Josephine Baker
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50 free Josephine Baker trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Josephine Baker danced her way out of a hungry Missouri childhood and into the history books. Within a few years of sailing for Europe she was the most talked-about entertainer of the Jazz Age, and that was only the first act of her life. This quiz turns the best fun facts about Josephine Baker into questions: the stage costumes and exotic pets, the films and songs, the secret work she did during World War II, the stand she took on civil rights, and the unusual family she raised. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn the story behind each fact. It suits fans of dance, music and film history, teachers planning a Black History Month or Women's History Month lesson, and anyone who enjoys a life story that sounds too wild to be true.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The costume that made Josephine Baker a Jazz Age icon was a short skirt made of artificial what?
Bananas
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.
Q 02Which pet, wearing a diamond collar, often joined Josephine Baker on stage in her Paris shows?
A cheetah
A cheetah named Chiquita shared her spotlight, and it frequently escaped into the orchestra pit and terrorized the musicians.
Q 03As a wartime spy, Josephine Baker carried secrets written in invisible ink across borders on what?
Sheet music
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.
Q 04What name did Josephine Baker give the twelve children she adopted from around the world?
The Rainbow Tribe
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.
Q 05At which 1963 civil rights rally did Josephine Baker speak wearing her Free French uniform?
March on Washington
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.
Q 06In 2021 Josephine Baker became the first Black woman honoured in which Paris monument?
The Panthéon
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.
Q 07Which former Hollywood star gave a nearly bankrupt Josephine Baker a home in the 1960s?
Grace Kelly
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.
Q 08Which American novelist called Josephine Baker the most sensational woman anyone ever saw?
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway spent hours talking with her in Paris bars, one of a circle of admirers that also included Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau.
Q 09Which unusual qualification did Josephine Baker hold and put to use early in World War II?
A pilot's license
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.
Q 10Since 2024, Josephine Baker's portrait has appeared on which everyday item used across France?
Euro coins
Euro coins worth 20 cents carry her image, part of a redesign that put three celebrated women on French small change.
Q 11In which American city on the Mississippi River was Josephine Baker born and raised in poverty?
St. Louis
St. Louis, where she once scavenged for food and danced on street corners for a living, later renamed an avenue Josephine Baker Boulevard.
Q 12What did Josephine Baker gain in 1937 by marrying the industrialist Jean Lion, keeping it for life?
French citizenship
French citizenship came with the wedding, and she renounced her American nationality, having returned heartbroken from a failed Broadway run the year before.
Q 13Born Freda Josephine McDonald, Josephine Baker took her famous stage surname from which person?
Her second husband
Q 21Which decoration for wartime bravery did the French armed forces award Josephine Baker?
Croix de Guerre
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.
Q 22In which tiny European state does Josephine Baker's grave lie, despite her 2021 tribute in Paris?
Monaco
Monaco has held her grave since 1975, and her family chose to leave it undisturbed, so the 2021 ceremony was a symbolic one.
Q 23Which castle in the Dordogne was Josephine Baker's family home and a wartime Resistance base?
Château des Milandes
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.
Q 14Which Paris music hall made Josephine Baker the toast of the 1920s as the star of its lavish revues?
Folies Bergère
Folies Bergère crowds first saw her in 1926, after she broke a touring contract to hurry back to Paris and star there.
Q 15Which Jazz Age dance craze did Josephine Baker's Paris shows help bring to Britain?
The Charleston
The Charleston was a showpiece of her 1920s revues, where her loose-limbed, comic style made her the most successful American entertainer in France.
Q 16After a 1968 assassination, who asked Josephine Baker to help lead America's civil rights movement?
Coretta Scott King
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.
Q 17Which New York venue gave Josephine Baker a standing ovation at her 1973 American comeback show?
Carnegie Hall
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.
Q 18Which leader had Josephine Baker perform at his revolution's seventh-anniversary party in 1966?
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro invited her to Havana's Teatro Musical, where her show that April broke attendance records.
Q 19Which pop star danced in a version of Josephine Baker's famous skirt at Fashion Rocks in 2006?
Beyoncé
Beyoncé performed the tribute at Radio City Music Hall and has since named Baker as an influence on part of her live show.
Q 20Where did the spy Josephine Baker pin secret notes on her wartime tours of Spain?
Inside her underwear
Inside her underwear was the safest place she knew: she trusted that her celebrity would shield her from suspicion as she crossed borders.
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.
Q 24Which 1927 silent film made Josephine Baker the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture?
Siren of the Tropics
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.
Q 25Which song, first performed in 1930, became Josephine Baker's signature tune?
J'ai deux amours
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.
Q 26Which landmark all-Black Broadway musical had a teenage Josephine Baker in its chorus line?
Shuffle Along
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.
Q 27Which American artist twisted wire into sculptures of Josephine Baker while living in 1920s Paris?
Alexander Calder
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.
Q 28Which organisation declared a Josephine Baker Day in 1951 and gave her life membership?
NAACP
NAACP leaders also named her Woman of the Year, and Harlem threw a parade to celebrate the title.
Q 29What did Josephine Baker refuse to perform for in America, even when a Miami club offered $10,000?
Segregated audiences
Segregated audiences were her red line. The Miami club gave in, and her insistence on mixed crowds helped integrate live shows in Las Vegas.
Q 30In which North African country did Josephine Baker base herself from 1941 while spying?
Morocco
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.