Welcome back, friend, to my Hall of Fame, my little wall upstairs where I hang collages on cool people I admire. These people aren’t perfect by any means, but just the sight of them adds big dollops of joy to my days! So far I’ve introduced you to Abe, Dolly, and Mary, and today I’m adding someone special that I collaged back in May. Meanwhile, I’m curious. Who would you choose for your very own wall? I’d love to hear your picks!
Speaking of hearing, do you hear those gurgling and cooing noises? I’d better get with the program and give you some clues!
The first one’s that picture above.
Weird. Our Mystery Person’s flowery headdress is FULL OF BLOOMING BABIES!
That’s because long after she became a worldwide household name, she began adopting children from the four corners of the earth–ten sons and two daughters. She’d always wanted a family, and…
HOLD THE PHONE!
That’s no flower. It’s a pink version of the Legion of Honor, one of the medals France gave her for all she did to serve the Resistance during World War II.
Oh, didn’t I tell you? Mystery Person #4 was a SPY!
Maybe I should backpedal a little and give you more of her story.
We’ll start at the beginning. Our Mystery Lady was born into poverty in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. By the time she was eight years old, her mother and abusive stepfather had farmed her out to white families as a live-in domestic. She’d have chores to do before school and plenty more afterwards. One lady of the house repeatedly scalded her hands to keep her obedient. No wonder that by the time she was twelve, she was fired up to find a new life!
Her love of music kind of saved her–well, that and God and her own inner strength! She dropped out of school and lived on the street, scavenging for food and performing for tips. At thirteen, she tried another escape: marriage. That child married a twenty-three year old man! After her divorce a year later, (imagine, divorcing at thirteen) she joined a street performance band, and at fifteen, she tried marriage again and joined a vaudeville group. When the troupe got booked to perform in New York, she left her husband behind but kept his last name.
Audiences fell in love with our Mystery Person! Not only was she incredibly talented, but she liked to go off script, adding goofy dance moves and comedy to her chorus line parts. Those shows wouldn’t be performed today–they were based on racist tropes and themes–but she saw her chance to make a life for herself and danced and sang her heart out. The crowds ate it up.
Americans weren’t the only ones taken by her.
See that crest on her headband? The one with the sailing ship and the fleurs-de-lys? That’s the coat of arms for the city of Paris. When she was nineteen years old, her African American troupe was taken on a tour of European capitals, and she fell head over heels in love with the city of lights! The freedom! The respect! Let me tell you, it wasn’t a one-sided love affair. France went nuts for her! And why not? She was beautiful and funny and mysterious. She introduced people to Jazz and they couldn’t get enough.
She sang in shows and starred in movies and even bought a club of her own.
Little girls carried dolls modeled after her. Shops couldn’t keep them in stock!
They called her the Black Venus. She had wealth and fame that she’d never imagined, and she enjoyed it. She rented a chateau, got her pilot’s license…
And she brought all kinds of animals into her home, even a cheetah named Chiquita!
France was completely besotted with her, and so was Jean Leon, a French industrialist. Our Mystery Person divorced her second husband and married Jean. Now she was an official French citizen.
Women all over France were dying to match her style. They’d use egg whites to slick down their hair!
I doubt they’d wear the banana skirts, though.
Now have you guessed who she is?
That skirt was part of her famous look: strings of pearls and sometimes feathers up top, and down below? Swinging bedazzled rubber bananas! It certainly got people talking.
Others began to talk, too, as fascism began to rise across Europe. The fascists were not so besotted.
She was banned from Italy, called a Black devil in Austria, and Nazi politician Joseph Goebbels put her face on a leaflet.
Our Mystery Person was enraged! She was ready to fight for France. The country had given her everything. Love and respect, fame and fortune. A safe home away from Jim Crow. She was ready to risk her life.
She made the perfect spy. As a celebrity, she could move from place to place without being searched, so she smuggled notes on her sheet music written in invisible ink and tucked photos into her underwear. She used her plane to deliver supplies. At parties, she’d learn the latest intel on German troop movements and race to share it with the Resistance. Even when a serious infection kept her hospitalized for months, she’d invite people to visit to continue her surveillance. And when she was better? She toured North Africa to perform for Allied troops.
And remember the chateau she’d rented? She bought it and used it for France, hiding Jews and resistance fighters there.
If you ever visit the Dordogne region, you should take an afternoon to tour the Chateau des Milandes. We loved our visit. (And yes, you can lay eyes on her banana skirt, as well as lots of her other costumes.)
If we had all day, I’d tell you about her visit to Buchenwald after the concentration camp was liberated. Many of its victims were too sick with contagious typhus to be moved and no one else would go, but she sang her heart out for them. I’d tell you about her rousing speech at the March on Washington, and how Coretta Scott King asked her to be the face and leader of the civil rights movement back in the states after Martin Luther King was assassinated. She wanted to help but she had to decline. Remember those twelve blooming babies?
You probably know her now, but if not, I’m happy to introduce you to Josephine Baker! Click on her portrait for a better look if you like.
If you’re curious to learn more about her, you should check Sharon McMahon’s recent podcast about her, here. Or click here for all the info her chateau has to offer.
Thanks for stopping by, friend! I hope to see you next week to meet another hero of mine!
🙂 Becky
