eyes turned to Josephine.
Of all the dancers, she was
the funniest, the sexiest.
And she certainly wasn't shy.
She had to be the star.
For one of the acts, she
would dance bare-breasted.
That was something Paris audiences
would not forget.
Critics, artists, high society.
Everyone was there.
For Josephine, it was
a moment of truth.
If she won them over,
fame could be hers.
The lights went down.
The show was one.
(♫ TRAD JAZZ PLAYS ♫)
JOSEPHINE: Blinded by
the blazing stage lights,
possessed by some kind of devil,
I improvised.
I was spellbound by the music,
driven wild by the theatre
packed to the doors. Even my
teeth and eyes burned with fever.
With every leap,
I seemed to touch the sky.
And when I returned to earth,
it felt like it was mine alone.
Alternating between the
clown and the seductress,
the primitive and the American…
…Josephine hit Paris
like a bombshell.
She broke new ground, embodying
the audience's fantasies,
taking them to new heights.
(APPLAUSE)
It was a smash hit.
Two camps quickly formed. The
old guard saw Josephine as poison,
a symbol of decadence. For the
modernists, she was the heroine
of the much-needed
artistic revival of Europe.
(FIREWORKS EXPLODE)
I collected press clippings.
They were my first French lessons.
"She brings the breath of the
jungle, a primal strength and beauty
"to the tired stages of
Western civilisation."
Better still, "She is the black
Venus who haunted Baudelaire."
But also on a more cruel note,
"La Revue Negre is nothing more than
"lamentable transatlantic
exhibitionism that takes us back
"to the ape in less time
than we descended from it."
In conservative circles, the success
of La Revue Negre was alarming.
This black American modernity
was subversive,
and French people would
do better to visit
the highly popular
Colonial Exhibition.
There at least, everyone
was in their rightful place.
Black Africans were in
replica villages,
while white men paraded through
their conquered territory.
The French Empire was here to stay.
To reinforce the demonstration,
almost naked young African men
have to dive into a pond,
to retrieve coins.
Josephine was well aware that
she also personified the savage.
But she had her own way of
interpreting this troubling role.
She drew on her spectators'
fantasies, appropriated them,
remodelled them. Wearing a string
of bananas around her waist,
she turned the ultimate racist symbol
into a phallic trophy
that she gyrated before
thrilled spectators.
Artists and writers adored this
dancer, who shocked conformists
with such charm and wit.
Simenon became her
secretary and her lover.
Poiret dressed her, Hemingway
frequented her new show,
Colette wrote letters to her,
Calder sculpted her body,
Van Dongen painted her, and Picasso
called her "the Nefertiti of today."
African art was extremely
popular during that time,
and the Surrealists were very
appreciative of African art.
For them, it was just the embodiment
of art that was not impacted
by Western influences.
Blacks oftentimes represented
that in its purest way,
and Baker was right in the centre of
it, and Josephine in her posing -
deliberately posing
in certain ways -
also understood what
she was embodying.
She was a very clever woman
in that sense.
♪ I don't know why ♪
♪ I made you cry… ♪
Josephine adored the image
artists had of her.
She revelled in playing the African
statue that all of a sudden,
breaks into dance.
♪ ..I'll try to forgive and forget… ♪
Sophisticated and impulsive,
her temperament fit perfectly
with the Roaring '20s,
a giddy time when living
to excess became vital.
Anything to forget loved ones
who didn't come back from the War.
Dancing, going naked, running wild.
Imitating these savages who
never had the strange idea
of inventing a world war.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
JOSEPHINE: I was at a new hotel
in the Rue des Batignolles,
a charming white building.
The chambermaid was white, the
porter who delivered my breakfast,
also white. They took care of
my every need as I lounged on my
white pillows, after all those years
of working as a maid for whites.
It was absolutely an
overwhelming experience for her.
France becomes a citadel,
a refuge for African-Americans,
and she's like,
"Come, the water's warm here.
"Leave that cold water over there,
and come here where you will be
"welcomed, you don't have to deal
with these sorts of things."
And so, it allows the French to
have a certain idea, a puffed up
sense of themselves with
respect to race relations.
That's mythic, but in Baker's mind,
certainly in Baker's world
and what she represented,
it was very much true.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
Her success was phenomenal.
Josephine needed support, an ally.
She met Pepito, an Italian
adventurer who styled himself
as Count Abatino.
He was an inspired businessman
and had an eye for opportunity.
He became her manager and her lover.
(DOVES FLAPPING)
Pepito thought it was
time for Josephine
to target the female market.
French women were looking
for a model to aspire to
in their struggle to
break free of the past.
Black, glamorous and defiant,
Josephine projected an
image of emancipation.
He launched a line
of beauty products,
Bakerfix hair gel and
Bakerskin darkening lotion.
They were a hit.
In Paris and beyond,
fashionistas at the time
went wild over anything with
Josephine Baker's name on it.
Even children had their
own Josephine dolls.
Josephine was unstoppable.
She became a singer, performed at
the opera, danced classical ballet
and launched a career as an actress.
That was Modernist freedom.
You know, the woman, you know…
…taking the city,
taking to the street.
Being in nightclubs, dancing
naughtily and boldly,
bursting into song!
And then, she learned
the nakedness was wonderful but
she also became a fashion icon.
And that, would change her hair-dos
and they'd walk down the street
with a leopard. All of
these are signs of daring.
The theatrics of free modernity.
All of Europe wanted Josephine.
She set out on a tour.
For almost two years, she travelled
from Germany to Romania,
Sweden to Italy.
Everywhere, crowds flocked
to see this black dancer
who defied the norms of old Europe.
She received thousands
of love letters
and hundreds of marriage proposals.
The infatuation was
almost overwhelming.
(CHEERING)
JOSEPHINE: For the first time,
I was scared by the crowds.
Their curiosity, their affection,
their enthusiasm.
White folks' imagination sure is
something when it comes to blacks.
While some people
smothered her with love,
others didn't hide their contempt.
In Vienna, church bells rang out
to warn churchgoers
to stay off the streets
to avoid catching sight
of this shameless black woman.
Pamphlets circulated
with the headline,
"Let That Immoral Woman
Be Punished As She Deserves."
(♫ TRAD JAZZ PLAYS ♫)
I had become a symbol
of moral decadence,
a threat to the people of Austria.
If only they knew that this
little negress prays every night,
no matter how tired
she is after the show.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
I began to feel uneasy
about being a curiosity,
even if it was written in
my contract to amuse people.
It had to be at times, terrifying.
Because she was always a spectacle.
And she was also always
under a kind of surveillance.
Almost a kind of visual
and cultural policing.
"What's she going to do now?
Is this winning
"or is this in some way,
maybe a little presumptuous,
"a little degrading? Is this art?
"Is she advancing art
and the art of the race?
"Or is she just playing, trivially?"
She didn't want us to be thinking
about the drama of what it meant
to be the first
international black star.
I think she wanted us
to see it as a divine comedy.
Comedy to hide dramas,
disappointments.
Not one of the white men she
had loved since coming to France
had ever spoken of marriage.
Josephine's love life mirrored
the role she played in movies.
It was fine to fool around with her,
but marriage was out of the question.
She responded in typical style.
In song, with a big smile.
(HORN BLOWS)
Life in Europe wasn't perfect,
but this was where Josephine
created her destiny.
Where she became a leading figure
in the entertainment industry.
Where she discovered the
power of being a star.
But after 11 years away,
she had one desire.
To settle the scores.
To show Americans La Baker.
JOSEPHINE: When the ocean liner
pulled into the docks,
I saw black folk
waiting on the wharf.
Had they come to see me?
We disembarked. All the
black folk crowded the gangway.
I realised then that they were
porters, chauffeurs, maids,
waiting for their employers.
I wanted to laugh at myself.
At the hotel, things got worse.
"A suite for Miss Baker?" The
receptionist eyed me suspiciously.
"There must be a mistake."
My manager protested,
but they just repeated,
"Miss, there must be a mistake."
That was it. Nothing could be done.
In the eyes of the receptionist,
I was just a negress.
From one hotel to the next,
the same frosty smile,
the same shrug of the shoulders,
the same outright refusal.
Appalling.
The demons of my childhood
came back to me.
I remembered the time
my terrified mother
woke us in the middle of the night.
Outside, we heard
screams coming closer.
My brother thought it was a storm,
but no, it was the whites.
The words of our pastor
echoed in my head.
In a spine-chilling voice, he
preached about the apocalypse.
We saw huge flames leaping up
from the river bank.
People were running
in every direction.
It was as if the entire
black community was fleeing,
driven away like ants
from an anthill.
Someone shouted,
"A white woman was raped!"
I didn't understand the words,
but I knew it was a catastrophe.
Like the apocalypse.
Josephine hoped that the success
she achieved in Europe
would protect her from racism.
Far from it.
After her opening on Broadway,
scathing reviews consistently pointed
to the colour of her skin.
She thought she was coming back as
a star of a major Broadway show,
Ziegfeld Follies, and she
assumed that she would triumph,
with critics as well
as with audiences.
And when the show opened,
the reviews were
patronising to contemptuous.
Basically, the tone was, "We're
trying to be tolerant about it,
"but who is this little negress?
You know, who left some time ago
"as a tiny little player
in the theatre,
"and then mysteriously achieved
all this fame in Paris."
And it appeared that American
culture had to belittle and mock
and even degrade her for what they
decided to see as pretensions,
not accomplishment.
Bitter, humiliated,
Josephine returned to Paris.
(CHEERING)
At the train station,
Josephine kept up the act.
She was pleased to be back in Paris,
but her heart was heavy.
Pepito had died suddenly
while she was away.
He had been by her side for 10 years.
Her partner, her manager,
her faithful friend.
Without him, she would
have to reinvent her life.
"Darling," Colette said to me,
"don't be forlorn."
The French language has such sweet
words, like the word "forlorn".
So, I went to galas and cocktails.
I was a patron here,
cheer-woman there.
That's when I met Jean Lion,
a businessman.
He was young and rich,
women adored him.
But he only had eyes for me.
It was flattering.
We got married.
I became Madame Jean Lion.
I had a French passport
and I was expecting a baby.
I no longer felt forlorn.
Josephine had finally
found her Prince Charming.
At first, she loved the
role of Madame Jean Lion,
but she soon tired of it.
She was a free woman, not a homebody.
When she miscarried, she knew
it wasn't the life for her.
She divorced and
returned to the stage.
(CHEERING)
But it was no longer enough.
Josephine wanted to give
her life a deeper meaning.
She found it in the French Resistance
fighting the Nazis.
I asked for only one thing.
To serve the country to which
I am eternally grateful.
France made me what I am,
accepting me unconditionally.
I was ready to give her my life.
That war represents such a turn.
And probably, the trip to
America a few years before,
where she had been attacked
in so many political ways
and had been addressed by many
of the black leaders she met.
She'd been asked, "What are you
going to do about civil rights?
"Are you?" She'd been challenged
in a way that said,
"Are you just a shallow, superficial
self-absorbed entertainer
"or is there more to you?
"You owe a debt."
In terms of her visit to America,
that was put in largely racial terms
but of course, civil rights
linked up with anti-fascism, etc.
When she went back to France,
she had to start thinking
about her role there, too.
The war enabled Josephine
to take a new step,
to share in a common battle.
She became a spy for
the Free French Forces.
She risked her life
on many occasions.
While on tour in hostile territories,
she used her sheet music
to conceal plans of German
military installations
written in invisible ink.
It can help to be Josephine Baker.
The customs officers
asked for my papers.
But all they wanted was autographs.
I was able to pass on
the plans without a hitch.
(♫ SINGS ♫)
Her popularity served as a cover.
She always travelled with her
so-called assistant, Jacques Abtey.
And intelligence agent
for the resistance.
(♫ SINGS IN FRENCH ♫)
Her undercover missions
brought her out of herself.
Behind the star was
a fearless fighter.
When American soldiers landed
in Morocco in November 1942,
Josephine was already there,
working for the resistance.
A symbol of the
Franco-American alliance,
she sang to the troops
to boost their morale.
(APPLAUSE)
(♫ PIANO PLAYS ♫)
From Morocco to Syria,
Josephine performed
for black and white Americans,
Arabs and Europeans.
She dreamed of a better, united world
after the defeat of the Nazis.
Bravo, seigneur!
(APPLAUSE)
Josephine was, in a way, she was
turning her international audience
from La Baker days into a kind of
audience but a community,
if you will.
It was one of her early
experiences, I think,
with thinking about very
diverse people as…
As peoples she could bring into,
she could by the power of her
talent, her will, her vision,
bring into a kind of community.
(CHEERING)
Josephine returned from
the war in the spotlight,
hailed as a heroine of France for
her participation in The Resistance.
Soon after marrying the orchestra
conductor Jo Bouillon,
she accepted an invitation
to sing in the United States.
She felt sure that after
conquering the Nazis,
her homeland would at last be able
to confront its racist demons.
But when she arrived in New York,
she saw that nothing had changed.
Just like before the war,
hotels refused her a room.
She and her white husband
might offend Southern clients.
So, I decided to leave.
If a star like me was
treated that way in New York,
I hated to think what
could happen down south.
I made up my mind to
look the beast in the eye.
I planned my trip well.
I wouldn't travel as
Josephine Baker, the French star.
I wanted to be a
simple black American,
an ordinary Miss Brown.
I found the name amusing.
Everywhere I went, there
were two of everything.
Two waiting lounges, two
coffee shops, two rest rooms.
I went into the coffee shop
with a sign saying "white".
As I passed the tables,
everyone stared at me.
"Two sandwiches, please," I asked.
The waitress quickly handed me
my sandwiches and took my money,
as if trying to get rid of me.
Then I went into the
black folks coffee shop.
I expected at least to see
an approving smile,
a knowing glance. Not a chance.
All I got was scowling,
disapproving faces.
Some people even looked horrified.
We cannot at all underestimate
the risk that she
did take doing that.
There were a lot of people
who wouldn't have done that.
But the problem again is
she's Josephine Baker.
She's going into a
segregated establishment,
thumbing her nose at customs.
Many social customs in
certain parts of the South
that have simply been accepted, as
that is the way it's going to be,
it's not going to change.
And black folks know their place,
and here she comes,
giving them ideas about
them out of their place.
And then, she goes. All right?
That's the problem.
Was she going to stay and fight? Was
she gonna deal with the aftermath
of the repercussions of her actions?
Therein lies the critique.
For many African-Americans, when
she crossed the colour line,
she didn't cross back. She
didn't take anyone with her.
Um, and so, that was also a problem.
It's not like Josephine Baker
created an entourage on which
she helped other acts along
or did whatever. It was Josephine
Baker and only Josephine Baker.
On the one hand, there was fierce
pride that she had made it.
And on the other hand, there was
a great deal of criticism
because only she had made it.
And so, she did not
necessarily open doors.
Josephine was deeply hurt by the
criticism from the black community.
After 20 years away, she had
lost touch with the everyday life
of African-Americans.
Now, she knew that despite
her ups and downs,
her fame had shielded her from
the brutality of segregation.
It was time to use her privileges to
fight for the rights of her people.
Three years later, she returned to
the States to perform in Florida.
This time, she set her conditions
before crossing the Atlantic.
It was simple.
I wouldn't sing anywhere
my people were not accepted.
I would only agree to
come to the United States
if black patrons were
admitted to my shows.
The producer of her show felt sure
it was the right time
to launch Josephine in the States,
and agreed to all her conditions.
Well, it seems that you do love me.
I'll never let you down, ladies and
gentlemen, sisters and brothers.
Never! (CHEERING)
Her contract stipulated
that patrons were to be admitted,
regardless of race, colour or creed.
It was a historic event.
For the first time in Miami, black
people were admitted to grand hotels
and exclusive cabarets.
It was a triumph.
People in the audience were in tears.
Are you ready? Come on, here we go!
(♫ SINGS ♫) ♪ Tu me quieres, ♪
♪ la la la la! ♪
♪ Tu me adoras, come on! ♪
♪ Me quieres, me adoras ♪
♪ Esto es felicidad, hey! ♪
♪ Tu me besas, la la la la! ♪
♪ Tu me miras, la la la la! ♪
♪ Me besas, me miras ♪
♪ Esto es… ♪
(APPLAUSE)
News of the concert spread
across the United States.
Josephine sang in St Louis, Los
Angeles and many other cities.
In Las Vegas, she publicly denounced
the racist comments
of a nightclub owner.
She came out in support Willie McGee,
a black man sentenced to death
for the alleged rape
of a white woman.
Josephine could at last use her
success to fight for her people.
♪ It brings back the sun, ♪
♪ the music so tender ♪
♪ It brings back the nights, ♪
♪ tropical splendour… ♪
But an incident disrupted
this honeymoon.
One evening at the famous
Stork Club in New York,
where she was dining with friends,
Josephine waited a long time
to be served, a very long time.
Until she understood that
her meal would never come.
It made her blood boil.
She stormed out of the club, called
the leading civil rights association,
and made an official
report of the incident.
The next day, militants
organised a picket line
to block the entrance to the club.
The affair blew up.
Josephine had become a trouble-maker,
was accused of Communist sympathies
by FBI director, J Edgar Hoover.
HOOVER: The experience
of people in other lands,
who suddenly found themselves…
Josephine was declared an
enemy of the United States.
She left for Latin America,
where she publicly condemned
her country's racial policies.
It was war.
The FBI pressured
Latin American countries,
and one by one, her concerts
were cancelled in Peru, Colombia,
Cuba and Haiti.
She was told she may never be
allowed to return to the USA.
She was devastated.
JOSEPHINE: Whatever had we done.
I had done my best during the War
to fight the Nazis
and their racist policies.
But I saw the same attitude,
just as insidious, just as ugly,
in those who had opposed the Nazis.
So, I went back to France.
Since before the War, the
place I felt most at home
was at my chateau in Dordogne.
During my travels around the world,
I saw that people were
mixing more and more.
It seemed obvious that racial
purity would gradually disappear.
But I wanted it to happen
through love, not hate.
To prove that all the peoples of
the world could live in harmony,
Josephine adopted 12 children
of different nationalities
and raised them in her chateau.
She called her family
The Rainbow Tribe.
And she was their prophetess.
(♫ SINGS IN FRENCH ♫)
The French had followed Josephine's
adventures for over 30 years.
They revered her as a dancer,
a singer, an actress,
and honoured her as a
heroine of the Resistance.
They even awarded her the
Legion of Honour at her chateau,
surrounded by her Rainbow Tribe.
And yet, something was still missing.
She yearned for the
love of her native land,
where she was still refused entry.
But in America, times were changing.
A young minister, Martin Luther King,
had taken the lead of
the Civil Rights Movement.
In August 1963,
he called on blacks and whites
to march together in Washington
to protest against segregation.
Josephine had achieved what no
black woman before her ever had,
and King wanted her to be there.
Bobby Kennedy intervened
to lift her travel ban.
At the march, Josephine was
the only woman to make a speech.
I want you know…
…that this is the
happiest day of my entire life.
The results today of
seeing you all together
is a sight for sore eyes.
You're together as salt and pepper,
just as you should be.
Just as I've always wanted you
to be, and peoples of the world
have always wanted to be.
You are a united people at last.
You are on the eve
of complete victory.
Continue on, you can't go wrong.
The world is behind you.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
Josephine arrives at
this major, major event
that we now know was
mostly organised by
male civil rights leaders.
The women who were involved
kept being pushed
a little to the side.
That's a parentheses,
but it matters.
Josephine arrives, like
an emissary from abroad.
And that international
aspect is not be belittled.
And she is wearing…
Miss Sex Symbol, the glamour object,
she wearing the uniform
of the Free French Army.
And she didn't have to come.
Just the fact that she flew across
the Atlantic, not for her career,
but to link generations
of black achievement,
of black entertainment,
and of black struggle…
…was absolutely thrilling.
JOSEPHINE: Until
The March On Washington,
every time I went to the States,
my stomach was in knots.
For the first time, I returned
to France with a sense of freedom.
My struggle had been right.
I went to Washington to pass on the
torch to those who wanted to listen,
so that they could have
the same chances I had
without having to run away.
Now that my message had been heard,
I could leave in peace.
Fate had played a
funny game on Josephine.
She had taken the role of the
first black star in history,
but her battle against racism
had been a lonely one.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, in her twilight years,
her fight for justice resonated with
a world finally ready for change.
Her journey now belonged to history,
and even made her laugh.
(♫ BAND PLAYS ♫)
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
♪ I'm blue, just ♪
♪ as blue as I could be ♪
♪ Every day is a cloudy day for me ♪
♪ Then good luck came ♪
♪ knocking at my door ♪
♪ Skies are grey but ♪
♪ they're not grey anymore ♪
♪ Blue skies, smiling at me… ♪