Dan Snow's History Hit - Josephine Baker: Entertainer and Spy

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

On November 30th, 2021, Josephine Baker, the French-American performer, second world war resistance hero, and activist became the first Black woman to enter France’s Panthéon mausoleum of revered historical figures. As one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th century, Baker risked her life working for the resistance during the second world war, smuggling documents between music sheets and using her fame to open doors and access information.Monique Y. Wells is the co-founder of Entrée to Black Paris and a contributor on Paris’ Black history and culture. Monique joins Dan to discuss the life of Josephine Baker - the iconic entertainer of the Jazz Age who became one of the unsung heroes of the war effort.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.We need your help! If you would like to tell us what you want to hear as part of Dan Snow's History Hit then complete our podcast survey by clicking here. Once completed you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher to spend in the History Hit shop.See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History. On this podcast, we're going to talk about a member of the pantheon,

the French pantheon of heroes. We're talking about Josephine Baker. Josephine Baker, the entertainer, the activist, the philanthropist, the resistance fighter, the World War II veteran, was inducted into the French pantheon on the 30th of November 2021. She was the first black woman to be honoured in that secular temple to the quote-unquote great men of the French Republic. Josephine Baker's life just defies belief. She grew up in extreme poverty in America as a woman of colour witnessing appalling racism. And she burst onto the stage and started travelling the world. She became the richest black woman on planet Earth. And then she

became a spy for the British during the German occupation of France. After fighting for France during the Second World War, she returned to her Native America to try and pursue the struggle for civil rights towards the end of her life. In this episode of the podcast, I talk to Monique Y. Wells. She's the co-founder of Entree to Black Paris, where people can experience Black Paris through its history, culture, and contemporary life. She's also a regular contributor to TV shows, pods and other things about the life of Josephine Baker. Remember folks, if you want to hear more about France during the Second World War, or more about any history frankly, you can go to our digital history channel, History Hit TV. It's like Netflix, but just for history. It's got hundreds of hours of history

documentaries on there, thousands of podcasts, more material going up all the time. It's been nominated for Best TV Channel in Britain, but it's available anywhere in the world. So please go and check it out. If you follow the link in the description of this podcast, just click on it with your thumb right now. You get two weeks free if you sign up today. So welcome to the revolution, folks. Lots more coming down the slipway this year. It's going to be great to have you aboard. In the meantime, here is the brilliant Monique Y. Wells talking about Josephine Baker. Monique, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Where's the story of Josephine Baker begin? Where did she spend her first few

years? She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, East St. Louis. She was quite poor, extremely poor. In fact, we're talking eating out of garbage cans poor. And she very early on was sent to work by her mother in domestic capacity. So she would be a live-in housekeeper or maid for people. There was a lot of trouble with that. So she was doing that just as much as she was living under her own family roof. And Missouri was not a good place to be an African-American in the early part of the 20th

century. Not at all, no. In fact, you could probably say fairly that just about anywhere in the United States, it was not good for you to be an African American at that time. It was extremely difficult. One of the things that she experienced very early on in her life was the East St. Louis race riot across the river from St. Louis. So St. Louis, Missouri, East St. Louis, Illinois. Okay, let me make that distinction. But a lot of people believe that the race riot actually took place in St. Louis. It took place mostly in East St. Louis, and then some people came across the bridge to St. Louis. But that was a very traumatic and horrific experience with regard to race hatred in the United States. So she was no stranger to that. She was no stranger to poverty.

She married at a very early age, an illegal marriage to a man named Willie Wells. She was only 13. It was not a legal marriage. It did not last very long. But this was just one of the ways that she was trying to escape the huge difficulties that she had as a child. And she did not do well in school. She was frequently truant.

She loved the theater. She learned that early on. She developed a desire to perform. And she started performing just on the street, actually, to earn a little bit of money at a very early age. And so, I mean, that gives you a good idea of just the horrific situation that she grew up in, in St. Louis. And does theater, does performance give her that ticket out of there? Absolutely. She started going to a theatre called the Booker T. Washington in St. Louis.

And when she would skip school, she would go to the theatre. She would go to the theatre whenever she could. And she learned invaluable lessons from the performers there. And she got a taste of what it was going to be like to be a traveling performer when she started hanging out with a family that lived across the street from her, a family called Jones. They had an organization called the Dixie Steppers, and she went on the road with them. So that was her first taste of performing. And she was not actually performing. She was behind the scenes with that group, But she got the flavor for performing and traveling to perform with them. And it was when she was traveling with them that she met her second husband, Billy Baker,

and she kept his name, even though they did divorce eventually. And how does she go from there to France? Like, how's that jump take place? So she's gotten this bug, right, for this traveling performing. And she tries out for a show called Shuffle Along, which was huge. Noble Cicel and Ubi Blake's Shuffle Along. But she was too young at the time to be hired as a regular in the show in New York, but they did hire her for the traveling show. And she went all around with them. And when she finally was able to return to the East Coast, it was with a new show by Cicely Blake that didn't do so well. And she ended up working at a place in New York called the Plantation Club. And that's where she was discovered by a woman named Carolyn Dudley Reagan and wooed into

a show called La Revue Negre, which opened in Paris in October 1925. And she discovered that France was far less segregated, right? There were more opportunities for people of colour in that era, I guess. Absolutely. And we have to keep in mind that during this time, there was a very, very, very small actual Black population on French soil. France had its own history of slavery and colonialism and all of that. But largely, you didn't see that or feel that with regard to actual people on the ground in France. And so Josephine and the other people who were in this show that came to Paris, they came into an environment that was devoid pretty much of Black people.

And we have to also remember that they were African-Americans and not directly tied to France's history of slavery and colonialism. That's a very, very important thing to understand about why these people were able to experience the freedom that they did. And she makes a success, right? She becomes phenomenally wealthy. An overnight success and phenomenally wealthy in a very short period of time. And at the age of 19, this is when she debuts. Wow. Yeah. So she goes from eating out

of trash cans and having her life threatened by racist mobs to being fantastically wealthy, one of the most celebrated women in France in a space of just a few years. Yes, absolutely. Do we know what effect that had on her? How did she take all that? Well, she's a 19-year-old. She's not very sophisticated, at least at the beginning. So she's overwhelmed, pleasantly overwhelmed, but overwhelmed because of all the attention that is poured upon her by men, by women. Women want to look like her. They're all rushing out to buy the clothes that Josephine Baker wears, trying to get their hair done the way that she has her hair done. The men are, you know, oh my God, this exotic, and I emphasize that word, exotic Black goddess. And, you know,

can we have our way with her? What can we do with her, for her? All of that in really the space of just a few days and weeks. And so she builds on that. And this show, La Rebue Negra, actually leaves Paris and travels. But she is so desired in Paris that another theater woos her away from that show. And she comes back to Paris and she performs at the Folies Bergères and wears her banana skirt for the first time. And of course, that's legendary. And if people know nothing else about Josephine Baker, they know that she wore a banana skirt for the first time. And of course, that's legendary. And if people know

nothing else about Josephine Baker, they know that she wore a banana skirt, right? Probably not the greatest claim to fame, but still an iconic image of her. And she goes on and on, and she meets an Italian man named Pepito Abattino, who becomes her impresario. He manages her, he becomes her lover, but he most importantly shifts her from the performing of the savage dancer, moves her into a more mainstream type of performance. They travel through Europe, they travel to South America. He organizes a trip for her, a series of performances for her in New York, and she feels like she's going to be able to go back home triumphant because she's experienced all of this success in Europe and in South America. And no, she's slapped down like an undesirable fly. It was a

disastrous trip for her. And so racism rears its ugly head again, but back on her home soil. rears its ugly head again, but back on her home soil. Meanwhile, Europe is sliding towards racism and fascism and authoritarianism. Tell me about the famous tour when she suddenly was seen as a threat when she arrived in these different cities. Yeah, so that was even before her trip to New York. So this was in 1928. She and Pepito set out for a European tour. There are just as many places that welcome her

with open arms as there are places that are very reluctant, if not downright, refusing to have her perform because of, as you described, this sort of rising fascism and also religious beliefs. A lot of people felt like she was, you know, the devil's spawn, that she was doing the devil's work and that they were good, upstanding Christians, good, upstanding Catholics. And we don't want this kind of entertainment in our city. So there was a mix of that. And there were certain places, I think most importantly, Vienna, where she had a very, very difficult time even being allowed to perform. There was actually someone who had to testify on her behalf in front of the Viennese government to get her to be able to perform.

And she ended up performing not in the theater that had originally been booked, but in a tiny little theater across the street from a church, if you could imagine that. And so on the one side of the street, it's all of these righteous people. And on the other side of the street, it's people who braved that criticism to actually go into the performance and see her perform and loved her, you know, but just getting to that point was just very, very difficult. And there were other cities where she experienced rather similar difficulties. But then there were cities where people just threw themselves at her feet because they just couldn't wait to see her. So that was a big mix. And it was a big lesson for her, you know, that she was not just going to be able to

have everybody lie down and worship her, that she was going to have to prove her mettle, not only as a performer, but also as a person during these performances in various parts of the world. And she experienced a lot of the same thing in South America. You listen to Dan Slow's History here, talking about Josephine Baker. More coming up. This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you.

Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. What about 1940, the Germans invade, conquer France. She's a successful black woman with a by now Jewish husband, right? This could go very badly for her. What happens here? Well, first of all, you know, there's what we call in France, the phony war. So Germany was doing all its things outside of France and France is thinking, okay, but they can't come in because we have what's called the Maginot Line and they can't breach that line. So we're safe. And then Josephine is preparing herself, if you will, for what's to come, just in case

things happen in France. There are people who are seeking her out and asking for her assistance to help with any form of resistance that might be necessary. Because she is a performer, she's able to visit places like the Italian consulate and be in contact with people who are not thinking anything about guarding what they're saying to each other because she's a performer and, you know, who is she really? Not really understanding that she does speak several languages and that she is able to understand and retain things and take them back to the French. Once the Germans are actually in France, she leaves Paris and goes to what is called Les Milandes, which is a property that

she eventually purchased in the Dordogne region. And she is aiding people who are escaping, her husband and his family included, even though they were on the verge of divorce at that point. And even before she went down to Les Milans, when she's still in the Paris area, she is recruited by a man named Jacques Apte, who arranges with her to do all of this surreptitious activity and gets her to join the Free French Forces and gets her to smuggle things and be a transporter of information even before the Germans actually arrive. And once they are in the south of France, then they are given orders to get information to General de Gaulle, who has left the country and is in England. It is decided that the way that they're going to get this information out is that she is going to be

her own self. She's going to be the persona, the Black Star. And this gentleman, Jacques Abte, is going to pretend to be her secretary. And so they are traveling together. She does perform and they do various things to get this information out of France and into the hands of de Gaulle in London. So they have to go to Lisbon and from Lisbon to North Africa. And that information eventually gets to London. Before she escaped from France, the Nazis kind of came to her chateau, didn't they? And she sort of faced them down. Where her chateau was, it was actually near Bordeaux, which was at one point part of the collaboration government of France. And there were people who were Nazi collaborators and soldiers themselves who came. And she really, she deflected all of that and was able to get people passports to leave the country. She just did a phenomenal job of doing whatever she could, officially and unofficially, to resist. She then returned, didn't she, after D-Day and she kind of wears a uniform. She's just an inspiring figure. Oh, for sure. So she actually joined the Auxiliary of the French Air Force and she received several medals for her service.

One which was particularly special to her was the Croix de Lorraine, which Charles de Gaulle gave her personally, in which she later hopped to raise money to support the French war effort. I mean, you can't get more heroic than this, really, given that she is not. I mean, she is a French citizen because she married a French man, but not a born French person. And so this service that she is rendering to France is because, purely because France treated her so well, welcoming her and making her the star that she became when she couldn't do that in her homeland. Although what I love about her career, she does seem to, you know, think, okay, I'm going to roll my sleeves up and try the US one last time, the land of my birth, and she gets involved with the civil rights movement. Yes, she does. And

so she went to the US in, I think it was in 1951, if I'm not mistaken, and had a whole series of performances set up where she refused to perform in front of segregated audiences. She did a lot during that trip. And she did some of it in collaboration with the NAACP and other organizations that were on the ground fighting day to day for civil rights in the U.S. I don't want to give the impression that she was intricately involved in their activities. She organized this tour on her own because she fervently believed in what she was doing. There were some things that she was in communication with them about, but mostly not. It was her own initiative. And certainly years after that, she participated in the March on Washington

and spoke on the same stage with Dr. Martin Luther King. What a career, what a life. She performed right up until she died, didn't she? She absolutely did. That was sort of a, I can't even say a Cinderella story. I mean, it was a Cinderella story at some point because she rose from the proverbial ashes several times, actually, during her career. During this last period, which is in 1975, she was living with her rainbow tribe. The rainbow tribe of the kids she adopted? Absolutely. The children that she adopted with her husband, Joe Bullion. She adopted 12 of them from various places around the world. And she did that with the intent to show the world that there should be no place in our hearts for racism, no place in our hearts for discrimination because of religious beliefs, no place for discrimination of any kind.

of any kind. So her life was supposed to be a living example of that. Also, I have to say that Josephine absolutely was desperate to have her own children and could not have children. And so adoption was the only alternative for her. She and her husband had originally decided to adopt only four, but she just kept bringing them home every time she would go on a trip, it seems. She would bring home another child and they ended up with 12 children that she called her rainbow tribe. And they lived in this place, Les Miland, in the Dordogne area. And they had good times and they had bad times. And they eventually lost the property. She eventually lost the property.

eventually lost the property. And Princess Grace of Monaco took her and her family in and mounted another combat performance for her, which they ran in Monaco and then brought back to Paris in early 1975. And she did several performances there before succumbing to a cerebral hemorrhage, not on stage. She left a performance, went to the hotel she was staying in, and did not come to rehearsal the next day. And her assistants found her unconscious in her bed, and they took her to the hospital where she died. On the 30th of November 2021, she became the first Black woman to enter the mausoleum of outstanding historical figures, the Pantheon in France. What does that mean? What's that incorporation mean? It is the highest honor that the French can bestow upon a person. And you may know that there are very few women in the pantheon. Josephine is the sixth woman only out of over 80 people.

She is the first African-American in the pantheon, the first African-American woman. Her whole life, once she got to France, I will say, embodies what the French call universalism. It is an ideal that France would like to think that it is living up to. I think we can all say objectively that it is not there yet, but it is an ideal. And Josephine Baker's life embodied that ideal. And so I believe that when current President Emmanuel Macron had the opportunity to approve the petition that would have Josephine inducted into the Pantheon, he was particularly pleased to do so because her life embodied this French ideal. And it's kind of ironic because the people who are not experiencing the ideal of universalism, a large number of them are Black people from France's former colonies, whether they be former slave colonies or former African colonies. So

it's an incredible honor. There is no question that Josephine deserves to be in the Pantheon. I don't think that there's any question about that. There are people who would say, despite the fact that she deserves this, why was she the first Black woman to be inducted? Why not a Black woman who is part and parcel of France's overall history. Well, Monique, thank you for talking us through her extraordinary life. Thank you very much for coming on the podcast. It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. This is History's Heroes.

People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts.