Ep. 15: “Who’s Spying Now?” TRANSCRIPT Thanks for popping on your headphones and joining us for an episode of Ballsy History, a podcast about big personalities and little-known stories. Settle in for a tour of the outrageous acts, incredible stories, and outsized characters that shape history. We’re your hosts Elizabeth, Emily, Maureen, and Elliott. We’re glad you’re tuning in. Today on our show we’ll learn about Josephine Baker, an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist, who symbolized the beauty and vitality of Black American culture, which took Paris by storm in the 1920s. She was a force of nature who pushed against racial barriers and was one of the most renowned celebrities of her time. While she is mostly remembered for her dancing and films, her efforts to fight the tyranny of Fascism and her civil rights work have not received anywhere near the same level of attention. Josephine Baker’s career was centered in Europe because of the racism she faced in the US. She became the most successful entertainer in her beloved France, transforming over time from an exotic dancer into a film star and opera singer. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics; and, at the height of her career, it is believed she was the wealthiest black woman alive. Far more than just an entertainer, during WWII Josephine was active in the French Resistance. Known as the “creole goddess,” she used her celebrity to gain access to high-ranking Axis officials and told her resistance colleagues who thought her actions were sometimes too bold, “Oh, nobody will think I’m a spy.” Back in the US several times after the war, she became involved with the Civil Rights Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She also spoke alongside Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1963 March on Washington. Born Freda Josephine McDonald in East St. Louis, Missouri on June 3, 1906, into a family that was so poor she would search trash cans for headless dolls to repair for her sisters. She was a “born entertainer” offering performances to neighborhood children while she herself was still a small child. At the age of 15, she met William Howard Baker, and after a few weeks the couple eloped. He was actually her second husband—she had a very brief marriage at 13—but she kept William’s surname for the rest of her life. By her teenage years, Josephine turned to dancing with vaudeville troupes. After performing with the Jones Family Band and the Dixie Steppers, she moved to New York City and landed a part in the chorus for Shuffle Along, the first successful black musical. She had a reputation as an excellent chorus girl, with equal ability in dance and comic expression. At 19, Josephine joined an all-black revue in Paris where, unlike the United States, public places were largely not racially segregated. When the cast boarded a train in France they were surprised to learn they could sit anywhere they liked. She quickly found a different life in Paris than she could have at home, where hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues weren’t segregated. Paris was where she truly made her name. Baker opened in La Revue Nègre and was an instant success with an erotic and exotic dance style that wowed audiences. When La Revue Nègre closed, she starred in La Folie du Jour at the Folies Bergère, emerging onstage scantily clad in a skirt made of artificial bananas. Her image was immortalized in Art Deco style posters and, in more recent culture, appearing in multiple films and cultural productions, such as the animated movie Les Triplettes de Bellville. Offstage, Baker was the first African-American woman to star in an international film and she continued her entertainment career with recordings, showing off her gifts as an all-round entertainer. She was also a businesswoman, setting up her own nightclub, Chez Josephine, in Paris in 1926. Accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, she became an icon of female sexual liberty during the jazz age in Paris, Europe’s cultural capital, and home to Ernest Hemingway, a friend of Baker’s, and Picasso, who sketched her. She had lovers of both sexes, was celebrated for her style, and performed to huge crowds in a city where American culture was viewed as novel and exotic. Speaking to reporters after her “overnight success” at the Folies Bergère, she shared “Last night after the show was over, the theater was turned into a big restaurant. And for the first time in my life, I was invited to sit at a table and eat with white people.” Josephine Baker’s efforts to fight the tyranny of Fascism are hardly known, but she was active in many ways during WWII. In 1928, Josephine departed for a European tour, with the first stop in Vienna. She was not aware of the political unrest in the region inflamed by Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf, which popularized racist ideologies. Before she arrived in Vienna posters appeared around the city calling her a “black devil.” As she rode to her hotel, protesters lined the streets, reminding her of the race riots that shook her community when she was a child. When war was declared in 1939, Paris was filled with refugees who were fleeing the Germans. Nightly, after her show, Baker would go to a homeless shelter to make beds, bathe old people, and comfort new arrivals. Once the Nazis captured the French capital in 1940, she upped her involvement and took on a riskier, more dangerous role by becoming a spy for the French Resistance. She said, “France made me who I am, the Parisians gave me their hearts, and I am ready to give them my life.” Secret agent Jacques Abtey of the French Military Intelligence Service was looking for someone to spy, someone who could travel freely throughout Europe and Africa without attracting suspicion. A colleague suggested Baker, and Jacques went to visit her in hopes of gaining her help. Her performances did provide her with a perfect excuse for travelling across Europe, and as a glamorous star she was invited to embassy parties wherever she went. Baker would eavesdrop and flirt to gather information about German troop locations and airfields from high-ranking Italian, Japanese, and Nazi officials along with Jacque, now her lover, masquerading as her ballet master. She would write what she heard along her arms and in the palm of her hand, or record information in invisible ink on her sheet music or pin important photos to her underwear because she counted on her fame to avoid a strip search. After Paris fell, Josephine fled the city and was soon housing resistance fighters at her chateau and assisted in helping them obtain visas. It wasn’t long before the Nazis became aware of potential resistance activity happening there so they dropped in at the estate for a visit. Indeed, she was hiding several resistance fighters at the time, but successfully charmed the Nazis when they questioned her so they left empty-handed. This close encounter was a sign it was time to leave France, so Baker and her entourage travelled to the French colonies in north Africa. The listed reason for the trip was her health—she was recovering from pneumonia. However, she was actually there to establish a permanent liaison and transmission centre with British intelligence in Casablanca and to set up a network making Spanish Moroccan passports available to eastern European Jews. Through the war, Baker also entertained troops to boost morale, and refused payment for her work. “When soldiers applaud me, I like to believe they will never acquire a hatred for color because of the cheer I have brought them,” she said. Following D-Day and the liberation of Paris, Josephine returned to her adopted city wearing a military uniform, as she noted the terrible conditions many French people endured after Nazi occupation, she sold pieces of jewelry and other valuables to raise money to buy food and coal for the poor citizens of her beloved city. After Germany’s surrender in 1945, General de Gaulle awarded Josephine the Croix de Guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance. He also named her a Chevalier de Légion d’honneur, the highest order of merit for military and civil action. While in Europe and North Africa, Baker a welcome guest in the palaces of kings, but back in the US she could not walk into some hotels or order coffee because she was black, a situation she found ridiculous. In 1951 she toured the US in an effort to help fight segregation. According to her contracts theatres where she played had to let any ticket holder enter, regardless of their skin color. Of course, segregation was not limited to just the south: once, in New York City, she and her husband were refused reservations at 36 hotels because she was African-American. This experience was repeated across the country, including in Las Vegas. When the club El Rancho didn’t let black ticket holders in, Baker refused to perform. She sat down on the stage until the owners relented, and is credited with helping the process of desegregating Vegas casinos. Baker’s American tour climaxed with a parade in front of 100,000 people in Harlem, honoring her new title: the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) ‘Woman of the Year’. For her efforts as a civil rights activist, the NAACP named May 20th “Josephine Baker Day.” Baker had returned to America to take part in the Civil Rights Movement and was the only female speaker at the March on Washington in 1968. Josephine wrote articles about the segregation in the US and gave speeches at different historically black colleges and universities. She often had calls from the Ku Klux Klan, but she made public announcements that she was not afraid. Baker was devoted to fighting against injustice and racism throughout the world. A few days before her death from cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1975, she performed before a sold-out crowd in Paris. The French Government honored her with a twenty-one gun salute during her funeral and more than 20,000 people participated in the procession. Baker was the first American woman to be buried in France with military honors.