Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 161. Josephine Baker - Resistance Fighter - Part II

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161. Josephine Baker - Resistance Fighter - Part II · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

0:00
Speaker 1: Bonje. Who did what now? Le Boghui Abari? And if
0:11
Speaker 1: you're thinking is this deja vu? No, what happened was
0:17
Speaker 1: is again I'm traveling. I'm traveling for work with my
0:21
Speaker 1: day job, and so I had to go to Paris,
0:23
Speaker 1: and I brought a microphone with me that is trey shitty,
0:29
Speaker 1: and so I ended up having to go get another
0:31
Speaker 1: microphone because this was so dodgic, because everything sounded fine
0:35
Speaker 1: when I was putting it through my laptop, but as
0:39
Speaker 1: soon as it was uploaded, whatever was wrong. I've checked
0:44
Speaker 1: everything else out in the microphone seems to be the problem.
0:46
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that everything is going to be okay today.
0:50
Speaker 1: But yes, I am in Paris and it's all fun
0:53
Speaker 1: and games until you accidentally bring your boss through the
0:56
Speaker 1: red light district of Paris. Accidents happen, So that happened.
1:03
Speaker 1: But I did get us to the Mulin Rouge so
1:05
Speaker 1: that we could get like photos and stuff outside it,
1:08
Speaker 1: but like all that up at night, but we didn't
1:10
Speaker 1: get a chance to go in because it was so
1:12
Speaker 1: last minute that we didn't get like the opportunity to
1:15
Speaker 1: book tickets. But being in Paris for a couple of
1:19
Speaker 1: days where I swear I ate so much bread and cheese,
1:22
Speaker 1: just like Dupa adufamage symbol. I also bought eighty seven
1:29
Speaker 1: euro worth of Machelo. What is wrong with me? I
1:34
Speaker 1: have problems, but I re regarded this episode of the
1:36
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker Saga because you deserve to hear it. And yes,
1:43
Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Katie, Katie, quit
1:48
Speaker 1: your jibber jabba in fact me, in fact you I will.
1:51
Speaker 1: But first, well, actually no, we don't have to get
1:55
Speaker 1: our source on because all of our sources were in
1:57
Speaker 1: the first episode. So I guess what's left is okay?
2:02
Speaker 1: Content warning slash trigger warning. This episode is going to
2:05
Speaker 1: cover racism, Nazis, medical trauma, abortion, suicide, and good old
2:12
Speaker 1: fashioned misogyny. So if you were sensitive to any of
2:16
Speaker 1: these topics, I'm going to suggest that you exit stage
2:19
Speaker 1: left and join us next time I use it in
2:22
Speaker 1: coomfortably good. Then let's begin Josephine Baker Part two. Josephine
2:32
Speaker 1: was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, to a black mother
2:34
Speaker 1: impossibly slash probably white father. She grew up in poverty
2:38
Speaker 1: and being resented by her mother. To escape her home life.
2:42
Speaker 1: She got married twice to marry a man named Willy twice,
2:46
Speaker 1: all before the age of fifteen. She made her way
2:50
Speaker 1: to New York became a chorus girl whose growth and
2:52
Speaker 1: popularity turned the gap between her and her mother into
2:55
Speaker 1: a chasm, with Josephine leaving the States for Paris while
2:59
Speaker 1: she skywalkeeted, garnering fans and lovers alike, leaning into this
3:05
Speaker 1: obsession with primitivism, she grows. She's in Paris, she gets
3:09
Speaker 1: a manager slash a lover, the fake Count Giuseppe Pepita Albertina,
3:13
Speaker 1: who arranges for her to be in a movie, a
3:17
Speaker 1: moving picture. Her manager becomes her lover and they have
3:20
Speaker 1: a non monogamous relationship while he's organizing her entire life,
3:24
Speaker 1: and he organizes everything in her life because she is
3:27
Speaker 1: very talented, but she is not the most organized of people.
3:30
Speaker 1: When she's twenty one years old, she writes her memoir.
3:33
Speaker 1: She stars in a film, and this is where we
3:36
Speaker 1: left off because this is huge because she was the
3:40
Speaker 1: first black woman in the world to start in a
3:43
Speaker 1: major motion picture. Like mentioned in the previous episode, this
3:48
Speaker 1: was a time where primitivism was so popular and it
3:52
Speaker 1: showed in all forms of art. The movies were no exception.
3:58
Speaker 1: Siron of the Tropics was a sign film. The plot
4:01
Speaker 1: is she's an innocent, wide eyed, primitive girl from the Tropics,
4:06
Speaker 1: a siren from the Tropics, if you will, and she
4:10
Speaker 1: is the one who brings the Charleston to Paris. Now,
4:16
Speaker 1: this movie is so racist, like it is overtly racist.
4:22
Speaker 1: Like at one point, Josephine Baker she falls into a
4:26
Speaker 1: flower bin, right baking flower, not like bouquets of flour.
4:31
Speaker 1: She falls into a flower bin and shock horror, because
4:35
Speaker 1: it's flower, it turns her white. And so she has
4:39
Speaker 1: to do this like bath, like she has to bathe
4:41
Speaker 1: in order to like become her own skin tone. Again. Now,
4:48
Speaker 1: Josephine wasn't too fond of the movie role, you know,
4:52
Speaker 1: because it's racist, and also because she didn't have full
4:55
Speaker 1: use of her talents. Like you'll see this with a
4:58
Speaker 1: lot of sort of Berlin performers. You see them performing
5:04
Speaker 1: movies that we pulled into one thing and the other,
5:06
Speaker 1: and they don't like losing creative control. Lily Saint Cyr
5:12
Speaker 1: was the same, Like they would do their own routines
5:15
Speaker 1: and then they'd be in a movie and they would
5:16
Speaker 1: have to like wear this dress, like this, art like that,
5:20
Speaker 1: and it wasn't their vibe. They were just being pushed
5:25
Speaker 1: into a role as opposed to creating their own. But yeah,
5:29
Speaker 1: she's already dealing with all of this. And then around
5:34
Speaker 1: about this time as well, there was this massive influx
5:37
Speaker 1: of Americans in Paris, some to live, some as tourists.
5:42
Speaker 1: They are everywhere and alround. About this time as well,
5:48
Speaker 1: her sister wille May, who was like her favorite sibling
5:52
Speaker 1: out of all of them. Now Willamy is technically a
5:56
Speaker 1: half sister. And I hate the term half siblings. I
5:59
Speaker 1: think I've made rant about it in previous episodes because
6:03
Speaker 1: you know, it's that forced separation and the other ring
6:07
Speaker 1: of someone. But yeah, Willemy was her favorite sibling. And
6:12
Speaker 1: Willemy ends up having a back alley abortion, which was
6:16
Speaker 1: majorly illegal at the time. Okay, Okay, I've said it
6:21
Speaker 1: before and I will say it again. Sidebar. You cannot
6:26
Speaker 1: ban abortion. You can only ban safe abortion, because abortions
6:34
Speaker 1: have been happening since Biblical times. There is a recipe
6:38
Speaker 1: for bitter water in the Bible, like in the terminology
6:44
Speaker 1: used the way that certain medical texts are written. They're
6:48
Speaker 1: not written as medical texts. It's just sort of life.
6:51
Speaker 1: And when information was presented to women, it wasn't presented
6:56
Speaker 1: as you're having an abortion. It was how to start
7:01
Speaker 1: your period, like how to make menzies return, things like that.
7:05
Speaker 1: It was written differently, like even what was it the
7:10
Speaker 1: medical pope? He even wrote about abortion, like he had
7:15
Speaker 1: the Theosaurus paparum, yes, the treasure chest of the poor.
7:19
Speaker 1: It was Pope John the twenty first. He was like
7:22
Speaker 1: a surgeon before he you know, went to the partificate.
7:25
Speaker 1: So yeah, Pop John, he was abro choice pope. Anyway,
7:31
Speaker 1: the medical term for miscarriage, for the record is spontaneous abortion,
7:36
Speaker 1: so go fuck yourselves. Anyway, back to Willa May, she
7:42
Speaker 1: has complications from the botched abortion and she died, which
7:48
Speaker 1: of course means that this was the perfect time for
7:51
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker to go on tour in Europe, traveling on
7:55
Speaker 1: the Orient Express, all arranged of course by Giuseppe Pepito Albertina.
8:04
Speaker 1: She performs for the King of Sweden and Prince Gustaf Adolf,
8:08
Speaker 1: Duke of Lestiboten, and he was length so into her.
8:14
Speaker 1: Like she goes to the Swedish Palace through a secret
8:17
Speaker 1: entrance because all these palaces have like hidden nooks and crannies,
8:22
Speaker 1: and they're like, we're gonna sneak you in. So she
8:26
Speaker 1: goes to the secret entrance. She lays on a bed
8:29
Speaker 1: covered in furs because it's Sweden, it's probably chilli, and
8:33
Speaker 1: so she's laying on these furs and the prince comes
8:36
Speaker 1: in and you know, he's got this big velvet cushion
8:39
Speaker 1: with all of these like jewels on it for lack
8:42
Speaker 1: of a betro term, and so he covers her entire
8:46
Speaker 1: body and diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, other gems that I
8:55
Speaker 1: probably don't know the name of, just covers her in it.
8:59
Speaker 1: And that that was hers to keep when she would
9:04
Speaker 1: travel and tour. Right as she traversed the continent. Allegedly's
9:14
Speaker 1: she would charge fifty thousand Belgian francs for a man
9:19
Speaker 1: to spend the night with her. And honestly, at this point,
9:23
Speaker 1: if a man wants to spend fifty grand to spend
9:27
Speaker 1: a night with Josephine Baker, then Josephine Baker deserves that
9:30
Speaker 1: fifty grand. Like if he's willing to pay it, more
9:35
Speaker 1: fool him. I mean, it's Josephine Baker. So I understand,
9:39
Speaker 1: but like more fool him. And we have to remember
9:44
Speaker 1: as well that Josephine Baker could just turn these men down.
9:47
Speaker 1: It's like here's fifty k and then she's like, mm no,
9:52
Speaker 1: I don't like you, you know, so like yeah, love
9:55
Speaker 1: your best life, Josephine. So she has fans all over
9:59
Speaker 1: the continent, and she's got all these names and titles
10:04
Speaker 1: and monikers, and they're all like a bit fetishizing. She's
10:09
Speaker 1: called the Black Pearl, the Black Venus, the Creole Goddess.
10:16
Speaker 1: She's not quite adored everywhere though. She rives in Vietnam
10:20
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty eight. So that's in Austria now. Hitler
10:24
Speaker 1: he's not the Fury yet. He's rising in power, and
10:27
Speaker 1: Nazism is is grown. They've got twelve seats in the Reichstag.
10:31
Speaker 1: But Nazism is also growing in Austria because remember after
10:37
Speaker 1: the First World War, after the Treaty of Versailles, the
10:40
Speaker 1: Empire of Austria Hungary was dissolved. So Austria is now
10:44
Speaker 1: like a landlocked nation. And I set up before, and
10:48
Speaker 1: I will tell you again anyone who questions how Captain
10:52
Speaker 1: von Trapp was a navy man, a navy captain. That
10:57
Speaker 1: is why he's called Captain von trap If anyone's like
11:00
Speaker 1: how Austria is a landlocked state, yet the Empire used
11:04
Speaker 1: to be huge and then after the First World War
11:09
Speaker 1: it wasn't AnyWho back to this, So Josephine Baker gets
11:18
Speaker 1: off the stain in Vienna and says that her posters
11:22
Speaker 1: are graffited with black devil. Okay, another side bar quickly
11:28
Speaker 1: before we get into anything else. So in Irish asqualiga,
11:34
Speaker 1: the word for black people is like Danny Gorm, it's gorm,
11:40
Speaker 1: it's blue. And the reason that Irish people call black
11:44
Speaker 1: people blue is because traditionally, through Irish folklore, to call
11:50
Speaker 1: someone black was to call them the devil. Right, so
11:53
Speaker 1: when you were saying do it was a devil?
11:55
Speaker 2: You know.
11:55
Speaker 1: Also they do kind of sound alike, you know what
11:58
Speaker 1: I mean, it's do devil? What could we do? Depending
12:02
Speaker 1: on what part of the country you're in. And so,
12:06
Speaker 1: in order to be respectful of people of color, because
12:10
Speaker 1: it's Ireland, someone somewhere here came up with the logical,
12:14
Speaker 1: the logical reasoning of it being blue. I don't know
12:17
Speaker 1: why another color wasn't chosen. I'm not a linguist. I am, however,
12:22
Speaker 1: sometimes a cunning linguist. Because Josephine Baker is a sexy
12:28
Speaker 1: woman who owns her sexuality. She's also protested by the
12:32
Speaker 1: Catholic Church as she tours, something that was probably amplified
12:37
Speaker 1: because she was a black woman. So the original theater
12:42
Speaker 1: that she was booked to play in Vienna, she couldn't
12:44
Speaker 1: actually play at this original theater because the city council
12:48
Speaker 1: wouldn't allow it because of the protests from the Catholic Church,
12:52
Speaker 1: and so she had to perform in this smaller theater
12:56
Speaker 1: and perform she did. She opens up the show in
13:01
Speaker 1: this beautiful floor length gown. It is stunning. She is stunning.
13:07
Speaker 1: She was singing and wearing more than she ever did
13:11
Speaker 1: at the Fay Belger And it's like this is the
13:15
Speaker 1: transition of her public image, Like she is curating this
13:19
Speaker 1: at this point because she kind of fell into her
13:23
Speaker 1: like original role, her original you know, iconography I suppose,
13:28
Speaker 1: and it sort of evolved over time. Iconography is the
13:31
Speaker 1: wrong word. I don't care. She is iconic and so
13:40
Speaker 1: she's really really investing in her costumes. She's got dazzling gowns,
13:45
Speaker 1: head pieces, the whole Shi bang. Things get a bit
13:51
Speaker 1: wild and prag so fans like she's so many fans,
13:56
Speaker 1: they try to storm her and she's almost stampeded by them,
14:01
Speaker 1: like full on wildebased, like they're coming for her. So
14:05
Speaker 1: she goes from Czechoslovakia to Hungary, and when she gets
14:10
Speaker 1: to Hungary, she is protested again, this time by students
14:15
Speaker 1: in Budapest. So students are there and they are lugging
14:19
Speaker 1: ammonia bombs at the stage. I mean they did have
14:23
Speaker 1: to pay for their ticket to get in, but anyway,
14:25
Speaker 1: so they're just chucking ammonia bombs at her. Basically, their
14:29
Speaker 1: issue is that she was so rich, and they're protesting
14:33
Speaker 1: this because of the massive levels of poverty in Hungary
14:37
Speaker 1: at the time. Now again, remember as I said previously,
14:42
Speaker 1: it's the interwar period. The Austro Hungary Empire had been
14:45
Speaker 1: dissolved after the Tuty of Versailles and reparations were in place.
14:50
Speaker 1: So countries like Germany, Hungary, Austria, they're all paying reparations
14:55
Speaker 1: and they're dealing with just economic crises right now. I'm
15:02
Speaker 1: not a fan of eating the rich because I think
15:06
Speaker 1: they'll taste very gamy. Yeah, by being said, I'm not
15:11
Speaker 1: one to rub someone's poverty in their face. However, I
15:15
Speaker 1: do love a petty bitch. In response to the bleach bombs,
15:21
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker makes the elective decision to ride around downtown
15:26
Speaker 1: Budapest in a carriage that is pulled by, of all things,
15:31
Speaker 1: I know, Strich. But that is not the only drama
15:35
Speaker 1: in Budapest, right, Count Albertino. He is challenged to a
15:42
Speaker 1: duel in a cemetery or a graveyard, and one of
15:47
Speaker 1: those places where there are dead people in headstones. So
15:51
Speaker 1: there's a jewel in a graveyard, you know. Ten paces
15:55
Speaker 1: in bang and Josephine's they're watching the whole thing, and
15:59
Speaker 1: part of its like, oh, boys, you're fighting over little
16:02
Speaker 1: old May. And then the count loses. He gets shot
16:06
Speaker 1: in the shoulder, and she's like, okay, boys, I think
16:09
Speaker 1: that's enough. The Count is shot in the shoulder, but
16:13
Speaker 1: he survives, Okay, he's fine. Practically On top of everything else,
16:18
Speaker 1: Josephine has a stalker following her on tour, and when
16:23
Speaker 1: she gets to Croatia, her stalker tries to end his
16:28
Speaker 1: life in front of her, like he tries to kill
16:31
Speaker 1: himself at her feet, which I feel like she's suffered
16:36
Speaker 1: enough in life. Can we not play why are men? Sometimes?
16:42
Speaker 1: So she reaches Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and her fans
16:48
Speaker 1: there like they block the streets, like they just fill
16:53
Speaker 1: the streets. Now a lot of Dutch streets they are
16:56
Speaker 1: quite wide. Of course there are smaller avenues and things.
16:59
Speaker 1: But I'm thinking of where she would be in Amsterdam,
17:03
Speaker 1: like they are just flocking. They are just flocking streets
17:07
Speaker 1: and blocking her like ah, Like it just shows you,
17:11
Speaker 1: like how adored she was at the time. Now when
17:16
Speaker 1: she's like midway through the tour, not quite a count Albertina,
17:23
Speaker 1: he gets her to go back to Paris, and so
17:26
Speaker 1: she takes a break. She returns to Paris and she
17:30
Speaker 1: is being interviewed by all the newspapers because like she's
17:33
Speaker 1: just gone on this big tour and she's in the
17:35
Speaker 1: middle of it, and she announces that she has finished
17:39
Speaker 1: with the Charleston and the banana skirt. She is evolving,
17:44
Speaker 1: and she also says that she simply cannot live without Paris,
17:50
Speaker 1: and so like they're like, oh, you are darling Josephine,
17:53
Speaker 1: We love your Josephine. So After this Parisian respect, she
17:59
Speaker 1: continue use the tour going global as she performs in
18:04
Speaker 1: South America, and they're aware, I know, you're shocked at
18:08
Speaker 1: this racist demonstrations against her, which really drives home the
18:14
Speaker 1: fact that racism is everywhere to her, Like it's this
18:20
Speaker 1: sort of vitriol that she faces in all of these
18:24
Speaker 1: different locales that really really hammer the nail, you know,
18:28
Speaker 1: it really drives it home, and like she's no stranger
18:31
Speaker 1: to racism, like she grew up in it. But I
18:34
Speaker 1: guess there's always the idea that you're going to go
18:36
Speaker 1: somewhere and it's going to be like not a utopia,
18:39
Speaker 1: but it's going to be more understanding, more considerate, more intersectional,
18:46
Speaker 1: you know. So back in France in nineteen twenty nine,
18:51
Speaker 1: she buys Laborushin, which is her mansion, and this was
18:55
Speaker 1: like just before the Great Depression, and this mansion it's
19:00
Speaker 1: fifteen miles outside of Paris and was large enough to
19:05
Speaker 1: host her entire menagerie, Chiquida the Cheetah, the picknamed Albert
19:12
Speaker 1: Albert mon Sandwich. I love that. I love that Pugs.
19:20
Speaker 3: So she returns the toast of Paris, like she's a
19:25
Speaker 3: darling now she's gone global, but she has returned to
19:29
Speaker 3: the city she loves, the city of Love.
19:34
Speaker 1: So there's Josephine and this other performer and they're putting
19:39
Speaker 1: this show because like Josephin Baker, she's wildly famous, right,
19:43
Speaker 1: she is a celebate, like she's all over the place. However,
19:49
Speaker 1: racism wears its ugly head. Now, what's the show called.
19:55
Speaker 1: I think it's Swinging Paris. There's a lot of shows
19:58
Speaker 1: where it's like something Paris, this Paris. So she's in
20:01
Speaker 1: the show anyway, and the other performer is a white woman,
20:05
Speaker 1: and the idea is that they performed their own shows
20:09
Speaker 1: on alternate nights because like, oh, well, we'll have Josephine
20:13
Speaker 1: Baker as our black performer and we'll have this other
20:15
Speaker 1: dolls as a white performer. And the assumption is that
20:19
Speaker 1: obviously the white performer show is going to be more
20:21
Speaker 1: popular and amazing. And the fact that I don't know
20:25
Speaker 1: her name is enough to tell you that clearly it
20:30
Speaker 1: wasn't okay. Josephine Baker's show was more popular than the
20:35
Speaker 1: White Chick, Like it outsold just time and time again,
20:40
Speaker 1: and like she's doing like a Tuesday show, a Thursday show,
20:43
Speaker 1: you know, things like that, and again they'll just sell
20:46
Speaker 1: it out night after night. So in this show, like
20:50
Speaker 1: as part of her routine, she would do these different
20:53
Speaker 1: like scenes that represented each of the French colonies, and
20:58
Speaker 1: some officials saw that went that's a good idea, that
21:01
Speaker 1: is actually and so in nineteen thirty one, she was
21:06
Speaker 1: invited to be Queen of the Colonies for the Paris
21:10
Speaker 1: Colonial Exposition. And the officials, they were so proud of
21:15
Speaker 1: themselves for this idea, like so smug as if they
21:17
Speaker 1: didn't see her show and go, huh, let's take her
21:21
Speaker 1: idea from her and make more money from it. What
21:26
Speaker 1: white men stealing ideas from women and women of color?
21:31
Speaker 1: Ah no, No, So anyway, these officials, they're really proud
21:39
Speaker 1: of it. You think it's great, But there were many
21:42
Speaker 1: Parisians who were not happy with this choice. One because
21:47
Speaker 1: she was not French, two she was not fluent in French,
21:53
Speaker 1: and three because she was neither of those things. Her
21:58
Speaker 1: accent would be wrong. She doesn't have the right accent,
22:02
Speaker 1: and it's like teach her one, just like my French
22:06
Speaker 1: accent doesn't belong anywhere. But I feel like I should
22:08
Speaker 1: just like get to grips of one. But sometimes when
22:12
Speaker 1: I'm speaking French, it's as if I have a mouthful
22:14
Speaker 1: of mashed potato, you know what I mean. So another
22:19
Speaker 1: thing they were concerned with was that Josephine Baker was
22:24
Speaker 1: too old. Oh wait, did I not mention agism in
22:27
Speaker 1: this agism as well? Because they thought she was too
22:31
Speaker 1: old to play queen of the colonies at the ripe
22:35
Speaker 1: old age of twenty five. Now I'm sure this, you know,
22:40
Speaker 1: aggravation and upset had absolutely nothing to do with the
22:44
Speaker 1: fact that this was a black woman being queen of
22:48
Speaker 1: the colonies. So anyway, the Paris Colonial Exposition is this
22:57
Speaker 1: big exposition of the friend colonies with the romanticized representation
23:03
Speaker 1: of these locales via a colonialist lens. And it's basically
23:08
Speaker 1: just a big show to get people to keep giving
23:14
Speaker 1: money for colonization. Really, it's like, oh, look at what
23:18
Speaker 1: a good job we're doing. No, give us more money
23:21
Speaker 1: so we can continue to do that. By the nineteen thirties,
23:30
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker is performing so much that she's done on
23:33
Speaker 1: the candle at both ends. Listen, the count was really
23:36
Speaker 1: good with spreadsheets. She's in her first talkie in nineteen
23:41
Speaker 1: thirty four. So a talkie is when movies went from
23:45
Speaker 1: silent films into like docking pictures, the donkeys, the moving pictures,
23:50
Speaker 1: the motion pictures, moving pictures. Anyway, she stars in her
23:55
Speaker 1: first talkie in nineteen thirty four, Zuzu. The Count isn't
24:00
Speaker 1: missing out on any promotion. And what he does is
24:04
Speaker 1: he has stickers put on bananas in Paris. So he's like,
24:09
Speaker 1: come see this, and she's known for her banana skirt
24:11
Speaker 1: and it's like a really clever like marketing ploy. So
24:16
Speaker 1: the plot of Zuzu, because I know you really want
24:20
Speaker 1: to know what this is. So Uzu is the story
24:24
Speaker 1: of a lawn dress who grew up in the circus.
24:27
Speaker 1: It's kind of like they just grabbed a bunch of things,
24:30
Speaker 1: put them in a hatt and went this is a
24:32
Speaker 1: story idea. It's the story of a lawn dress who
24:36
Speaker 1: grew up in the circus and she's in love with
24:37
Speaker 1: her foster brother who gets falsely accused of murder a gasp.
24:43
Speaker 1: She becomes a star while saving him from the guillotine,
24:46
Speaker 1: and in response, he falls in love with a white
24:50
Speaker 1: lady instead of her. It's at this point that Josephine
24:56
Speaker 1: Baker becomes the highest performer in the world, in the
25:05
Speaker 1: world performer, not black performer, not white performer, performer like
25:10
Speaker 1: she is a shooting star. Okay. So the same year
25:17
Speaker 1: that Zuzu was released, Josephine's stepfather had been committed to
25:21
Speaker 1: a mental institute and there he had committed suicide. Arthur
25:26
Speaker 1: had been going through like depressive state and had been
25:29
Speaker 1: getting more violent as time goes on, and so he
25:32
Speaker 1: ended up being committed and when he was there, he
25:35
Speaker 1: ended his life. She did not return home for the funeral.
25:40
Speaker 1: Also that year, she is in an operetta called La Creole.
25:45
Speaker 1: So she's the lead in an operetta with an all
25:48
Speaker 1: French caste, and this is like such a big deal
25:52
Speaker 1: for her. Now, in nineteen thirty five, she stars in
25:56
Speaker 1: Princess Tam Tam and I'm sure you can't wait to
25:59
Speaker 1: hear the plot of this one. It's basically a story
26:02
Speaker 1: within a story, and the plot of this one, oh mg,
26:06
Speaker 1: it's a story within a story. And Josephine Baker plays
26:09
Speaker 1: a Tunisian barefoot shepherdess who this novelist, famous French novelist
26:15
Speaker 1: who has a ghost writer. By the way, his wife
26:18
Speaker 1: apparently is flirting with the Maharaja and he's like, I'm
26:20
Speaker 1: going to get back at her. And so he's like,
26:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn this shepherdess into a princess and
26:26
Speaker 1: bring her to Europe and just get back at my wife. Yep,
26:32
Speaker 1: that's the plot of the movie. The year after this movie,
26:36
Speaker 1: which I think was the last one she performed in
26:38
Speaker 1: for like a decade, So the following year, in nineteen
26:42
Speaker 1: thirty six, she goes back to the US and performs
26:45
Speaker 1: in Zigfield Follies, so the stage show, and so these
26:50
Speaker 1: were burlesque shows, and she was the only black performer
26:55
Speaker 1: at the follies at the time, and because of segregation
26:59
Speaker 1: and racism, the white dancers on stage they were not
27:03
Speaker 1: allowed to touch her like that was a rule, and
27:07
Speaker 1: that wasn't the only issue. So she couldn't stay anywhere.
27:11
Speaker 1: Like her and the Count, they'd made reservations at many hotels,
27:15
Speaker 1: but they kept being rejected because the hotels were worried
27:22
Speaker 1: about offending the white patriots. Right. So it gets to
27:28
Speaker 1: the point where Josephine ends up staying with the Japanese
27:31
Speaker 1: console and his wife because she knows them. The Count
27:35
Speaker 1: does not join her like he left her to her
27:38
Speaker 1: own devices because he's like, I'm staying in the hotel.
27:42
Speaker 1: What a prick, Okay, So she decides that saying that
27:46
Speaker 1: she's in the country anyway. She travels to Chicago to
27:50
Speaker 1: meet with her second Willie and finally gets a divorce
27:54
Speaker 1: after sixteen years. So the Zigfield follies like as an era.
28:02
Speaker 1: It's not exactly the highlight of her career and things
28:06
Speaker 1: are not going great for her there and the County
28:09
Speaker 1: ends up, you know, buggering back off to France, and
28:12
Speaker 1: he's actually swiftly followed by Josephine, Like he was very
28:17
Speaker 1: good at keeping her on budget and on schedule because
28:20
Speaker 1: she would often be late for rehearsal and performances. But
28:24
Speaker 1: then she'd be there and she'd expect people to work
28:26
Speaker 1: fourteen sixteen hour days and that's just not how bodies function, okay.
28:33
Speaker 1: And back in Paris, the count like his health is
28:37
Speaker 1: failing and he passes away at the age of thirty
28:41
Speaker 1: eight from kidney cancer. Like back in nineteen twenty seven,
28:47
Speaker 1: the couple had told the press that they had eloped
28:49
Speaker 1: and wed because they were like, it's a scandal that
28:51
Speaker 1: they're together, and so they had this like big fake
28:55
Speaker 1: sort of scenario there. So they were like we eloped
28:58
Speaker 1: and we wed and and they had not done that.
29:02
Speaker 1: But like the thing is as well is like Willy
29:05
Speaker 1: Willy Baker. That was something he found out from the papers.
29:08
Speaker 1: He was like, she can't get married. We're still married
29:11
Speaker 1: like at the time. And so without the count, like
29:15
Speaker 1: he is the one who organized her planned for tours,
29:18
Speaker 1: like he made sure that she had her gigs, and
29:20
Speaker 1: so with him gone, like she was at a loss.
29:24
Speaker 1: And so she ends up returning to the Folly Belgeil
29:28
Speaker 1: because like she has nothing else planned because she doesn't
29:31
Speaker 1: do that bit, like she doesn't organize anything. So she
29:34
Speaker 1: returns to the foy Burgel and she's she's like lonely actually,
29:38
Speaker 1: I mean she's got this conveyor belt of lovers of
29:41
Speaker 1: both sexes, including some very famous women, which I believe
29:45
Speaker 1: I mentioned I think in the last episode. So we've
29:49
Speaker 1: got affairs with one of my favorite people in the
29:53
Speaker 1: world and also the best of the hot mess Tallula
29:58
Speaker 1: Bankhead Darling.
30:01
Speaker 2: I was wonderful star of stage and screen. I love
30:04
Speaker 2: her so much. She's just she's just chaos and human form.
30:09
Speaker 2: Like I swear that she took cocaine just to calm
30:12
Speaker 2: herself down. So she's got a fear of with Tulula Bankhead,
30:16
Speaker 2: she also had a late liaison or two that was
30:19
Speaker 2: easy for me to say, a liaison or two with
30:21
Speaker 2: Ada briktop Smith. The that's right, the collect who we
30:27
Speaker 2: will definitely be talking about in the future.
30:30
Speaker 1: And also for the record, uh Frida Calo, but love
30:36
Speaker 1: her after lover, it's a passing flame, like nothing really sticks.
30:42
Speaker 1: And she's always believed that every great love affair with
30:44
Speaker 1: a man would result in marriage and that she would
30:47
Speaker 1: have a big family, because that's something that she always wanted,
30:54
Speaker 1: like regardless of the era, like the majority of like
31:00
Speaker 1: life in the last several hundred years, there's this narrative
31:05
Speaker 1: that's being pushed. It's all patriarchal, right, It's like women
31:08
Speaker 1: are expected to have families. What's interesting, though, is that
31:14
Speaker 1: there is very little history in which women were solely
31:19
Speaker 1: in the home being homemakers, as if they weren't doing
31:24
Speaker 1: other things like weaving, having like animals, and like doing labor.
31:32
Speaker 1: Like there's always labor, but it's not always presented as labor.
31:38
Speaker 1: But there's always this push that women are expecting to
31:41
Speaker 1: marry and have children like that is the female role,
31:45
Speaker 1: and that is bullshit. Okay, women can do many things.
31:50
Speaker 1: Let's see you embroider Montaignwich Albert onto a throw pillow. Okay,
31:56
Speaker 1: let's see you do that. Boys such as a thing,
32:00
Speaker 1: such a silly thing. But like women have always worked,
32:04
Speaker 1: it's only a sort of middle class to upper class.
32:08
Speaker 1: And so this is assumption that women have always been
32:11
Speaker 1: in the home is bullshit. But the idea that women
32:15
Speaker 1: should marry and have children has been a continual thing
32:18
Speaker 1: for a long time because it's sort of it's a
32:21
Speaker 1: control thing. Okay. Anyway, Josephine ends up being godmother to
32:26
Speaker 1: like fifty children at this orphanage because she she craves
32:30
Speaker 1: this affection, this connection, and it's probably something to do
32:34
Speaker 1: with the relationship she had with her mother and how
32:38
Speaker 1: she didn't have that closeness and so she feels like
32:43
Speaker 1: if she has that connection with a child, you know,
32:47
Speaker 1: she'll get that feeling, that love that she's been yearning,
32:51
Speaker 1: you know. But she craves this affection, this connection, and
32:54
Speaker 1: that's that's what she wants. But professionally, she working at
33:00
Speaker 1: the Faule bourgell because again she doesn't have anything lined
33:04
Speaker 1: up without count, not actually count who was in charge
33:07
Speaker 1: of her accounts, because you know, money burned a hole
33:10
Speaker 1: in her pocket. You spent one uh uh uh uh
33:16
Speaker 1: uh I regret nothing. You were getting a count joke
33:19
Speaker 1: at least once today. So Count Albertino, he planned all
33:24
Speaker 1: her tours, her gigs, and he wasn't you know, around
33:27
Speaker 1: after meeting the cold, ewnsy hands of death. But then
33:32
Speaker 1: another man enters her life, Jean Leon. I know you're shocked.
33:37
Speaker 1: He wasn't called Willy and neither of those names are
33:40
Speaker 1: French for Willie. You're welcome. So Jean Leon was no
33:46
Speaker 1: run of the mill guy. No, no, he was a
33:50
Speaker 1: sugar man. And not to say sugar daddy. He was
33:53
Speaker 1: younger than her so sugar boy. No, no, his family
34:00
Speaker 1: made money in sugar like he was the heir to
34:03
Speaker 1: a sugar fortune. Now, I don't really have the time
34:08
Speaker 1: because I've already gone on many sidebars thus far. I
34:12
Speaker 1: don't really have the time to delve into the many
34:15
Speaker 1: layers as to why that specifically is problematic. So he's
34:21
Speaker 1: the heir to a sugar fortune, so he's got money
34:23
Speaker 1: behind him, he's athletic, and he's smoking hot. He's also
34:29
Speaker 1: Jewish and that is a relevant fact. And his family
34:34
Speaker 1: they are absolutely freaking out because again this is a
34:38
Speaker 1: family involved in sugar cane, so we can guess what
34:42
Speaker 1: their opinions were of their son marrying a black woman.
34:46
Speaker 1: Like they object strongly to this union. And gen Leon
34:51
Speaker 1: like he was the one that pursued Josephine like he
34:55
Speaker 1: thought that he would gain popularity biosmosis like being with
35:00
Speaker 1: her would benefit his career, and so they get married
35:05
Speaker 1: in his family village in nineteen thirty seven, and two
35:10
Speaker 1: things happen because of this. Because she's married a Frenchman,
35:14
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker now has the ability to get French citizenship,
35:22
Speaker 1: which she does, and Jean Leon and his family it
35:27
Speaker 1: gave them access to the US because again they were Jewish,
35:32
Speaker 1: and they emigrated to the States in nineteen thirty eight,
35:35
Speaker 1: saving them from the Nazi invasion that was on the horizon.
35:40
Speaker 1: So the couple didn't actually see each other that much.
35:45
Speaker 1: I mean they saw each other enough though, because Josephine
35:48
Speaker 1: was able to become pregnant and Josephine Baker is overjoyed,
35:54
Speaker 1: like they were together I think just over a year
35:57
Speaker 1: and she discovers she's pregnant and she is full on nesting.
36:02
Speaker 1: She's getting a nursery ready, she's at least trying to
36:05
Speaker 1: knit baby clothes because this is something that she's always wanted.
36:12
Speaker 1: But like many things in Josephine's life, whenever there was joy,
36:18
Speaker 1: there was tragedy. And Josephine suffered a miscarriage and it
36:25
Speaker 1: really hit her heart. And after this happened, she and
36:29
Speaker 1: Jean they separate, like they don't actually get divorced until
36:33
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, like three years later, but they separate
36:38
Speaker 1: and he emigrates with his family to the US. The
36:43
Speaker 1: following year, another scandal enters Josephine's life because it's in
36:48
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine that she meets artist Fredra Callo, who
36:51
Speaker 1: had come to Paris for an art exhibition, an exhibition
36:55
Speaker 1: of her art. So they meet and spark fly and
37:01
Speaker 1: the two of them they are just enameled by each other,
37:05
Speaker 1: and unsurprisingly they become lovers. Like the two of them,
37:11
Speaker 1: they like straight up like lock themselves in a room.
37:14
Speaker 1: They hold up in a room for a week, a
37:16
Speaker 1: solid week. Oh you know how it is just a
37:20
Speaker 1: week of passion between two artistic enigmatic bisexuals. Now that
37:26
Speaker 1: was happening in nineteen thirty nine, And another thing that
37:29
Speaker 1: was happening in nineteen thirty nine was that the entire
37:32
Speaker 1: world was on the verge of war. Okay, the majority
37:36
Speaker 1: of the world was on the verge of war, because
37:41
Speaker 1: Germany would invade Poland in September of nineteen thirty nine,
37:46
Speaker 1: an active aggression and the first of a series of
37:49
Speaker 1: short campaigns in Europe that would trigger the start of
37:52
Speaker 1: the Second World War. After invading Poland in September nineteen
37:57
Speaker 1: thirty nine, Nazi Germany would go on to invade Denmark
38:01
Speaker 1: and Norway in April nineteen forty, and then Belgium, the Netherlands,
38:07
Speaker 1: Luxembourg and France. In May of that year, Josephine Baker
38:19
Speaker 1: was performing in a show called Paris London, and she
38:23
Speaker 1: performed for British and French troops and of course the
38:26
Speaker 1: adoring public. Josephine had managed to acquire a new agent.
38:31
Speaker 1: I mean they were probably just like Clambourne over each
38:34
Speaker 1: other to get out, you know. So she gets a
38:37
Speaker 1: new agent after the count kicked the bucket and a
38:40
Speaker 1: contact of her agent mentioned her to Jacques Abdey of
38:45
Speaker 1: the French military intelligence service. In fact, Jacques was the
38:50
Speaker 1: head of military counter intelligence, and he was keeping his
38:54
Speaker 1: eyes peeled for someone who could travel froughly throughout Europe
38:58
Speaker 1: and Africa without tracting suspicion, someone who could attend events
39:04
Speaker 1: and soirees and gather intel and information. And also this
39:09
Speaker 1: was someone who wanted to do it for France, because
39:11
Speaker 1: this was not a job that paid well. I mean,
39:14
Speaker 1: you couldn't exactly hand in receipts for expenses on a
39:17
Speaker 1: super secret spy mission. Oh it's this. You're buying an
39:21
Speaker 1: awful lot of lemon juice. By the way, Josephine, am
39:24
Speaker 1: I am? I? So yeah? I mean I should have
39:30
Speaker 1: mentioned that Jacques Abdy was looking for a spy. Josephine
39:35
Speaker 1: Baker was wise enough to leave Paris as the Nazis
39:38
Speaker 1: moved closer, because they're like edging into northern France. So
39:43
Speaker 1: she rents lem Rende, a massive chateau three hundred miles
39:47
Speaker 1: south of Paris, a city she would not see for
39:50
Speaker 1: the next four years of her life. Jacques Abdy visits
39:54
Speaker 1: Josephine at the Chateau Le Malende. Well, she is in
39:58
Speaker 1: the garden feeding snail to her ducks. Oh if you
40:02
Speaker 1: thought she was moving and not taking her menagerie with her,
40:05
Speaker 1: will more fill you. So he shows up and he's like,
40:09
Speaker 1: Josephine be a spy and she's like, okay, I mean wait, syboh,
40:18
Speaker 1: so Josephine again. Like I said earlier, she grew up
40:21
Speaker 1: with racism. She knows a racist when she sees one,
40:25
Speaker 1: and it's clear to her that one of the core
40:27
Speaker 1: fundamentals of Nazism is racism. That's how fascism works. In
40:35
Speaker 1: a move that surprises absolutely no one, Josephine and Jacques
40:40
Speaker 1: become lovers, like she is like all in from the
40:45
Speaker 1: get go, like she does so much, like she works
40:48
Speaker 1: at a refugee center for people fleeing Nazis. She attends
40:52
Speaker 1: these big, swanky parties and writes on her skin and
40:55
Speaker 1: invisible ink, like she's writing on her arms, in her hands,
40:59
Speaker 1: like stuff that she owne hears, like active Nazi troop
41:02
Speaker 1: activity and movements like like it's like the whole dumb
41:07
Speaker 1: blonde scenario, except she's not dumb or blonde. It's like
41:11
Speaker 1: when you're talking about word in front of me, I
41:14
Speaker 1: wouldn't know that. I'm just a girl, you know. So
41:21
Speaker 1: she is smuggling secret codes and messages, also an invisible
41:25
Speaker 1: link on sheet music on notes pinned to the inside
41:29
Speaker 1: of her brassier like she is she's like doing it
41:33
Speaker 1: all right. She joins the Free French movement with a
41:37
Speaker 1: Jacques Abtey, who had abandoned his previous post because the
41:41
Speaker 1: Vush government had just like allowed Germany to occupy in France.
41:45
Speaker 1: Now it is not that simple, I will admit it's
41:49
Speaker 1: not that simple. But also from Jacques's perspective, he's like
41:55
Speaker 1: the Nazis, why did you let the Nazis in? Like
42:00
Speaker 1: don't do this? Like I mean, I guess for them,
42:03
Speaker 1: they saw it as the path of least resistance. But yeah, no, France,
42:08
Speaker 1: come on, come on, like we know what you did
42:12
Speaker 1: to your monarchy, Like you can you can do stuff, right, okay.
42:17
Speaker 1: So anyway, she is involved in the Shall Do Go
42:23
Speaker 1: resistance and she learned to fight and shoot. So I've
42:28
Speaker 1: noticed I was saying Charles Dugau, but that's not his name,
42:33
Speaker 1: like it shall shall do go? Like why am I
42:36
Speaker 1: not pronouncing it the French air? Like why am I
42:38
Speaker 1: doing that? Like he's the leader of the French resistance,
42:41
Speaker 1: I should be saying his name correctly, like I know,
42:44
Speaker 1: I didn't do it. In the in the episode of
42:48
Speaker 1: the Battle of Castle ET's all like I didn't. I
42:51
Speaker 1: didn't do that, but it shall do? Go, shall do? Go? Yeah.
42:54
Speaker 4: So she let the French Air Force use her plane,
43:00
Speaker 4: and she even hid French resistance fighters in her house, in.
43:04
Speaker 1: Her limiso her chateau. Nazi soldiers come looking right, but
43:10
Speaker 1: she somehow somehow charmed them into leaving the chateau without
43:16
Speaker 1: actually searching it, which is all the more impressive when
43:20
Speaker 1: you remember that Josephine Baker is a black woman who
43:24
Speaker 1: managed to charm Nazis. Okay, So Jacques g Abdy he
43:30
Speaker 1: posed as Josephine's ballet master, and they have this whole
43:34
Speaker 1: ruse that she's going on tour and he's like, I
43:36
Speaker 1: am training her for ballet. So I'm going to hope
43:40
Speaker 1: that Jacques Abde had some sort of I'm gonna call
43:44
Speaker 1: it rhythm style, like good control of his body, and
43:50
Speaker 1: I need that for Shacques right now. So they were
43:54
Speaker 1: instructed to travel to Lisbon in Portugal, which was neutral,
43:59
Speaker 1: and because it was neutral, it was full of spies
44:03
Speaker 1: from both sides, like this is where you've got this
44:06
Speaker 1: whole intelligence counterintelligence scenario, right, So she's got all these
44:12
Speaker 1: like this info about German military secrets on sheet music
44:18
Speaker 1: and invisible ink, and she's like that's how she's getting
44:22
Speaker 1: it about because it's like I'm performing I'm Josephine Baker
44:28
Speaker 1: in Portugal. She is the toast of the town, like
44:32
Speaker 1: she is going from party to party gathering intelligence. But
44:38
Speaker 1: like again, she's doing this for France. She's not earning money, right,
44:43
Speaker 1: So she decides to get a cast together and perform
44:46
Speaker 1: a revival of her operetta La Criol and Marseille. Josephine
44:52
Speaker 1: Baker decided to put on an operetta for two weeks
44:58
Speaker 1: in the middle of a war. Like it's here that
45:03
Speaker 1: she gets the news that Germany is about to occupy
45:07
Speaker 1: all of France, not just northern France, and so Jacques
45:11
Speaker 1: and Josephine make the executive decision to get the heck
45:15
Speaker 1: out a dodge and flee to Northern Africa. Now, Josephine,
45:21
Speaker 1: she isn't able to bring her entire menagerie like on
45:24
Speaker 1: this escapade, and she is so upset about it, and
45:30
Speaker 1: so she gets a major panic as well when she
45:33
Speaker 1: arrives in Algier. So she arrives in Algier and she
45:37
Speaker 1: gets arrested, and she's thinking, shit, I'm done. It's terrible.
45:43
Speaker 1: I'm a goner, right, because she thinks she's been arrested for,
45:46
Speaker 1: you know, spying on Nazis, when in fact, she was
45:52
Speaker 1: arrested for breach of contract for the messile Operetta because
45:56
Speaker 1: she was like, I gotta go, and she just left right,
46:00
Speaker 1: But it all gets sorted out and smoothed out and
46:02
Speaker 1: it's fine, and you know, she pays a fine. Everything's fine,
46:06
Speaker 1: everything's fine. So she continues to tour. So she's touring
46:10
Speaker 1: around Casablanca, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, and she's all around that
46:15
Speaker 1: area collecting intel. She's hobnobbing. She may or may not
46:21
Speaker 1: have been shagging officials and royals, you know, in Morocco,
46:25
Speaker 1: including the Pasha of Marrakesh. It will be important later.
46:32
Speaker 1: So a rumor goes around that Jacques Amptey's cover is blown,
46:36
Speaker 1: and so he stays in Casablanca while Josephine goes back
46:39
Speaker 1: to like travel and perform. She's hosting soirees and dinner
46:44
Speaker 1: parties whenever intelligence is needed, like we need to find
46:48
Speaker 1: out stuff. Let's send Josephine in. So she's doing all
46:53
Speaker 1: this jass and then back in Northern Africa, the Twelve
46:57
Speaker 1: Apostles show up. So the Twelve Apostles are Robert Murphy's
47:03
Speaker 1: American spies, and they are from like a range of
47:06
Speaker 1: different backgrounds and they were all admittedly wildly out of
47:12
Speaker 1: their depth. So like these were the first overseas spies
47:17
Speaker 1: by the US during the Second World War, and they
47:21
Speaker 1: were working alongside like the OSS and they desperately needed
47:27
Speaker 1: Josephine and Jacques's help. So they really needed their help
47:32
Speaker 1: because they were at this point, like they were local,
47:35
Speaker 1: they knew the area, they knew all the stuff. Like
47:37
Speaker 1: they needed their help to do a bunch of stuff.
47:40
Speaker 1: And so in order for information to go back and forth,
47:46
Speaker 1: Josephine would have to like bring it and so like
47:51
Speaker 1: at one point they were like, we need to get
47:53
Speaker 1: this through. We keep being searched, and she's like, I'm
47:57
Speaker 1: gonna put it in my underwear and they're like I'm sorry, what,
48:02
Speaker 1: And like her reasoning is she never gets stripserched because
48:05
Speaker 1: the world has already seen her naked. Anyway, She's like
48:09
Speaker 1: they've all seen me naked. No one's going to stripsart me.
48:12
Speaker 1: And so this is where she's pinning just like spy
48:17
Speaker 1: intel espionage secrets to the inside of her bra because
48:22
Speaker 1: she's like, nobody's going there, and they didn't. Now Josephine
48:29
Speaker 1: wasn't going to let something like an entire world war
48:32
Speaker 1: stop her family plans. And so she ended up visiting
48:36
Speaker 1: these doctors in Morocco for some guynacological fertility tests because
48:42
Speaker 1: she wants to see if she can conceive, like she
48:46
Speaker 1: would suffered like many miscarriages over the years, and she
48:50
Speaker 1: wanted to have children. Now, I think there's probably some
48:54
Speaker 1: correlation to do with the fact of her growing up
48:56
Speaker 1: in abject poverty and suffering malnutrition for years, Like I
49:01
Speaker 1: think that definitely plays a part in it, but there
49:03
Speaker 1: are probably other other reasons that are affecting it. And
49:07
Speaker 1: there are a lot of medical issues regarding women that
49:11
Speaker 1: we still don't understand because we're too busy funding fucking biagra.
49:16
Speaker 1: But I'm not I'm not gonna run. I'm not gonna run.
49:20
Speaker 1: So she wants to have kids, and so she travels
49:23
Speaker 1: to Marrakesh and she becomes ill with this like this
49:26
Speaker 1: really high fever. She's got severe pain, severe abdominal pain,
49:32
Speaker 1: and she is like very seriously ill, and so obviously
49:39
Speaker 1: the rumor mill starts chunning out stuff, right, and the
49:42
Speaker 1: rumor is that she was poisoned by the passion of
49:46
Speaker 1: Marrakesh's Harem of Wives. Another rumor was that she had
49:50
Speaker 1: had an abortion, which is like the opposite of the
49:54
Speaker 1: thing that she wanted. So no, she was not poisoned
50:00
Speaker 1: by a harem of wives, and she did not have
50:03
Speaker 1: an abortion. She had an infection caused by the gynecological
50:09
Speaker 1: and fertility tests, and so she was rushed to a
50:13
Speaker 1: private clinic and the infection spread to pertinitis, then sepsis.
50:20
Speaker 1: The infection on her abdominal walls led to scar tissue,
50:23
Speaker 1: which caused blockages, and then she needed more surgery and
50:27
Speaker 1: at one point she actually has to undergo a hysterectomy. Now,
50:32
Speaker 1: josephin Baker joked that she was cut open so many
50:34
Speaker 1: times that they should have just put in a zipper.
50:39
Speaker 1: Not obviously, when she's recovering, she's not seen. And so
50:44
Speaker 1: yet another rumor goes out, this time that she's dead. So, like,
50:50
Speaker 1: I think the direct quote is that she is too
50:53
Speaker 1: busy to die. She's like, no, I'm too busy to die.
50:59
Speaker 1: The best part of this it was the United Press International,
51:03
Speaker 1: which released the news that Josephine Baker had died in
51:07
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two. I'm not quite dead. But she ends
51:12
Speaker 1: up saying that she's you know, she's just unweill. And
51:16
Speaker 1: she is recuperating at her friend's palace like on the
51:19
Speaker 1: outskirts of the Sahara. Now while she's in recovery, like
51:24
Speaker 1: her recovery room becomes like an unofficial headquarters for the
51:29
Speaker 1: French resistance. Right, people are coming like in and out
51:34
Speaker 1: all of the time, and she's like, she's still doing stuff,
51:40
Speaker 1: like she's recovering from surgery and bought surgery and other infections,
51:45
Speaker 1: and yeah, she's still doing her bit. She's arranging for
51:51
Speaker 1: Jewish people to get Moroccan passports to escape Nazis, right,
51:57
Speaker 1: and she's getting stuff coming in and out of her room.
52:00
Speaker 1: And Jacques he's there through all of the surgeries, Like
52:05
Speaker 1: he doesn't even go to sleep until he hears Josephine speak.
52:11
Speaker 1: So like when she's like recovering from like one of
52:15
Speaker 1: one of the bad surgeries, like she complains about the
52:19
Speaker 1: compress on her tummy that it's too heavy, and he's like, okay,
52:23
Speaker 1: now you're complaining, that's good, I can rest now. So anyway,
52:28
Speaker 1: a year and a half after this, like she's still
52:31
Speaker 1: recuperating because of how bad the damage was, and so
52:36
Speaker 1: she ends up developing a parathyroid disease and so like
52:42
Speaker 1: she's not getting better and for her, this is really
52:46
Speaker 1: really upsetting because like you think that like healing is linear,
52:52
Speaker 1: it is absolutely not. Meanwhile, Nazis had some camps in
52:59
Speaker 1: North Africa, and so the Allies decide to send a
53:02
Speaker 1: bunch of troops there in preparation. But there's not a
53:07
Speaker 1: lot of action happening, and American gis are bored, which
53:12
Speaker 1: is never good. And remember, like again, segregation still very
53:18
Speaker 1: much a thing in the US at this time. Meanwhile,
53:22
Speaker 1: the director of the Red Cross Liberty Club invicted Josephine
53:26
Speaker 1: to perform, and being a club that hosted American gis,
53:32
Speaker 1: the club was segregated. It had been organized in such
53:36
Speaker 1: a way that black and white gis would use the
53:39
Speaker 1: club at different times. And so Josephine Baker said, fuck
53:43
Speaker 1: this for a game of soldiers and straight up refused
53:45
Speaker 1: to perform to a segregated crowd. She's like, how are
53:50
Speaker 1: you going to fight a racist regime if you're out
53:54
Speaker 1: here being racist yourselves. You know, bear in mind as
53:59
Speaker 1: well that Josephine Baker was still in recovery. She was weak,
54:05
Speaker 1: she had unhealed surgery scars, and she really shouldn't have
54:09
Speaker 1: been on a stage at all. However, she said she
54:13
Speaker 1: would only perform for an integrated audience, and she did like,
54:22
Speaker 1: she's still recuperating, she's still healing. And she traveled and
54:27
Speaker 1: performed for British, American and French troops all over Northern
54:33
Speaker 1: Africa for two and a half years. And she wasn't
54:37
Speaker 1: exactly living a high life, right. She was eating army rations.
54:41
Speaker 1: Like one thing she brings up a lot is the
54:45
Speaker 1: amount of tinned tuna that she consumed. I have a
54:48
Speaker 1: feeling that tuna was just something she didn't touch. After
54:51
Speaker 1: this time period, she was like, no, no, no, no,
54:53
Speaker 1: I'm getting flashbacks. So she's sleeping next to her jeep
54:58
Speaker 1: convoys at night, she's avoiding landmines and the like, and
55:03
Speaker 1: she was performing several times a day, and she's touring
55:08
Speaker 1: around two continents at this point. And this leads me
55:11
Speaker 1: to one of my favorite stories about her. So one night,
55:16
Speaker 1: she's performing for US soldiers in Algeria, right, and then
55:23
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, German planes fly overhead and start shooting,
55:28
Speaker 1: and the troops they all take cover like they are
55:30
Speaker 1: hitting the deck. Meanwhile, Josephine Baker helps herself to the
55:36
Speaker 1: buffet and it's only when the shooting gets worse that
55:41
Speaker 1: she ends up like huddling down on the ground in
55:45
Speaker 1: this expensive gown eating an ice cream. I like that.
55:50
Speaker 1: She was like, I'm I'm not letting go of the
55:52
Speaker 1: ice cream, okay. Like like she would go on to
55:56
Speaker 1: say like about this event that it was such a
56:00
Speaker 1: ridiculous moment because there she is and a gown on
56:05
Speaker 1: the dirt eating an ice cream. Because she's like, if
56:08
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going with ice cream in my mouth, like
56:10
Speaker 1: that's happening, and I get it. I get it. So
56:16
Speaker 1: another important thing she does is she connects with black
56:19
Speaker 1: military personnel and she vows to return to the States
56:24
Speaker 1: to fight racial discrimination. She's like, no, We're gonna deal
56:28
Speaker 1: with this. Then in nineteen forty three, the Shaaldgo of
56:34
Speaker 1: Resistance and Airport Fame awards her with the Cross of
56:38
Speaker 1: lurin the emblem of the Free French Forces or the
56:43
Speaker 1: Free France Forces, one of those. She ends up actually
56:49
Speaker 1: auctioning it off, like she loved this thing. She loved
56:53
Speaker 1: this more than her diamonds and her drools and her
56:57
Speaker 1: diamond collars for her cheetah. Like she ended up auctioning
57:02
Speaker 1: it off to raise money for Free France, along with
57:05
Speaker 1: a heape ton of other like fundraising efforts for the
57:08
Speaker 1: French resistance, and so like she's raising money for the
57:12
Speaker 1: resistance and flogging her stuff because she's like, this is
57:16
Speaker 1: more important, you know. And she ends up being awarded
57:22
Speaker 1: with the honorary rank of lieutenant in the Ladies' Auxiliary
57:25
Speaker 1: of the French Air Force. Next day happens on the
57:31
Speaker 1: sixth of June nineteen forty four. Thank you to Maureen
57:36
Speaker 1: Vlavin Sweeney, right, you're welcome. The liberation of powers happened
57:41
Speaker 1: between like the nineteenth and twenty fifth of August and
57:44
Speaker 1: nineteen forty four. And after this, she returns to her
57:49
Speaker 1: beloved Paris in her French military uniform and she takes
57:54
Speaker 1: part in a parade and everyone adores her. She is
57:58
Speaker 1: celebrated by the French people and they're like chucking flowers
58:01
Speaker 1: at her feet on the rue and the boulevard and
58:04
Speaker 1: the blast like they're just doing it. Now. One thing
58:10
Speaker 1: is weird about this, right, So this parade that Charldogall
58:14
Speaker 1: that he has go through France, right that go through Paris,
58:18
Speaker 1: and he has soldiers march like what he does, it's
58:23
Speaker 1: he removes like a lot of the African forces, a
58:26
Speaker 1: lot of the colonial forces. He removes like the darker
58:32
Speaker 1: skinned soldiers and replaces them with white soldiers from other
58:37
Speaker 1: areas or lighter skinned even And it's a thing that
58:41
Speaker 1: Charles Deogauld does. And I don't like that, and I
58:45
Speaker 1: thought it was Welco mentioned it. Anyway, Josephine Baker doesn't
58:50
Speaker 1: have time to like revel in this because she becomes
58:53
Speaker 1: acutely aware of the substandard living situations of her navels,
58:57
Speaker 1: who are too poor, weak, infirm, or elderly to evacuate
59:02
Speaker 1: the Nazi occupation, and so she auctions off a chunk
59:07
Speaker 1: more of her finery and jills to provide necessities for
59:11
Speaker 1: those who needed it. She also discovered that Nazis had
59:16
Speaker 1: been staying in her home, Maison Labourshin, and she was
59:21
Speaker 1: pissed about that, but she had a plan to right
59:26
Speaker 1: wrongs and fight injustice, which will be coming up in
59:31
Speaker 1: the next episode. Because this woman did so much, I
59:35
Speaker 1: couldn't fit it into one. I did fit it into
59:37
Speaker 1: one at one point, but I was literally bullet pointing
59:40
Speaker 1: stuff at one point, like we're gonna do pat Toois
59:45
Speaker 1: of the Josephine Beaker story. That was a really bad
59:49
Speaker 1: French accent. But if you liked the actual telling of
59:53
Speaker 1: the story that you can hear the French of, or
59:55
Speaker 1: the English of, or me speaking shit. It's clearly late.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: So if you liked that, please writ in review five stars.
1:00:03
Speaker 1: If you don't have anything nice to say, you can
1:00:05
Speaker 1: just shut the fuck up. I'm in a mid now,
1:00:08
Speaker 1: aren't I. I'm so fueled by it. And yeah, that
1:00:13
Speaker 1: is That is the second part of Josephine's Baker's story.
1:00:17
Speaker 1: And yeah, I guess it's as recommendation time. So for listening,
1:00:24
Speaker 1: I am putting Danny Padilla's music Kiss Like Your Sorry,
1:00:29
Speaker 1: Kiss Me like You're Sorry. It's in the link, It's
1:00:31
Speaker 1: in the description down below. Listen to it. It's really
1:00:33
Speaker 1: really good. If you haven't bought your dig out to
1:00:36
Speaker 1: my live show. Buy your ticket to my live show.
1:00:39
Speaker 1: What are you waiting for? Come to London. It'll be
1:00:41
Speaker 1: a great time. It's in November. It's gonna be fun.
1:00:44
Speaker 1: It's the only London show I think I've got for
1:00:47
Speaker 1: the next two years. More to information coming soon. That's
1:00:51
Speaker 1: coming out soon. So yes, listening Danny Padilla, kiss like
1:00:56
Speaker 1: you're sorry, Kiss me like you're sorry. Danny, don't kiss
1:00:59
Speaker 1: me like you're sorry. I don't want to kiss you.
1:01:02
Speaker 1: No vents, Danny, you are a lovely man who doesn't
1:01:07
Speaker 1: listen to this podcast like it sounds weird. Danny doesn't
1:01:11
Speaker 1: want to kiss me either. By the way, Danny is
1:01:13
Speaker 1: very happy with his amazing girlfriend, who is so fucking cool.
1:01:18
Speaker 1: By the way, anyway, that's never hear a Norther there.
1:01:21
Speaker 1: Listen to Danny's song stream it. It's really good. Listen
1:01:23
Speaker 1: to it all the way through. Okay, he deserves this.
1:01:26
Speaker 1: It's a good song and it's a little ear warm
1:01:28
Speaker 1: for me and I think it's perfect sort of autumn music.
1:01:31
Speaker 1: It is like fall. Sorry for those of you on
1:01:33
Speaker 1: the other side of the pond, it's also fall music
1:01:38
Speaker 1: for watching you know what, y'all should watch Sinners, Go
1:01:42
Speaker 1: watch sinners. That's my choice for today and for reading.
1:01:48
Speaker 1: You know what you should read Queen of the Skies
1:01:51
Speaker 1: by Beth Pill and gig Coleman. Yes, I did talk
1:01:55
Speaker 1: about Bessie Coleman before, and I got a copy of
1:01:57
Speaker 1: the book from my lovely friend Sahar. I'm so excited.
1:02:01
Speaker 1: But yes, those are your recommendations for this week. I
1:02:05
Speaker 1: love you, have a great time. Adios au revoir vetaz
1:02:09
Speaker 1: my friends, Bye bye,