Sleepy History - Josephine Baker

Episode Date: March 15, 2026

Narrated By: Jessika Gössl Written By: Laila Weir Symbol of Jazz Age glamour, WWII spy, and civil rights activist... Josephine Baker moved through the world with grace, courage, and quiet brilliance. From her early days in St. Louis to the glowing stages of Paris, her performances blended joy, elegance, and daring expression. Beyond the spotlight, her life unfolded as a story of resilience, artistry, and hope. Tonight, wander through the life, legacy, and enduring influence of Josephine Baker, as you drift into a peaceful and dream-filled sleep. Includes mentions of: Espionage, Nudity, WWI, WWII, Racism, Segregation, Violence, Performing on stage, Marriage, Children, Poverty #history #sleep #bedtime #Espionage #Racism #Josephine #Baker #Violence #Jazz #Performer #Stage About Sleepy History Explore history's most intriguing stories, people, places, events, and mysteries, delivered in a supremely calming atmosphere. If you struggle to fall asleep and you have a curious mind, Sleepy History is the perfect bedtime companion. Our stories will gently grasp your attention, pulling your mind away from any racing thoughts, making room for the soothing music and calming narration to guide you into a peaceful sleep. Want to enjoy Sleepy History ad-free? Start your 7-day free trial of Sleepy History Premium: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sleepyhistory.supercast.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Have feedback or an episode request? Let us know at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠slumberstudios.com/contact⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sleepy History is a production of Slumber Studios. To learn more, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.slumberstudios.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Sleepy History. Sleepy History is a production of Slumber Studios. To listen ad-free, get access to bonus episodes, and support the ongoing production of this show. Check out our premium feed. At MedCan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds.

That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body check-up that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today.

Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a law firm, your bar for everything is high. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions

for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at dejerdin.com slash business coverage. Ah, where are my gloves? Come on, heat.

Any day now. Winter is hard, but your groceries don't have to be. This winter, Stay warm. Tap the banner to order your groceries online at walla.com. Enjoy in-store prices without leaving your home. You'll find the same regular prices online as in-store.

Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. Wildly popular, daringly risque dancer and singer. Symbol of jazz age glamour, complete with a pet cheetah. Darling of Paris, friend of royalty, and literati. Josephine Baker was all this and much more. A World War II spy with the French resistance, civil rights activist, and mother to a dozen children adopted from around the world.

Her life was a procession of firsts, from pioneering the integration of US music venues to becoming the first American and first black woman to receive the French state's highest honors. So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of Josephine Baker. June 3rd, 1906 was a warm summery day in turn of the century St. Louis, Missouri. Temperatures would climb to almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit or 32 degrees Celsius later in the week, but the nights cooled off to the comfortable 60s or low 70s. The nighttime respite from the heat and the chance it afforded for easy asleep must have been welcome to Carrie MacDonald, a young black vaudeville performer originally from Arkansas,

because that day, the 20-year-old gave birth to a daughter. The baby was named Frida Josephine MacDonald, although the world would come to know her as Josephine Baker. Little seems to be known definitively about the baby's father beyond the fact that he didn't stick around to see his child grow. He seems to have been a vaudeville musician called Eddie Carson. Rumors swirled about his background, with claims that he was of white European heritage,

perhaps German or Spanish. Carrie had performed in a song and dance act and is said to have taken Josephine on stage with her, starting from the time the girl was about one year old. History is somewhat murky on the details of Josephine's childhood. and sources sometimes conflict, but we can make out the broad outlines of her early story. We know that Carrie soon married a different man

and had more children in rapid succession. Josephine's stepfather surely travelled for work and was apparently not recalled by her as a regular presence in the household. At any rate, with mouths to feed, young Carrie gave up her hope, of a musical career in favor of what must have been steadier work as a laundry woman. Nevertheless, the family was desperately poor, and Josephine would later say that she was hungry

and always cold as a child. Her family could afford neither stockings nor cold to make heat. Still, the little girl delighted in animals, taking in a motley variety of peaties. as well as in dressing up and play acting. She later recalled having set up a makeshift theatre and put on shows for other children, charging an entrance fee of one pin. Little Josephine started working from the time she was about eight years old. She was sent to work as a living servant for well-to-do white families,

cleaning and caring for their babies, although she was directed not to kiss the babies. Nevertheless, she would later recall the babies she watched with fondness. As a child and throughout her life, Josephine loved animals and babies, caring for countless pets and adopting a dozen children over the years. Later, when she was 11, Josephine witnessed terrifying attacks on her community during the infamous East St. Louis race riots. With the outbreak of World War I, many more black Americans had been moving to St. Louis

to fill industrial jobs as part of the war effort. Resentment and racism festered among segments of the white population. And when a rumor went around in 1917, that a black man had killed a white man, it exploded into violence. Mobs beat and shot black citizens and torched their homes. More than 100 black residents and nine white residents died before the riots ended, and thousands of black citizens fled the city. It was a moment that marked young Josephine,

and she would reference it later in her life. Yet rather than break her, the experience and its memory spurred her to action. Through her story and her surviving works, a sense emerges of a tremendously charismatic, powerful personality, the unique spirit that turned her into a superstar and led her to conquer the world. It shines through even in grained, old films and transcriptions of interviews translated from French.

Together, they evoke a person with an incredible zest for life, despite her hardships and overwhelmingly positive outlook, with irrepressible energy and humor. At 12, Josephine definitively dropped out of school, after what was apparently a spotty, off-again-on-again education at St. Louis. Lewis's segregated schools. At 13, she left home. And at 14, she got married for the first time, though she divorced shortly afterwards. She began working as a waitress in a club and soon began

performing as a dancer. When she couldn't find work, she would dance on the streets for money from passers-by. Sometime around this period, she was noticed by a black performance troop and invited to join them. Soon, the young teens started traveling around the United States, performing with the Jones family band

and the Dixie Steppers. In 1921, teenage Josephine got married a second time to a man named Willie Baker. Although they later divorced, she began developing a show business reputation while using his last name, and she kept it for life. When the troops she'd been performing with split up, Josephine, now Josephine Baker, tried for position as a chorus girl. As the story goes, she was rejected on the grounds that she was too skinny and too dark, but she didn't give up. Instead, she took work as a dresser and learned the chorus lines dance routines by watching.

When a dancer left, she was prepared to snag the job of replacement. Josephine made the most of the opportunity. She brought a comic touch that made her stand out from the crowd, rolling her eyes and pretending to be clumsy. Audiences loved it, and Josephine became, became a big draw for the show. The teenager moved to New York City to join in the vibrant black cultural scene known as the Harlem Renaissance. She met with success once again, performing, among other gigs, with Blue Sensation Ethel Waters at a venue called The Plantation Club. Then, in 1925, when Josephine was 19 years old, something happened that would alter the course of her life.

She got the opportunity to travel to perform in France, recruited by an American talent scout. She boarded a ship and traveled across the Atlantic. On route, the ship had to dodge mines left from the recent carnage. of World War I. In Paris, she starred in a show called La Revue Negra or The Negro at the Chans Elysee Theatre. It featured a troupe of 20 musicians and dancers from Harlem. The review brought jazz and black American music and dance to a French audience. The city's jazz age was in full swing during this period, a time I'm known in France as Les Ané Folle, or the crazy years,

and artists, writers and performers flocked to Paris. They came for the company and the freedom. Many also came to drink and dance away the horrors and losses of the war. Paris society was much freer than other straight-laced capitals of the time. There was no prohibition against alcohol, unlike in the US. Ladies performed scantily clad in top cabarets, and, crucially, France did not enforce legal segregation between the races. Later, Josephine would say,

When I was young in Paris, strange things happened to me. I could go into any restaurant I want to. to, and I could drink water any place I wanted to. This was a new and certainly welcome experience for the young woman. She would remain in France for the rest of her life, although she traveled widely, and would eventually become a French citizen by marriage. In La Revue Negra, Josephine performed an act called the Don Sauvage, wearing nothing but a feather skirt alongside a tall dance partner named Joe Alex. A New Yorker correspondent called him a giant. The pair introduced Parisian audiences to the Charleston, that fast jazzy dance that exploded from the southern U.S., and came to

symbolize the roaring 20s, and which is believed to have grown out of traditional African dance, and Paris loved it. But it was the next year that she really became a legend, when she began to dance at the fabled Folli Bergeré music hall. In old black and white film of this act, she can be seen skillfully jitter-bugging, and there's no doubt about it. it, twerking at a frenetic pace through moves like the bee's knees. That's the one where the dancer seems to move their knees back and forth with their hands. It was a key move of the Charleston. She performed her incredibly popular for Lieberger Act dressed in only a bit of jewelry

and a skirt made out of satin bananas. Paris's crazy years were an era of stage starlets outfitted, in fabulous and provocative attire. One dancer, billed as Odette de France, appeared on the cover of a magazine called Paris Pleasure in a barely there beaded bikini, presumably her stage costume. Another, who performed at the Casino de Paris,

appeared in transparent capes trimmed with pink fur, plus a towering pink feather headdress, and a third, known as Mademoiselle Smolenska, were a gold bikini and train that was the more revealing twin of Princess Leia's famous Star Wars costume. Yet even against this backdrop, Baker and her act stood out, and the young dancer became a superstar. In fact, she appeared as a guest artist at the Art Deco Exposition of N9xpicion of Natives. 1925, right after the celebrated ballerina Anna Pavlova. Her friends and devotees included many luminaries of the Parisian artistic and literary scene, like painter Pablo Picasso and writer's Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.

She acquired a pet cheetah and she walked down the Chance Elyze, received more than a thousand proposals of marriage and became one of the most photographed women in the world. By 1927, she was also earning more money than any other performer in Europe. She later recalled the mountains of fabulous gifts that admirers showered her with. Pearls and perfume, furs and dresses, and even an automobile upholstered entirely in in snake skin. Josephine toured all over Europe and the Americas, visiting some 25 countries from 1928 to 1930. She performed for kings and royalty and gave a special private performance just for little Danish princesses. She was admired by the wealthy and the illustrious and saw adoring crowds

gather outside her hotel window. She was also boycotted by religious groups that decried her avilic costume and provocative dancing. She was called a black devil and told to go back to Africa by new fascist groups arising in Austria. And at times she encountered casual, insidious prejudice and racism that she would never forget. Yet when she spoke of her travels, her recollections, exuded enthusiasm and a sense of excitement, recounting funny stories and myriad adventures, from midnight fishing in Scandinavia to violating animal quarantine rules to sneak her dogs out for 5 a.m. walks. In spite of her limited education, Josephine must have been a very quick study, for she soon learned to speak French fluently. She was a very much.

was the first African-American woman to star in a major movie, a 1927 French film called Siren of the Tropics. She went on to appear in more movies, most famously the French musical comedies, Zuzu and Princess Tam-Tam. She also decided to learn to sing, aiming to make a name for herself beyond exotic dancing acts and succeeded spectacularly. After vocal coaching, she launched her career as a professional singer in 1930, and soon her sultry voice was known the world over. With this, Josephine turned her music hall fame into a launch pad for international celebrity and renown. In 1936, however, superstars suffered a deep disappointment.

Riding her international success, the star went back to the United States to perform with the Ziegfeld follies. It was a rude awakening. She was met with hostility and faced the humiliations of segregation and institutionalized racism, even more bitter after her success and the the relative freedom of Paris. She was made to go into shows through the service entrance and found herself barred from swanky hotels. Returning to France angered and disappointed, she married a French businessman named Jean-Leon and became a French citizen. The marriage did not last, but it was pivotal in the lives of both partners. It not only made Josephine legally French, but it also allowed Jean, who was Jewish, to move with his relative to the

United States and thus escape the rising threat of the Nazis. With the start of World War II, the singer's life took a new turn. French military intelligence recruited her to become an agent, and she would serve as a spy throughout the war. She joined the French resistance to the Nazis, and served as a sub-lieutenant in the Women's Auxiliary of the Free French Air Force. Like many famous performers during the war, she also traveled to military sites to entertain Allied troops as a way to boost morale, appearing, for example, alongside French star Maurice Chevalier, Josephine's fame and performance schedule gave her an entree to society events

and allowed her to cross borders without suspicion. Early in the war, before Germany invaded France, she went to parties at the Italian and Japanese embassies, listening for information about whether those countries would end to the war on the Nazi side. She jotted down notes on her hands and onto her sleeves to share with her French intelligence liaison and sometimes lover, French officer Jacques Abté. After the German military invaded France and was on the verge of taking Paris, Josephine left the capital for a chateau in the southwest.

She went in style, accompanied by vans of possessions like a gold piano and a bed that had belonged to former French queen, Marie Antoinette. These trappings of fame and wealth would provide valuable cover throughout the war, distracting attention from her and Jacques's covert activities. In the southwest, she hid resistance fighters and refugees at her new home. A chateau and estate called Les Milande. It said she even concealed weapons for the resistance there. Le Mieland would later be her post-war home up through the late 1960s.

Eventually, Josephine would bring her American family from St. Louis to live at the complex, and it was there that she would raise her adopted children. But all of that had to wait, like so much of life, until the war was over. When France fell to the invading German forces, the Nazis occupied more than half the country. The remainder came under a new French government based in the town of Vichy that dismantled the Republic to collaborate with the Nazi state. General Charles de Gaulle set up a free French government in exile in London. Josephine and Jacques Abteé left Lémy-Lééééééééééééé left Lémy-Lééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééé. to take photos and reports of German troop movements to the Gaulle's forces.

Again, Josephine's stardom provided cover. Pretending to be on her way to an international show tour, she left France wrapped in an enormous fur coat, with Jacques in tow, disguised as her secretary. But beneath the fur coat, The singer had stashed photos inside her dress, and her sheet music had top secret information written on it in Invisible Inc. The pair travelled safely through Spain to Portugal under the spell cast by Josephine's Star Power. Border officials scrambled to meet her, some even rushing to get their families for a glimpse of the singer,

and no one noticed the smuggled documents or the unobtrusive so-called secretary. In Portugal, Josephine separated from Jacques in case he was recognized by German agents. He liaised with British intelligence and passed on their smuggled information while she gave shows and attended more embassy parties, ducking into bathrooms to pin notes to her bra, about what she had learned. When the pair returned to Vichy France, their intelligence bosses sent them to Casablanca in Vichy controlled Morocco to continue their espionage. They set sail across the Mediterranean. Josephine traveled as she was accustomed to do on show tours before the war,

with copious luggage and pets, including mice, monkeys, and a great Dane. In Morocco, she would continue her spying for the Allies and performances for troops, as well as helping European Jews fleeing the Nazis get passports to start new lives abroad. Soon, though, she fell gravely ill and was hospitalized for a year and a half with peritonitis. This led false reports of her death to circulate in the US, where celebrating. black American poet Langston Hughes even wrote an obituary for her. In a quip reminiscent of writer Mark Twain's famous quote that the reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated,

Josephine declared, There has been a slight error. I'm much too busy to die. Members of the French resistance and international officials visited her in her hospital room as she recovered. This has caused a modern biographer to question whether her illness could have been a hoax designed as cover for espionage. Whatever the truth, she and her connections helped US officials identify Nazi agents

after the Allies took Morocco in 1942, all while she was still in the hospital. When she was well, Josephine traveled from her base in Morocco around North Africa, entertaining integrated groups of Allied soldiers and gathering intelligence as she went. It was hardly luxurious work. She traveled by Jeep across deserts to get to shows, sleeping on the ground at night. At last, the Allies prevailed. In 1944, Josephine had been in 14, Josephine. finally returned to a liberated Paris, where crowds pelted her with flowers as she rode in her

French military uniform through the streets. For her service during the war, France later awarded Josephine some of the country's highest military honors, a medal of the French resistance, the Quaduguer and the Legion of Honor. A couple of years after the war's end, Josephine got married once again, this time to a French orchestra leader named Joe Boulogne. It was her fourth and longest lasting marriage, though the couple would split a decade later. After that, the star would not marry again, though she was linked romantically to other men and various women at different points during her lifetime, among them artist Frida Carlo. In the early 1950s though, Josephine and her new husband were just building a life together

and starting a family they would call their Rainbow Tribe. Over the coming years, Josephine and Joe adopted babies from all around the world. Ultimately, they raised a dozen children, two daughters and eight sons adopted from country, like Japan, Finland, Korea, Colombia, Belgium, Venezuela and France. With so many children, the estate had a summer camp atmosphere. One of her sons has been quoted as saying, with kids everywhere playing and shouting. Josephine was a strict mother, however, who wanted her little ones to get a solid education. In addition to going to school, the children were tutored, each in their own birth nationalities heritage and associated religion. Their father wrote a universal

prayer of brotherhood for the whole family, which went like this. O Father, our good God, grant that our brothers and sisters across the world may show greater love for each other with the peace, understanding and tolerance that you inspire in us each day through the love that you offer us. Josephine called her family an experiment in brotherhood, and she and her husband made it a very public one. They invited the world to come see their multiracial and multi-ethnic brood, in order to show that people of different races could live together in harmony and love. To this end, Buyen and Baker made Le Miland into a tourist destination. Signs around the region invited the public to the estate, calling it a village of the world and the capital of Brotherhood. Some 300,000 visitors came each year

during the late 1950s. Josephine said of her children, they must be made visible so that people can see that it is in fact possible that children from different races, raised together as siblings, have no animosity. That racial hate is not natural. It's an invention by mankind.

In a popular song whose title means, in my village, Josephine sang about her little ones with different skin colors, trilling in French, My Mother's Heart loves them all the same. Baker spent the decade of the 1950s growing her family, continuing her singing career and chasing her grand vision. Josephine and her husband also wrote a children's book together called The Rainbow Tribe Promoting Tolerance. The family appeared in magazine and magazine.

ads for various products, but Josephine refused offers to make a movie about her children, saying they would not be turned into performing monkeys. The family and their sprawling complex weren't cheap to keep afloat, however, and by the 1960s, Josephine and Jo had separated and bankruptcy threatened. French actress Brigitte Bardot got involved to try to save Le Moulon, but Baker's estate was finally sold in 1969, Josephine and her Rainbow family settled into a villa on the French Riviera in a town called Roque Brun. With the help of Josephine's friend, movie star turned princess Grace Kelly. Also American by birth, the actress had become Princess Grace of

Monaco when she married the small state's royal heir, Prince Rainier. Meanwhile, even as Josephine's life and family unfolded in her adopted homeland, she had maintained ties in the United States, where she had become increasingly involved in the civil rights movement. Josephine had long stood up for integration and civil rights. In 1951, she'd convinced a top Miami Beach nightclub to allow an integrated audience to attend her show. A first in the segregated city, she did it by steadfastly refusing to perform at the venue, the Copa City Club, until they agreed to allow black guests to attend alongside whites. And when the famed Stork Club in New York refused her service, Josephine went head to head in a media battle with the columnist who wrote in favor of segregation.

She boycotted segregated clubs and concert halls, even when offered massive sums of money to perform. And she also took part in protest demonstrations when she visited the United States. Josephine was at the storied march on Washington, the massive protest for black rights at which Martin Luther King intoned, I have a dream. She was the only female speaker to address the crowd that day. wearing her free France uniform and string of medals. Josephine evoked her own story in her speeches, saying, I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents.

But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, more often called by its acronym, N-A-C-P, declared a Josephine Baker Day and held a Harlem Parade in honor of her efforts for equal rights. At the end of her life, Josephine witnessed the fruits of her labors as both a performer and an advocate for equality. In 1973, she performed at New York's Carnegie Hall. Her past experience made her worry of how she would be received, but this time the audience rose to the occasion. Quite literally, with a standing ovation, the aging star was moved to tears of joy on stage.

Two years later, in April 1975, she would perform for the last time. Princess Grace and Prince Raynear of Monaco, along with President John F. Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, Onassis, financed a retrospective show by Josephine. It was to kick off celebration of the 50th anniversary of her Paris debut. At the Bobino Theatre in Paris, Josephine sang a medley of her songs to sold-out audiences,

that included celebrities like legendary Italian actress Sophia Loren. The demand for tickets was so high that the organizers added folding chairs to accommodate more people. Josephine was thrilled. Shortly after this success, in her hotel, the 68-year-old songstress suffered a medical emergency and slipped into a coma in bed, surrounded by newspaper reviews praising her show. The entertainer who once commented that she wanted to go out dancing passed away on a high note. Her funeral in Paris was a testament to her lasting legacy and deep impact. The French government gave her a 21 gun salute.

She was the first American woman to get French men. military honors for her funeral, and some 20,000 people turned out to mark the occasion. She was buried in Monaco, the domain of her longtime friend, Princess Grace. Today, her legend lives on. The Chateau du Monde is now a national historical monument, furnished by its current owner, with photos, furniture, playbills and dresses from Joseph. Fien's life. The site draws more than 100,000 visitors a year. In 1990, she was inducted into the Walk of Fame in St. Louis, the city where she once shivered in poverty and watched her

neighborhood burn in racist rioting. She was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in 1995, The city of Miami Beach, where she had fought so hard to sing before an integrated audience, now honors her with Josephine Baker Day. And in 2021, she was inducted into Paris' Pontaignee, the country's mausoleum of heroes, alongside towering French historical figures like Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie. Continuing her lifetime of firsts beyond the grave, she was the first American, first black woman, and first performing artist honored in the Pontellon. Most of the French government attended her induction, as did eight of her children, including

Brian, born Brahim in Algeria, and Akiyo adopted from Japan. Her rainbow tribe of children maintain close relationships, according to newspaper reporting, and gather for family reunions with second and even third generations in attendance. And the image of Josephine herself continues to shine brightly in the popular imagination, an icon of the jazz age and indomitable spirit. Her face, lit up with enthusiasm, shines out from grainy, photographs and black and white film footage, as her voice resonates across the ears with a song of love and an unwavering dream of universal humanity.