This year sees the centenary of the birth of the black American star, Josephine Baker.
She was known as the ‘The Dark Diva, The Black Venus, The Black Pearl’ and was notorious for her wild, uninhibited dancing in the skimpiest of exotic costumes – famously little more than a skirt made from a string of bananas.
Born into poverty in the ghettoes of St Louis, USA, she began her career playing to all-black audiences in travelling tent shows. In New York, she was considered ‘too skinny and too dark’ until her gift for comedy made her a hit with audiences and landed her a life-changing role in a show bound for Paris.
As the National Film Theatre mounts a season of her films, Judi Herman has been looking back on Josephine Baker’s heyday with Andrea Stuart, author of ‘Showgirls’.
The CD ‘Josephine Baker Complete Recorded Works 1926-1927’ is issued by Document Records.
