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Stage Name |
Birth Name |
| Joséphine Carson Baker |
Frida Josephine McDonald |
She first danced for the public on the streets of St. Louis for
nickels and dimes. She began her dancing career as a 5'-7"
tall chorus girl in a colored revue in St. Louis called 'Shuffle
Along' at the young age of sixteen. Baker was positioned at the
end of the line and would do some crazy things that were funny
during the choreography, while doing everything everyone else
was doing, she would improvise, crossing her eyes, tripping, getting
out of step etc. and the audience loved it.
At the age of 15, she married a (Pullman) porter named
Baker, but left him two years later when she ran away from St.
Louis at age 17 to become a star.
She Went to Paris in 1924 and in 1925 appeared in her first
revue titled "La Revue Nègre," danced in the Follies-Bergere
and other various nightclubs. She remained in France except for
occasional trips to the U.S., due to the poor treatment in the
states to African-American performers, she became a citizen of
France. Baker was a civil rights pioneer and personally involved
in racial eqaulity throughout her life. Baker over the years adopted
11 children which she called the "Rainbow Tribe" to
prove to the world they could live in racial harmony. |
Baker returned to the states
in 1936 to star in the Ziegfeld Follies. She was to become famous along with her "Banana
Dance" routine she first performed at the Follies Bergere in 1925. During W.W.II,
Baker stayed in North Africa. Baker studied Ballet with George Ballanchine and Felicia
Sobel who later choreographed dances for her. Baker had been seen dancing at the Savoy
Ballroom in Harlem, N.Y. doing the Lindy Hop, which she loved to do.
The French Government bestowed a memorial to Baker at the same spot
where she owned the 'Chez Josephine' Nightclub in the 1940's which now is a restaurant
owned by Jean-Claude Baker which houses many memorbila to the star. She became the first
African-American woman to recieve unprecedented honor from the French.
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