Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker: member of the French Resistance, spy during WWII, artist's muse, Civil Rights Activist, Entertainer, Dancer, Singer and mother of the 'Rainbow Tribe'. 

All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world

can learn to live together in peace

if they are not brought up in prejudice. 

Josephine Baker

Josephine Bake is an amazing woman, so much more than the dancer who wowed Paris in the 20's and preformed in a banana skirt in Paris, which is the image that many get when they hear her name.

Josephine Baker was famous and adored in Paris during the 20's where she 'charleston'ed her way into the hearts of France, but that is just a part of her life story. Born into a poor neighborhood of St. Louis, she started working at 8 years old to help support her mother and her family.  She was in and out of schooling, learning more on the street.  

When Josephine was 13 years old age married William Wells, which made Josephine his financial responsibility, not her mother's. But that marriage didn't even last a year.  Josephine taught herself to sing and dance as a way to earn money and soon moved to New York to pursue a career in entertainment.  She made herself known not only with her dancing, but she also had a good comical delivery.  From New York she moved her act to Paris where she became a star.

Getty image

When World War II broke out, Josephine signed up to help her adopted country, France. First she worked with the Red Cross.  But where she did significant work was as a member of the French Resistance.  Because of her fame she traveled all around Europe and Northern Africa to entertain and she was even allowed into enemy territories where she would gather information undetected and then report back to the Allies.  She also would delivered secret messages which she would hide within her piles of sheet music.  After the war was over, France awarded Baker both the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour with the rosette of the Resistance, two of France’s highest military honors.

With the war behind her she turned her attentions to racism, especially in her native land, the USA.  She was appalled that when she was in the US, she was made to enter hotels through the back doors and wasn't even allowed to stay in other hotels because of her skin color. This was especially upsetting since she was welcomed into most any establishment, everywhere else in the world.  

She started to protest by not preforming at segregated venues and continued to fight racism until her death.  She even stood along side Martin Luther King, Jr in 1963 and spoke during the March on Washington.

Not only did Josephine Baker speak out against racism, but she wanted to demonstrate to the world that all races and all types of people could live together, given the chance. So, beginning in 1950, she started to adopt children from around the world.  She ended up adopting 12 and she called her family the 'Rainbow Tribe'.

There are so many facets to this woman's life that I highly recommend you follow the links below so that you can meet the woman beyond the banana skirt. VF

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri. Carrie McDonald and Eddie Carson, Josephine's parents, had a song-and-dance act, playing wherever they could get work. When Josephine was about a year old they began to carry her onstage occasionally during their finale. She was further exposed to show business at an early age because her childhood neighborhood was home to many vaudeville theaters that doubled as movie houses. These venues included the Jazzland, Booker T. Washington, and Comet Theatres. (wikipedia)

In 1925, at the peak of France’s obsession with American jazz and all things exotic, Baker traveled to Paris to perform in La Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She made an immediate impression on French audiences when, with dance partner Joe Alex, she performed the Danse Sauvage, in which she wore only a feather skirt.www.biography.com

American entertainer Josephine Baker (1906-1936)
often performed onstage in Paris
nightclubs with pet cheetah Chiquita.
Chiquita wore a diamond collar.
Sometimes, during a performance,
Chiquita would decide to jump off the stage
and  into the orchestra pit, causing quite a ruckus.
 ca. 1931. Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum.

Legend of XX century Josephine Baker – the black pearl of “Roaring Twenties” – era, so vividly represented in the novel by Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby”. French-American dancer, singer and actress, Josephine Baker made a brilliant career, and was the star of the Parisian cabaret. Noteworthy, the audience for the first time saw Charleston in her performance. Josephine, called Black Venus, visited poet Baudelaire in his dreams. And according to Ernest Hemingway, she was the most amazing woman he ever knew. Indeed, Josephine inspired sculptors, painters, poets and architects. Interestingly, Adolf Loos dedicated to her “House of Josephine Baker”, Alexander Calder – his wire sculptures, Gertrude Stein wrote a poem in prose, and Paul Colin was the author of many of her portraits, lithographs and posters. Meanwhile, Josephine claimed that Picasso drew her portraits many times (work not preserved). But in the famous series of Matisse “The Creole Dancer” and “Jazz” influence and spirit of Josephine is easily recognizable.

viola.bz

Matisse, The Creole Dancer, 1950

Comparing Josephine Baker to a beautiful Egyptian queen, artist Pablo Picassodubbed her “the Nefertiti of Now.” She posed for him in all her glory: “tall, coffee skin, ebony eyes, legs of paradise, a smile to end all smiles.” 

lisawallerrogers.com

When World War II rocked her adopted France, Baker didn't simply move to a more peaceful country. Instead, she stuck around and did her part for the war effort. Since she had initially publicly supported Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, the Axis powers mistakenly thought she was "one of them," and Baker took full advantage of this misconception.

In fact, her fame made her the perfect spy. When Baker would travel Europe while touring, she obviously had to carry large quantities of sheet music with her. What customs officials never realized, though, was that a lot of this music actually had secret messages written on it in invisible ink. Fawning immigration officials never thought to take too close a look at the diva's luggage, so she could sneak all sorts of things in and out of countries. On some occasions, Baker would smuggle secret photos of German military installations out of enemy territory by pinning them to her underwear.

This invaluable intelligence work eventually helped Baker rise to the rank of lieutenant in the Free French Air Force, and when the war was over she received both the Croix de Guerre (a first for an American woman) and the Medal of the Resistance in 1946.

In 1947, she married French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon, and beginning in 1950 began to adopt babies from around the world. She adopted 12 children in all, creating what she referred to as her “rainbow tribe” and her “experiment in brotherhood.” She often invited people to the estate to see these children, to demonstrate that people of different races could in fact live together harmoniously.

Baker’s adopted children, from Finland, Japan, France, Belgium, Venezuela. During their school-age years, the 10 boys and two girls grew up in public. Just by existing as a multiracial, multinational family, they demonstrated Baker’s belief in the possibility of equality.  www.slate.com

During the 1950s, Baker frequently returned to the United States to lend her support to the Civil Rights Movement, participating in demonstrations and boycotting segregated clubs and concert venues. In 1963, Baker participated, alongside Martin Luther King Jr., in the March on Washington, and was among the many notable speakers that day. In honor of her efforts, the NAACP eventually named May 20th “Josephine Baker Day.”

Links for Josephine Baker:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker

http://www.biography.com/people/josephine-baker-9195959

http://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/b/baker/

http://mentalfloss.com/article/23148/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-josephine-baker

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2014/04/josephine_baker_s_rainbow_tribe_before_madonna_and_angelina_jolie_the_expat.html

Elizabeth Lee Miller

Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose: acclaimed war correspondent during WWII, fashion model, surrealistic artist (working with and inspiring Man Ray) surrealistic gourmet chef, post traumatic stress disorder survivor, photographer, muse/artist model and mother.

Cover of the biography Lives of Lee Miller by her son Antony Penrose

Lee Miller in Adolf Hitler's bathtub, Munich, 1945.
David E. Scherman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Lee Miller (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977), was known for her work in front of and behind the camera, as well as many other achievements.

She had a passion and a drive that got her to the front lines of WWII and was the subject in this iconic photo taken by David E. Sherman. 

Below are many links to articles, essays and a very informative video of Lee's son, Antony Penrose, speaking at NSU Art Museum's exhibit of Miller's work.
Vogue photographer Lee Miller sits in the bathtub of Adolf Hitler’s Munich residence — the very day that Hitler and Eva Braun took their lives in Berlin. 

Said The New York Times of this photo, "A picture of the Führer balances on the lip of the tub; a classical statue of a woman sits opposite it on a dressing table; Lee, in the tub, inscrutable as ever, scrubs her shoulder. A woman caught between horror and beauty, between being seen and being the seer." all-that-is-interesting.com

26 Of The 20th Century’s Underrated Iconic Photos
By Erin Kelly on February 23, 2017

click here to read David E Scherman's description of this photo and his wartime experience with Lee Miller on  time.com:
The Woman in Hitler's Bathtub: Lee Miller, Munich, 1945Ben CosgroveNov 06, 2014

If you have a moment, watch this informative, entertaining and comprehensive view of Lee Miller's life narrated by her son, Antony Penrose.

NSU Art Museum : THE INDESTRUCTIBLE LEE MILLER

Published on Oct 13, 2015   The Indestructible Lee MillerWritten and Narrated by Antony Penrose

Lee Miller, Fire Masks, 1941. During the London Blitz,

Don’t Let History Forget This Incredible Female World War II Photographer

ALEX BEGGS, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015
article about Lee Miller on VanityFair.com

Picasso and Miller at the Rue des Grands Augustins in Paris, 1944.

© Lee Miller Archives, England.

one of Picasso's paintings of Miller 

I believe Lee Miller's life exemplifies many of the way that a woman's contribution is not adequately recorded and how women not only need to do the work but also need to demonstrate that she is more than an object or a possession.  Miller was a talented and brilliant photographer and she was fortunate that she was allowed and supported while she photographed WWII in a manner that only she could do.

from NPR:  Much More Than A Muse: Lee Miller And Man Ray Weekend Edition Saturday :

Phillip Prodger, curator of the exhibit: "There's a long history of women not being given their due in the history of 20th century art. ... Lee Miller has often been described as Man Ray's muse. And even though she was a muse, we wanted to make the point that there was something deeper and more important there. They were both powerful artists, and they fed off of each other.

The couple's devastating breakup in 1932 inspired some of their most famous works of art.
But Man Ray and Lee Miller reconciled in 1937 and stayed close for the rest of their lives.
They are pictured together in London in 1975.
Eileen Tweedy/The Roland Penrose Collection

Below are some excerpts from a New York Times article about Miller, and a link to the entire article.  The last excerpt is of woman artist, Martha Rosler, talking about the double work that 'women war photographers' had to deal with, 'two fronts', the war and the men.

This double duty, sadly, is still common today, for women in so many fields, careers and classrooms. Not only do women need to do the work at hand but they also need to protect themselves, guard themselves and fortify themselves against the advances, criticisms and threats from some of their male colleagues.  

‘The Indestructible Lee Miller’ Celebrates a Daring Surrealist and War Photographer
Hilarie M. Sheets      OCT. 27, 2015

A version of this article appears in print on November 1, 2015, on Page F12 of the New York edition with the headline: Subverting ‘Muse’ to Blaze Her Own Path.

In Lee Miller’s uncommon life, there are two celebrated periods. The first began in 1929, when, at 22, she apprenticed with the Surrealist photographer Man Ray and modeled for him in innovative portraits and radical nudes. The second was during World War II, when Miller was one of five accredited female photojournalists accompanying American troops into liberated concentration camps, documenting atrocities.

Vogue hired her in 1940 to report on women involved in the war effort in London, and she became an accredited American war correspondent in 1942 at the suggestion of her friend the Life photographer David E. Scherman.

Ms. Rosler said she was unaware of those pictures for Vogue in London when she created that series but was influenced by Miller’s earlier Surrealist work as well as by her personal story. “Women war photographers had to fight on two fronts: the bombs, and the men,” she said. 
new york times, oct 27, 2015