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Treeva M. Jacques Beginning Jazz I Wednesday, November2,2011 Beverly A. Trask

                                                   Oral Presentation On Josephine Baker
                                                   ---------------------------------------

                                            Josephine Baker was born on June3,1906,in St. Louis, Missouri.Baker's early life has assumed the dimensins of a legend, in part because of her numerous, and often contradictory, workings of the story.Between her childhood assumed mythological proportions in her own

autobiographical accounts.Her impoverished childhood in St.Louis fueled her dream to escape and provided her with an unconventional exposure to performance. Allegedly born in a cardboard box, Baker first resided at 212 Targee Street in one of the worst slums of St.Louis.Josephine attended Lincoln Elementary School in St.Louis but found little inspiration in her studies, Josephine could only read and write but Josephine learned quickly, by picking up the trumpet, banjo, and fiddle.Josephine and the group walked through the streets of St.Louis and performed on sidewalks for spare change in front of the Booker T. Washington Theater. Josephine seized the opportunity to be put on stage when a vaudeville act was known as; The Dixie Steppers, Josephine was placed at the end of the Chorus Line.

                                             Between 1928 and 1930, Baker's image was captured in classic art photography she would pose as the Black Venus, in

which she clutches a lustrous veil that cascades around her feet.The first phase of her journey begins in Montmarte, a section of Paris in which Josephine once lived, performed in the music hall, and opened her own cabaret, Chez Josephine. Baker was a famous banana skirt, the skirts modifications reflected the evolution of artistic agency within a framework of social control. The original skirt was a collection of realistic-looking bananas, the early designs were used as advertisements.The banana skirt first appeared in two scenes of the 1926 production of La Folie du joux.By 1927, the banana had become pointed spikes-a parody of the original skirt.In 1936 for the Ziegfeld Follies, the banana were transformed into a series of horizontal spikes with a pointed headdress that made a visual allusion.During the course of Baker's later life, younger female and male dancers played her part in banana skirts in theatrical retrospectives, some of which were staged and choreographed by Baker. The image that most people hold of Josephine Baker is that of an ingenue who danced wearing only a skimpy banana skirt.But Baker must have been seen beyond the banana skirt syndrome.It was the fate of mythic figures; in particular those emerging from show business.Baker was a woman torn from that between multiple identities she had multiple loves."I Have Two Loves", which became her theme song and was associated with her throughout her life, everything is contained in the song's assertion, " I have two loves, my country and Paris".She wished to be free all her life, and she was always guided by that passion and commitment.Baker began her new life of liberty and became a star on stage and screen.Baker had auditioned for weeks without success for a part in Shuffle Along, the stage manager; Al Mayer who she worked for gave her a part as part of their company mascot which she intended to provide comic relief at the end of the chorus line.Chocolate Dandies,1924 Baker performed comic routines including her famous eye-crossing in blackface and wearing a clown costume.

                                              Josephine sang her heart out on stage in front of many audiences having taken it in stride she seemed determined to

keep it,she sang on and on the soilders cheered her on she didn't travel light either like a refugee she wore two emeralds sewn in her underwear and she brought twenty-eight pieces of luggage with her to North Africa.Josephine was a wistful dancer who left St. Louis in 1921 in Shuffle Along, performed in 1922 in Boston rehearsed "La Danse de Sauvage" a barbaric naughty dance that returned to the customs of the dark ages.

                                                In 1932, Josephine sang at the Casino de Paris Josephine mimicked the great Pavlova as she became a ballerina on

point she was also "The Electric Fairy", celebrating the modern convience of electricity, and In 1927 Folies-Bergere posed to inscribe to her friend that not all memories of home were bad and in La Creole,1934 she claimed her introduction to the " legitimate " theater."Now I speak French", she claimed," at the side of strictly young actors. Josephine's name was spelled out in flowers on either side of the entrances of her house, and everywhere there were life-naked statues; mostly of Josephine.She had seven veils if you lift one, there is a second, and what you discover is even more mysterious, and you go to the third and you still don't know where you are only at the end,if you keep looking faithfully, you find the true Josephine.