Josephine Baker

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I am Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union in 1962. And I'm Max Kennedy, the nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. We explore what was a terrifying moment in history. The story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. How close the world came to nuclear war. And what they had to do to pull it back from the brink. The bomb, Kennedy and Khrushchev. All episodes available now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

0:41Welcome to Dead Funny History. I'm Greg Jenner, I'm a historian, and I want to tell you about someone cool. Now, imagine one of the most phenomenal performers in the world.

0:54Now imagine the world's coolest spy. What if I told you they were both the same person? Yep, I'm talking about Josephine Baker, celebrated by many as one of the world's first black superstars. Josephine was born in 1906 as Frida Josephine MacDonald in St. Louis, Missouri in the USA. But she grew up in East St. Louis in Illinois. Her mother nicknamed her Tumpy because she thought she looked a bit like Humpty Dumpty. What are you going to call her? Tompy, because she looks like an egg. I think you need more sleep. Josephine's family were poor, so when she was eight, she had to work as a maid for a horrible man who made her sleep in a box.

1:42There were also very scary race riots against black people where she lived. So Josephine left Illinois aged 11 with dreams of becoming a star. She got work with travelling shows. One time by hiding in the luggage. Time to unpack. Toothpaste, spare pants, child. Hiya. Ah! When she was just 15, Josephine moved to New York. She'd already been married twice. Her second husband was Willie Baker. The marriage didn't last, but she did keep his last name. Josephine Baker now performed in shows like Shuffle Along and The Chocolate Dandies, and she found ways to stand out in the crowd. She pulled funny faces and crossed her eyes and deliberately tripped over when other dancers were kicking, a bit like when a footballer goes on Strictly.

2:34Keep dancing! And yet Josephine was really popular, a bit like when a footballer goes on Strictly. As one spectator put it, Josephine... Stood out like an exclamation mark. Just as things were going great for Josephine amid the shining lights of Broadway, she left for Paris. Now Paris was home to an exciting kind of new musical entertainment called Cabaret, where performers had a lot more creative freedom and a lot fewer clothes. People in Paris had seen nothing like Josephine before and they loved her. She squished together loads of different kinds of dance from Broadway...

3:24to tap, bits of ballet.

3:31She was even inspired by kangaroos she'd seen hopping around in St Louis Zoo. The Parisian spectators loved her, even if they didn't express that in the nicest of ways. Josephine, the reviews are in. What do they say? It walks with bent knees. Did they call me it? It appears to be a moving saxophone What does that even mean? She goes off on all fours like a very young giraffe Is that good? Five stars! Hooray! And Josephine was loving it too She said I would love to die breathless Exhausted at the end of a dance Josephine used dancing to fight back against racist ideas. Her most well-known dance was the dance sauvage, or savage dance, which made fun of people who thought that black people weren't civilised, or even like animals.

4:31By performing this dance in a really over-the-top and very silly way, Josephine Baker made the audience see just how silly racist ideas about black people were. She famously danced wearing a skirt made of fake bananas, which is now an iconic symbol of her resistance. And Beyonce even wore one in her honour. Josephine Baker was now the toast of Paris and became one of the most highly paid performers in the world. As well as the first African-American woman to star in a movie. And action. There were even Josephine Baker dolls, long before Barbie. Hi Barbie. Hi Josephine. Josephine, what are you doing today?

5:14Being glamorous and revolutionary. You? Sitting on a tower of Lego while my human fell tips my hair blue. The cash was rolling in, so Josephine bought a luxury hotel suite and filled it with exotic pets. She had a snake called Kiki. A chimp in a hat called Ethel. A horse called Tomato. Tomato! Tomato? Yeah, tomato. I suppose because when she took him for a run, she could never catch up. Boo! Sorry. There were also monkeys, parakeets, a tortoise. Oh, and Albert, named after the matrily of the hotel she stayed in. A pig? I forget to put sea chocolate on your pillow one time. Her most famous pet, though, was Chiquita, the cheetah, who wore a diamond-studded collar.

6:09Josephine even took Chiquita to the cinema. I wonder what Chiquita made of the movies. Despite some great performances, my review of Wicked is too much singing and not enough great big slabs of meat. Three stars. Next, a TikTok of a zebra with a herty leg. Now this is cinema. Josephine Baker also sang and opened her own club called Chez Josephine. It was stuffed with VIPs, including her beloved pets. Bonjour! That's pig again! He stinks! Hey, we fixed his stank. Well, you gave him a bath? No, I just doused him in perfume. Yep, she really did perfume her pig. Josephine also got married a third time in 1937 to Jean Lyon.

7:09But then... World War II broke out and France was invaded by the Nazis. Josephine signed up for duty in the Women's Auxiliary of the French Air Force. Look out! The French Air Force is attacking! Huh! One of those planes is really flying like a saxophone. Now, she didn't fly planes, but Josephine became one of France's top spies. The name's Baker. Josephine Baker. How does one of the most flamboyant women in the world become a undercover spy? OK, Baker, for this next mission, you'll need to infiltrate the enemy camp. Absolutely no one can detect you. Sure thing, boss!

8:04I wonder if James Bond is free. But because she was one of France's biggest stars, she thought nobody would search or suspect her, which I guess is fair enough. It would be like Taylor Swift working for MI5. It's me, spy, I'm the agent, it's me. Josephine was also able to meet lots of important people at fancy parties and learn all of their secrets. She would stash secret information under her clothes and write intel either on her own skin or on her sheet music. Very cool indeed, but not hugely helpful for the next singer using that sheet music. One, two, three, four. The Germans are deploying tanks to the south.

8:49Send reinforcement. Huh? The song is a lot more about tanks than I remembered. Sometimes Josephine even used invisible ink. After the war, France gave Josephine Baker special medals for her bravery, and she travelled the world. She even returned to America to perform. After all, she was an international superstar and a war hero, so they'd surely have to be nice to her now, right? Sadly, in the 1950s and 60s, the USA was still very racist, and still had something called segregation, which made it legal to discriminate against black people. In 1951, Josephine accused the owner of a famous nightclub of racism because he refused to serve her.

9:34Surely everyone would have admired her taking such a courageous stand, right? A well-known journalist accused Josephine of being a communist, which was so serious that she was investigated by the American government. They monitored her closely for 10 years. One file even said, Let's watch who employs this troublemaker. In 1963, Josephine attended the famous March on Washington, all decked out in her French Air Force uniform and medals. This was the event where the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., made his iconic I Have a Dream speech. Josephine also made a passionate speech about her experiences as a black woman and entertainer.

10:20Now, in her late 50s, she was really busy. as a megastar, as an activist and as a mother to 12 kids. 12 kids? Yep, she adopted children from many different backgrounds to show how people could all get along together regardless of where they were from. Josephine raised them in a fancy chateau which had its own pool, restaurant, cheetah cage and a viewing gallery. Viewing gallery? Yeah, she invited members of the public to come and see her kids for a small fee. Bit weird. How would you like it if your parents turned you into a tourist attraction? And over here you can see my teenage son in his natural habitat.

11:04In his pants, playing Minecraft. To be fair to Josephine, she really wanted to show the world that it was possible for everyone to get along. Pretty soon, though, she ran out of money. Diamond-encrusted collars for cheaters don't come cheap. Josephine and her family were evicted from their chateau. which is the sort of problem that only happens in fairy tales. And what was she expecting anyway? Some beautiful princess to ride by and rescue her?

11:34Anyway, that's when a beautiful princess rode by and rescued her. Yeah, luckily, Josephine's friend, Grace Kelly, a movie star and literal princess of Monaco, put them up in one of her fancy French villas. I'm not sure they all would have fitted in the spare room, though. I'm sure we can find somewhere for you to stay. Thank you. It's just me and all my kids and my menagerie.

12:03I'll shift the sofa bed. Remember when Josephine had said earlier that she would love to die breathless, exhausted at the end of a dance? Well, I have some good news about Josephine's death. Yeah, on the 8th of April 1975, Baker starred in a show to celebrate her 50 years in show business. The guest list was more star-studded than Chiquita's collar, and the show was a huge hit. Josephine went back to her hotel room so happy she could die. So she did. But if you have to go, you might as well do it surrounded by rave reviews of your show. My fans say that I died of a full heart. It was probably a cerebral hemorrhage, in fairness.

12:51Way to kill the mood, Greg. Sorry. The French still adore Josephine, which makes sense. With their tiny pastries, they do love a good baker. Boo! I'm not sorry. But it is true. In 2021, Josephine Baker was given a place at the Pantheon in Paris, where some of the most important people in French history are memorialised. Welcome to the Pantheon of French Heroes. we've got them all. Marie Curie, scientist, Voltaire, philosopher. God, life! And give it up for the first black woman in the pantheon and first American, Josephine Baker!

13:39What a hero. So, how much do you remember from today's speedy history lesson? Let's find out. Pencils at the ready. Question one. Josephine Baker's famous dancing skirt was made from which healthy snack? The answer, of course, was bananas. Question two. Josephine had loads of pets, but what was the name of her pet cheetah? The cheetah was, of course, Chiquita. And question three. As a spy during the war, how did Josephine Baker smuggle secrets about the enemy back to her colleagues in France? And the answer, of course, is with invisible ink, hiding notes in her clothes and sheet music and writing it on her skin.

14:22Well done. Join us next time for another snappy history lesson. If you're a grown-up and you want to learn more about Josephine Baker, you can listen to our episode of You're Dead to Me with Dr. Michelle Cressfield. Thank you for listening. Bye! This was a BBC Studios audio production for Radio 4. Dead Funny History was written by Jack Bernhardt, Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch and Dr. Emma Neguse. It was hosted by me, Greg Jenner, and performed by Mali-Ann Rees and John Luke Roberts. The script consultant was Dr. Michelle Crestfield.

14:53I am Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union in 1962. And I'm Max Kennedy, the nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. We explore what was a terrifying moment in history. The story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. How close the world came to nuclear war. And what they had to do to pull it back from the brink. The bomb, Kennedy and Khrushchev. All episodes available now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.