50 Fun Facts About Josephine Baker

The costume that made Josephine Baker a Jazz Age icon was a short skirt made of artificial what?

Bananas hung from the skirt and she wore little else but a beaded necklace. The outfit caused a sensation in Paris and became a symbol of the Roaring Twenties.

Which pet, wearing a diamond collar, often joined Josephine Baker on stage in her Paris shows?

A cheetah named Chiquita shared her spotlight, and it frequently escaped into the orchestra pit and terrorized the musicians.

As a wartime spy, Josephine Baker carried secrets written in invisible ink across borders on what?

Sheet music gave her the perfect cover: a touring entertainer had every excuse to cross borders, and hers hid reports on German airfields, harbors and troops.

What name did Josephine Baker give the twelve children she adopted from around the world?

The Rainbow Tribe was her living argument that children of different ethnicities and religions could grow up as brothers, and she raised them together in the French countryside.

At which 1963 civil rights rally did Josephine Baker speak wearing her Free French uniform?

The March on Washington heard her before the official program began, and she took the podium with her Legion of Honour medal pinned to her Free French uniform.

In 2021 Josephine Baker became the first Black woman honoured in which Paris monument?

The Panthéon is France's secular temple to its great figures, and she entered it as only the sixth woman, joining Marie Curie and Simone Veil.

Which former Hollywood star gave a nearly bankrupt Josephine Baker a home in the 1960s?

Grace Kelly had been her friend since 1951, when the actress walked out of New York's Stork Club in protest after it refused to serve Baker.

Which American novelist called Josephine Baker the most sensational woman anyone ever saw?

Ernest Hemingway spent hours talking with her in Paris bars, one of a circle of admirers that also included Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau.

Which unusual qualification did Josephine Baker hold and put to use early in World War II?

A pilot's license let her fly missions during the Phoney War, the quiet opening months of the conflict, before she turned to smuggling intelligence.

Since 2024, Josephine Baker's portrait has appeared on which everyday item used across France?

Euro coins worth 20 cents carry her image, part of a redesign that put three celebrated women on French small change.

In which American city on the Mississippi River was Josephine Baker born and raised in poverty?

St. Louis, where she once scavenged for food and danced on street corners for a living, later renamed an avenue Josephine Baker Boulevard.

What did Josephine Baker gain in 1937 by marrying the industrialist Jean Lion, keeping it for life?

French citizenship came with the wedding, and she renounced her American nationality, having returned heartbroken from a failed Broadway run the year before.

Born Freda Josephine McDonald, Josephine Baker took her famous stage surname from which person?

Her second husband, Billy Baker, married her when she was 15. She soon left him for a New York booking but used his name professionally for the rest of her life.

Which Paris music hall made Josephine Baker the toast of the 1920s as the star of its lavish revues?

Folies Bergère crowds first saw her in 1926, after she broke a touring contract to hurry back to Paris and star there.

Which Jazz Age dance craze did Josephine Baker's Paris shows help bring to Britain?

The Charleston was a showpiece of her 1920s revues, where her loose-limbed, comic style made her the most successful American entertainer in France.

After a 1968 assassination, who asked Josephine Baker to help lead America's civil rights movement?

Coretta Scott King made the offer in the Netherlands. After days of thought Baker declined, saying her children were too young to lose their mother.

Which New York venue gave Josephine Baker a standing ovation at her 1973 American comeback show?

Carnegie Hall rose to its feet for a star who had complained that nobody wanted her any more, two decades after American venues cancelled her bookings.

Which leader had Josephine Baker perform at his revolution's seventh-anniversary party in 1966?

Fidel Castro invited her to Havana's Teatro Musical, where her show that April broke attendance records.

Which pop star danced in a version of Josephine Baker's famous skirt at Fashion Rocks in 2006?

Beyoncé performed the tribute at Radio City Music Hall and has since named Baker as an influence on part of her live show.

Where did the spy Josephine Baker pin secret notes on her wartime tours of Spain?

Inside her underwear was the safest place she knew: she trusted that her celebrity would shield her from suspicion as she crossed borders.

Which decoration for wartime bravery did the French armed forces award Josephine Baker?

Croix de Guerre honours joined her Resistance Medal, though the full extent of her espionage was not made public until French files were declassified in 2020.

In which tiny European state does Josephine Baker's grave lie, despite her 2021 tribute in Paris?

Monaco has held her grave since 1975, and her family chose to leave it undisturbed, so the 2021 ceremony was a symbolic one.

Which castle in the Dordogne was Josephine Baker's family home and a wartime Resistance base?

Château des Milandes hid refugees, weapons and a radio transmitter during the war. She bought it in 1947 and lost it to unpaid debts in 1968.

Which 1927 silent film made Josephine Baker the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture?

Siren of the Tropics cast her as Papitou, an island girl in love with a Frenchman, and its success brought a Baker doll and a toothpaste commercial.

Which song, first performed in 1930, became Josephine Baker's signature tune?

J'ai deux amours, set to music by Vincent Scotto, became her most successful song and was later recorded in English by Nat King Cole and Dean Martin.

Which landmark all-Black Broadway musical had a teenage Josephine Baker in its chorus line?

Shuffle Along first turned her away as too young at 15, so she joined its touring company and clowned at the end of the line until she stood out.

Which American artist twisted wire into sculptures of Josephine Baker while living in 1920s Paris?

Alexander Calder, later famous for his mobiles, made several wire Bakers. One from 1927 is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Which organisation declared a Josephine Baker Day in 1951 and gave her life membership?

NAACP leaders also named her Woman of the Year, and Harlem threw a parade to celebrate the title.

What did Josephine Baker refuse to perform for in America, even when a Miami club offered $10,000?

Segregated audiences were her red line. The Miami club gave in, and her insistence on mixed crowds helped integrate live shows in Las Vegas.

In which North African country did Josephine Baker base herself from 1941 while spying?

Morocco gave her a base for tours of Spain, and after a grave illness there she got up to entertain British, French and American soldiers without charging admission.

Which film star called Josephine Baker a model for the multinational family she was adopting?

Angelina Jolie made the comparison in a 2003 interview with USA Today, when her own family had only just begun to grow.

Which actress won an Emmy for playing Josephine Baker in HBO's 1991 film The Josephine Baker Story?

Lynn Whitfield was chosen over hundreds of women after a highly publicized casting call, for a role that made her age from 18 to 68.

Which British diva has cited Josephine Baker as her primary influence as a performer?

Shirley Bassey sat in the opening-night audience for Baker's final revue in 1975, alongside Mick Jagger and Sophia Loren.

Josephine Baker was a celebrity guest at the start of which sporting event four times in the 1930s?

Tour de France riders set off with her as a guest between 1933 and 1937, a sign of how warmly her adopted country had embraced her.

What kind of product was Bakerfix, which Josephine Baker endorsed at the height of her Paris fame?

A hair gel was only one of her many endorsements: she also lent her name to shoes and cosmetics, cashing in on fame much as a modern celebrity would.

Which rare tribute did France pay Josephine Baker at her 1975 funeral in Paris?

Full military honors had never before been given at the funeral of an American-born woman, and more than 20,000 mourners turned out to watch.

Which gossip columnist accused Josephine Baker of communist sympathies after a 1951 nightclub row?

Walter Winchell had been an old ally, but she scolded him for not coming to her defence at the club, and his attacks led many venues to cancel her shows.

Which composer's comic opera La Créole gave Josephine Baker a starring singing role in 1934?

Jacques Offenbach wrote the piece in 1875. For the revival she spent months with a vocal coach, emerging as a singer as well as a dancer.

What filled the symbolic casket carried through Paris at Josephine Baker's 2021 national tribute?

Soil from her homes on both sides of the Atlantic stood in for her remains, and the French Air and Space Force carried the casket in a parade.

Which famous Broadway revue brought Josephine Baker home in 1936, only for critics to savage her?

Ziegfeld Follies billed her beside Fanny Brice and Bob Hope, but reviewers called her voice too thin for the theatre and she went back to Europe heartbroken.

Which modernist architect had a shipboard romance with Josephine Baker on a 1929 Atlantic crossing?

Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French pioneer of modern architecture, sailed back from South America on the same liner and sketched her along the way.

Whose intervention let Josephine Baker into the US in 1963 after officials threatened to bar her?

Robert F. Kennedy, then Attorney General, stepped in. Immigration officials had said she would have to prove her right and worth to re-enter after a 1952 tour of Argentina.

At which Paris music hall did Josephine Baker open her final revue, days before her death in 1975?

Bobino staged the retrospective to mark her 50 years in show business. Four days after its acclaimed opening night she was found in a coma.

Which of these nicknames did artists and intellectuals of 1920s Paris give Josephine Baker?

The Bronze Venus was one of several titles: admirers also dubbed her the Black Pearl and the Creole Goddess as she became the most celebrated performer in the city.

Which future giant of French cinema co-starred with Josephine Baker in her 1934 film Zouzou?

Jean Gabin played Jean, an orphan raised beside her in a travelling circus, whom her character loves although he thinks of her only as a sister.

Which floating public facility on the Seine, opened in 2006, did Paris name after Josephine Baker?

A swimming pool on a barge moored beside the national library was named for her. Paris also gave her name to a square in Montparnasse.

Which future sitcom star recorded Josephine Superstar, a 1978 disco album about Josephine Baker?

Phylicia Rashad recorded it with Village People singing backing vocals, six years before The Cosby Show made her famous.

In which 2011 film does Sonia Rolland appear as Josephine Baker?

Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen's time-travel comedy, also brings its hero face to face with Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso.

On which luxury train did Josephine Baker tour Central Europe in 1929?

The Orient Express carried her to Belgrade, where she worked a local Pirot kilim into her routine and gave part of the takings to poor children.

Which tech company marked Josephine Baker's 111th birthday with an animated slideshow of her life?

Google turned its homepage logo into a Doodle on June 3, 2017, with a slideshow chronicling her life and achievements.